Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/79

SPARTA DECLARES AGAINST OLYNTHUS. 57 Mantinea had operated as a serious intimidation. Anxiety to keep the favor of Sparta was accordingly paramount, so that most of the speakers as well as most of the votes, declared for war, 1 and a combined army of ten thousand men was voted to be raised. To make up such total, a proportional contingent was assessed upon each confederate ; combined with the proviso now added for the first time, that each might furnish money instead of men, at the rate of three JEginsean oboli (half an ^Eginsean drachma) for each hoplite. A cavalry-soldier, to those cities which furnished such, was reckoned as equivalent to four hoplites ; a hoplite, as equivalent to two peltasts ; or pecuniary contribution on the same scale. All cities in default were made liable to a forfeit of one stater (four drachmae) per day, for every soldier not sent ; the for- feit to be enforced by Sparta. 2 Such licensed substitution of pe- cuniary payment for personal service, is the same as I have already described to have taken place nearly a century before in the con- federacy of Delos under the presidency of Athens. 3 It was a system not likely to be extensively acted upon among the Spartan allies, who were at once poorer and more warlike than those of Athens. But in both cases it was favorable to the am- bition of the leading state ; and the tendency becomes here mani- fest, to sanction, by the formality of a public resolution, that in- creased Lacedaemonian ascendency which had already grown up in practice. The Akanthian envoys, while expressing their satisfaction with the vote just passed, intimated that the muster of these numerous contingents would occupy some time, and again insisted on the necessity of instant intervention, even with a small force ; before the Olynthians could find time to get their plans actually in work or appreciated by the surrounding cities. A moderate Lacedae- monian force (they said), if despatched forthwith, would not only 1 Xen. Hellen. v, 2, 20. 'E TOVTOV fievroi, m Moi fj.lv ^vvriyopevov arpa r'.uv TToielv. fj.a2.iaTa 6s ol (3ovl.6u.evoi Aaredaifj.ovtoi^ xapi&G&ai, etc. 2 Xen. Hellen. v, 2, 21, 22. Diodorus (xv, 31) mentions the fact that an hoplite was reckoned cquiva lent to two peltasts, in reference to a Lacedaemonian muster-roll of a few years afterwai-ds ; but it must have been equally necessary to fix the pro portion on the present occasion. 3 See Vol. V. Ch. xlv, p. 302 of this History. 3*