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ISOCRATES AND SPARTA 347 roused the enthusiasm of Greece in general, voiced by Alkidamas in his Messcniacus* But Sparta could never acquiesce in giving up the richest third of her territory, and seeing her old subjects and enemies established at her doors. She let the allies make peace alone ; and Isocrates, in what purports to be a speech of the Spartan king Archidamus, supports her cause. It was an invidious cause to plead. Principle is really against Isocrates, but he makes a strong case both in practical expediency and in sentiment. The speech is full of what the Greeks called 'ethos' (character). It has a Spartan ring, especially when Archidamus faces the last alternative. They can leave Sparta, ship the non- combatants to Sicily or elsewhere, and become again what they originally were — a camp, not a city, a home- less veteran army of desperate men which no Theban coalition will care to face (71-79). This time, again, Isocrates saw his policy accepted and his country in alliance with Sparta. But meanwhile his greater hopes for Athens had been disappointed. The other cities of the Maritime League were sus- picious of her, and the hegemony involved intoler- able financial burdens to herself. Isocrates had seen Euagoras, and formed more definitely his political ideal — peace for Hellas, the abolition of piracy on the seas, the liberation of the Greek cities in Asia, the opening of the East to emigration, and the spread of Hellenism over the world. As early as 367 he had sent a public letter to Dionysius of Syracuse, who had just saved Western Hellas from the Etruscans and Carthaginians, inviting him to come East and free the Greek cities from Persia. Dionysius died the next year, and Isocrates continued hoping the best he