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CONFEDERACY OF DELOS. 203 wisdom. The Grecian world, especially the maritime portion of it, had passed through trials not less painful than instructive, during this important interval. Nor does it seem rash to suppose, that the bulk of its members might now have been disposed to perform steady confederate duties, at the call and under the presidency of Sparta, had she really attempted to reorganize a liberal confede- racy, treating every city as autonomous and equal, except in so far as each was bound to obey the resolutions of the general synod. However impracticable such a scheme may appear, we must recol- lect that even Utopian schemes have their transient moments, if not of certain success, at least of commencement not merely pos- sible but promising. And my belief is, that had Kallikratidas, with his ardent Pan-hellenic sentiment and force of resolution, been the final victor over imperial Athens, he would not have let the moment of pride and omnipotence pass over without essaying some noble project like that sketched above. It is to be remem- bered that Athens had never had the power of organizing any such generous Pan-hellenic combination. She had become depopu- larized in the legitimate execution of her trust, as president of the Confederacy of Delos, against refractory members ; ] and had been obliged to choose between breaking up the Confederacy, and keeping it together under the strong compression of an impe- rial chief. But Sparta had not yet become depopularized. She now stood without competitor as leader of the Grecian world, and might at that moment have reasonably hoped to carry the mem- bers of it along with her to any liberal and Pan-hellenic organi- zation, had she attempted it with proper earnestness. Unfortu- nately she took the opposite course, under the influence of Lysander ; founding a new empire far more oppressive and odious than that of Athens, with few of the advantages, and none of the excuses, attached to the latter. As she soon became even more unpopular than Athens, her moment of high tide, for beneficent Pan-hellenic combination, passed away also, never to return. Having thus brought all the maritime Greeks under her em- pire, with a tribute of more than one thousand talents imposed upon them, and continuing to be chief of her landed alliance ill 1 Such is the justification offered by the Athenian envoy at Sparta, im- mediately before the Peloponnesian war (Thucyd. i, 75, 76). And it is borne out in the main by the narrative of Thucydides himself (i, 99).