Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/314

292 HISTORY OF GREECE. of Thebes as an ally. He pointed out that it was >y no means an impracticable enterprise; looking to the universal 1-atred which Sparla had now drawn upon herself, no; less on the part of ancient allies than of prior enemies. The Athenians knew by experience that Thebes could be formidable as a foe ; she would now show that she could be yet more effective as a friend, if the Athenians would interfere to rescue her. Moreover, she was now about to fight, not for Syracusans or Asiatics, but for her own preservation and dignity. " We hesitate not to affirm, men of Athens (con- cluded the Theban speaker), that what we are now invoking at your hands is a greater benefit to you than it is to ourselves." 1 Eight years had now elapsed since the archonship of Eukleides and the renovation of the democracy after the crushing visitation of the Thirty. Yet we may see, from the important and well- turned allusion of the Theban speaker to the oligarchical portion of the assembly, that the two parties still stood in a certain meas- ure distinguished. Enfeebled as Athens had been left by the war, she had never since been called upon to take any decisive and emphatic vote on a question of foreign policy ; and much now turned upon the temper of the oligarchical minority, which might well be conceived likely to play a party game and speculate upon Spartan countenance. But the comprehensive amnesty decreed on the reestablishment of the democratical constitution, and the wise and generous forbearance with which it had been carried out, in spite of the most torturing recollections, were now found to have produced their fruits. Majority and minority, democrats and oligarchs, were seen confounded in one unanimous and hearty vote to lend assistance to Thebes, in spite of all risk from hostility with Sparta, We cannot indeed doubt that this vote was considerably influenced also by the revolt of Rhodes, by the re- appearance of Konon with a fleet in the Asiatic seas, and by private communications from that commander intimating his hope of acting triumphantly against the maritime power of Sparta, through enlarged aid from Persia 1 !. The vote had thus a double meaning. It proclaimed not merely the restored harmony between democrats and oligarchs at Athens, but also their common resolu tion to break the chain by which they were held as mere satellite? 1 Xen. Hcllcn. iii, 5, 9, 1C.