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GRECIAN AFFAIRS AFTER THE PERSIAN INVASION. 263 democracy. Of course, the germ of these parties had ah-eady previously existed in the separate states, but the energetic democ- racy of Athens, and the pronounced tendency of Sparta to rest upon the native oligarchies in each separate city as her chief support, now began to bestow, on the conflict of internal polit- ical parties, an Hellenic importance, and an aggravated bitter- ness, which had never before belonged to it. The departure of the Spartan Dorkis left the Athenian gen- erals at liberty ; and their situation imposed upon them the duty of organizing the new confederacy which they had been chosen to conduct. The Ionic allies were at this time not merely willing and unanimous, but acted as the forward movers in the enter- prise ; for they stood in obvious need of protection against the attacks of Persia, aiid had no farther kindness to expect from Sparta or the Peloponnesians. But even had they been less under the pressure of necessity, the conduct of Athens, and of Aristeides as the representative of Athens, might have sufficed to bring them into harmonious cooperation. The new leader was no less equitable towards the confederates than energetic against the common enemy. The general conditions of the con- federacy were regulated in a common synod of the members, appointed to meet periodically for deliberative purposes, in the temple of Apollo and Artemis at Delos, — of old, the venerated spot for the religious festivals of the Ionic cities, and at the same time a convenient centre for the members. A definite obligation, either in equipped ships of war or in money, was imposed upon every separate city ; and the Athenians, as leaders, determined in which form contribution should be made by each : their assess- ment must of course have been reviewed by the synod, nor had they at this time power to enforce any regulation not approved by that body. It had been the good fortune of Athens to profit by the genius of Themistokles on two recent critical occasions (the battle of Salamis and the rebuilding of her walls), where sagacity, craft, and decision were required in extraordinary measure, and where pecuniary probity was of less necessity : it was no less her good fortune now, — in the delicate business of assessing a new tax and determining how much each state should bear, without precedents to guide them, when unimpeachable honesty in the assessor was the first of all qualities, — not to