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266 HISTORY OF GREECE. tion, which gave birth to the alliance, and they were grateful to Athens for organizing it. The public import of the name Hel- lenotaraiaj, coined for the occasion, — the selection of Delos as n centre, and the provision for regular meetings of the members, — demonstrate the patriotic and fraternal purpose -which the league was destined to serve. In truth, the protection of the -3^gean sea against foreign maritime- force and lawless piracy, as well as that of the Hellespont and Bosphorus against the transit of a Persian force, was a purpose essentially public, for which all the parties interested were bound in equity to provide by way of common contribution : any island or seaport which might refrain from contributing, was a gainer at the cost of oth- ers : and we cannot doubt that the general feeling of this common danger as well as equitable obligation, at a moment when the feax of Persia was yet serious, was the real cause which brought together so many contributing members, and enabled the forward parties to shame into concurrence such as were more backward. How the confederacy came to be turned afterwards to the pur- poses of Athenian ambition, we shall see at the proper time : but in its origin it was an equal alliance, in so far as alliance between the strong and the weak can ever be equal, — not an Athenian empire : nay, it was an alliance in which every individual mem- ber was more exposed, more defenceless, and more essentially benefited in the way of protection, than Athens. We have here in truth one of the few moments in Grecian history wherein a purpose at once common, equal, useful, and innocent, brought together spontaneously many fragments of this disunited race, and overlaid for a time that exclusive bent towards petty and isolated autonomy which ultimately made slaves of them all. It was a proceeding equitable and prudent, in principle as well as in detail ; promising at the time the most beneficent consequences, — not merely protection against the Persians, but a standing police of the -fli^gean sea, regulated by a common superintending authority. And if such promise was not realized, we shall find that the inherent defects of the allies, indisposing them to the hearty appreciation and steady perfoiTnance of their duties as equal confederates, are at least as much chargeable with the fail- ure as the ambition of Athens. We may add that, in selecting Delos as a centre, the Ionic allies were conciliated by a renova-