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CONGRESS AT CORINTH. 57 tS alleged to have secretly transmitted, from Susa to Sparta, in- telligence of the approaching expedition.i The formal announce- ments of Xerxes all designated Athens as the special object cf his wrath and vengeance,^ and other Grecian cities might thus hope to escape without mischief: so that the prospect of the great invasion did not at first provoke among them any unani- mous dispositions to resist. Accordingly, when the first heralds despatched by Xerxes from Sardis in the autumn of 481 B.C., a little before his march to the Hellespont, addressed themselves to the different cities with demand of earth and water, many were disposed to comply. Keither to Athens, nor to Sparta, were any heralds sent ; and these two cities were thus from the beginning identified in interest and in the necessity of defence. Both of them sent, in this trying moment, to consult the Delphian oracle : while both at the same time joined to convene a Pan- Hellenic congress at the Isthmus of Corinth, for the purpose of organizing resistance against the expected invader. I have in the preceding volume pointed out the various steps whereby the separate states of Gi'eece were gradually brought, even against their own natural instincts, into something ap- proaching more nearly to political union. The present congress, assembled under the influence of common fear from Persia, has more of a Pan-Hellenic character than any political event which has yet occurred in Grecian history. It extends far beyond the range of those Peloponnesian states who constitute the immedi- ate allies of Sparta : it comprehends Athens, and is even sum- moned in part by her strenuous instigation : it seeks to combine, moreover, every city of Hellenic race and language, however distant, which can be induced to take part in it, — even the Eli-etans, Korkyrteans, and Sicilians. It is true that all these states do not actually come, but earnest efforts are made to induce them to come: the dispersed brethren of the Hellenic family are intreated to marshal themselves in the same ranks for a joint political purpose,^ — the defence of the common ' Herodot. vii, 239. * Herodot. vii, 8-138. ' Herodot. vii, 145. ^povTJaavTeg el Kug ev re jevoi.ro rb 'E^-Xtivikov, kcI el avyKvipavrec Tuiirb npT/aaoiev izdvTeg, cif deivuv kniovTuv dfioiui irdai 8*