Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/82

58 fflSTORY OF GREECE. hearth and metropolis of the race. This is a new fact in Gre- cian history, opening scenes and ideas unhke to anything which has gone before, — enlarging, prodigiously, the functions and duties connected with that headship of Gi'eece which had hith- erto been in the hands of Sparta, but which is about to become too comprehensive for her to manage, — and thus introducing increased habits of cooperation among the subordinate states, as well as rival hopes of aggrandizement among the leaders. The congress at the isthmus of Corinth marks such further advance in the centralizing tendencies of Greece, and seems at first to promise an onward march in the same direction : but the prom- ise will not be found realized. Its first step was, indeed, one of inestimable value. While most of the deputies present came prepared, in the name of their respective cities, to swear reciprocal fidelity and brotherhood, they also addressed aU their efforts to appease the feuds and dis- sensions which reigned among the particular members of their own meeting. Of these the most prominent, as well as the most dangerous, was the war stiU subsisting between Athens and ^gina. The latter was not exempt, even now, from suspicions of medizing,^ i. e., embracing the cause of the Persians, which had been raised by her giving earth and water ten years before to Darius : but her present conduct gave no countenance to such suspicions : she took earnest part in the congress as weU as in the joint measures of defence, and willingly consented to accom- modate her difference with Athens.2 In this work of reconciling feuds, so essential to the safety of Greece, the Athenian Themis- tokles took a prominent part, as well as Cheileos of Tegea in Arcadia.3 The congress proceeded to send envoys and solicit cooperation from such cities as were yet either equivocal or indifferent, especially Argos, Korkyra, and the Kretan and Sici- lian Greeks, — and at the same time to despatch spies across to Sardis, for the purpose of learning the state and prospects of the assembled army. These spies presently returned, having been detected and condemned to death by the Persian generals, but released by ' Herodot. viii, 92. " Herodot. vii. 145. Plutarch, Themistold. c. 10. About Cheileos, Herodot. ix, 9.