386 HISTORY OF GREECE. Instructions were given to all the deputies to report the terms of this edict to their respective cities, and to meet again at Sparta for acceptance or rejection. When the tune of meeting arrived, 1 all the cities, in spite of their repugnance to the abandonment of the Asiatic Greeks, and partly also to the second condition, neverthe- less felt themselves overruled by superior force, and gave a re- luctant consent. On taking the oaths, however, the Thebans tried indirectly to make go 3d an exception in their own case, by claim- ing to take the oath not only on behalf of themselves, but on be- half of the Boeotian cities generally ; a demand which Agesilaus in the name of Sparta repudiated, as virtually cancelling that item in the pacification whereby the small cities were pronounced to be autonomous as well as the great. "When the Theban deputy re- plied that he could not relinquish his claim without fresh instruc- tions from home, Agesilaus desired him to go at once and consult his countrymen. " You may tell them (said he) that if they do not comply, they will be shut out from the treaty." It was with much delight that Agesilaus pronounced this peremptory sentence, which placed Thebes in so humiliating a dilemma. Antipathy towards the Thebans was one of his strongest sentiments, and he exulted in the hope that they would persist in their refusal so that he would thus be enabled to bring an over- whelming force to crush their isolated city. So eagerly did he thirst for the expected triumph, that immediately on the departure of the Theban deputies, and before their answer could possibly have been obtained, he procured the consent of the ephors, offered the border-sacrifice, and led the Spartan force out as far as Tegea. From that city he not only despatched messengers in all directions to hasten the arrival of the Perioeki, but also sent forth the offi- cers called xenagi to the cities of the Peloponnesian allies, to mus- ter and bring together the respective contingents. But in spite of all injunctions to despatch, his wishes were disappointed. Before he started from Tegea, the Theban deputies returned with the in- timation that they were prepared to take the oath for Thebes alone, recognizing the other Boeotian cities as autonomous. Agesilaua and the Spartans were thus obliged to be satisfied with the minor triumph, in itself very serious and considerable, cf having degraded 1 Diodor. XIT, 110.
