GRECIAN CONFEDERACY UNDER ATHENS. 327 Peloponnesian force was now employed partly in enlarging and strengthening the fortifications of Thebes herself, partly in con- straining the other Boeotian cities into effective obedience to her supremacy : probably by placing their governments in the hands of citizens of known oligarchical politics,' and perhaps banishing suspected opponents. To this scheme the Thebans lent them- selves with earnestness ; promising to keep down for the future their border neighbors, so as to spai-e the necessity of armies coming from Sparta.2 But there was also a farther design, yet more important, in contemplation by the Spartans and Corinthians. The oligarchical opposition at Athens were so bitterly hostile to the Long "Walls, to Perikles, and to the democratical movement, that several of them opened a secret negotiation with the Peloponnesian leaders, inviting them into Attica, and entreating their aid in an intei'nal rising for the purpose not only of putting a stop to the Long Walls, but also of subverting the democracy. And the Pelopon- nesian army, while prosecuting its operations in Bceotia, waited in hopes of seeing the Athenian malcontents in arms, encamping at Tanagra, on the very borders of Attica, for the purpose of im- mediate cooperation with them. The juncture was undoubtedly one of much hazard for Athens, especially as the ostracized Ki- mon and his remaining friends in the city were suspected of being implicated in the conspiracy. But the Athenian leaders, aware of the Lacedaemonian operations in Boeotia, knew also what was meant by the presence of the army on their immediate borders, and took decisive measures to avert the danger. Having obtained a reinforcement of one thousand Argeians and some Thessalian horse, they marched out to Tanagra, with the full Athenian force then at home ; which must, of course, have consisted chiefly of the old and the young, the same who had fought under Myronides at Megara; for the blockade of ^gina was still going on. Nor
- Diodor. xii, 81 ; Justin, iii, 6. Tfjc /^iv rCiv Qrj^aiuv TroAeuf iieU^ova rbv
■nepijSo/LOV KaTeaKevaaav, tuc d' iv Boiuria TroZeif TivayKaaav xnzoTaTTea'&ai rolg Qrjpaioi^. ^ Diodor. 1. c. It must probably be to the internal affairs of Boeotia^ somewhere about this time, full as they were of internal dissension, that the dictum and simile of Perikles alludes, — which Aristotle notices in his Rhetoric, iii. 4, 2.
