rilEATY BETWEEN SPARTA AND AKGOS. 03 sacrifice alleged to be due to Apollo by the Epidanrians, the Argeians will consent to tender to them an oath, which if they swear, they shall clear themselves. 1 Every city in Peloponnesus, email or great, shall be autonomous and at liberty to maintain its own ancient constitution. If any extra-Peloponnesian city shall come against Peloponnesus with mischievous projects, Lacedae- mon and Argos will take joint counsel against it, in the manner most equitable for the interest of the Peloponnesians generally. The extra-Peloponnesian allies of Sparta shall be in the same position with reference to this treaty as the allies of Lacedaemon and Argos in Peloponnesus, and shall hold their own in the same manner. The Argeians shall show this treaty to their allies, who shall be admitted to subscribe to it, if they think fit. But if the allies desire anything different, the Argeians shall send them home about their business." 2 1 Thucyd. v, 77. The text of Thucydides is incurably corrupt, in regard to several we Ms of this clause ; though the general sense appears sufficiently certain, that the Epidaurians are to be allowed to clear themselves in re- spect to this demand by an oath. In regard to this purifying oath, it seems to have been essential that the oath should be tendered by one litigant party and taken by the other : perhaps therefore oepev or -&Efj.ev A.T/V ( Valckenaer's conjecture) might be preferable to elpev l.yv. To Herodot. vi, 86, and Aristotel. Rhetoric, i, 16, 6, which Dr. Arnold and other commentators notice in illustration of this practice, we may add the instructive exposition of the analogous practice in the procedure of Roman law, as given by Von Savigny, in his System des heutigen Ro'mischen Reclits, sects. 309-313. vol. vii, pp. 53-83. It was an oath tendered by one litigant party to the opposite, in hopes that the latter would refuse to take it ; if taken, it had the effect of a judgment in favor of the swearer. But the Roman lawyers laid down many limits and formalities, with respect to this jusjurandum delatum, which Von Savigny sets forth with his usual per- spicuity.
- Thucyd. v, 77. 'EmJet favraf 6e role ^v^ua^otf ^i^/JaAecrtfcu, al Ka avTolf
SoKrj ' al (5e TI nal d/lAo Jo/q; rolf ^vfj,/j.a^otf, olicad' airi a/lAetv. Seo Dr. Arnold's note, and Dr. Thirlwall, Hist. Gr. ch. xxiv, vol. iii, p. 342. One cannot be certain about the meaning of these two last words, but I incline to believe that they express a peremptory and almost a hostile sen- timent, such as I have given in the text. The allies here alluded to aro Athens, Elis, and Mamincia ; all hostile in feeling to Sparta. The Lace dajmonians could not well decline admitting these cities to share in this 'reaty as it stood ; but would probably think it suitable to repel them even
vith rudeness, if they desired any dK'.rge.
