234 HISTORY OF GREECE. ward, for some years, was occupied as a post by a Tlieban harmost and garrison. 1 Meanwhile the Athenians were profoundly affected by these proceedings of Epaminondas in Peloponnesus. The accumulation of force against Sparta was so powerful, that under a chief like him, it seemed sufficient to crush her ; and though the Athenians were now neutral in the contest, such a prospect was not at all agreeable to them, 2 involving the aggrandizement of Thebes to a point incon- sistent with their security. It was in the midst of the successes of Epaminondas that envoys came to Athens from Sparta, Corinth, and Phlius, to entreat her aid. The message was one not merely humiliating to the Lacedaemonians, who had never previously sent the like request to any Grecian city, but also difficult to handle in reference to Athens. History showed abundant acts of jealousy and hostility, little either of good feeling or consentient interest, on the part of the Lacedaemonians towards her. What little was to be found, the envoys dexterously brought forward ; going back to the dethronement of the Peisistratids from Athens by Spartan help, the glorious expulsion of Xerxes from Greece by the joint efforts of both cities, and the auxiliaries sent by Athens into Laconia in 465 B. c., to assist the Spartans against the revolted Messenians Pausanias places the foundation of Megalopolis in the same Olympic year as the battle of Lcuktra, and a few months after that battle, during the archonship of Phrasikleides at Athens ; that is, between Midsummer 371 and Midsummer 370 B. c. (Pausan. viii, 27, 6). He places the foundation of Messene in the next Olympic year, under the archonship of Dvskinctus at Athens ; that is, between Midsummer 370 and Midsummer 369 B. c. (iv, 27, 5). .' The foundation of Megalopolis would probably be understood to date from the initial determination taken by the assembled Arcadians, soon after the revolution at Tegea, to found a Pan- Arcadian city and federative league. This was probably taken before Midsummer 370 B. c.. and the date of Pau- nanias would thus be correct. The foundation of Messene would doubtless take its asra from the expe- di:ion of Epaminondas, between November and March 370-569 B.C. which would be during the archonship of Dyskinetus at Athens, &s Pausa, nias affirms. What length of time was required to complete the erection and estah lishment of either city, we are not informed. Diodorus places the foundation of Megalopolis in 368 B.C. (xv. 72). 1 Xen. Hellen. vii, 4, 36. 2 Isokrates (Archidamus), Or. vi, s. 129.
