Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/268

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

246 HISTOKY OF GREECE. much more than Amphipolis ; ] and the moment was probably thought propitious for making other demands besides. Amynta-i through his envoy, together with the rest of the assembled envoys, recognized without opposition the right of the Athenians to Am- phipolis. 2 Such recognition was not indeed in itself either any loss to Ainyn- tas. or any gain to Athens ; for Amphipolis, though bordering on his kingdom, had never belonged to him, nor had he any power of transferring it. Originally an Athenian colony, 3 next taken from 1 Compare the aspirations of Athens, as stated in 391 u. c., when the propositions of peace recommended by Andokides were under consideration, xspirations, which were then regarded as beyond all hope of attainment, and imprudent even to talk about (Andokides, De Pace, s. 15). <j>epe, ahha Xeppovrjaov Kal ruf aTtoiKiat; Kal TO. ey/cr^uara Kal TU %pea iva a.Tro'Xu.^ufj.ev ; oiire ol avjiftaxoi, avyxupovaiv f}/j.tv, //e#' uv avTa del 3 JEschines, De Fals. Leg. c. 14, p. 250. 'Zvftfj.ax'iaf yap AaKsdaiuoviuv Kal TUV uX^-uv 'EhM/vuv avveTidovaric, e/f uv TOVTUV 'AjUwraf 6 QiTiiTrnov irarqp, Kal TTE^TTUV avvedpov, Kal TTJS :ai?' iavrbv ijjfjQov Kvpio^ uv, eijiriQiaaTO 'A.(i<j>iiro%.iv ~T)V 'A.$t]vaiuv avvei-aipslv fteT& TUV a.'XTt.uv 'EA/l?/vwv 'A$j?i>aioif. Kal TOVTO rd KOIVOV 66-y/j.a TUV 'ETdifjvuv, Kal roijf iprj^iaafievov^, k K TUV 6 TJ po- ol uv -ypafj./j.uTUV fiap-rvpae napeaxofiTjv. The remarkable event to which ^Eschincs here makes allusion, must have taken place either in the congress held at Sparta, in the month preceding the battle of Leuktra, where the general peace was sworn, with universal autonomy guaranteed, leaving out only Thebes ; or else, at the subse- quent congress held three or four months afterwards at Athens, where a peace, on similar conditions generally, was again sworn under the auspices of Athens as president. My conviction is, that it took place on the latter occasion, at Athens. First, the reference of .^Eschines to the dij/uoaia -ypu/j.uaTa leads us to con- clude that the affair was transacted in that city ; secondly, I do not think that the Athenians would have been in any situation to exact such a reserve in their favor, prior to the battle of Leuktra ; thirdly, the congress at Spar- la was held, not for the purpose of av^axia or alliance, but for that of ter- minating the war and concluding peaoe ; while the subsequent congress at Athens formed the basis of a dcfens:' ve alliance, to which, either then or soon afterwards, Sparta acceded. 3 The pretensions advanced by Philip of Macedon (in his Epistola ad Athenienses, ap. Demosthen. p. 164), that Amphipolis or its locality origi- nally belonged to his ancestor Alexander son of Amyntas, as having ex- welled the Persians from it. are unfounded, and contradicted by Thucyd-