290 IIISTORl OF GREECE. which they might have ground, as their services were no longei needed. Chares pretended to have learnt that Corinth was in dan- ger. But both he and the remaining Athenians were dismissed, though with every expression of thanks and politeness. 1 The treacherous purpose of Athens was thus baffled, and the Corinthians were for the moment safe. Yet their position was precarious and uncomfortable ; for their enemies, Thebes and Ar- gos, were already their masters by land, and Athens had now been converted from an ally into an enemy. Hence they resolved to assemble a sufficient mercenary force in their own pay ; a but while thus providing for military security, they sent envoys to Thebes to open negotiations for peace. Permission was granted to them by the Thebans to go and consult their allies, and to treat for peace in conjunction with as many as could be brought to share their views. Accordingly the Corinthians went to Sparta and laid their case before the full synod of allies, convoked for the occasion. " We are on the point of ruin (said the Corinthian envoy), and must make peace. We shall rejoice to make it in conjunction with you, if you will consent ; but if you think proper to persevere in the war, be not displeased if we make peace without you." The Epidaurians and Phliasians, reduced to the like distress, held the same language of weariness and impatience for peace. 3 It had been ascertained at Thebes, that no propositions for peace could be entertained, which did not contain a formal recognition of the independence of Messene. To this the Corinthians and other allies of Sparta had no difficulty in agreeing. But they vainly en- 1 Xen. Hellen. vii, 4, 4-6. The public debates of the Athenian assembly were not favorable to tho success of a scheme, like that proposed by Demotion, to which secrecy was indispensable. Compare another scheme, divulged in like manner, in Thn- cydides, iii, 3.
- It seems probable that these were the mercenaries placed by the Corin-
thians under the command of Timophanes, and employed by him after- wards as instruments for establishing a despotism. Plutarch (Timoleon, c. 3, 4) alludes briefly to mercenaries equipped about this time (as far as we can verify his chronology) and to the Corinthian mercenaries now assembled, in connection with Timoleon and Timophanei, of whom I shall have to say much in a future chapter. 1 Compare Xen. Hellen. vii, 4, 8, 9 with Isokratcs, Or. vi, (Archidamus). I 106.
