and their city into the arms of the invader. We learn from Thucydides that this ignoble course was deeply distasteful to a considerable section of the citizens; and we find in Pindar's poems much which leads us to suspect that he shared in this matter the sentiments of the opposition. But the conciliatory attitude which he adopts towards the jarring factions of his countrymen rarely allows him so much as to hint at this unwelcome and dangerous topic. The failure of Xerxes naturally brought about the destruction of his Theban partisans; but the punishment of the actual criminals did not free the city from the discredit in which they had involved it. Athens especially never forgave the defection which had wellnigh involved her in hopeless ruin. She bent all her energies to humiliate her faithless neighbour; she stirred the subject cities of Bœotia to revolt; and ultimately she shook the influence of the city to its foundations in the campaign which swept away the flower of the Theban nobility in the disastrous battle of Œnophyta.
It has been thought that Pindar alludes to this battle in the Sixth Isthmian, addressed to Strepsiades of Thebes, an uncle of whom, the poet tells us, had fallen on the field of battle in defence of his native town:—
"Son of Diodotus, 'twas thine . . .
For Thebes to yield thy young life's flowery pride.
Amid the bravest to the front he flew,
Where foemen pressed and hopes were few.
There the fatal blow was dealt.
Ah me! the speechless woe I felt."—(S.)
