But I think that you can get most light on the question whether these cities are inclined toward peace with each other or toward war, if I review, not merely in general terms nor yet with excessive detail, the principal facts in their present situation. And first of all, let us consider the condition of the Lacedaemonians.

The Lacedaemonians were the leaders of the Hellenes,The hegemony of Sparta lasted from the battle of Aegospotami, 405 B.C., to the battle of Leuctra, 371 B.C. not long ago, on both land and sea, and yet they suffered so great a reversal of fortune when they met defeat at Leuctra that they were deprived of their power over the Hellenes, and lost such of their warriors as chose to die rather than survive defeat at the hands of those over whom they had once been masters.

Furthermore, they were obliged to look on while all the Peloponnesians, who formerly had followed the lead of Lacedaemon against the rest of the world, united with the Thebans and invaded their territory; and against these the Lacedaemonians were compelled to risk battle, not in the country to save the crops, but in the heart of the city,Epaminondas (see 44 and note) actually entered Sparta. Xen. Hell. 7.5.11. before the very seat of their government, to save their wives and children—a crisis in which defeat meant instant destruction,

and victory has none the more delivered them from their ills; nay, they are now warred upon by their neighborsThe Argives and the Messenians were allied with Philip against Sparta. See Dem. 6.9, 15.; they are distrusted by all the PeloponnesiansBesides the Argives and Messenians, also the Arcadians, the Megalopolitans, the Eleans, and the Sicyonians. Dio. Sic. 16.39.; they are hated by most of the HellenesEspecially by the Athenians and the Thebans. Dem. 16.22-23.; they are harried and plundered day and night by their own serfsThe Helots.; and not a day passes that they do not have to take the field or fight against some force or other, or march to the rescue of their perishing comrades.

But the worst of their afflictions is that they live in continual fear that the Thebans may patch up their quarrel with the PhociansThebes was the principal enemy of the Phocians in the Sacred War, which was now drawing to a close. For this war see Grote, xi. p. 45. and, returning again,As in the campaign referred to in 44, which ended with the battle of Mantinea. ring them about with still greater calamities than have befallen them in the past. How, then, can we refuse to believe that people so hard pressed would gladly see at the head of a movement for peace a man who commands confidence and has the power to put an end to the wars in which they are involved?