ncy
created in Sparta a party in opposition to him; in the outcome, the
Spartan king Pausanias helped in the overthrow of the Thirty at Athens
by Thrasybulus, and the restoration of the Athenian democracy.
Throughout, the conduct of the democratic party, at its best and its
worst, contrasted favourably with that of the oligarchical faction.

These eighty years were the great period of Athenian literature and art:
of the Parthenon and Phidias; of AEschylus, the soldier of Marathon; then
Sophocles and Euripides and Aristophanes; finally, of Socrates, not
himself an author, but the inspirer of Plato, and the founder of ethical
science; according to popular ideas, the typical Sophist, but in fact
differing from the Sophists fundamentally.

_III.--The Blotting Out of Hellas_

The triumph of Sparta has established her empire among the Greeks; she
used her power with a tyranny infinitely more galling than the sway of
Athens. The Spartan character had become greatly demoralised. Agesilaus,
who succeeded to the kingship, set on foot ambitious projects for a
Greek conquest of Asia; but Greece began to revolt against the Spartan
dominion. Thebes and other cities rose, and called for help from Athens,
their former foe. In the first stages of the ensuing war, of which the
most notable battle was Coronea, Sparta maintained her supremacy within
the Peloponnesus, but not beyond. Athens obtained the countenance of
Persia, and the counter-diplomacy of Sparta produced the peace known by
the name of the Spartan Antalcidas, establishing generally the autonomy
of Greek cities. But this in effect meant the restoration of Spartan
domination.

In course of time, however, this brought about the defiance of Spartan
dictation by Thebes and the tremendous check to her power inflicted at
the battle of Leuctra, by Epaminondas the Theban, whose military skill
and tactical originality there overthrew the Spartan military prestige.
As a consequence, half the Peloponnese itself broke away from Sparta; a
force under Epaminondas aided the Arcadians, and the Arcadian federation
was established.

Hellenic Sicily during these years was having a history of her own of
some importance. Syracuse, after her triumph over the Athenian forces,
continued the contest with her neighbours, which had been the ostensible
cause of the Athenian expedition. But this was closed by the advent of
fresh invaders, the Carthaginians, who renewed the attack repulsed at
Him