more than three hundred cities spread over the islands and the
coasts of the Archipelago, and the tribute paid her amounted to six
hundred talents a year.

STRIFE AMONG THE GREEK STATES

=The Peloponnesian War.=--After the foundation of the Athenian empire
in the Archipelago the Greeks found themselves divided between two
leagues--the maritime cities were subject to Athens; the cities of the
interior remained under the domination of Sparta. After much
preliminary friction war arose between Sparta and her continental
allies on the one side and Athens and her maritime subjects on the
other. This was the _Peloponnesian War_. It continued twenty-seven
years (431-404), and when it ceased, it was revived under other names
down to 360.

These wars were complicated affairs. They were fought simultaneously
on land and sea, in Greece, Asia, Thrace, and Sicily, ordinarily at
several points at once. The Spartans had a better army and ravaged
Attica; the Athenians had a superior fleet and made descents on the
coasts of the Peloponnesus. Then Athens sent its army to Sicily where
it perished to the last man (413); Lysander, a Spartan general,
secured a fleet from the Persians and destroyed the Athenian fleet in
Asia (405). The Athenian allies who fought only under compulsion
abandoned her. Lysander took Athens, demolished its walls, and burnt
its ships.

=Wars against Sparta.=--Sparta was for a time mistress on both land
and sea. "In those days," says Xenophon, "all cities obeyed when a
Spartan issued his orders." But soon the allies of Sparta, wearied of
her domination, formed a league against her. The Spartans, driven at
first from Asia, still maintained their power in Greece for some years
by virtue of their alliance with the king of the Persians (387). But
the Thebans, having developed a strong army under the command of
Epaminondas, fought them at Leuctra (371) and at Mantinea (362). The
allies of Sparta detached themselves from her, but the Thebans could
not secure from the rest of the Greeks the recognition of their
supremacy. From this time no Greek city was sovereign over the others.

=Savage Character of These Wars.=--These wars between the Greek cities
were ferocious. A few incidents suffice to show their character. At
the opening of the war the allies of Sparta threw into the sea all the
merchants from cities hostile to them. The Athenians in return put to
death the ambassadors of Sparta without allowing them to spe