coalition, after repulsing the
barbarian, soon afterwards split into two sections, which included the
Hellenes who had revolted from the King, as well as those who had aided
him in the war. At the end of the one stood Athens, at the head of the
other Lacedaemon, one the first naval, the other the first military
power in Hellas. For a short time the league held together, till the
Lacedaemonians and Athenians quarrelled and made war upon each other
with their allies, a duel into which all the Hellenes sooner or later
were drawn, though some might at first remain neutral. So that the whole
period from the Median war to this, with some peaceful intervals, was
spent by each power in war, either with its rival, or with its own
revolted allies, and consequently afforded them constant practice in
military matters, and that experience which is learnt in the school of
danger.

The policy of Lacedaemon was not to exact tribute from her allies, but
merely to secure their subservience to her interests by establishing
oligarchies among them; Athens, on the contrary, had by degrees deprived
hers of their ships, and imposed instead contributions in money on
all except Chios and Lesbos. Both found their resources for this
war separately to exceed the sum of their strength when the alliance
flourished intact.

Having now given the result of my inquiries into early times, I grant
that there will be a difficulty in believing every particular detail.
The way that most men deal with traditions, even traditions of their
own country, is to receive them all alike as they are delivered, without
applying any critical test whatever. The general Athenian public fancy
that Hipparchus was tyrant when he fell by the hands of Harmodius
and Aristogiton, not knowing that Hippias, the eldest of the sons of
Pisistratus, was really supreme, and that Hipparchus and Thessalus were
his brothers; and that Harmodius and Aristogiton suspecting, on the very
day, nay at the very moment fixed on for the deed, that information had
been conveyed to Hippias by their accomplices, concluded that he had
been warned, and did not attack him, yet, not liking to be apprehended
and risk their lives for nothing, fell upon Hipparchus near the
temple of the daughters of Leos, and slew him as he was arranging the
Panathenaic procession.

There are many other unfounded ideas current among the rest of the
Hellenes, even on matters of contemporary history, which have not
been obs