suspicions of a Lacedaemonian and Athenian combination
against their liberties: any alteration should properly have been made
conditional upon the consent of the whole body of the allies. With these
apprehensions there was a very general desire in each state to place
itself in alliance with Argos.

In the meantime the Lacedaemonians perceiving the agitation going on in
Peloponnese, and that Corinth was the author of it and was herself about
to enter into alliance with the Argives, sent ambassadors thither in the
hope of preventing what was in contemplation. They accused her of having
brought it all about, and told her that she could not desert Lacedaemon
and become the ally of Argos, without adding violation of her oaths to
the crime which she had already committed in not accepting the treaty
with Athens, when it had been expressly agreed that the decision of
the majority of the allies should be binding, unless the gods or heroes
stood in the way. Corinth in her answer, delivered before those of her
allies who had like her refused to accept the treaty, and whom she had
previously invited to attend, refrained from openly stating the injuries
she complained of, such as the non-recovery of Sollium or Anactorium
from the Athenians, or any other point in which she thought she had been
prejudiced, but took shelter under the pretext that she could not give
up her Thracian allies, to whom her separate individual security had
been given, when they first rebelled with Potidaea, as well as upon
subsequent occasions. She denied, therefore, that she committed any
violation of her oaths to the allies in not entering into the treaty
with Athens; having sworn upon the faith of the gods to her Thracian
friends, she could not honestly give them up. Besides, the expression
was, "unless the gods or heroes stand in the way." Now here, as it
appeared to her, the gods stood in the way. This was what she said on
the subject of her former oaths. As to the Argive alliance, she would
confer with her friends and do whatever was right. The Lacedaemonian
envoys returning home, some Argive ambassadors who happened to be in
Corinth pressed her to conclude the alliance without further delay, but
were told to attend at the next congress to be held at Corinth.

Immediately afterwards an Elean embassy arrived, and first making an
alliance with Corinth went on from thence to Argos, according to their
instructions, and became allies of the Argives, their c