The scattered units which composed the Athenian empire were held
together by no tie of loyalty or affection to their common mistress,
but solely by the dread of her overwhelming naval power. Even in the
noblest spirits of ancient Greece, the feeling of patriotism, as we
understand it, was feeble and uncertain; when we speak of our
_country_, the Greek spoke of his _city_, and his love, his
hopes, his highest aspirations, were bounded by the narrow circuit of
the walls which contained the tombs of his ancestors and the temples
of his gods. This feeling, the most deeply-rooted instinct of Greek
political life, had been grievously offended by Athens, when she
compelled the islanders of the Aegaean, and the Greek cities of Asia,
to serve in her navies, and pay tribute to her exchequer.

Turning now to the mainland of Greece we find, in most of the leading
states, a sentiment of mingled fear and hatred against Athens, which
had been steadily increasing in volume in the course of the last
thirty years. The haughty Thebans had not forgotten their defeat at
Oenophyta, and their nine years of servitude to Athens. Aegina was
groaning under her yoke, and threatened with total political
extinction. Megara complained that her commerce was ruined by a decree
which excluded her merchants from the ports in the Athenian Empire. In
the heart of Peloponnesus the Spartans were hatching mischief against
their hated rival, who had robbed them of half their dignity as the
acknowledged leaders of the Greeks. Corinth, whose commerce was
chiefly in the western sea, outside the sphere of Athenian influence,
was disposed to be friendly, and had done the Athenians good service
during the revolt of Samos.[Footnote: See below, p. 31.] But five
years later [Footnote: B.C. 435.] an event occurred which changed this
feeling into bitter hatred against Athens, and drove the Corinthians
into the ranks of her most inveterate foes. And it is at this point