ith joy and confidence, and led to a material
enlargement of their maritime confederacy. Phocion, who had charge of a
squadron detached from the fleet of Chabrias, also sailed victorious round
the AEgean, took twenty triremes, three thousand prisoners, with one
hundred and ten talents in money, and annexed seventeen cities to the
confederacy. Timotheus, the son of Conon, was sent with the fleet of
Chabrias, to circumnavigate the Peloponnesus, and alarm the coast of
Laconia. The important island of Corcyra entered into the confederation,
and another Spartan fleet, under Nicolochus, was defeated, so that the
Athenians became once again the masters of the sea. But having regained
their ascendency, Athens became jealous of the growing power of Thebes,
now mistress of Boeotia, and this jealousy, inexcusable after such
reverses, was increased when Pelopidas gained a great victory over the
Lacedaemonians near Tegyra, which led to the expulsion of their enemies
from all parts of Boeotia, except Orchomenus, on the borders of Phocis.
That territory was now attacked by the victorious Thebans, upon which
Athens made peace with the Lacedaemonians.

(M631) It would thus seem that the ancient Grecian States were perpetually
jealous of any ascendant power, and their policy was not dissimilar from
that which was inaugurated in modern Europe since the treaty of
Westphalia--called the balance of power. Greece, thus far, was not
ambitious to extend her rule over foreign nations, but sought an
autonomous independence of the several States of which she was composed.
Had Greece united under the leadership of Sparta or Athens, her foreign
conquests might have been considerable, and her power, centralized and
formidable, might have been a match even for the Romans. But in the
anxiety of each State to secure its independence, there were perpetual and
unworthy jealousies of each rising State, when it had reached a certain
point of prosperity and glory. Hence the various States united under
Sparta, in the Peloponnesian war, to subvert the ascendency of Athens. And
when Sparta became the dominant power of Greece, Athens unites with Thebes
to break her domination. And now Athens becomes jealous of Thebes, and
makes peace with Sparta, in the same way that England in the eighteenth
century united with Holland and other States, to prevent the
aggrandizement of France, as different powers of Europe had previously
united to prevent the ascendency of Austr