FOR THE MEGALOPOLITANS
§ 4. Plataeae (which had been overthrown by the enemies of Athens in the course of the Peloponnesian War, but rebuilt, with the aid of Sparta, in 378) was destroyed by Thebes in 373-372. About the same time Thebes destroyed Thespiae, which, like Plataeae, was well-disposed towards Athens; and in 370 the Thebans massacred the male population of Orchomenus, and sold the women and children into slavery.
§ 11. Oropus had sometimes belonged to Thebes and sometimes to Athens. In 366 it was taken from Athens by Themison, tyrant of Eretria (exactly opposite Oropus, on the coast of Euboea), and placed in the hands of Thebes until the ownership should be decided. Thebes retained it until it was restored to Athens by Philip in 338.
§ 12. when all the Peloponnesians, &c. The reference seems to be to the year 370, shortly after the battle of Leuctra, when the Peloponnesian States sought the protection of Athens against Sparta, and, being refused, became allies of Thebes (Diodorus xv. 62). In 369 Athens made an alliance with Sparta.
§ 14. saved the Spartans. See last note. Athens also assisted the Spartans at Mantineia in 362.
the Thebans. In 378 and the following years Athens assisted Thebes against the Spartans under Agesilaus and Cleombrotus.
the Euboeans. In 358 or 357 Euboea succeeded in obtaining freedom from the domination of Thebes by the aid of Athenian troops under Timotheus.
§ 16. Triphylia, a district between Elis and Messenia, was the subject of a long-standing dispute between the Eleans and the Arcadians, and seems to have been in the hands of the latter since (about) 368.
Tricaranum, a fortress in the territory of Phlius, had been seized by the Argives in 369, and used as a centre from which incursions were made into Phliasian territory.
§ 20. allies of Thebes: in order to preserve the balance of power between Thebes and Sparta.
§ 21. the Theban confederacy. The reference is particularly to the Arcadian allies of Thebes, but the wider expression perhaps suggests a general policy of a more ambitious kind.
§ 22. you, I think, know. He refers to the older members of the Assembly, who would remember the tyrannical conduct of Sparta during the period of her supremacy (the first quarter of the fourth century B.C.).
§ 27. pillars. The terms of an alliance were usually recorded upon pillars erected by each State on some site fixed by agreement or custom.
§ 28. in the war: i.e. the 'Sacred War', against the Phocians.