Accordingly there was always
a party living in exile, and waiting for a turn of affairs which might
enable them to return to their city, and wrest the power from that
faction which had been the last to triumph. In the cities of Boeotia
the leaders of the oligarchs had been driven into banishment after the
battle of Oenophyta, and democracies were established under the
control of Athens. After nine years of banishment these exiles
returned, and the result was an oligarchical reaction in the chief
cities of Boeotia. A hastily equipped and ill-organised force was sent
out from Athens to put down the authors of the revolution, and in the
battle which followed, at Coronea, [Footnote: B.C. 447.] the Athenians
sustained a severe defeat, and a large number of their citizens were
taken prisoners by the Boeotians. To recover these prisoners the
Athenians consented to evacuate Boeotia, and by this surrender they
lost their hold on central Greece, as far as Thermopylae.
This heavy blow was followed two years later by the revolt of Megara
and Euboea; and in the midst of the alarm thus occasioned, the
Athenians heard that a powerful Spartan army was threatening their
borders. It was a terrible moment for Athens; but she was saved by the
prudence and energy of Pericles, whose influence in her councils was
now supreme.
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