354 in the loss to her of Chios, Cos, Rhodes, and Byzantium, and of some of the
ablest of her own commanders, and left her treasury almost empty. About the same
time Mytilene and Corcyra also took the opportunity to break with her. Moreover,
her position in the Thermaic region was threatened first by Olynthus, at the
head of the Chalcidic League, which included over thirty towns; and secondly by
Philip, the newly-established King of Macedonia, who seemed likely to displace
both Olynthus and Athens from their positions of commanding influence.[1]

Nevertheless, Athens, though unable to face a strong combination, was probably
the most powerful single state in Greece. In her equipment and capacity for
naval warfare she had no rival, and certainly no other state could vie with her
in commercial activity and prosperity. The power of Sparta in the Peloponnese
had declined greatly. The establishment of Megalopolis as the centre of a
confederacy of Arcadian tribes, and of Messene as an independent city commanding
a region once entirely subject to Sparta, had seriously weakened her position;
while at the same time her ambition to recover her supremacy kept alive a
feeling of unrest throughout the Peloponnese. Of the other states of South
Greece, Argos was hostile to Sparta, Elis to the Arcadians; Corinth and other
less important cities were not definitely attached to any alliance, but were not
powerful enough to carry out any serious movement alone. In North Greece,
Thebes, though she lacked great leaders, was still a great power, whose
authority throughout Boeotia had been strengthened by the complete or partial
annihilation of Platacae, Thespiae, Orchomenus,[2] and Coroneia. In Athens the
ill feeling against Thebes was strong, owing to the occupation by the Thebans of
Oropus,[2] a frontier town which Athens claimed, and their treatment of the
towns just mentioned, towards which the Athenians were kindly disposed. The
Phocians, who had until recently been unwilling allies of Thebes, were now
hostile and not insignificant neighbours, and about this time entered into
relations with both Sparta and Athens. The subject of contention was the
possession or control of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, which the Phocians had