To enhance the greatness of Greece they had the courage, not merely to imperil themselves for their own preservation, but also to die for their enemies’ freedom: for they fought the allies of the Lacedaemonians for the freedom of those allies. Had they conquered, they deemed their foes worthy of obtaining equal rights: in their misfortune they settled an inheritance of slavery on the peoples of the Peloponnese.The Athenian’s object in these operations was to check the expansive policy of Sparta by striking at her allies in the Peloponnese. Corinth was the center of the struggle.