The interactions and ‘loyalties’ of smaller city states to the larger ones are often described by historians such as Kagan in a very real-politic sense. Cities closer to Sparta in the Peloponnesus were inheritley more at risk from Spartan wrarth. On the other side, smaller island states were move exposed to Athenian power from their felt, and as the Athenians would argue, less likely to receive aid from mainland Greece. Larger city states like Thebes, with a large army and a far march from Sparta, were much more able to act with independence and would regularly disregard and even oppose the Spartans like in the Persian wars. The Spartans were seen as pious and often revered for their sense of fairness and their opposition to tyranny, while the Athenians were appreciated for their economic and cultural influence as well as their ability to check the naval power of the Persians. During the Peolopenisan war though, it does seem like most of the smaller allies of each side we’re coerced by their inferior relationship to their respective hegemons rather then love or a more pure loyalty. Other areas where ‘loyalty’ likely came in to play were Ionian vs Dorian cultures and democratic va oligarch government structures, alinging with the Athenians and Spartans respectively.