two invasions, but little mischief, probably, was capable of being inflicted on the Attic territory, or at all events not sufficient to induce the Peloponnesians to incur the risk of infection from the plague. Archidamus, therefore, now directed his whole force against the ill-fated town of Platæa. As he approached their city, the Platæans despatched a herald to Archidamus to remonstrate against this invasion, and to remind him of the solemn oath which Pausanias had sworn, when, after the defeat of the Persians, he offered sacrifice to Jove Eleutherios in the great square of Platea, and there, in the presence of the assembled allies, bound himself and them to respect and guarantee their independence. Archidamus replied that by their oaths they were bound to assist him in the liberation of the rest of Greece; but, if they would not agree to do this, their independence should be respected if they only consented to remain neutral. After this summons had been twice repeated, the Platæans returned for answer that they could do nothing without the consent of the Athenians, in whose custody their wives and families now were; adding, that a profession of neutrality might again induce the Thebans to surprise their city. Hereupon Archidamus proposed to them to hand over their town and territory to the Lacedæmonians, together with a schedule of all the property which they contained, engaging to hold them in trust and to cultivate the land till the war was terminated, when every thing should be safely restored. In the mean time, the Platæans might retire whithersoever they chose, and receive an allowance sufficient for their support.

The offer seemed fair and tempting, and the majority of the Platæans were for accepting it, but it was resolved first of all to obtain the sanction of the Athenians: who, however, exhorted them to hold out, and promised to assist them to the last. The Platæans, afraid to send a herald to the Spartan camp, now proclaimed from the walls their refusal of the proffered terms; when Archidamus invoked the gods and heroes of the soil to witness that it was not until the Platæans had renounced the oaths which bound them, that he had invaded their territory. The Peloponnesians, indeed, seem to have been really unwilling to undertake the siege. They were driven into it by the ancient grudge of the Thebans against Platæa.

The siege that ensued is one of the most memorable in the annals of Grecian warfare. Platæa was but a small city, and its garrison consisted of only 400 citizens and 80 Athenians, together with 110 women to manage their household affairs. this small force set at defiance the whole army of the Peloponnesians. The first operation of Archidamus was to surround the

Yet

town with a strong palisade formed of the fruit trees which had been cut down, and thus to deprive the Platæans of all egress. He then began to erect a mound of timber, earth, and stones against the wall, forming an inclined plane up which his troops might march, and thus take the place by escalade. The whole army laboured at this mound seventy days and nights; but whilst it was gradually attaining the requisite height the Platæans on their side were engaged in raising their walls with a superstructure of wood and brickwork, protected in front with hides. They also formed a subterranean passage under their walls, and undermined the mound, which thus fell in and required constant additions. And as even these precautions seemed in danger of being ultimately defeated, they built a new interior wall, in the shape of a crescent, whose two horns joined the old one at points beyond the extent of the mound; so that if the besiegers succeeded in carrying the first rampart, they would be in no better position than before. So energetic was the defence, that the Lacedæmonians, after spending three months in these fruitless attempts, resolved to turn the siege into a blockade, and reduce the place by famine.

§ 10. They now proceeded to surround the city with a double wall of circumvallation, the interior space between the two of sixteen feet in breadth being roofed in, and the whole structure protected by a ditch on each side, one towards the town and the other towards the country. The interior was occupied by the troops left on guard, half of which consisted of Baotians and the other half of Peloponnesians. In this manner the Platæans endured a blockade of two years, during which the Athenians attempted nothing for their relief. In the second year, however, about half the garrison effected their escape in the following bold and successful manner. Provisions were beginning to run short, and the Platæan commander exhorted the garrison to scale the wall by which they were blockaded. Only 212 men, however, were found bold enough to attempt this hazardous feat. Choosing a wet and stormy December night, they issued from their gates, lightly armed and carrying with them ladders accurately adapted to the height of the wall. These were fixed against it in the space between two towers occupied by the guard, and the first company having mounted, slew, without creating alarm, the sentinels on duty. Already a great part of the Platæans had gained the summit, when the noise of a tile kicked down by one of the party betrayed what was passing. The whole guard immediately turned out, but in the darkness and confusion knew not whither to direct their blows, whilst the lighted torches which they carried rendered them a conspicuous aim for the arrows and

javelins of those Plateans who had gained the other side of the walls. In this manner the little band succeeded in effecting their escape with the exception of one man, who was captured, and of a few who lost their courage and returned to Platea.

§ 11. But though the provisions of the garrison were husbanded by this diminution in their number, all the means of subsistence were at length exhausted, and starvation began to stare them in the face. The Lacedæmonian commander had long been in a condition to take the town by storm, but he had been directed by express orders from home to reduce it to a voluntary capitulation, in order that at the conclusion of a peace, Sparta might not be forced to give it up, as she would be in case of a forcible capture. Knowing the distressed state of the garrison, the Lacedæmonians sent in a herald with a summons to surrender and submit themselves to their disposal, at the same time promising that only the guilty should be punished. The besieged had no alternative and submitted. This took place in B.C. 427, after the blockade had lasted two years.

The whole garrison, consisting of 200 Platæans and 25 Athenians, were now arraigned before five judges sent from Sparta. Their indictment was framed in a way which precluded the possibility of escape. They were simply asked " Whether during the present war they had rendered any assistance to the Lacedæmo nians or their allies?" So preposterous a question at once revealed to the prisoners that they could expect neither justice nor mercy. Nevertheless, they asked and obtained permission to plead their cause. Their orators, by recalling the services which Platea had rendered to Greece in general in the Persian war, and to Sparta in particular, by aiding to suppress the revolt of the Helots, seemed to have produced such an impression on their judges that the Thebans present found it necessary to reply. Their speech does not appear to have contained any very cogent arguments, but it was successful. The Platæans were mercilessly sacrificed for reasons of state policy. Each man, including the 25 Athenians, was called up separately before the judgment seat, and the same question having been put to him, and of course answered in the negative, he was immediately led away to execution. The town of Platæa, together with its territory, was transferred to the Thebans, who, a few months afterwards, levelled all the private houses to the ground, and with the materials erected a sort of vast barrack around the Heræum, or temple of Hera, both for the accommodation of visitors, and to serve as an abode for those to whom they let out the land. Thus was Platea blotted out from the map of Greece.

J.W.ORR NY.

Statue of Theseus, from the Pediment of the Parthenon.

CHAPTER XXVII.

PELOPONNESIAN WAR CONTINUED FROM THE SIEGE OF PLATEA TO THE SEDITION AT CORCYRA.

§ 1. General character of the war. § 2. Military and naval operations of the third year. Attempt of the Peloponnesians to surprise Piræus. § 3. Fourth year. Revolt of Mytilené. § 4. Fifth year. Surrender of Mytilené. 5. Debates of the Athenian assembly respecting the Mytileneans. Čleon and the Athenian demagogues. § 6. Bloody decree against the Mytileneans. § 7. Second debate. Reversal of the decree. Lesbos colonized by Athenians. § 8. Civil dissensions at Corcyra. § 9. Picture of the times by Thucydides.

1. In recording the fall of Platæa, we have anticipated the order of chronology. The investrnent of that town formed, as we have related, the first incident in the third year of the Peloponnesian war. The subsequent operations of that war down to the eleventh year of it, or the year B.C. 421-when a short and hollow peace, or rather truce, called the peace of Nicias, was patched up between the Lacedæmonians and Athenians-were not of a decisive character. There was, indeed, much mutua) injury inflicted, but none of those great events which bring a war to a close by disabling either one or both parties from continuing it. The towns captured were, moreover, restored

at the peace; by which, consequently, Athens and Sparta were placed much in the same state as when the war broke out. It would be tedious to detail at length all the little engagements which occurred, and which the reader could with difficulty remember; and we shall therefore content ourselves with a sketch of the more important events, especially those which display the general character of the period, the actions of the more remarkable men who flourished in it, and the motives, views, and dispositions of the contending parties.

§ 2. Except the siege of Platæa, the operations by land in the third year of the war were unimportant. The Athenians failed in an attempt to reduce the town of Spartolus in Chalcidicé; nor were the efforts of their new ally Sitalces more successful in that quarter. According to the ancient myth of Tereus, Sitalces considered himself a kinsman of the Athenians; but some well applied bribes were probably a more efficacious inducement for him to undertake the reduction of Chalcidicé, and the dethronement of Perdiccas, king of Macedonia. The sway of Sitalces over the barbarous tribes of Thrace was very extensive. He was able to collect an army estimated at 150,000 men, one-third of which was cavalry. With this multitudinous, but wild and disorderly host, he penetrated far into the dominions of Perdiccas and compelled the Macedonians, who did not venture to meet him in the open field, to shut themselves up in their fortresses. He also detached a force to reduce the Chalcidians and Bottiæans. But his expedition was undertaken at too late a period of the year, seemingly about the end of November or beginning of December; and as the winter proved very severe, and the Athenians neglected to send any armament to his assistance, Sitalces was compelled to relinquish his conquests after a canpaign, or rather foray, of thirty days.

In the same year the naval superiority of the Athenians was strikingly exhibited by the victories of Phormio in the Corinthian gulf. The Lacedæmonians had planned an expedition against Acarnania, and had sent a fleet of forty-seven sail, under the command of Cnemus, to carry this project into effect. Phormio was stationed at Naupactus with only twenty Athenian ships; but notwithstanding his numerical inferiority, he gained a brilliant victory over the Peloponnesian fleet. But this was not all. The Spartans lost no time in collecting another fleet, amounting to seventy-seven sail. Meantime Phormio had received no reinforcements; but such was his confidence in the skill of his seamen, that he ventured to meet even these overpowering numbers, and though this victory was not so decisive as the previous one, the Peloponnesians relinquished