pectedly appeared before the important Athenian colony of Amphipolis on the Strymon. In that town the Athenian party was the stronger, and sent a message for assistance to Thucydides, the historian, who, in conjunction with Eucles, was then general in those parts. Thucydides hastened with seven ships from Thasos, and succeeded in securing Eion at the mouth of the Strymon; but Amphipolis, which lay a little higher up the river, allured by the favourable terms offered, had already surrendered to Brasidas. For his want of vigilance on this occasion, Thucydides was, on the motion of Cleon, sentenced to banishment, and spent the following twenty years of his life in exile. From Amphipolis Brasidas proceeded to the easternmost peninsula of Chalcidicé, where most of the towns hastened to surrender. At Toroné, on the Sithonian peninsula, the gates were opened by an anti-Athenian party. The Athenian garrison fled to a neighbouring fort; but Brasidas took the place by storm, and put all the prisoners to the sword.

§ 14. The Athenians were so much depressed by their defeat at Delium, that they neglected to take vigorous measures for arresting the progress of Brasidas. They now began to think seriously of peace, and to entertain the proposals of the Lacedæmonians, who were on their side solicitous about their prisoners still in custody at Athens. Early in B.C. 423, the ninth year of the war, a truce was concluded for a year, with a view to the subsequent adjustment of a definitive and permanent peace. The negotiations for that purpose were, however, suddenly interrupted by the news that Scioné had revolted to Brasidas. This revolt appears to have taken place two days after the conclusion of the truce; and as one of the conditions was that every thing should remain in statu quo till peace was definitively concluded,

the Athenians demanded that the town should be restored. With this demand Brasidas refused to comply. Excited by the speeches of Cleon, the Athenians would not listen to any proposals for arbitration, and sent an armament against Scioné, with orders that every man in the place should be put to death. The war was thus revived in those distant regions, but nearer home the truce was observed. Brasidas, who had been deserted by the faithless Perdiccas, threw himself into Toroné on the approach of the Athenians. Nicias and Nicostratus, who had arrived in Chalcidicé with 50 triremes and a large body of troops, commenced operations against Mendé, which had also revolted. The town was surrendered by a party among the citizens the Lacedæmonian garrison contrived to escape to Scioné, which town the Athenians proceeded to invest; and when Nicias had completely blockaded it, he returned to Athens.

§ 15. Things remained in this state till the beginning of the year B.C. 422, when the truce expired. Early in August, Cleon having been appointed to the command, proceeded against Scioné, with a fleet of 30 triremes, carrying 1200 hoplites, 300 cavalry, and a large force of subsidiary troops. In the absence of Brasidas he succeeded in taking Toroné and Galepsus, but failed in an attempt upon Stagirus. He then lay for some time inactive at Eion, till the murmurs of his troops compelled him to proceed against Amphipolis. Thither Brasidas had also directed his march, with an army of 2000 hoplites, 300 Greek cavalry, and a large body of light armed Thracians. He encamped on the heights of Cerdylium on the western bank of the river, whence he could survey all the movements of the enemy; but, on the approach of Cleon, he threw all his troops into the town. That general encamped on a rising ground on the eastern side of Amphipolis. Having deserted the peaceful art of dressing hides for the more hazardous trade of war, in which he was almost totally inexperienced, and having now no Demosthenes to direct his movements, Cleon was thrown completely off his guard by a very ordinary stratagem on the part of Brasidas, who contrived to give the town quite a deserted and peaceful appearance. Cleon suffered his troops to fall into disorder, till he was suddenly surprised by the astounding news that Brasidas was preparing for a sally. Cleon at once resolved to retreat. But his skill was equal to his valour. He had no conception that he could be attacked till Brasidas had drawn out his men and formed them, as if they were on parade, in regular order. He therefore conducted his retreat in the most disorderly manner. His left wing had already filed off, and his centre with straggling ranks was in the act of following, when Brasidas ordered the gates of the town to be flung open, and rushing out at the head of only 150 chosen soldiers, charged the retreating columns in flank. They were immediately routed; but as Brasidas was hastening to attack the Athenian right, which was only just breaking ground, and where Cleon himself was posted, he received a mortal wound and was carried off the field. Though his men were forming on the hill, Cleon fled as fast as he could on the approach of the enemy, but was pursued and slain by a Thracian peltast. In spite, however of the disgraceful flight of their general, the right wing maintained their ground for a considerable time, till some cavalry and peltasts issuing from Amphipolis attacked them in flank and rear, and compelled them to fly. On assembling again at Eion it was found that half the Athenian hoplites had been slain. Brasidas was carried into Amphipolis, and lived long enough to receive the tidings of his

victory. He was interred within the walls with great military pomp in the centre of what thenceforth became the chief agora ; he was proclaimed æcist, or founder of the town; and was worshipped as a hero with annual games and sacrifices.

§16. By the death of Brasidas and Cleon, the two chief obstacles to a peace were removed; for the former loved war for the sake of its glory, the latter for the handle which it afforded for agitation and for attacking his political opponents. The Athenian Nicias, and the Spartan king Pleistoanax, zealously forwarded the negotiations, and in the spring of the year B.C. 421, a peace for 50 years, commonly called the peace of Nicias, was concluded on the basis of a mutual restitution of prisoners and places captured during the war. The Thebans, however, retained Platea on the plea that it had been voluntarily surrendered, and on the same grounds Athens was allowed to hold Nisæa, Anactorium, and Sollium. Neutral towns were to remain independent, and pay only the assessment of Aristides. By this treaty Sparta sacrificed the interests of her allies in favour of her own. Her confederates viewed it with jealousy and distrust, and four of them, namely, the Baotians, Corinthians, Eleans, and Megarians, positively refused to ratify it. Alarmed at this circumstance, as well as at the expiration of her Thirty Years' Truce with Argos, Sparta soon afterwards concluded an offensive and defensive alliance with Athens, with the stipulation that each might increase or diminish at pleasure the number of its allies and subjects.

Centaur from the Metopes of the Parthenon.

CHAPTER XXIX.

PELOPONNESIAN WAR CONTINUED. FROM THE PEACE OF NICIAS TO THE EXPEDITION OF THE ATHENIANS TO SICILY.

§1. League of Argos, Corinth, Elea, Mantinea, and Chalcidicé. § 2. Transactions between Sparta and Athens. § 3. Policy and character of Alcibiades. § 4. He advocates a league with Argos. Resorts to a stratagem to procure it. § 5. Alcibiades victor at Olympia. His magnificence. § 6. He proceeds to Peloponnesus. § 7. Proceedings of the Lacedæmonians. Battle of Mantinea. § 8. Revolutions at Argos. A democracy established. § 9. Conquest of Melos by the Athenians. § 10. Intervention of the Athenians in Sicily. § 11. Embassy of the Egestæans. They deceive the Athenians respecting their wealth. § 12. The Athenians resolve on an expedition to Sicily. § 13. Preparations at Athens. Popular delusion. § 14. Mutilation of the Hermæ. Accusation of Alcibiades. § 15. Departure of the Athenian fleet for Sicily.

§ 1. IT has been mentioned that several of the allies of Sparta were dissatisfied with the peace which she had concluded; and soon afterwards some of them determined to revive the ancient pretensions of Argos, and to make her the head of a new confederacy, which should include all Greece, with the exception of Sparta and Athens. The movement was begun by the Corin

P*

thians, who felt themselves aggrieved because the Lacedæmonians had allowed Athens to retain Sollium and Anactorium. The league was soon joined by the Eleans, the Mantineans, and the Chalcidians. But they in vain endeavoured to persuade the powerful city of Tegea to unite with them; whilst the oligarchical governments of Boeotia and Megara also stood aloof.

§ 2. Between Sparta and Athens themselves matters were far from being on a satisfactory footing. Sparta confessed her inability to compel the Baotians and Corinthians to accede to the peace, or even to restore the town of Amphipolis. After the death of Brasidas, Clearidas had succeeded to the command of Amphipolis; and he now pretended that he was not strong enough to surrender it against the will of the inhabitants. However, he withdrew with his garrison from the place; and the Athenians do not appear to have made any attempt to take possession of it. All that they effected in that quarter was to reduce Scioné, when the bloody decree of Cleon was carried into execution. Athens consequently refused to evacuate Pylus, though she removed the Helots and Messenians from it.

§ 3. In the negotiations which ensued respecting the surrender of Pylus, Alcibiades took a prominent part. This extraordinary man had already obtained immense influence at Athens. Young, rich, handsome, profligate, and clever, Alcibiades was the very model of an Athenian man of fashion. In lineage he was a striking contrast to the plebeian orators of the day. The Athenian public, in spite of its excessive democracy, was anything but insensible to the prestige of high birth; and Alcibiades traced his paternal descent from the acid heroes Eurysaces and Ajax, whilst on his mother's side he claimed relationship with the Alcmeonidæ, and consequently with Pericles. On the death of his father Clinias, Pericles had become his guardian. From early youth the conduct of Alcibiades was marked by violence, recklessness, and vanity. He delighted in astonishing the more sober portion of the citizens by his capricious and extravagant feats. Nothing, not even the sacredness of the laws, was secure from his petulance. Sometimes we find him beating a schoolmaster for not having a copy of Homer in his school, or interrupting the performances of the theatre by striking his fellow choregus; and on one occasion he effaces with his own hand an indictment published against a Thasian poet, and defies both prosecutor and magistrate to proceed with it. His beauty, his wit, and his escapades, had made him the darling of all the Athenian ladies, nor did the men regard him with less admiration. But he was utterly destitute of morality, whether public or private. The "lion's whelp," as he is termed by Aristo