It was a terrible moment for Sparta; but her king, Archidamus, was true

to the stern valor of his race. The shocks of the earthquake had hardly

ceased, when he ordered the trumpets to sound to arms. Even at that

fearful moment Spartan discipline prevailed. Every man who survived

hastened to the king, and when the disorderly, servile crowd approached,

they found a disciplined force ready to resist them. Sparta was saved

for the moment; the insurgents fled and scattered themselves over the

country, calling to their standard all who were oppressed. The Messenians

rose in a mass, seized Ithome, where their never-forgotten hero,

Aristomenes, had so long withstood the Lacedæmonian arms, fortified it

anew, and formally declared war against Sparta. The ten years’ conflict

which followed is known as the Third Messenian War (B. C. 464-455).

In her extremity, Sparta sent to Athens for aid, and the appeal produced

a violent controversy between the two parties into which that city was

divided. Cimon favored the Spartans; he had always held up their brave

and hardy character as a model to his countrymen, and had even sacrificed

much of his popularity by naming his son Lacedæmonius. When others urged

that it was well the pride of Sparta should be humbled, and her power for

mischief curtailed, Cimon exhorted his countrymen not to suffer Greece

to be maimed by the loss of one of her two great powers, thus depriving

Athens of her companion. His generous counsel prevailed, and Cimon led a

strong force against the insurgents, who were now driven from the open

country and compelled to shut themselves up in the castle of Ithome.

=140.= The influence of Cimon had greatly declined at Athens. The

democratic party had recovered from its loss in Themistocles, for a

new leader was arising whose popularity and services to the state were

destined to eclipse even the great men who had preceded him. This was

Per´icles, the son of that Xanthippus who had impeached Miltiades. His

mother was niece of Clisthenes, who is called the second founder of the

Athenian constitution. Born of an illustrious family, and educated in

all the opportunities of Athenian camps and schools, Pericles was said

to have nothing to contend against except his advantages. His beautiful

face, winning manners, and musical voice reminded the oldest citizens

of Pisistratus; and the vigilance with which the Athenians guarded

their liberties, turned the admiration of some into jealousy. Pericles,

however, made no haste to enter on his public career, but prepared

himself by long and diligent study for the influence he hoped to attain.

He sought the wisest teachers, and became skilled in the science of

government, while he cultivated his gifts in oratory by training in all

the arts of expression.

Anaxag´oras, the first Greek philosopher who believed in one supreme

Intelligence, creating and governing the universe, was the especial

friend and instructor of Pericles, and to his sublime doctrines men

attributed the elevation and purity of the young statesman’s eloquence.

Instead of relying solely upon the wisdom of his counsels, like

Themistocles, or upon his natural gifts, like Pisistratus, Pericles

chose every word with care, and was the first who committed his orations

to writing, that he might subject every sentence to the highest polish

of which it was capable. The Athenian people, the most sensitive,

perhaps, to beauty of style of any that ever existed, enjoyed with keen

delight the clear reasoning and brilliant language which characterized

the discourses of Pericles. Nor was his perfection of detail gained by

any sacrifice of energy. His public speaking was compared to thunder

and lightning, and he was said to carry the weapons of Zeus upon his

tongue. Above all, the sweetness of his temper, and the command which

philosophy had enabled him to gain over his passions, gave him advantage

over less disciplined orators. The fiercest debate or the most insulting

interruptions never disturbed for a moment the cheerful and dignified

composure of his manner.

=141.= Thasos surrendered B. C. 463; its walls were leveled, its shipping

transferred to the Athenians, and all its claims upon the Thracian gold

mines were given up. The people were compelled to pay all their arrears

of tribute to the Delian treasury, beside engaging to meet their dues

punctually in future.

[Sidenote: B. C. 461.]

=142.= A second time the Spartans asked the aid of Athens in their

servile war, and Cimon again led an army to their relief. But the

superiority of the Athenians in siege operations aroused the envy of the

Lacedæmonians, even when employed in their defense; and the long siege

of Ithome afforded time for the rivalries of the two nations to break out

into open feuds. The Spartans declared that they had no further need of

the Athenians, and dismissed their troops. Other allies were retained,

including Ægina, the ancient rival of Athens. The latter, considering

herself insulted, made an alliance with the Argives and the Aleuads of

Thessaly against Sparta. The Hellenic treasury was removed from Delos to

Athens, for safe keeping, it was said, against the needy and rapacious

hands of the Spartans.

[Illustration: WEST VIEW OF THE ACROPOLIS.

_Pelasgian Walls._ _Erechtheum._ _Athena Promachos._ _Parthenon._ _Walls

of Cimon._

_Cave of Pan._ _Propylæa._ _Temple of Nike Apteros._]

The popular resentment naturally extended itself to Cimon. The favor with

which he was regarded in Sparta was now his greatest crime. The Athenians

had indeed some reason to fear, for the Spartan nobles always maintained

a party in their city who were supposed to be secretly plotting against

its free government. However honestly Cimon supported aristocratic

principles, the people, with equal honesty and greater wisdom, opposed

him. He was subjected to the ostracism and banished for ten years.

RECAPITULATION.

The power of Athens was increased by the Persian war; and her

home government, which had been confined to the nobles, was

thrown open to the people. Themistocles rebuilt the walls and

improved the harbor. Pausanias, becoming a traitor, died of

starvation in the temple of Athena, at Sparta. Athens became

the chief of the Hellenic League, whose seat and treasury were

at Delos. Cimon, son of Miltiades, in command of the allied

forces, captured Eion, cleared Scyros of pirates, subdued

rebellions in Carystus and Naxos, and conquered the Persians,

both on sea and land, in the battle of the Eurymedon. He

beautified Athens by a liberal use of his enormous wealth,

and improved the military and naval discipline of his

fellow-citizens, at the expense of their allies. Themistocles,

exiled through suspicion, took refuge in the Persian dominion,

where he died. Sparta suffered a double calamity, in an

earthquake and a servile rebellion, known as the Third

Messenian War. Her insulting treatment of her Athenian aids

destroyed the popularity of Cimon; and Pericles, the most

accomplished of the Athenians, rose into power.

SUPREMACY OF ATHENS.

=143.= Athens, under the lead of Pericles, now entered upon the most

brilliant period of her history. A dispute between Megara and Corinth

involved Athens on the former and Sparta on the latter side, and thus led

to the First Peloponnesian War (B. C. 460-457). At the same time, a more

distant enterprise tempted the Athenians. Egypt had now cast off the last

semblance of obedience to Persia, and hailed a deliverer and sovereign in

the person of Inarus. In looking about him for allies, Inarus naturally

sought the aid of those who, at Marathon, had first broken the power of

the Persians. The Athenians engaged gladly in the war, and sent a fleet

of two hundred triremes to the Nile. The events of the campaign have been

recorded in the History of Persia.[48]

[Sidenote: B. C. 457.]

=144.= The war in Greece went on with great vigor. The Athenians were

defeated at Halæ, but soon after won a naval battle at Cec´ryphali´a,[49]

which more than retrieved their reputation. Ægina now joined in the

war, and the Athenians landed upon the island and besieged the city. A

Peloponnesian army came to the aid of Ægina, while the Corinthians seized

the opportunity to invade Megaris. With all her forces employed either

in Egypt or Ægina, they hoped that Athens would be overcome by this

new attack. But Myron´ides mustered an army of boys and old men exempt

from service, and marched at once to the assistance of Megara. In the

battle which ensued, neither party acknowledged itself defeated, but the

Corinthians withdrew to their capital, while the Athenians held the field

and erected a trophy. Unable to bear the reproaches of their government,

the Corinthian army returned after twelve days and raised a monument upon

the field, claiming that the victory had been theirs. But the Athenians

now attacked them anew, and inflicted a decisive and disgraceful defeat.

=145.= In the midst of these enterprises abroad, great public works were

going on in Athens. Cimon had already planned a line of fortifications

to unite the city with its ports, and the spoils of the Persians, taken

at the Eurymedon and at Cyprus, had been assigned for the expense. Under

the direction of Pericles, the building began in earnest. One wall

was extended to Phalerum, and another to Piræus; but as it was found

difficult to defend so large an inclosed space, a second wall to Piræus

was added, at a distance of 550 feet from the first. Between these Long

Walls a continuous line of dwellings bordered the carriage-road, nearly

five miles in length, which extended from Athens to its principal harbor.

=146.= The Spartans were still too much absorbed in the siege of Ithome

to interfere with the great and sudden advancement of Athenian power; but

a disaster which befell their little ancestral land of Doris, in war with

the Phocians, withdrew their attention even from their own troubles. An

army of 1,500 heavy-armed Spartans and 10,000 auxiliaries, sent to the

relief of the Dorians, drove the Phocians from the town they had taken,

and secured their future good behavior by a treaty. The retreat of the

Spartans was now cut off by the Athenian fleet in the Gulf of Corinth and

the garrison in the Megarid. Their commander, Nicome´des, had, however,

reasons beyond the necessity of the case for remaining a while in Bœotia.

He was plotting with the aristocratic party in Athens for the return of

Cimon, and he also desired to increase the power of Thebes, as a near and

dangerous rival to the former city.

[Sidenote: B. C. 457.]

The conspiracy becoming known, the Athenians were roused to revenge.

They raised an army of 14,000 men and marched against Nicomedes, at

Tan´agra. Both sides fought with equal bravery and skill, and the victory

was undecided until the Thessalian cavalry deserted to the Spartans.

The Athenians and their allies still held out for some hours, but when

the contest ended with the daylight, the victory remained with their

adversaries. Nicomedes reaped no other fruit from his victory than a safe

return home, but Thebes gained from it an increase of power over the

cities of Bœotia.

[Sidenote: B. C. 456.]

=147.= BATTLE OF ŒNO´PHYTA. The Athenians were only spurred to fresh

exertions. The brave Myronides entered Bœotia two months after the battle

of Tanagra, and gained at Œnophyta one of the most decisive victories

ever achieved by Greeks. The walls of Tanagra were leveled with the

ground. Phocis, Locris, and all Bœotia, except Thebes, were brought

into alliance with Athens. These alliances were rendered effective by

the establishment of free governments in all the towns, which, for

self-preservation, must always range themselves on the side of Athens;

so that Myronides could boast that he had not only subdued enemies, but

filled central Greece with garrisons of friends.

[Sidenote: B. C. 455.]

=148.= Soon after the completion of the Long Walls, in 456, the island

of Ægina submitted at last to Athens. Her shipping was surrendered, her

walls destroyed, and the life-long rival became a tributary and subject.

A fleet of fifty Athenian vessels, commanded by Tol´mides, cruised around

the Peloponnesus; burned Gyth´ium, a port of Sparta; captured Chalcis,

in Ætolia, which belonged to Corinth, and defeated the Sicyonians on

their own coast. Returning through the Corinthian Gulf, they captured

Naupac´tus, in western Locris, and all the cities of Cephallenia.

In the same year, the tenth of its siege, Ithome surrendered to the

Spartans. So long and brave a defense won the respect even of bitter

enemies. The Helots were reduced again to slavery, but the Messenians

were permitted to depart in safety to Naupactus, which Tolmides presented

them from the fruits of his victories.

=149.= In Egypt, the resistance of the Athenians to the Persians ended

the same year, but not until after long and desperate adventures. When

the citadel of Memphis was relieved by a Persian force, the Greeks

withdrew to Prosopi´tis, an island in the Nile around which their ships

lay anchored. The Persians following, drained the channel, and thus left

the ships on dry land. The Egyptian allies yielded, on this loss of their

most effective force; but the Athenians, after burning the stranded

vessels, retired into the town of Byblus, resolved to hold out to the

last. The siege continued eighteen months. At last the Persians marched

across the dry bed of the channel and took the place by assault. Most of

the Athenians fell; a few crossed the Libyan desert to Cyrene, and thus

returned home. A fleet of fifty vessels, which had been sent to their

relief, came too late, and was defeated by the Persians and Phœnicians.

[Sidenote: B. C. 449.]

=150.= Other enterprises of the Athenians at this time were scarcely more

successful, and Cimon, who had now been recalled from exile, used all his

influence in favor of peace. A five years’ truce was made with Sparta in

451 B. C. The Isle of Cyprus was the next object of Athenian ambition.

Divided into nine petty states, it seemed to offer an easy conquest;

and as the Persian king still claimed the sovereignty, the enterprise

was but a renewal of ancient hostilities. Cimon sailed from Athens with

a fleet of two hundred vessels; and in spite of the Persian force of

three hundred ships which guarded the coast of Cyprus, he landed and

gained possession of many of its towns. While besieging Citium the great

commander died. By his orders his death was concealed from his men, until

they had gained another signal victory, both by land and sea, in his

name. The naval battle occurred off the Cyprian Salamis—a name of good

omen to the Athenians.

[Sidenote: B. C. 448.]

=151.= A slight incident about this time brought on renewed hostilities

with Sparta. The city of Delphi, though on Phocian soil, claimed

independence in the management of the temple and its treasures. The

inhabitants were of Dorian descent, and were, therefore, closely united

with the Spartans. Where the interests of Greece were divided, the great

influence of the oracle was always on the side of the Doric as opposed to

the Ionic race. The Athenians did not therefore object when their allies,

the Phocians, seized the Delphian territory and assumed the care of the

temple. The Spartans instantly undertook what they called a holy war, by

which they expelled the Phocians and reinstated the Delphians in their

former privileges. Delphi now declared itself a sovereign state; and to

reward the Spartans for their intervention, conferred upon them the first

privilege in consulting the oracle. This decree was inscribed upon a

brazen wolf erected in the city. The Athenians could not willingly resign

their share in a power which, through the superstition of the people, was

often able to bestow victory in war and prosperity in peace. No sooner

had the Spartans left the sacred city, than Pericles marched in and

restored the temple to the Phocians. The brazen wolf was now made to tell

another tale, and award precedence to the Athenians.

=152.= At this signal of war, the exiles from various Bœotian cities,

who had been driven out by the establishment of democratic governments,

joined for a concerted movement. They seized Chærone´a, Orchom´enus, and

other towns, and restored the oligarchic governments which the Athenians

had overthrown. These changes caused great excitement in Athens. The

people clamored for immediate war; Pericles strongly opposed it: the

season was unfavorable, and he considered that the honor of Athens was

not immediately at stake. But the counsel of Tolmides prevailed, and

with a thousand young Athenian volunteers, assisted by an army of allies,

he marched into Bœotia. Chæronea was soon subdued and garrisoned with

Athenians.

[Sidenote: B. C. 447.]

[Sidenote: B. C. 445.]

Flushed with its speedy victory, the army was returning home, when, in

the vicinity of Coronæa, it fell into an ambush and suffered a most

signal and memorable defeat. Tolmides himself, with the flower and pride

of the Athenian soldiery, was left dead upon the field. A large number of

prisoners were taken, and to recover these the government had to enter

into a treaty with the new oligarchies, and withdraw its forces from

Bœotia. Locris and Phocis lost their free institutions and became allies

of Sparta. The island of Eubœa threw off the Athenian yoke, and other

subject islands showed signs of disaffection. At the same time, the five

years’ truce with Sparta expired, and that state prepared with new zeal

to avenge its humiliation at Delphi.

=153.= Pericles, whose remembered warnings against the Bœotian war

only heightened the respect and confidence of the people, now acted

with energy and promptness. He landed in Eubœa with a sufficient force

to reduce that island, but had scarcely crossed the channel when he

learned that the Megarians were in revolt. Aided by allies from Sicyon,

Epidaurus, and Corinth, they had put all the Athenian garrisons to the

sword, except a few in the fortress of Nisæa, and all the Peloponnesian

states had combined to send an army into Attica. To meet this greater

danger, Pericles returned home. The Peloponnesian army soon appeared,

under the young Spartan king, Plisto´anax; but instead of the decisive

operations that were expected, it only plundered the western borders

of Attica, and retired without striking a blow. Plistoanax and his

guardian were accused, on their return, of having accepted bribes from

the Athenians; and as both fled the country, rather than meet the

prosecution, we may presume that the charge was just. Returning to Eubœa,

Pericles reduced the island to complete subjection, and established a

colony at Histiæa.

[Sidenote: B. C. 445.]

=154.= All parties now desired peace. A thirty years’ truce was concluded

between Athens and Sparta, in which the former submitted to the loss

of her empire on land. The foothold in Trœzene, the right to levy

troops in Achaia, the possession of the Megarid, the protectorate of

free governments in central Greece, all were given up. But the losses

of the war had fallen most heavily on the party which began it, while

Pericles stood higher than ever in the esteem of his fellow-citizens.

Thucyd´ides,[50] a kinsman of Cimon, and his successor as leader of the

aristocracy, was summoned to the ostracism, and when he rose to make his

defense he had not a word to say. He was banished, and retired to Sparta,

B. C. 444.

=155.= Pericles now united all parties, and for the rest of his life held

supreme control of affairs. The nobles respected him as one of their own

order; the merchants and alien settlers were enriched by his protection

of trade; the shippers and sailors, by his attention to maritime affairs;

artisans and artists, by the public works he was incessantly carrying

on; while the ears of all classes were charmed by his eloquence, and

their eyes by the magnificent buildings with which he adorned the city.

At this time was erected the Parthenon, or temple of Athena the Virgin,

adorned by Phidias with the most beautiful sculptures, especially with

the colossal statue of the goddess in ivory and gold, forty-seven feet

in height. The Erechtheum, or ancient sanctuary of Athena Polias, was

rebuilt; the Propylæ´a, of Pentelic marble, erected; and the Acropolis

now began to be called the “city of the gods.”

[Sidenote: B. C. 440.]

=156.= Only three islands in the neighboring seas now maintained their

independence, and of these the most important was Samos. The Milesians,

who had some cause of complaint against the Samians, appealed to the

arbitration of Athens, and were joined by a party in Samos itself which

was opposed to the oligarchy. The Athenians readily assumed the judgment

of the case, and as Samos refused their arbitration, resolved to conquer

the island. Pericles with a fleet proceeded to Samos, revolutionized the

government, and brought away hostages from the most powerful families.

But no sooner was he departed than some of the deposed party returned by

night, overpowered the Athenian garrison, and restored the oligarchy.

They gained possession of their hostages, who had been deposited on the

Isle of Lemnos, and being joined by Byzantium, declared open war against

Athens.

=157.= When the news of this event reached Athens, a fleet of sixty

vessels was immediately sent forth, Pericles being one of the ten

commanders. Several battles were fought by sea, and the Samians were at

length driven within the walls of their capital, where they endured a

nine months’ siege. When at last they were forced to yield, they were

compelled to destroy their fortifications, surrender their fleet, give

hostages for their future conduct, and pay the expenses of the war. The

Byzantines submitted at the same time. Athens was completely triumphant;

but the terror she had inspired was mixed with jealousy. During the

revolt, the rival states had seriously discussed the question of aiding

the rebels; and it was decided in the negative mainly by the influence

of Corinth, which, though no friend to Athens, feared that the precedent

might be remembered in case of a revolt of her own colonies.

[Sidenote: B. C. 435.]

=158.= Corcyra, a colony of Corinth, had itself founded, on the Illyrian

coast, the city of Epidamnus. This city, attacked by the Illyrians,

led by some of her own exiled nobles, sent to Corcyra for aid, but was

refused, as the exiles belonged to the party in power in the mother

city. The Epidamnians now resorted to Corinth, which undertook their

defense with great energy. Corcyra, alarmed in turn, applied to Athens

for assistance. Opinions were divided in the assembly, but that of

Pericles prevailed, who urged that war could not in any case be long

delayed, and that it was more prudent to make it in alliance with

Corcyra, whose fleet was, next to that of Athens, the most powerful in

Greece, than to be driven at last to fight at a disadvantage.

Considering, however, that Corinth, as an ally of Sparta, was included

in the thirty years’ truce, it was resolved to make only a defensive

alliance with Corcyra; _i.e._, to render assistance in case its

territories should be invaded, but not to take part in any aggressive

action. A naval battle soon occurred off the coast of Epirus, in which

the Corinthians were the victors, and prepared to effect a landing

in Corcyra. Ten Athenian vessels were present, under the command of

Lacedæmonius, son of Cimon, and they were now, by the letter of their

agreement, free to engage. But suddenly, after the signal of battle had

been given, the Corinthians drew back and stood away for the coast of

Epirus. Twenty Athenian ships had appeared in the distance, which they

imagined to be the vanguard of a large fleet. Though this was a mistake,

it had the effect of preventing further hostilities, and the Corinthians

returned home with their prisoners.

[Sidenote: B. C. 432.]

=159.= Incensed at the interference of Athens, the Corinthians sought

revenge by uniting with Prince Perdic´cas of Macedonia, to stir up

revolts among the Athenian tributaries in the Chalcidic peninsulas. A

battle ensued at Olynthus, in which the Athenians were victorious over

the Corinthian general, and blockaded him in Potidæa, where he had taken

refuge.

A congress of the Peloponnesian states was held at Sparta, and complaints

from many quarters were uttered against Athens. The Æginetans deplored

the loss of their independence; the Megarians, the crippling of their

trade; the Corinthians, that they were overshadowed by the towering

ambition of their powerful neighbor. At the same time, the Corinthians

contrasted the restless activity of Athens with the selfish inertness of

Sparta, and threatened that if the latter still delayed to do her duty by

the League, they would seek a more efficient ally.

The envoys having departed, Sparta decided to undertake the war. Before

proceeding to actual hostilities, it was thought best to send messengers

to Athens, demanding, among other things, that she should “expel the

accursed” from her presence—referring to Pericles, whose race they chose

to consider as still tainted with sacrilege. But Pericles replied that

the Spartans themselves had heavy accounts to settle on the score of

sacrilege, not only for starving Pausanias in the sanctuary of Athena,

but for dragging away and murdering the Helots who had taken refuge,

during the late revolt, in the temple of Posidon. The other demands were

rejected, though with more hesitation. They concerned the independence

of Megara and Ægina, and, generally, the abdication by Athens of her

position as head of the League. The Athenians declared that they would

refrain from commencing hostilities, and would make just satisfaction for

any infringement on their part of the thirty years’ truce; but that they

were ready to meet force with force.

[Sidenote: B. C. 431.]

=160.= WAR IN BŒOTIA. While both parties hesitated to begin the war,

the Thebans precipitated matters by a treacherous attack upon the city

of Platæa. This city, instead of joining the Bœotian League, had been

in friendly alliance with Athens, and was hence regarded with great

jealousy by the Thebans. A small oligarchical party in Platæa favored the

Thebans, and it was Naucli´des, the head of this party, who, at dead of

night, admitted three hundred of them into the town. The Platæans were

roused from sleep to find their enemies encamped in their market-place;

but though scattered and betrayed, they did not yield. They secretly

communicated with each other by breaking through the walls of their

houses; and having thus formed a plan for defense, fell upon the enemy a

little before daybreak.

The Thebans were exhausted by marching all night in the rain; they were

entangled in the narrow, crooked streets of the town; and even women

and children fought against them by hurling tiles from the roofs. The

reinforcement which they expected was delayed, and before it arrived the

three hundred were either slain or captured. The Thebans without the

walls now seized whatever persons and property they could lay their hands

on, as security for the release of the prisoners. The Platæans sent a

herald to declare that the captives would be immediately put to death,

unless the ravages should cease; but that, if the Thebans would retire,

they should be given up. The marauders withdrew, but the Platæans,

instead of keeping their word, gathered their movable property into the

town, and then put all their prisoners to death. Fleet-footed messengers

had already been sent to Athens with the news. They returned with orders

to the Platæans to do nothing of importance without the advice of the

Athenians. It was too late, however, to save the lives of the prisoners

or the honor of their captors.

RECAPITULATION.

In the First Peloponnesian War (B. C. 460-457), Athens was

allied with Megara; Sparta and Ægina, with Corinth. At the

same time, the Athenians aided a revolt of Egypt against

Persia, and built long walls to connect their city with its

ports. Sparta, interfering in a war between Phocis and Doris,

defeated the Athenians at Tanagra; but the latter gained a more

decisive victory at Œnophyta, which brought Phocis, Locris,

and all Bœotia, except Thebes, into their alliance. Ægina was

conquered and made tributary to Athens. Ithome surrendered to

Sparta; the Helots were re-enslaved and the Messenians exiled.

In a new war, occasioned by the interference of Sparta at

Delphi, the Athenians, under Tolmides, gained some advantages,

but were disastrously defeated at Coronæa, with great loss of

influence in central Greece. Assailed at once by rebellions

in Eubœa and Megaris, and by a Spartan invasion, Pericles

defeated the latter by bribes and the former by arms. The

peace which followed was concluded on terms unfavorable to

Athens. Being called to aid a popular revolution in Samos, the

Athenians captured its chief city and re-established their

own influence. Epidamnus, in war with her mother city, was

aided by Corinth; while Athens, taking the part of Corcyra,

defeated the Corinthians at Olynthus, and besieged them two

years in Potidæa. A more general war was hastened by the mutual

treachery of the Thebans and Platæans.

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR.

[Sidenote: B. C. 431-404.]

=161.= All Greece now prepared for war—a war of twenty-seven years, which

was to be marked by more calamities and horrors than Hellas had ever yet

endured. On the side of Sparta fought all Peloponnesus, except Argos and

Achaia, together with Megara, Bœotia, Phocis, Opuntian Locris, Ambracia,

Leucadia, and Anactoria. Athens had for allies, on the mainland, Thessaly

and Anactoria, with the cities of Naupactus and Platæa. There were

also her tributaries on the coast of Thrace and Asia Minor, and on the

Cyclades, beside her island allies, Chios, Lesbos, Corcyra, Zacynthus,

and, later, Cephallenia.

[Sidenote: B. C. 431.]

=162.= Archidamus, king of Sparta, having collected his allies at the

isthmus, marched into the Attic territory about the middle of June. The

inhabitants quitted their fields, and with all the property they could

remove, took refuge within Athens and the Piræus. Every corner and

recess of the city walls became a dwelling. In the market-place, the

public squares, and the precincts of the temples, temporary habitations

arose, and the poorer sort found shelter in tents, huts, and even casks,

placed against the Long Walls. Among this crowded population, violent

debates arose concerning the conduct of the war. Great indignation was

felt against Pericles for the inaction of the army, while Archidamus was

ravaging the fields almost under their eyes.

But the leader had resolved to carry the war out of Attica. For this

purpose a combined fleet of Athenians and Corcyræans sailed around

the Peloponnesus, disembarking troops at various points to ravage the

country. Two Corinthian settlements in Acarnania were captured, and the

island of Cephallenia transferred its allegiance from Sparta to Athens.

The Æginetans were expelled, and their island occupied by Athenian

settlers. Archidamus, after five or six weeks, marched out of Attica and

disbanded his army. The Athenians then put their forces in motion to

punish the Megarians, whom they considered as revolted subjects. They

laid waste the whole territory to the gates of the capital, and the

devastations were renewed every year while the war continued.

[Sidenote: B. C. 430.]

=163.= The next spring, with a new Spartan invasion, brought a still

greater calamity to the Athenians. The plague, originating in Ethiopia,

had traveled along the Asiatic coasts of the Mediterranean until it

reached their city, where the crowded condition of the people made it

spread with frightful rapidity. A terror seized the populace, some of

whom believed that their enemies had poisoned the wells, while a greater

number ascribed the pestilence to the wrath of Apollo, who was the

especial protector of the Dorian race.

=164.= In their passion of despair the Athenians turned against Pericles,

whose cautious policy they considered as the cause of their misfortunes.

Though still refusing battle, which, with the reduced numbers and

exhausted spirit of the army, would have been almost certain defeat,

he actively pushed his operations against the Peloponnesus. To relieve

the crowded city of its mischievous elements, he fitted out a fleet and

led it in person to ravage the enemy’s coasts. On his return he found

the opposition stronger than ever, and an embassy had even been sent to

Sparta to sue for peace. The suit had been contemptuously rejected, and

the rage of the Athenians was only increased. Pericles persuaded them

to persevere in the war, but his eloquence was unavailing to silence

the fury of his personal enemies. By the influence of Cleon, his chief

opponent, he was even accused of embezzling the public funds, and was

fined to a large amount.

[Sidenote: B. C. 429.]

=165.= But the life and adversities of the great statesman were alike

near their end. The plague had robbed him in of his nearest relatives.

A lingering fever, following an attack of the pestilence, terminated

his life. As he lay, seemingly unconscious, the friends surrounding his

death-bed were rehearsing his great deeds, when the dying man interrupted

them, saying, “All that you are praising was either the result of good

fortune, or, in any case, common to me with many other leaders. What I

chiefly pride myself upon is, that no Athenian has ever mourned on my

account.”

[Sidenote: B. C. 430.]

=166.= The second Lacedæmonian foray was more destructive than the first,

for the ravages extended over all Attica, even to the silver mines of

Laurium. The fleet of the Peloponnesians destroyed the fisheries and

commerce of Athens, and devastated the island of Zacynthus. During the

following winter Potidæa surrendered, after a blockade of two years, and

was occupied by a thousand Athenian colonists.

[Sidenote: B. C. 429.]

The third campaign of the Spartans was directed against Platæa. On

the approach of Archidamus, the Platæans sent a solemn remonstrance,

reminding him of the oath which Pausanias had sworn on the evening of

their great battle, making Platæa forever sacred from invasion. The king

replied that the Platæans, too, were bound by oath to labor for the

independence of every Grecian state. He reminded them of their heinous

crime in the slaughter of the Theban prisoners, but promised that, if

they would abandon the cause of Athens and remain neutral during the war,

their privileges should be respected. The Platæans refused to forsake

their ancient ally, and the siege of their city began.

[Sidenote: B. C. 429-427.]

=167.= The garrison which thus defied the whole Peloponnesian army,

consisted of only 480 men, but they made up in energy what they lacked in

numbers. Archidamus began by shutting up every outlet of the town with a

palisade of wood, then erected against this a mound of earth and stone,

forming an inclined plane, up which his troops could march. The Platæans

undermined the mound, which fell in, and thus defeated seventy days’ work

of the whole besieging army. They also built a new wall within the old

one, so that, if this were taken, the Spartans would still be no nearer

the possession of the city.

Seeing that the will of the Platæans could only be subdued by famine, the

allies now turned the siege into a blockade. They surrounded the city

with a double wall, and roofed the intervening space, so as to afford

shelter to the soldiers on duty. The Platæans thus endured a complete

separation from the outer world for two years. Provisions began to fail;

and, in the second year, nearly half the garrison made their escape,

by climbing over the barracks and fortifications of their besiegers in

the rain and darkness of a December night. The Platæans, though thus

reduced in numbers, came at length to absolute starvation. A herald now

appeared from the Spartan commander, requiring their submission, but

promising that only the guilty should be punished. They yielded. When

brought before the five Spartan judges, every man was found guilty and

led to execution. The town and territory of Platæa were made over to the

Thebans, who destroyed all private dwellings, and with the materials

erected a huge barrack, to afford shelter to visitors, and dwellings to

the serfs who cultivated the land. The city of Platæa was blotted out

from the map of Greece.

[Sidenote: B. C. 429.]

=168.= The Athenians, with their ally Sital´ces, a Thracian chief, were

warring in the north with little success. Sitalces, with an irregular but

powerful host of 150,000 Thracians, invaded Macedonia with the intention

of dethroning Perdiccas. The Macedonians, unable to meet him in the open

field, withdrew into their fortresses, and Sitalces, who had no means

for conducting sieges, retired after thirty days. Phor´mio, an Athenian

captain, gained two victories, meanwhile, in the Corinthian Gulf, over

a vastly superior number of Spartans. In the first engagement he had

but twenty ships, to the Spartan forty-seven; in the second, without

reinforcements, he met a fresh Spartan fleet of seventy-seven sail.

[Sidenote: B. C. 428.]

The fourth year of the war was marked by the revolt of Mytilene,

capital of Lesbos. Envoys were sent to Sparta to implore assistance,

which was willingly granted, and the Mytilenians were received into the

Peloponnesian League.

=169.= In the spring of 427, the Spartan fleet advanced to Mytilene, but

it arrived only to find the town in the possession of the Athenians.

Nearly reduced by famine, the governor, by the advice of a Spartan envoy,

had armed all the men of the lower classes for a last desperate sortie.

The result was contrary to his expectations. The mass of the Mytilenian

people preferred the Athenian supremacy to that of their own oligarchic

government. Emboldened by their arms, they declared that they would treat

directly with the Athenians, unless all their demands were granted. The

governor had no choice but to open negotiations himself. The city was

surrendered, and the fate of its inhabitants was left to be decided by

the popular assembly in Athens, whither the ring-leaders of the revolt

were sent.

=170.= A thousand Athenians assembled in the Agora to decide the fate

of their prisoners. Salæ´thus, the Spartan envoy, was instantly put to

death. With regard to the rest, a spirited debate ensued. Cleon the

tanner, the former opponent of Pericles, took a prominent part; and

in spite of more humane and moderate counsels, actually succeeded in

carrying his brutal proposition, to put to the sword all the men of

Mytilene, and sell the women and children into slavery. Iniquitous as

such an order would be in any case, it was the more so in this, because

the greater number of the Mytilenians were friendly to Athens, while the

revolt had been the act of the oligarchy, who were enemies of the people.

So strong had been the opposition, that Cleon feared a reversal of the

sentence, and therefore had a galley instantly dispatched to Lesbos, with

orders for its immediate execution.

His apprehensions were well founded. A single night’s reflection filled

the better sort of Athenians with horror at the inhuman decision into

which they had been hurried. They demanded a new assembly to reconsider

the question; and though this was contrary to law, the _strategi_

consented and convened the citizens. In the second day’s debate the

atrocious decree was rescinded. Every nerve was now strained to enable

the mercy-bearing barque to overtake the messengers of death, who were

a whole day’s journey in advance. The strongest oarsmen were selected,

and urged to their greatest exertion by the promise of large rewards if

they should arrive in time. Their food was given them while they plied

the oar, and sleep was allowed them only in short intervals, and by

turns. The weather proved favorable, and they arrived just as Paches, who

had received the first dispatch, was preparing for its execution. The

Mytilenians were saved, but the walls of their city were leveled, and

its fleet surrendered to the Athenians. The island of Lesbos, with the

exception of Methym´na, which had refused all share in the revolt, was

divided into 3,000 parts, of which 300 were devoted to the gods, and the

rest assigned by lot to Athenian settlers. The prisoners at Athens were

tried for their share in the conspiracy, and put to death.

[Sidenote: B. C. 427.]

=171.= The Corcyrean prisoners who had been carried to Corinth in 432,

were now sent home, in the hope that their account of the generous

treatment they had received would induce their countrymen to withdraw

from the Athenian alliance. They joined with the oligarchical faction to

effect a revolution in Corcyra, killed the chiefs of the popular party,

gained possession of the harbor, the arsenal, and the market-place,

and thus, by overawing the people, obtained a vote in the assembly to

maintain in future a strict neutrality. The people, however, fortified

themselves in the higher parts of the town, and called to their aid the

serfs from the interior of the island, to whom they promised freedom.

The oligarchists set fire to the town, but while it was burning a small

Athenian squadron arrived from Naupactus, and its commander attempted,

with great wisdom, to make peace between the contending parties. He had

to all appearance effected this design, when a Peloponnesian fleet, more

than four times as numerous as his own, appeared, under the command of

Alci´das. The Athenians withdrew without loss, and Alcidas had Corcyra

for the moment in his power; but with his usual want of promptness, he

spent a day in ravaging the island, and, at night, beacon fires on Leucas

announced the approach of an Athenian fleet outnumbering his own. Alcidas

drew off before daybreak, leaving the oligarchists in the city to their

fate. The next seven days were a reign of terror in Corcyra. The popular

party, protected by the presence of the Athenians, abandoned itself to

revenge. Civil hatred was stronger than natural affection. A father

slew his own son; brothers had no pity for brothers. The aristocratic

party was nearly exterminated; but five hundred escaped, and fortified

themselves on Mount Isto´ne, near the capital.

[Sidenote: B. C. 426.]

=172.= The sixth year of the war opened with floods and earthquakes,

which seemed an echo in nature of the moral convulsions of Greece. The

plague was raging again at Athens. To appease the wrath of Apollo, a

solemn purification of the isle of Delos, his birth-place, was performed

in the autumn. All bodies that had been buried there were removed to a

neighboring island, and the Delian festival was revived with increased

magnificence. The usual Spartan invasion of Attica had been prevented

this year, either by awe of the supposed wrath of the gods, or by fear of

the plague; but in the seventh year of the war (B. C. 425), their king,

Agis, again crossed the borders and ravaged the country. He was recalled,

after fifteen days, by the news that the Athenians had established a

military station on the coast of Messenia.

=173.= A fleet bound for Sicily, under Eurymedon and Sophocles, had been

delayed for a time by a storm, near the harbor of Pylos. The commanders

selected this place for a settlement of Messenians from Naupactus, who

would thus be able to communicate with their Helot kinsmen, and harass

the Spartans. Demosthenes was left with five ships and two hundred

soldiers, who were increased, by a reinforcement of Messenians, to a

thousand men. The wrath of the Spartans was only equaled by their alarm

at this infringement of their territory. Their fleet was instantly

ordered from Corcyra, while Agis, with his army, marched from Attica.

The long and narrow island of Sphacte´ria, which covered the entrance to

the Bay of Pylos, was occupied by Thrasymel´idas, the Spartan, while his

ships were sheltered in the basin which it inclosed. Demosthenes, while

awaiting reinforcements, had to meet a vastly superior number with his

handful of men. The attack from the sea was led by Bras´idas, one of the

greatest captains whom Sparta ever produced. He fought on the prow of the

foremost vessel, urging his men forward by looks and words; but he was

severely wounded, and the battle ended with no advantage to the Spartans.

It was renewed the second day with no better success, and the Athenians

erected a trophy, which they ornamented with the shield of Brasidas.

[Sidenote: B. C. 425.]

The arrival of the Athenian fleet was followed by a severe and still

more decisive battle. The victorious Athenians proceeded to blockade

Sphacteria, which contained the choicest Peloponnesian troops. So serious

was the crisis, that the ephors saw no escape except to sue for peace.

An armistice was agreed upon, and the better spirits on both sides began

to hope for a termination of the war. But the foolish vanity of Cleon

and his party demanded the most extravagant terms, and the voice of

reason was drowned. Hostilities re-commenced, with equal vexation to both

parties. Demosthenes, fearing that the storms of winter would interrupt

his blockade, resolved to make an attack upon the island, and sent to

Athens explaining his position and demanding reinforcements. The report

was disheartening to the Assembly, which now began to accuse Cleon for

having persuaded it to let slip the occasion for an honorable peace.

Cleon retorted by accusing the officers of cowardice and incapacity, and

declared that, if _he_ were general, he would take Sphacteria at once!

At this boast of the tanner, the whole assembly broke out into laughter,

and cries, “Why don’t you go, then?” were heard on all sides. The lively

spirits of the Athenians recovered with a bound from their unusual

depression, and the mere joke soon grew into a purpose. Cleon tried to

draw back, but the Assembly insisted. At last he engaged, with a certain

number of auxiliaries added to the troops already at Pylos, to take the

island in twenty days, and either kill all the Spartans upon it, or bring

them in chains to Athens.

=174.= Singular as were the circumstances of Cleon’s commission, his

success was equally remarkable. Demosthenes had made all ready for the

attack; and to his prudence, aided by the accidental burning of the woods

on Sphacteria, rather than to the generalship of Cleon, the victory was

due. The Athenians, landing before daybreak, overpowered the guard at the

southern end of the island, and then drew up in order of battle, sending

out parties of skirmishers to provoke the enemy to a combat. The Spartan

general, blinded by the light ashes raised by the march of his men,

advanced, with some difficulty, over the half-burnt stumps of the trees.

He was greatly outnumbered by his assailants, who harassed him from a

distance with arrows, and forced him at length to retire to the extremity

of the island. Here the Spartans fought again with their accustomed

bravery; but a party of Messenians, who had clambered over some crags

usually deemed inaccessible, appeared upon the heights above, and decided

the fate of the battle. All the surviving Spartans surrendered, and Cleon

and Demosthenes, setting out immediately after the battle, arrived at

Athens with their prisoners within the twenty days. This victory was one

of the most important that the Athenians had gained. The harbor of Pylos

was strongly fortified and garrisoned with Messenian troops, for a base

of operations against Laconia.

[Sidenote: B. C. 424.]

=175.= At the beginning of the eighth year the Athenians were every-where

triumphant, and the Spartans, humbled and distressed, had repeatedly

asked for peace. Nicias, in the early part of the year, conquered the

island of Cythera, and placed garrisons in its two chief towns, which

were a continual defiance of the Lacedæmonians. He then ravaged the

coasts of Laconia, and captured, among other places, the town of Thyr´ea,

where the Æginetans, after their expulsion from their own island, had

been permitted to settle. Those of the original exiles who survived

were carried to Athens and put to death. The brutalizing influences of

war were more apparent every year, and these cold-blooded massacres had

become almost of common occurrence.

The Spartans, about the same time, alarmed by the nearness of the

Messenian garrisons of Pylos and Cythera, gave notice that those Helots

who had distinguished themselves by their faithful services during the

war, should be set at liberty. A large number of the bravest and ablest

appeared to claim the promise. Two thousand of these were selected as

worthy of emancipation, crowned with garlands, and dignified with high

religious honors. But in a few days they had all disappeared, by means

known only to the Spartan ephors—men unmoved, either by honor or pity,

from their narrow regard to the supposed interest of the state.

[Sidenote: B. C. 424.]

=176.= The success of the Athenians did not entirely desert them in

their Megarian expedition, but their attempt upon Bœotia resulted only

in disaster. The chief movement was executed by Hippoc´rates, who led an

army of more than 32,000 soldiers across the Bœotian frontier to Delium,

a place strongly situated near Tanagra, among the cliffs of the eastern

coast. Here he fortified the temple of Apollo, and placing a garrison in

the works, set out for home. The Bœotians had collected a large army at

Tanagra, which now moved to intercept the Athenians upon the heights of

Delium. The battle commenced late in the day. The Athenian right was at

first successful, but their left was borne down by the Theban phalanx. In

their ranks were Socrates, the philosopher, and his pupils, Alcibi´ades

and Xenophon, all destined to the highest fame in Grecian history. At

length the Bœotian cavalry appeared, and decided the fortunes of the

day. The Athenians fled in all directions, and only the fall of night

prevented their complete destruction. Delium was taken by siege after

seventeen days.

=177.= Soon after these disasters, the Athenians lost all their dominion

in Thrace. Brasidas had led a small but well chosen army to the aid of

Perdiccas and the Chalcidian towns. The bravery and integrity of this

great general led many of the allies of Athens to forsake her party, and

when he suddenly appeared before Amphipolis, that city surrendered with

scarcely an attempt at resistance. Thucydides,[51] the historian, was

general in that region. The Athenian party in Amphipolis sent to him for

aid, but he arrived too late. For this failure, whether proceeding from

necessity or carelessness, the general was sentenced to banishment, and

spent his next twenty years in exile, during which he contributed more

by his literary work to the glory of Greece, than he would probably have

done in military command. Brasidas proceeded to the easternmost of the

three Chalcidian peninsulas, and received the submission of nearly all

the towns.

The Athenians were now so disheartened by their losses, that they, in

turn, began to propose peace; and the Spartans, anxious for the return of

their noble youths who were prisoners in Athens, were equally desirous of

a treaty. To this end a year’s truce was agreed upon, in 423, to afford

time for permanent negotiations. Unhappily, two days after the beginning

of the truce, Scio´ne revolted from the Athenians, who demanded its

restitution. The Spartans refused, and the whole year was suffered to

pass away without any further efforts toward peace. At its expiration,

Cleon advanced into Thrace with a fleet and army. He took the towns of

Toro´ne and Galepsus, and was proceeding against Amphipolis, when a

battle ensued which ended at once his life and his assumption of power.

Brasidas, too, was mortally wounded, but he lived long enough to know

that he was victorious.

=178.= PEACE OF NICIAS. The two great obstacles to peace were now

removed, and, in the spring of 421, a treaty for fifty years, commonly

called the “Peace of Nicias,” was concluded between Athens and Sparta.

Some allies of the latter complained that Sparta had sacrificed their

interests to her own, and formed a new league, with Argos for their head.

Athens made a new alliance for a hundred years with Argos, Elis, and

Mantine´a, B. C. 420.

RECAPITULATION.

In the greater Peloponnesian war (B. C. 431-404), nearly all

central and southern Greece were allied with Sparta; most

of the maritime states, with Athens. Within the latter city

were crowded most of the people of Attica, in terror of the

Spartan invasions. Great numbers died of the plague; its

most illustrious victim was Pericles. A two years’ blockade

of Platæa, by the Spartans, ended with the annihilation of

the city. The revolt of Lesbos was subdued by Athens, and

the Mytilenians were condemned to death, but the revengeful

sentence was reversed. A revolution in Corcyra resulted in

a seven days’ massacre of the aristocratic party. A solemn

purification of Delos was performed, to mitigate the plague

at Athens. The Athenians established a colony at Pylos, to

harass Laconia, and were victors in several naval battles.

Cleon, the tanner, with Demosthenes, the general, conquered the

Spartans at Sphacteria. Nicias captured Cythera, and garrisoned

its towns. The brutal character of the war was shown in the

massacre of exiled Æginetans at Athens, and of two thousand

Helots at Sparta. The disastrous battle or Delium ended the

invasion of Bœotia by the Athenians, who lost, at the same

time, all their possessions in Thrace. The Peace of Nicias was

concluded B. C. 421, and Athens made a new league with some

former allies of Sparta.

THE SICILIAN EXPEDITION.

[Sidenote: B. C. 420.]

=179.= From two previous celebrations of the Olympic Games the Athenians

had been excluded, but, in the summer of this year, the Elean heralds

appeared again to invite their attendance. Those who looked to see

Athens poverty-stricken, from her many losses, were surprised at the

magnificence of her delegates, who made the most costly display in

all the processions. Alcibiades entered on the lists seven four-horse

chariots, and received two olive crowns in the races. This young man

was among the ablest citizens that Athens ever possessed. His genius,

bravery, and quickness in emergencies might have made him her greatest

benefactor; but, through his unregulated ambition and utter lack of

conscience, he became the cause of her greatest calamities.

=180.= War soon broke out between the Spartans and the Argives, in which

the Spartan king, Agis, won the important battle of Mantinea, B. C. 418.

The oligarchical party, gaining power at Argos, cast off the alliance

with Athens, and made a treaty with Sparta. But the nobles abused their

power in brutal outrages upon the people, who effected another revolution

and obtained possession of the city. By their request, Alcibiades came

to their aid with a fleet and army. Though the Spartans and Athenians

were nominally at peace, the garrison of Pylos was still committing

depredations in Laconia, and Spartan privateers were seriously injuring

Athenian commerce.

=181.= About this time, an embassy from Sicily besought the aid of the

Athenians for the city of Egesta. It was involved in a contest with its

neighbor, Selinus, which had obtained help from Syracuse. The “war of

races” had, indeed, broken out twelve years before in Sicily, and the

Athenians had more than once sent aid to the Ionian cities, Leonti´ni

and Camari´na, against their Dorian neighbors, who had joined the

Peloponnesian League. Alcibiades threw his whole influence into the cause

of Egesta, hoping at once to improve his wasted fortunes with Sicilian

spoils, and gratify his ambition with the glory of conquest. He even

hoped, beside making Athens supreme over all the Hellenic colonies, to

conquer the empire of Carthage, in the western Mediterranean.

Nicias and all the moderate party opposed the enterprise. They only

prevailed in having an embassy sent to Egesta, to ascertain if its people

were really able to fulfill their promise of furnishing funds for the

war. The envoys were completely outwitted. In the temple of Aphrodite

they saw a magnificent display of vessels which appeared to be solid

gold, but were really silver-gilt. They were feasted at the houses of

citizens, and were surprised by the profusion of gold and silver plate

which adorned their sideboards, not suspecting that the same articles

were passing from house to house, and doing repeated service in their

entertainment. Sixty talents of silver were paid as a first installment,

and the commissioners went home with glowing accounts of Egestan wealth.

[Sidenote: B. C. 415.]

=182.= All doubt disappeared from most minds in Athens, and Nicias,

Alcibiades, and Lamachus were appointed to lead an expedition to Sicily.

The zeal of the Athenians knew no bounds. Young and old, rich and

poor, alike demanded a share in the great expedition. The generals had

difficulty in selecting from the throng of volunteers. The fleet was on

the point of sailing, when a mysterious event threw the excited multitude

into consternation. The _Hermæ_, which stood before every door in Athens,

before every temple or gymnasium, and in every public square, were found

one morning reduced to shapeless masses of stone. Not one escaped. The

people, in an agony of superstitious horror, demanded the detection and

punishment of the criminal. Suspicion fell upon Alcibiades, because

he was known to have burlesqued the Eleusinian mysteries in a drunken

frolic, and was supposed to be capable of any sacrilege. He indignantly

denied his guilt, and demanded an immediate examination. But his enemies

contrived to have it postponed until his return, thus sending him out

under the burden of an unproved charge, which might be revived for his

condemnation in case of disaster.

=183.= On the day appointed for the sailing of the armament, nearly

the whole population of Athens accompanied the soldiers on their march

at day-break to Piræus. When all were on board, the trumpet commanded

silence, and the voice of the herald, in unison with that of the people,

was heard in prayer. The pæan was then sung, while the officer at the

prow of each vessel poured a libation from a golden goblet into the sea.

At a given signal, the entire fleet slipped its cables and started at the

utmost speed, each crew striving to be first at Ægina.

=184.= The whole armament of Athenians and allies mustered at Corcyra in

July, 415. It numbered 136 vessels of war and 500 transports, carrying

6,300 soldiers, beside artisans and a large provision of food and

arms. When the fleet approached the coast of Italy, three fast-sailing

triremes were sent to notify the Egestæans of its arrival, and to learn

their present condition. These rejoined the fleet at Rhegium, with the

unwelcome report that the wealth of Egesta was wholly fictitious, and

that thirty talents more were the extent of the aid to be expected.

The three admirals were now divided in opinion. Nicias was for sailing

at once to Selinus, making the best terms possible, and then returning

home. Alcibiades proposed to seek new allies among the Greek cities, and

with their aid to attack both Selinus and Syracuse. Lamachus urged an

immediate attack upon the latter city, the greatest and wealthiest on

the island. This counsel was at once the boldest and the safest, for the

Syracusans were unprepared for defense, and their surrender would have

decided the fate of the island; but, unhappily, Lamachus was neither rich

nor influential. His plan was disregarded, and that of Alcibiades adopted.

=185.= The fleet, sailing southward, reconnoitered the defenses of

Syracuse, and took possession of Catana, which became its headquarters.

At this point, Alcibiades received from Athens a decree of the Assembly,

requiring his return for trial. A judicial inquiry had acquitted him of

the mutilation of the Hermæ, but he was still charged with profaning

the Eleusinian Mysteries, by representing them at his own house for the

entertainment of his friends. This was an unpardonable crime, and those

noble families which had derived from their heroic or divine ancestors an

especial right to officiate in the ceremonies, felt themselves grossly

insulted. The public trireme which brought the summons to Alcibiades,

was under special orders not to arrest him, but to suffer him to return

in his own vessel. The wily general availed himself of this courtesy to

effect his escape. Landing at Thurii, he eluded his pursuers, and the

messengers returned to Athens without him. Here in his absence he was

condemned to death, his property confiscated, and the Eumolpidæ solemnly

pronounced him “accursed.”

=186.= The Athenians had spent three months in Sicily with so little

effect, that the Syracusans began to regard them with contempt. Nicias,

thus shamed into attempting something, spread a report that the Catanæans

were inclined to expel the Athenians from their city, and thus drew a

large army from Syracuse to their aid. During its absence from home, the

whole Athenian fleet sailed into the Great Harbor of Syracuse, and landed

a force which intrenched itself near the mouth of the Anapus. A battle

followed on the return of the Syracusans, and Nicias was successful.

Instead of following up this advantage, he retired into winter-quarters

at Catana, and afterward at Naxos, while he sent to Athens for a supply

of money, and to his Sicilian allies for a re-enforcement of men.

The Syracusans spent the winter in active preparation. They built a new

wall across the peninsula, between the Bay of Thapsus and the Great

Port, covering their city on the west and north-west. They sent, at the

same time, to Corinth and Sparta for help, and found in the latter city

an unexpected ally. Alcibiades had crossed from Italy to Greece, and

had received a special invitation to Sparta. Here he indulged his spite

against his countrymen by revealing all their plans, and urging the

Spartans to send an army into Sicily to disconcert their movements.

[Sidenote: B. C. 414.]

=187.= With the opening of spring, Nicias commenced the siege by

fortifying the heights of Epipolæ, which commanded the city. He

built, also, a fort at Sy´ke, and dislodged the Syracusans from the

counter-walls which they were constructing. The Athenian fleet was

stationed in the Great Harbor, and the Syracusans, despairing of

effectual resistance, sent messengers to arrange terms of surrender. But

the brave Lamachus had been slain, and Nicias, now sole commander, was

too inactive to seize the victory just within his grasp.

=188.= At this point, Gylip´pus, the Spartan, arrived with only four

ships on the Italian coast, and supposing that Syracuse and all Sicily

were irrecoverably lost, sought only to preserve the cities on the

peninsula. To his delight, he learned that the Athenians had not even

completed their northern line of works around Syracuse. He hastened

through the Straits of Messina, which he found unguarded, and, landing at

Him´era, began to raise an army from the Dorian cities of Sicily. With

these he marched to Syracuse directly over the heights of Epipolæ, which

Nicias had neglected to hold. Entering the city, he sent orders to the

Athenian general to leave the island within five days. Nicias disregarded

the message, but the acts which followed proved that the Spartan was

master of the situation. He captured the Athenian fort at Labalum, built

another upon the heights of Epipolæ, and connected it with the city by a

strong wall.

[Sidenote: B. C. 413.]

The Sicilian towns which had hesitated now joined the winning side.

Re-enforcements arrived from Corinth, Leucas, and Ambracia; and Nicias,

unable to continue the siege with his present force, withdrew to the

headland of Plemmyr´ium, south of the Great Port. His ships were out of

repair, his men disheartened and inclined to desert, and his own health

declining. He wrote to Athens, begging that the army might be instantly

re-enforced and he himself recalled. Athens was in a state of siege, for

the Spartan king, Agis, was encamped at Decele´a, fourteen miles north of

the city, in a position to command the whole Athenian plain. The public

funds were nearly exhausted, hunger began to be felt, and the diminished

number of citizens were worn out with the labor of defending the walls

day and night. It was resolved, however, to re-enforce Nicias, and, at

the same time, harass Sparta on her own territory. For this purpose,

Char´icles was sent to plant a military station on the south coast of

Laconia, similar to that of Pylos in Messenia; while Demosthenes and

Eurymedon conducted a fleet and army to Sicily. The first enterprise was

successful; the second was too late.

=189.= The Syracusans had been defeated in one naval battle, but in

a second, lasting two days, they were completely victorious, and

the Athenian ships were locked up in the extremity of the harbor.

Demosthenes’ arrival with his fresh forces had some effect in checking

the enemy and raising the spirits of his countrymen. Perceiving at

once that Epipolæ was the vital point, he directed all his efforts to

its re-capture, but without success. Seeing, now, that the siege was

hopeless, he urged Nicias to return home and drive the Spartans out of

Attica. But, remembering the lively hopes and the magnificent ceremonies

with which the armament had set forth, Nicias could not consent to return

to Athens covered with the disgrace of failure. Neither would he withdraw

to Thapsus or Catana, where Demosthenes urged the advantages of an open

sea and constant supplies of provisions. But, large re-enforcements

arriving for Syracuse, this retreat became necessary, and the plans

were so well laid that it might easily have been effected without the

knowledge of the enemy.

[Sidenote: Aug. 27, 413.]

Unhappily, an eclipse of the moon occurred on the very eve of the

intended movement. The imperfect astronomy of those days had not foretold

the event, and the soothsayers could only conclude that Artemis, the

especial guardian of Syracuse, was showing her anger against its

assailants. They declared that the army must remain three times nine days

in its present position. During this delay, the disconcerted plan became

known to the Syracusans, who resolved to strike a blow while the enemy

was within their reach. A battle by land and sea was the result. In the

former, the Athenians beat off their assailants; but, in the latter,

their fleet was utterly defeated and Eurymedon slain.

=190.= The Syracusans now resolved upon the total destruction of their

enemy. They blocked up the Great Harbor by a line of vessels moored

across its entrance. The only hope for the Athenians, perhaps for Athens

itself, was to break this line, and to this end Nicias again prepared for

battle. The amphitheater of hills which surround the harbor was crowded

with spectators of either party, watching with anxious eyes the conflict

upon which their fates depended. The water was covered with the yachts of

wealthy Syracusans, ready to offer their services whenever they might be

demanded. The first attack of the Athenians was upon the barrier of ships

at the entrance of the harbor. It failed, and the Syracusan fleet of 76

triremes then engaged the 110 of the Athenians. The crash of the iron

prows, the shouts of the combatants, and the answering groans or cheers

of their friends upon the shore, filled the air with a perpetual clamor.

For a long time the issue was doubtful, but, at last, the fleet of Nicias

began to retreat toward the shore. A cry of despair arose from the

Athenian army, answered by shouts of triumph from the pursuing vessels

and the citizens on the walls.

The Athenian fleet was now reduced to sixty vessels, and the Syracusan to

fifty. Nicias and Demosthenes besought their men to renew the effort to

force their way out of the harbor, but their spirits were so far broken

that they refused any further combat by sea. The army still numbered

40,000 men, and it was resolved to retreat by land to some friendly

city, where they could defend themselves until transports should arrive.

If this design had been instantly put in execution, it might have been

successful; for the Syracusans had given themselves up to drunken

revelries, occasioned equally by the rejoicings over their victory and by

the festival of Hercules, and had no thoughts to spare for their fugitive

foe. But Hermoc´rates, the most prudent of their number, resolved

to prevent what he foresaw would be the Athenian movement. He sent

messengers to the wall, who pretended to come from spies of Nicias within

the city, and warned the generals not to move that night, as all the

roads were strongly guarded. Nicias fell into the snare, and sacrificed

his last hope of escape.

=191.= On the second day after the battle, the army began its march

toward the interior, leaving the deserted fleet in the harbor, the dead

unburied, and the wounded to the vengeance of the foe. On the third day

of the march, the road lay over a steep cliff, which was guarded by a

Syracusan force. Two days’ assaults upon this position were unsuccessful,

and the generals took counsel during the night to turn toward the sea.

Nicias, with the van, succeeded in reaching the coast; but Demosthenes

lost his way, was overtaken by the enemy, and surrounded in a narrow

pass, where he surrendered the shattered remnants of his army, numbering

six thousand men. Nicias was now pursued, and overtaken at the river

Asina´rus. Multitudes perished in the attempt to cross. Pressed closely

by the army of Gylippus, the rear rushed forward upon the spears of their

comrades, or were hurled down the steep banks and carried away by the

current. All order was lost, and Nicias surrendered at discretion. The

generals were condemned to death. The common soldiers, imprisoned in the

stone-quarries, without food or shelter, suffered greater miseries than

all that had preceded. A few who survived were sold as slaves, and their

talents and accomplishments won, in some instances, the friendship of

their masters.

RECAPITULATION.

Alcibiades sustained the credit of Athens in the Olympic Games,

carried aid to the Argives against the Spartans, and zealously

promoted the Sicilian expedition of his countrymen. On the eve

of departure he was accused of sacrilege, and after his arrival

in Sicily he was sentenced to death, and pronounced accursed.

The siege of Syracuse, notwithstanding the great efforts of

the Athenians, resulted in failure and disaster, while Athens

itself was besieged by the king of Sparta. Reinforcements, led

forth by Demosthenes, only completed the exhaustion of the

city. The Syracusans gained a naval battle in their harbor, and

captured the two Athenian armies in their retreat.

DECLINE OF ATHENS.

[Sidenote: B. C. 412.]

=192.= In the midst of private grief and national dismay, the Athenians

learned that their allies were deserting them. Alcibiades was stirring

up revolts in Chios, which, with Lesbos and Eubœa, implored the aid of

Sparta to free them from their dependence. The two satraps of Asia Minor

sent envoys to the same power, inviting her coöperation in overthrowing

the Athenian empire in Asia, and pledging Persian gold for the entire

expense. To the lasting shame of Sparta, she concluded a treaty at

Miletus, engaging to unite with Persia in a war against Athens, and to

restore to the Persian dominion all the cities and territories which

it had formerly embraced. This clause was explained, in a subsequent

treaty, to include not only all the islands of the Ægean, but Thessaly

and Bœotia, thus yielding to the Persians the field of Platæa, and

fixing, their frontier on the very border of Attica. Miletus itself was

immediately surrendered to Tissaphernes.

=193.= In this general defection Samos remained faithful, and afforded

a most important station for the Athenian fleet during the remaining

years of the war. The Samians, warned by the example of Chios, overthrew

their oligarchical government, and the democracy thus established

was acknowledged by Athens as an equal and independent ally. Great

preparations were now made in Athens. The reserve fund of a thousand

talents, which had lain untouched since the time of Pericles, was

applied to fitting out a fleet against Chios. Once more the Athenians

were successful, both by sea and land. Lesbos and Clazomenæ were

reconquered, the Chians defeated, and, in a battle near Miletus, the

Spartans themselves were overcome. That city remained in the hands of

the Persians and Lacedæmonians, but the relations between these widely

contrasted allies were no longer cordial. The Spartans were ashamed of

their dealings with the great enemy of Greece, and Tissaphernes was under

the influence of Alcibiades. This deeply plotting Athenian persuaded

the satrap that it was not the interest of Persia to allow any party

in Greece to become powerful, but, rather, to let them wear each other

out by mutual hostilities, and then appropriate the domains of both.

This advice tended most against the Spartans, who were now so strongly

reinforced that they might soon have put an end to the war. Tissaphernes,

accordingly, held the Spartan fleet inactive, waiting for the Phœnicians,

who were never to appear; and when this pretext would no longer avail, he

applied his golden arguments to its commanders with the same effect.

=194.= Alcibiades now sought to bring the satrap into alliance with

Athens; and failing in this, he tried at least to convince his countrymen

at Samos that he had power to effect such an alliance, for his sole

desire was to be recalled to his native city. Hating and fearing the

Athenian democracy, he made one condition, however, to his intercession

with the Persian, which was, that a revolution should be effected, and

an oligarchical government established. The generals at Samos acceded

to this plan, and Pisander was sent to Athens to organize the political

clubs in favor of the revolution.

When he presented the scheme of Alcibiades in the Assembly, a great

tumult arose. The people clamored against the surrender of their rights;

the Eumolpidæ protested against the return of a wretch who had profaned

the Mysteries. Pisander could only plead the exhaustion and the misery of

the Republic; but this argument, though distasteful, was unanswerable.

The people reluctantly consented to the change in the constitution, and

Pisander, with ten colleagues, was sent to treat with Alcibiades. The

exile well knew that he had promised more than he could perform. To

save his credit, he received the eleven ambassadors in the presence of

Tissaphernes, and made such extravagant demands in his name, that they

themselves angrily broke up the conference and withdrew.

[Sidenote: B. C. 411.]

=195.= Though convinced that they had been cheated by Alcibiades,

they had now gone too far to recede from the proposed revolution.

Pisander, with five of his colleagues, returned to Athens, while the

rest went about among the allies to establish oligarchies. At Athens

the old offices were abolished, and a Council of Four Hundred, chiefly

self-elected, held power for four months. By the aid of the army at

Samos, a counter-revolution was effected, and the leaders of the

oligarchy were accused of treason for their dealings with the Spartans.

Most of them fled; but two, Ar´cheptol´emus and Antiphon, were tried and

executed.

=196.= The remainder of the Peloponnesian war was wholly maritime, and

its scene of operations was on the coast of Asia Minor. The Spartans, by

long practice and close collision with their great rivals, had become

nearly equal to the Athenians in naval skill. Their attention to this arm

of the service was shown by the yearly appointment of the _navarchus_,

an officer whose power, while it lasted, was even greater than that of

the kings, for he was above the control of the ephors.

[Sidenote: B. C. 411.]

=197.= Min´darus, the Spartan commander at Miletus, becoming disgusted

with the fickle policy of Tissaphernes, set sail for the Hellespont,

hoping to find the other satrap more constant to the Spartan alliance.

He was followed by an Athenian fleet, under Thrasyl´lus, which, though

less numerous than his own, inflicted upon him a severe defeat in the

strait between Sestus and Abydus. Mindarus now sent for the allied fleet

at Eubœa, but in passing Mount Athos it was overtaken by a violent storm,

and wholly destroyed. The Athenians followed up their advantage by the

capture of Cyz´icus, which had revolted from them; and, a few weeks

later, gained another great battle near Abydus, by the timely aid of

Alcibiades.

=198.= In the spring of 410, Mindarus was besieging Cyzicus, and the

Athenians determined to relieve it. They passed up the Hellespont in the

night, and assembled at Proconnesus. Alcibiades moved toward Cyzicus

with his division of the fleet, and succeeded in enticing Mindarus to a

distance from the harbor, while the other two divisions stole between him

and the city, and thus cut off his retreat. A battle ensued, in which

Mindarus was slain, the Spartans and their Persian allies routed, and the

entire Peloponnesian fleet captured, except the Syracusan ships, which

Hermocrates caused to be burnt.

=199.= This victory restored to the Athenians the control of the

Propontis and the trade of the Euxine. Ships laden with corn now entered

Piræus, bearing relief to the hungry poor, and discouragement to King

Agis, who still held the heights of Decelea, in the vain hope of starving

the city into surrender.

Pharnabazus, meanwhile, was aiding the Spartans by every means in his

power. He fed and clothed, armed and paid their seamen, allowed them to

cut timber in the forests of Mount Ida, and build their ships at his

docks of Antandros. Through his assistance, Chalcedon, on the Bosphorus,

was enabled to hold out two years against Alcibiades. It surrendered at

last, in 408. Selym´bria and Byzantium were taken about the same time.

=200.= These repeated successes restored the credit of Alcibiades, and,

in the spring of 407, he was welcomed back to his native city. All the

people met him at Piræus, with as much joy and enthusiasm as they had

escorted him thither, eight years before, when sailing for the fatal

expedition to Sicily. He protested his innocence before the Senate

and Assembly. His sentence was reversed by acclamation, his property

restored, the curse revoked, and he was made general, with unlimited

powers. Before his departure, with the large fleet and army which were

now at his disposal, he resolved to atone to Demeter for whatever slight

had been thrown upon her by his alleged sacrilege. The sacred procession

from Athens to Eleusis had been intermitted these seven years, owing to

the nearness of the Spartan troops. Alcibiades now delayed his departure,

in order to escort and protect the participants.

[Sidenote: B. C. 407.]

=201.= The arrival of two new officers upon the Asiatic field of war

turned the scale against Athens. The one was Cyrus, a son of the Persian

king; the other was Lysander, the new Spartan _navarchus_, who took

command of the Peloponnesian fleet at Ephesus. These two made common

cause, and together took measures for severe and unrelenting war against

the Athenians. The gold which the Persian prince lavished without

stint, the Spartan applied to increasing the wages of his seamen. By

this well-timed liberality, he drew over great numbers of men from the

opposing fleet, and rendered even those who did not desert, discontented

and mutinous.

=202.= Alcibiades arrived with his fleet to find the situation less

favorable than he had hoped. The Spartan troops were better paid and

equipped than his own, and to raise funds he resorted to levying forced

contributions on friendly states. During his absence on one of these

forays, the fleet became engaged in battle with the Spartans, and was

defeated with considerable loss. The Athenians began to perceive that

eight years’ exile and two or three years’ good behavior, had not altered

the character of the man, but that he was as dissolute, fickle, and

unscrupulous as ever. They dismissed him from his command, and appointed

ten generals, with Conon at their head.

[Sidenote: B. C. 406.]

=203.= At the same time that Conon arrived to take command of the

Athenians, Cal´licrat´idas succeeded Lysander as _navarchus_. He found

an empty treasury and a cold reception, alike from his own countrymen

and the Persians, whom Lysander had purposely prejudiced against him.

Cyrus refused to see or aid him. Callicratidas now took bolder counsel.

He sailed to Miletus, and urged its citizens to throw off the Persian

alliance. Many rich men came forward with generous contributions of

money, with which he equipped fifty new triremes, and sailed to Lesbos

with a fleet twice as numerous as that of the Athenians.

=204.= He had a battle with Conon in the harbor of Mytilene, in which

the Athenians lost nearly half their ships, and only saved the rest by

drawing them ashore under the walls of the town. Callicratidas then

blockaded the city by sea and land; and Cyrus, perceiving his success,

assisted him with supplies of money. Great efforts were made at Athens,

as soon as the condition of Conon was known. A large fleet was sent out

in a few days, and being reinforced by the allies at Samos, arrived

at the south-eastern extremity of Lesbos, numbering 150 vessels.

Callicratidas left fifty ships to continue the blockade, and sailed to

meet his enemy.

BATTLE OF ARGINUSÆ. A long and obstinate combat followed; but

Callicratidas was at length thrown overboard and drowned, and victory

declared for the Athenians. The Spartans had lost seventy-seven vessels,

and their fleet at Mytilene hastily withdrew, leaving the harbor open for

the escape of Conon.

[Sidenote: B. C. 405.]

=205.= At the beginning of the next year, Lysander was again placed

in command of the Spartan fleet. His numbers being still inferior, he

avoided an engagement, but he crossed the Ægean to the coast of Attica,

for a personal Consultation with Agis, and thence proceeded to the

Hellespont, where he commenced the siege of Lampsacus. The Athenian fleet

followed, but arrived too late to save the town. Conon stationed himself,

however, at Ægos-Potami (Goat’s River), on the northern side of the

channel, with the intention of bringing the Spartan to an engagement. The

Athenians were upon a barren plain; while the Spartans, better situated

and abundantly supplied with provisions, were in no haste to begin the

battle. Alcibiades, who was living near in his own castle, saw the danger

of his countrymen, and advised their generals to remove to Sestus, but

his counsels were resented as impertinence; and attributing the Spartan

delay to cowardice, the Athenians became every day more neglectful of

discipline.

[Sidenote: B. C. 405, Sept.]

=206.= BATTLE OF ÆGOS-POTAMI. At length Lysander, seizing a moment when

the Athenian seamen were scattered over the country, crossed the strait

with his entire force. Only a dozen vessels, in Conon’s personal command,

were in condition for battle; and the whole fleet, with the exception of

the flag-ship, the sacred Par´alus, and eight or ten others, fell into

the Spartan possession without a blow. Three or four thousand prisoners,

including officers and men, were massacred, in retaliation for recent

cruelties of the Athenians in the treatment of their captives. The defeat

at Ægos-Potami was the death-blow of the Athenian empire. Chalcedon,

Byzantium, and Mytilene soon surrendered; and all the Athenian towns,

except that of Samos, fell without resistance into the hands of the

Spartans. Popular governments were every-where overthrown, and a new form

of oligarchy was established, consisting of ten citizens, with a Spartan

officer, called a _harmost_, at their head.

=207.= The news of the great calamity arrived in the night at Piræus. A

cry of sorrow and despair spread instantly from the port to the city,

as each man passed the terrible tidings to his neighbor. “That night no

man slept;”[52] and in the morning the Assembly was called, to consider

how the existence of the city might be prolonged. The situation was

desperate. Even though no hostile force should approach Athens, Lysander,

by holding the Euxine, could effectually reduce it to starvation. The

number of citizens was so diminished, that even criminals could not be

spared from public service. All prisoners were released, except a few

murderers and desperate villains; private offenses were forgotten in

the common danger, and all Athenians united in a solemn oath of mutual

forgiveness.

[Sidenote: B. C. 405, Nov.]

=208.= Two months after the defeat, Lysander appeared at Ægina with

an overwhelming naval force; and, at the same time, the Peloponnesian

army encamped in the groves of Academia, near the gates of Athens. Yet,

though some of the people were already dying of hunger, their spirit was

not broken; and when the Spartan ephors proposed peace on condition of

the destruction of the Long Walls, a senator was imprisoned for merely

discussing the acceptance of these terms. When, at last, the Athenians

sent offers of capitulation, three months were wasted in vain debate

before the terms could be settled. The Thebans and Corinthians insisted

that no conditions should be granted, but that the very name of Athens

should be blotted out, her site become a desert, and her people be sold

into slavery. The Spartans, with more generosity, refused to “put out one

of the eyes of Greece,” or to enslave a people which had rendered such

services to the whole Hellenic race in the great crisis of the Persian

wars.

It was finally agreed that the Long Walls and the fortifications of

Piræus should be destroyed, the ships of war surrendered, all exiles

restored to their rights of citizenship, and all the foreign possessions

of Athens relinquished. These hard conditions were executed with needless

insolence. Lysander himself presided at the demolition of the walls; and

the work, which was rendered very difficult by the solidity of their

construction, was turned into a sort of festal celebration. A chorus of

flute-players and dancers, wreathed with flowers, animated the workmen

at their toil; and as the massive walls of Pericles fell, stone by

stone, shouts of triumph arose from the army of destroyers that this day

witnessed the dawn of the liberties of Greece.

[Sidenote: B. C. 477-404.]

=209.= The Athenian supremacy had lasted seventy-three years from the

confederation at Delos. The power which had been intrusted to the

imperial city for the common defense, had, in some cases, been made to

bear heavily on the subject allies, and her later history is stained

by many acts of cruelty. But the true empire of Athens has never been

overthrown; for, through poetry, art, and philosophy, she still rules the

minds of men with a power which has never been surpassed.

RECAPITULATION.

The rivals, subjects, and enemies of Athens united to hasten

her fall; and to this end Sparta promised to the Persians

Thessaly, Bœotia, the islands of the Ægean, and the coast of

Asia Minor. Alcibiades partly neutralized the Spartan influence

with the satraps, and secured an oligarchical revolution in

Athens as the price of his efforts in her favor. Through his

aid the Athenians gained several great naval victories in the

northern Ægean, which restored to them the corn-trade of the

Euxine, and relieved the famine in their besieged city. The

gold of Cyrus the Younger, and the skill of Lysander, again

turned the tide against the Athenians, who were twice defeated;

and, though afterward triumphant near the Arginusæ, received

a final and disastrous overthrow at Ægos-Potami, which ended

their supremacy in Greece. The subject towns fell into the

power of the Spartans; and, the following spring, Athens itself

was surrendered to Lysander, and its Long Walls destroyed.

SPARTAN SUPREMACY.

=210.= Sparta, in alliance with Persia, now became the leading state

in Greece; and all the cities yielded to her influence, by abolishing

their free governments and setting up oligarchies in their stead. Athens

herself received a thoroughly Spartan constitution. A provisional

committee of five, called ephors, invited Lysander from Samos to preside

over the reorganization of Athens. Under his direction, thirty officers

were appointed for the government of the city, who have always been known

in history as the “Thirty Tyrants.”

[Sidenote: B. C. 401.]

=211.= Critias was their chief. Having been banished formerly by a vote

of the people, he now wreaked his vengeance with unsparing cruelty on the

best and noblest citizens. Blood flowed daily and fines, imprisonments,

and confiscations were the events of every hour. By the advice of

Theram´enes, who was the head of the more moderate party, three thousand

citizens were chosen from the adherents of the Thirty, whose sanction was

required for important proceedings. But all, except this enfranchised

number, were placed beyond the protection of the law, and might be put

to death, at the word of the tyrants, without even a show of trial. A

list was made of those who were destined to death, and any of the ruling

party might add to it such names as either avarice or hatred suggested to

him. The wealthiest citizens were, of course, the first victims, for the

estate of the murdered man went to his accuser. Theramenes, in his turn,

was offered a wealthy alien to destroy and plunder, but he indignantly

rejected the proposal. This implied protest against the reign of terror

cost him his life. He was denounced as a public enemy, his name stricken

from the roll of the Thirty, and from that of the Three Thousand, and

he was ordered to instant execution. He sprang to the altar in the

senate-house; but fear of divine vengeance had disappeared, together with

humanity and justice, from the rulers of Athens. He was dragged away to

prison, and condemned to drink the hemlock.

=212.= The tide was already turning, both in the ill-fated city and

throughout Greece. Athens, in her humiliation, no longer excited the fear

or jealousy of her former allies; while Sparta, instead of making good

her assumed title of “Liberator of the Greeks,” was setting up a new

empire more oppressive than that of her rival. Even in Sparta itself, the

pride and harshness of Lysander excited disgust, and the Thirty Tyrants

at Athens were universally regarded as the tools of his scheming ambition.

The Athenian exiles, who had been biding their time, now issued from

Thebes, under the lead of Thrasybu´lus, and seized the fortress of

Phy´le, in the mountain barrier of Attica, on the road to the capital.

The tyrants, with the Spartan garrison of the Acropolis and the Three

Thousand, marched out to attack them, but were repulsed with spirit, and

a timely snow-storm broke up their attempt to besiege the fortress, and

drove them back to the city. Foreseeing their expulsion, the Thirty now

provided for themselves a place of refuge by another horrid outrage. They

caused all the inhabitants of Salamis and Eleusis, who were capable of

bearing arms, to be brought as prisoners to Athens, and the towns to be

occupied by garrisons in their own interest. Then filling the Odeon with

Spartan soldiers and their three thousand adherents, they extorted from

this assembly a vote for the immediate massacre of the prisoners.

[Sidenote: B. C. 403.]

=213.= Thrasybulus, supported by the indignation of the people,

now marched with a thousand men to Piræus, seized the port without

opposition, and fortified himself upon its castle-hill, Munych´ia. The

whole Lacedæmonian party in Athens marched against him, and was defeated

with considerable loss, in which must be reckoned the death of Critias.

The more moderate party now gained ascendancy; the Thirty were deposed

after a reign of eight months, and ten less atrocious rulers were

elected in their place. The more violent members of the Thirty retired

to Eleusis, and both parties sent envoys to Sparta asking aid. Lysander

again entered Athens with an army, while his brother blockaded Piræus

with a fleet.

At this point, however, Lysander was superseded, and the Spartan king,

Pausanias, after being first repulsed, but afterward victorious over

Thrasybulus, entered upon negotiations for peace. Amnesty was decreed

for all past offenses, except those of the Thirty, the Eleven,[53]

and the Ten. The exiles were restored, and Thrasybulus with his

comrades now marched in solemn procession from Piræus, to present their

thank-offerings to Athena on the Acropolis. In a subsequent assembly

of the people, all the acts of the Thirty Tyrants were annulled, the

archons, judges, and Senate of Five Hundred were restored, and a revised

code of the laws of Draco and Solon was ordered. Thrasybulus and his

party were rewarded with wreaths of olive for their rescue of the city.

[Sidenote: B. C. 399.]

=214.= DEATH OF SOCRATES. Though humbled and reduced from their former

greatness, the Athenians now rejoiced in the restoration of their

ancient laws. Their city, their temples, and all their old customs and

beliefs became doubly dear and sacred, from the perils through which

they had passed. The worst effect of this conservative reaction was the

condemnation and death of Socrates. This great philosopher belonged to no

political party, and had opposed the extreme measures of both; but he had

fought on many battle-fields, and had always used his power as a citizen

in favor of justice and mercy. Critias had been his pupil, but when in

power had hated and persecuted his former instructor. His impeachment

now came from the opposite party. He was accused of despising the gods

of Athens, of introducing a new worship, and of corrupting the Athenian

youth. The dissoluteness of Alcibiades may have given some color to this

charge, though it is certain that his youthful impieties and subsequent

misconduct were in spite of his master’s instructions, not on account of

them.

Being called upon for his defense, Socrates replied that, so far from

violating the state religion, he had constantly admonished his disciples

not to depart from the established customs. He refused to be released

on terms which required him to desist from teaching. To develop wisdom

and virtue in the young had been the passion of his life. He claimed no

wisdom of his own, but sought to draw out the thoughts of others to just

conclusions. And if he could persuade any that the care of becoming every

day wiser and better must take precedence of all other cares, he was sure

that he had conferred the greatest possible benefit. The high tone of

his defense only irritated his judges, and he was condemned to death by

poison.

The Paralus had now gone on its sacred yearly mission to the isle of

Delos, and no execution could take place until its return. The thirty

days thus spent by Socrates in prison were filled with inspiring converse

with his friends. He spoke cheerfully of the past and the future, and

expressed his immovable conviction of the immortality of the soul.

His last request was that a cock should be sacrificed in his name to

Æscula´pius,[54] an offering which persons were accustomed to make on

their recovery from illness—by this common symbol testifying to all the

people that he considered death as a joyful release from a state of

imperfection and disease. When the appointed moment arrived, he drank the

hemlock and calmly expired.

[Sidenote: B. C. 402.]

[Sidenote: B. C. 401.]

=215.= INVASION OF ELIS. The Eleans were among the first to feel the

unchecked power of Sparta. As guardians of the sacred grove at Olympia,

they had excluded the Spartans from the games at the time when the

Athenians appeared, with such magnificence, under the direction of

Alcibiades, and they had borne arms against them, in alliance with the

Argives and Mantineans (B. C. 420-416). They had crowned their insults by

ejecting King Agis from their temple, when he had come with sacrifices

to consult the oracle. Agis now demanded satisfaction, which the Eleans

refused to give, and he crossed their borders with a considerable force.

An earthquake alarmed his superstition, and he retired without any

active hostility. But the next year renewed his courage. With a large

number of allies, among whom even the Athenians appeared, he overran and

plundered the sacred land, and performed by force the sacrifice which he

had been prevented from offering peaceably. Thus victorious in his first

expedition, the Spartan turned his vengeance upon the Messenians, who

had been settled in his territory or upon the neighboring islands, and

expelled or enslaved them all.

[Sidenote: B. C. 398.]

=216.= A year later King Agis died, and his brother Agesila´us

received his crown. Agesilaus was brave, honest, and energetic, and

the circumstances of his reign called for a constant exercise of these

Spartan virtues. The aid rendered by the Lacedæmonians, in the revolt of

Cyrus, had not escaped the notice of the Persian king; and Tissaphernes,

who now possessed the satrapy of the rebellious prince, was instructed to

drive them from all their cities on the Asiatic coasts. The first efforts

of the Spartans, under inferior commanders, had but indifferent success,

and Agesilaus himself prepared to assume the command in Asia.

=217.= The headquarters of the Grecian forces were at Ephesus, where the

army arrived B. C. 396. The winter was spent in busy preparations, which

gave this wealthy city the appearance of one immense arsenal. In the

spring of 395 he advanced upon Sardis, and put the Persian cavalry to

flight. The plunder of their camp enriched the Spartans, who now ravaged

the country almost under the eyes of Tissaphernes. But about this time

the satrap fell into the power of Parysatis, the queen mother, who caused

him to be beheaded for his former opposition to Cyrus. His successor,

Tithraus´tes, proposed terms of peace, the Greek cities to remain

independent, with the exception of a yearly tribute, the same that they

had paid to Darius Hystaspes.

[Sidenote: B. C. 395.]

=218.= Meanwhile war had broken out in Greece between Thebes and Sparta,

and the former had called in Athens, her ancient enemy and rival, with a

promise to aid in restoring her lost supremacy. Lysander, who commanded

the Spartan forces in Bœotia, was defeated and slain at Haliar´tus.

Pausanias, arriving too late for his assistance, dared not return to

Sparta with the army, but took refuge in the temple of Athena at Tegea;

and being sentenced to death by his countrymen, passed the remainder of

his days in the sanctuary. His son, Agesip´olis, succeeded to his throne.

[Sidenote: B. C. 394-387.]

=219.= THE CORINTHIAN WAR. Athens, Corinth, Argos, and Thebes now formed

a close alliance against Sparta, which was soon strengthened by the

addition of Eubœa, Acarnania, western Locris, Ambracia, Leucadia, and

Chalcidice in Thrace. The allies assembled a large army at Corinth in

the spring of 394, and it was proposed to march directly upon Sparta,

and “burn the wasps in their nests before they could come forth to

sting.” The Lacedæmonians, however, had advanced to Sicyon by the time

the allies reached Nemea, and the latter were obliged to fall back for

the protection of Corinth. The Spartans attacked them near the city and

gained a victory, July, 394.

[Sidenote: B. C. 394.]

=220.= Agesilaus had been unwillingly recalled from his war against

Persia, and now appeared in the north with a powerful army, in which

were numbered Xenophon[55] and many of the Ten Thousand. On hearing

of the victory of Corinth, the king exclaimed, “Alas for Greece! she

has killed enough of her sons to have conquered all the barbarians.”

Agesilaus advanced to Coronæa, where another battle was soon fought. The

Thebans were at first successful, and, having routed the Orchomenians,

pressed through to their camp in the rear. But while they were plundering

this, Agesilaus had been victorious along the rest of the line, and had

driven the allies to take refuge upon the slope of Mount Helicon. The

Thebans, thus surrounded, had to sustain the whole weight of the Spartan

attack, and no severer combat had ever been known in Grecian annals. They

succeeded at last in rejoining their comrades, but the victory remained

with Agesilaus.

=221.= BATTLE OF CNIDUS. Their two successful battles of Corinth and

Coronæa were far from compensating the Spartans for the disastrous defeat

which befell them the same season at Cnidus. Conon, who had spent the

seven years since his disgrace at Ægos-Potami, with Evagoras of Cyprus,

now reappeared, in alliance with the ancient foe of Greece, against the

bitter enemy and rival of Athens. Artaxerxes, perceiving the hatred which

began to be felt against the growing power of Sparta, had sent envoys to

the principal cities of Greece, to unite them in a league for resistance,

while he dispatched a large sum of money to Conon, to equip a fleet among

the Greeks and Phœnicians of the sea-board. In command of this fleet,

Conon was blockaded at Caunus by the Spartan, Pharax; but a reinforcement

arriving for the Persians, the blockading squadron withdrew to Rhodes.

The people of that island had unwillingly endured so long the rule of the

Spartans. They rose against Pharax, compelled him to depart, and placed

themselves under the protection of Conon. This admiral immediately sailed

to Rhodes and took possession of the island; then repaired to Babylon,

where he obtained a still more liberal grant of money from Artaxerxes,

for the active prosecution of the war.

With the aid of Pharnabazus, who was joined with him in command, he

equipped a powerful fleet and offered battle to Pisan´der, the Spartan

admiral, off Cnidus, in Caria. The Persian force, consisting of Greeks

and Phœnicians, was superior from the first, and especially when Pisander

was deserted, in the course of the battle, by his Asiatic allies. He

fought, however, with the bravery of a Spartan, until his death put an

end to the contest. More than half the Spartan fleet was either captured

or destroyed. As a result of this defeat, the Spartan empire fell even

more rapidly than it had risen eight years before. Conon and Pharnabazus

sailed from port to port, and were received as deliverers by all the

Asiatic Greeks. The Spartan _harmosts_ every-where fled before their

arrival. Abydus and the Thracian Chersonesus alone withstood the power of

Athens and Persia.

[Sidenote: B. C. 393.]

=222.= The following spring, the fleet of Conon and Pharnabazus crossed

the Ægean, laid waste the eastern borders of Laconia, and established

an Athenian garrison on the island of Cythera. The Persian, by gold and

promises, assured the allies, whom he met at Corinth, of his unfailing

support against Sparta; and he employed the seamen of the fleet in

rebuilding the Long Walls of Athens and the fortifications of the Piræus.

The recent services of Conon more than erased the memory of his former

disasters, and he was hailed by his countrymen as a second founder of

Athens and restorer of her greatness.

=223.= The war was henceforth carried on in the Corinthian territory,

and the main object of the allies was to guard the three passes in the

mountains which extend across the southern part of the isthmus. The most

westerly of these was defended by the long walls which ran from Corinth

to Lechæ´um; the other two, by strong garrisons of the allied troops.

The Spartans were at Sicyon, whence they could easily ravage the fertile

plain, and plunder the country-seats of the wealthy Corinthians. The

aristocratic party in Corinth began to complain, and to sigh for their

ancient alliance with Sparta. The ruling faction, on the other hand,

invited a company of Argives into the city, and massacred a large number

of their opponents. The aristocrats avenged themselves by admitting

Praxi´tas, the Spartan leader, within their long walls, and a battle

was fought within this confined space, in which the Corinthians were

defeated. The Spartans destroyed a large portion of the walls, and,

marching across the isthmus, captured two places on the Saronic Gulf.

[Sidenote: B. C. 392.]

The Athenians, alarmed by the door being thus thrown open for the

invasion of their own territory, marched with a force of carpenters and

masons to the isthmus, and aided the Corinthians to rebuild the walls.

They were building, however, for their enemies; for the next summer,

Agesilaus, with the Spartan fleet, gained possession not only of the

walls, but the port of Lechæum. Several other towns on the Corinthian

Gulf, with much booty and many captives, also fell into his possession.

The Lacedæmonians now surrounded Corinth on all sides, and the Thebans,

despairing of success for the allies, sent envoys demanding peace.

=224.= While they were still in the presence of Agesilaus, he received

news of an unprecedented and mortifying disaster. Iphicrates, the

Athenian, had been for two years drilling a troop of mercenaries in a new

system of tactics, which was intended to combine the advantages of both

heavy and light-armed troops. He had proved their efficiency in several

trials, and was now ready to test them upon the Spartan battalion, which

was considered almost invincible. The Spartans were returning to the camp

at Lechæum—having escorted their Amyclæan comrades some distance on their

way homeward to celebrate a religious festival—when they were attacked,

in flank and rear, with arrows and javelins. Burdened with their heavy

armor, they were unable to cope with their agile antagonists, while their

long pikes were of little use against the short swords of the _peltasts_.

They broke at length in confusion, and many were driven into the sea,

followed by their assailants, who wrestled with and slew them in the

water.

[Sidenote: B. C. 390.]

=225.= The war in Asia went on with varying success. Thimbron, the

Spartan, was defeated and slain by the Persian, Struthas, with the total

loss of his army of 8,000 men. About the same time an Athenian squadron,

which was going to assist Evagoras against Persia, was captured by a

Spartan fleet. Thrasybulus was then sent with a larger naval force, with

which he re-established Athenian power in the Propontis, and re-imposed

the toll anciently collected by Athens on all vessels passing out of

the Euxine. In the midst of this expedition Thrasybulus was slain. The

Spartans, by renewed exertions, again became for a time masters of the

straits; but Iphicrates, with his peltasts, surprised their leader among

the passes of Mount Ida, and gained a decisive victory, which restored

the Athenian supremacy in that region.

[Sidenote: B. C. 387.]

=226.= PEACE OF ANTALCIDAS. The Spartans now made an effort toward

peace by sending Antalcidas to the Persian court. The king accepted

their propositions, and furnished means to enforce them. A large fleet,

commanded by Antalcidas and Tiribazus, visited the Hellespont, and by

cutting off the supplies of corn from the Euxine, threatened Athens

with famine. All the states were now ready to listen to terms, and in a

congress of deputies Tiri´bazus presented the following propositions:

“King Artaxerxes thinks it just that the cities in Asia, and the islands

of Clazomenæ and Cyprus should belong to him. He thinks it just to leave

all the other Grecian cities, both small and great, independent, except

Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros, which are to belong to Athens, as of old.”

The Thebans at first objected, but being threatened with war by the

Spartans, at length took the oath. The terms which thus prostrated Greece

at the feet of Persia, were engraven on tablets of stone and set up in

every temple.

RECAPITULATION.

The second period of Spartan supremacy was signalized by the

abolition of free governments throughout Greece. Athens, under

the Thirty Tyrants, suffered for eight months a reign of

terror. Thrasybulus, with the Athenian exiles, effected the

expulsion of the tyrants, the restoration of free government,

and a conservative reaction which occasioned, among other

results, the execution of Socrates. The Spartans plundered

the sacred land of Elis, and expelled or enslaved all the

Messenians who remained upon their soil. Agesilaus, succeeding

his brother as king of Sparta, became involved in war with

Persia. In the contest with Thebes, Lysander was killed,

and the king Pausanias disgraced. During the Corinthian War

which followed, Sparta was victorious at Corinth and Coronæa,

but suffered a disastrous overthrow from the Persian fleet

under Conon, in the battle of Cnidus, which resulted in the

sudden downfall of her supremacy. The Long Walls of Athens

and the fortifications of the Piræus were rebuilt, under the

superintendence of Conon. The Peace of Antalcidas gave to the

Persian king a controlling voice in Grecian affairs, with the

sovereignty of Asiatic Greece, and of the islands of Cyprus and

Clazomenæ.

SUPREMACY OF THEBES.

[Sidenote: B. C. 386.]

=227.= The Spartan hatred of Thebes was not allayed by the return of

peace. To annoy the latter city, Platæa[56] was rebuilt, and as many

as possible of its former citizens brought back. An expedition against

Olynthus gave occasion for a more decided act of hostility. Phϫbidas, on

his march through Bœotia, happened to approach Thebes on a festal day,

when the citadel was occupied only by women. Aided by some citizens who

were in secret alliance with Sparta, he seized the Cadmea, had the chief

of the patriotic party put to death on a false charge, and effected a

revolution in the government which made Thebes only a subservient ally of

Sparta. The Lacedæmonians pretended to join in the general indignation of

Greece at this outrage; but though they dismissed Phœbidas, they kept the

Cadmea.

[Sidenote: B. C. 382.]

=228.= OLYNTHIAN WAR. The war in Macedonia was now prosecuted with the

aid of Thebes. Olynthus, in the Chalcidian peninsula, had become the

head of a powerful confederacy of Grecian cities; but Acan´thus and

Apollo´nia refused to join it, and applied to Sparta for help. Amyn´tas,

king of Macedonia, took their part, and joined his troops with those of

Eudamidas. Olynthus, by means of its excellent cavalry, held out bravely

for four years; but at last it fell, and the league was dissolved. The

Macedonian ports returned into subjection to Amyntas, while the Greek

cities joined the Spartan alliance. Sparta was now leagued on all

sides with the enemies of Greece: with the Persians, with Dionysius of

Syracuse, and with Macedon. By the destruction of the Olynthian League,

she had removed the chief obstacle to the Macedonian power, which was

soon to overthrow the freedom of the Greeks.

[Sidenote: B. C. 379.]

=229.= Thebes remained three years in the control of the Lacedæmonian

party. But the citizens were discontented, and a company of exiles

at Athens were awaiting an opportunity of vengeance. Among them was

Pelop´idas, a noble and wealthy youth, who had already distinguished

himself by his patriotism. He was the ardent friend of Epam´inon´das, a

Theban of greater age and still more exalted virtue than himself. A plan

was now formed among the exiles for the deliverance of Thebes. Pelopidas

was its leader; but Epaminondas at first held back, because the execution

of the plot required deceit, and the possible shedding of innocent blood.

He was a strict Pythagorean; and so pure were his principles, that he was

never known to trifle with the truth even in jest, or to sacrifice it for

any interest.

=230.= Phyl´lidas, secretary of the Theban government, was in the plot,

and took a leading part in its execution. He invited to supper the two

polemarchs, Ar´chias and Philip´pus, with the principal Spartan leaders;

and when they were sufficiently stupefied with eating and drinking,

he proposed to introduce some Theban ladies. Before these entered, a

messenger brought a letter to Archias, and begged his attention, as it

contained a matter of serious importance. But the polemarch only thrust

the letter under the cushions of his couch, saying, “Serious matters

tomorrow!”

Pelopidas and his friends, who had arrived in the city disguised as

hunters, now entered the banquet-room in the long white veils and festive

garb of women. They were loudly welcomed by the half-drunken guests, and

dispersed themselves with apparent carelessness among the company; but

as one of the Spartan lords attempted to lift the veil of the person who

was addressing him, he received a mortal wound. It was the signal for a

general attack. Swords were drawn from beneath the silken garments, and

no Spartan left the room alive. The prisons were now opened, and five

hundred Thebans, who had been immured there for their love of freedom,

were added to the armed force of the revolutionists. As day dawned,

all citizens who valued liberty were summoned to the market-place.

A joyful assembly was held, the first since the Spartan usurpation.

The Lacedæmonians in the citadel were besieged, and their expected

reinforcements being cut off, they speedily surrendered.

=231.= It was now the depth of winter, but when the news arrived at

Sparta, instant preparations were made for war. Cleombrotus led an army

into Bœotia, and Athens was called to account for having sheltered the

exiles. Unable to enter upon war with Sparta, the Athenians consented to

sacrifice their two generals who had rendered the most efficient aid to

the Thebans. One was executed, and the other, having fled, was sentenced

to banishment. The Thebans feared that they should be left to fight

single-handed against Sparta. In order to compel Athens to take part

in the war, they bribed Spho´drias, the Spartan general, to invade her

territory. He entered Attica in the night and committed various ravages,

but retired the next day. The Spartan government disclaimed all knowledge

of the affair, and brought Sphodrias to trial for it; but, through the

influence of Agesilaus, he was acquitted. Athens immediately made an

active alliance with Thebes, and a declaration of war against her ancient

rival.

[Sidenote: B. C. 378.]

=232.= A new confederacy was now formed on the plan of that of Delos,

including, in its most prosperous period, seventy cities. Athens was

the head, but the independence of the members was carefully guarded. A

congress at Athens regulated the share of each in the general expenses.

The fortifications of Piræus were completed, new ships of war were built,

and all the allies hastened forward their contingents of troops. In

Thebes, the Sacred Band was formed—a heavy-armed battalion, consisting

of three hundred chosen citizens of the noblest families, bound to each

other by ties of the closest friendship. Though Pelopidas was bœotarch,

Epaminondas had the most prominent share in the drill and discipline of

the troops.

[Sidenote: B. C. 378-376.]

[Sidenote: B. C. 375.]

During two summers the army of Agesilaus invaded the country, and

carried its depredations to the very gates of Thebes. The third year the

Thebans held the passes of Mount Cithæron, and kept out the invaders.

The Spartans were no longer successful at sea. They were thoroughly

defeated off Naxos by the Athenians, who thus regained their maritime

empire in the East; while, in the western seas, Corcyra, Cephallenia, and

the neighboring tribes on the mainland joined the Athenian alliance. The

Thebans were no less victorious on land. During the two years that they

were free from Spartan invasion, most of the Bœotian cities submitted to

their control. In 374 B. C., all Spartans were expelled, free governments

were restored to every city, except Orchomenus and Chæronea, and the

Bœotian League was revived. The Phocians, who had, twenty years before,

invited the Spartans into central Greece, were now the objects of

vengeance, and not the less because the treasures of Delphi would be the

prize of the victor. But Cleombrotus came to the aid of the Phocians, and

the aggression was checked.

[Sidenote: B. C. 374.]

=233.= The Athenians had now various reasons for enmity against Thebes,

and messengers were sent to Sparta with proposals of peace. They were

eagerly accepted; but the inopportune restoration of the Zacynthian

exiles by Timo´theus, son of Conon, at this crisis, broke off the

negotiations, and war was renewed. It was carried on in the western

sea, with great expense and no gain to either party; the main object of

the Spartans being the conquest of Corcyra, and, of the Athenians, the

protection of its independence. At length all parties were weary of war,

and a general congress was appointed at Sparta in the spring of 371.

=234.= PEACE OF CAL´LIAS.[57] It was agreed that the Spartan garrisons

should be withdrawn from every city, and independence secured to all.

Athens and her allies signed the treaty separately, but Sparta took the

oaths for the whole Lacedæmonian Confederacy. When the Thebans were

called upon, Epaminondas refused to sign except for the whole Bœotian

League, claiming that Thebes was as rightfully the sovereign city of

Bœotia, as Sparta of Laconia. He defended his view in a speech of great

eloquence; but Agesilaus was violently incensed. Peace was concluded

between the other states, but Thebes and Sparta continued at war.

=235.= The courage of the Thebans seemed to the rest of the Greeks

like madness, and it was believed that a very few weeks would see them

crushed by the overwhelming power of Sparta. But Thebes now possessed

the greatest general whom Greece ever produced. Knowing his own power,

and the value of those new tactics which were destined to supersede the

Spartan system, he revived the drooping confidence of his countrymen,

reasoned down their evil omens or invented good ones, and by his own

greatness of soul sustained the spirit of a whole nation.

[Sidenote: B. C. 371.]

=236.= BATTLE OF LEUC´TRA. Cleombrotus, the Spartan, was already in

Phocis with a considerable army. He began with energy by seizing Creusis,

on the Crissæan Gulf, with twelve Theban vessels which lay in the harbor,

thus providing at once a base of supplies and a line of retreat. He then

marched along the Gulf of Corinth into Bœotia, and encamped upon the

plains of Leuctra. Three of the seven bœotarchs were so much alarmed as

to propose retreating upon Thebes, and sending their wives and children

for safety to Athens; but their plan was overruled. Epaminondas and

Pelopidas were alert and cheerful. Though outnumbered by the Spartans,

they so arranged their forces as to be always superior at the actual

point of contact, instead of engaging all at once, which had been the

uniform method in Grecian warfare. The Theban left was a dense column,

fifty deep, led by the Sacred Band. This was hurled upon the Lacedæmonian

right, which contained their choicest troops, led by Cleombrotus himself;

while the Theban center and right, facing the Spartan allies, were kept

out of action. The onset of the Thebans was irresistible. Never had more

furious fighting been seen on any Grecian battle-field. The Spartans

maintained their ancient virtue; but Cleombrotus was mortally wounded,

his whole division were driven to their camp, and the victory of the

Thebans was complete. The allies of the Spartans, many of whom were

present more through fear than choice, scarcely regretted the result of

the battle.

At Sparta the fatal news was not permitted to interrupt the festival

then in progress. All signs of mourning were forbidden, except on the

part of those whose relatives had survived the defeat. The disaster was,

nevertheless, the greatest that had ever befallen Sparta. Her influence

was destroyed, even over the Peloponnesian cities. Her dependencies north

of the Corinthian Gulf were divided between the Thebans and Jason, tyrant

of Pheræ, in Thessaly, a man of singular talent and unbounded ambition,

who aimed at the sovereignty of all Greece. The Thebans had courted his

alliance, but they began to be alarmed by the extent of his projects,

and all Greece was relieved when he was assassinated in 370. The Spartan

sovereignty, which had lasted thirty-four years since the battle of

Ægos-Potami, now gave way to the THEBAN SUPREMACY (B. C. 371-362).

=237.= The Mantineans seized the occasion to revenge their former wrongs,

and besought the aid of Epaminondas. He entered Arcadia with an army

near the end of the year 370, and was joined by Argives and Eleans, who

increased his number to 70,000 men. By the entreaties of his allies, he

marched into Laconia, and advanced upon Sparta itself. During all the

centuries that the fame of Spartan valor had held Greece and Asia in awe,

the Spartan women had never seen an enemy in arms, and the unwalled city

was now filled with terror. But the energy of old King Agesilaus was

equal to its defense. He repulsed the cavalry of Epaminondas, who retired

down the valley of the Eurotas, burning and plundering as he went, and

then returned to Arcadia.

=238.= The main objects of his expedition were yet to be fulfilled.

A union of Arcadian towns had already been formed, which Epaminondas

wished to organize and strengthen. Lest jealousy should be excited by the

choice of any existing place as capital of the league, a new city, called

Megalop´olis, was built, and peopled by colonists from forty towns. Here

a congress of deputies, called the “Ten Thousand,” was to be regularly

convened; and a standing army of deputies from the various cities was

also raised.

=239.= A still more cherished plan was the restoration of the Messenians.

For three hundred years this noble race had been fugitive and exiled,

while its lands were in the possession of the Lacedæmonians. The exiles

were now recalled, by the letters of Epaminondas, from the shores of

Italy, Sicily, Africa, and Asia, and eagerly sprang to arms for the

recovery of their ancient seats. The citadel of Ithome was fortified

anew, and the town of Messe´ne, which arose upon the western slope of

the mountain, was protected by strong walls. The Messenian territories

extended southward to the gulf which bore their name, and northward to

Elis and Arcadia.

[Sidenote: B. C. 369.]

=240.= Common jealousy of Thebes now led to a closer alliance

between Athens and Sparta. Their forces were united in guarding the

mountain-passes of the isthmus, in order to prevent another invasion of

the Peloponnesus. Epaminondas, however, broke their line by defeating

a Spartan division, and Sicyon deserted the Spartan for the Theban

alliance. The Thebans were, in their turn, defeated in an attack upon

Corinth, and their enemies were strengthened by a squadron which arrived

at Lechæum, from Dionysius of Syracuse, bearing two thousand auxiliaries

from Gaul and Spain.

[Sidenote: B. C. 368.]

=241.= THE TEARLESS BATTLE. The Arcadians, meanwhile, rejoicing in

their newly acquired power, became ambitious to share the sovereignty

with Thebes, as Athens did with Sparta. Under their leader, Lycome´des,

who had first proposed the league, they gained several advantages in

the west, and completed the overthrow of the Spartan power in the

Messenian part of the peninsula. In a later enterprise, they were routed,

however, with great slaughter by the Spartans, who lost not a man in the

engagement, and gave it, therefore, the name of the “Tearless Battle.”

The Thebans did not mourn this defeat of their allies, which had the

effect of curbing their pride, and showing their need of protection from

the sovereign state.

The same year the Thebans, under Pelopidas, organized a league among the

cities of Thessaly, and formed an alliance with Macedonia. Among the

hostages sent from the Macedonian court was the young prince, Philip,

son of Amyntas, now fifteen years of age, who was destined to act an

important part in the later history of Greece.

=242.= In the years 367 and 366, the Thebans obtained from the Persian

king that sanction of their power which the peace of Antalcidas had

rendered necessary, or, at least, customary in Greece. Artaxerxes

recognized the Hellenic supremacy of Thebes, and the independence

of Messene and Amphip´olis; decided a dispute between the Arcadians

and Eleans in favor of the latter, and commanded Athens to reduce

her navy to a peace footing. This royal rescript naturally provoked

a violent opposition among the states of Greece; and when Pelopidas

visited Thessaly to obtain compliance with its terms, he was seized and

imprisoned by Alexander of Pheræ. The Thebans instantly sent a force to

recover or avenge their ambassador. But, unhappily, Epaminondas was now

degraded from command; the army was defeated, and barely escaped total

destruction. The great general was serving as a private in the ranks; he

was called by his comrades to be their leader, and conducted them safely

home. He then received the command of a second expedition, which secured

the release of Pelopidas.

[Sidenote: B. C. 363.]

Two years later, Pelopidas himself conducted an army against Alexander,

and gained a great victory over him at Cyn´oceph´alæ. Rage at the sight

of his old enemy overcame his prudence, and he fell furiously fighting

in the midst of Alexander’s guards. The Thebans felt more grief at his

death than joy in the victory, but they did not fail to follow it up with

a fresh army, which stripped Alexander of all his possessions except

the city of Pheræ, and established Theban supremacy throughout northern

Greece.

=243.= The war in the Peloponnesus was now varied by an act of sacrilege.

The Arcadians seized the Sacred Grove at Olympia during the year of the

festival, expelled the Eleans from their supervision of the games, and

installed the Pisatans in their place. A large army of the Arcadians

and their allies was present to enforce this irregular proceeding. The

Eleans came up in the midst of the games, supported by their allies, the

Achæans, and a battle was fought on the sacred ground. The very temple of

Olympic Zeus became a fortress, and the gold and ivory statue by Phidias

looked down upon a scene of unprecedented strife. The treasury of the

shrine was despoiled by the invaders. Arcadia itself was divided by this

impious act. The Mantineans refused all share in the spoils, and were

on that account proclaimed traitors to the league. Peace was at length

made with Elis, but two parties remained in Arcadia: the Mantineans, in

alliance with Sparta; and the Tegeans, with the other towns which favored

Thebes. Hostilities were frequent, and envoys were sent to Epaminondas

demanding his intervention.

=244.= In the summer of 362 B. C., the great general invaded Peloponnesus

for the fourth and last time. At Tegea he was joined by his allies,

while Agesilaus moved with a Spartan force toward Mantinea. Placed thus

between the king and his capital, Epaminondas seized the occasion to make

a sudden attack upon Sparta. Agesilaus heard of it in time to return,

and though a battle was fought in the very streets of the capital, the

invader was compelled to retire. With his usual swiftness, Epaminondas

moved back to surprise Mantinea while the Spartan army was withdrawn. The

citizens with their slaves were dispersed in the fields, for it was the

time of harvest; but a troop of Athenian cavalry had just arrived, and,

though tired and hungry, they succeeded in repulsing the Thebans.

=245.= BATTLE OF MANTINEA. It was now evident that a great battle

must take place, and the elevated plain between Tegea and Mantinea,

inclosed on every side by mountains, was the destined field. The

Thebans, on arriving, laid down their arms, as if preparing to encamp;

and the Spartans, inferring that they did not mean to fight, dispersed

themselves in some confusion. Some were tending their horses, some

unbuckling their breastplates, when they were surprised by the charge

of the deep and heavy column of Bœotian troops, which Epaminondas had

swiftly put in order for attack. The Spartans fought bravely, but under

the disadvantage which disorder always occasions, they were unable to

recover themselves at once. Epaminondas seized the moment to lead a band

of chosen troops directly upon the enemy’s center. The Mantineans and

Spartans turned and fled; but at this moment the Theban general fell,

pierced with a mortal wound. His followers stood paralyzed with dismay,

unable to pursue and reap the advantage he had prepared for them. The

Spartans acknowledged themselves defeated, by requesting permission to

bury their dead, but both armies erected trophies of victory.

=246.= Epaminondas, with the spear-head in his breast, was carried off

the field. He first assured himself that the battle was won, then tried

to make a disposition of his command; but the two generals whom he would

have chosen were already slain. “Then make peace,” was his last public

command. The spear-head was now removed, and with the rush of blood which

followed it, his life passed away. No Greek ever more truly merited,

by character and talent, the title “Great.” Many of the worthiest who

succeeded him took him for their model; and even the Christian ages

have seen none who better fulfilled the description of a brave knight,

“without fear and without reproach.” The greatness of Thebes began and

ended with his public career. After the fatal result of the battle of

Mantinea, she fell to her former position.

[Sidenote: B. C. 361.]

=247.= Peace was made, leaving all parties in the same position as before

the war. Agesilaus, untamed by his eighty years, sought a field of glory

beyond the sea. Tachos, king of Egypt, had asked the aid of Sparta in

his revolt against Persia. Agesilaus went to his assistance, at the head

of a thousand heavy-armed troops. The appearance of the little, lame old

man, utterly destitute of the retinue or splendor of a king, excited the

ridicule of the Egyptians; but when he transferred his aid from Tachos

to Nectan´abis, who had risen against him, the importance of the little

Spartan was felt, for Nectanabis obtained the throne. Agesilaus did not

live to bear back to Sparta his honors and rewards. He died on the road

to Cyrene, and his body, embalmed in wax, was conveyed with great pomp

to his native city. An ancient oracle had foretold that Sparta would

lose her power under a lame sovereign. It was now fulfilled, but through

no fault of the king. Agesilaus had all the virtues of his countrymen,

without their common faults of avarice and deceit; and he added a warmth

and tenderness in friendship which Spartans rarely possessed. He has been

called “Sparta’s most perfect citizen and most consummate general, in

many ways, perhaps, her greatest man.”

=248.= THE SOCIAL WAR. Athens still maintained her wars in the north;

by sea against Alexander of Pheræ, and by land against Macedonia and the

Thracian princes. The second period of Athenian greatness reached its

height in the year 358, when Eubœa, the Chersonesus, and Amphipolis were

again subdued. In that year a serious revolt, called the Social War, was

begun by Rhodes, Cos, Chios, and Byzantium. Sestus and other towns on

the Hellespont joined in the quarrel, and Mauso´lus, king of Caria, sent

aid to the insurgents. The war was inglorious and exhaustive to Athens.

To obtain means of paying their sailors, the commanders aided Artabazus

in his revolt against Persia, and thereby incurred the vengeance of the

great king. Athens had to consent to the independence of the four rebel

states, in order to avoid still greater losses and calamities. During the

four years that her attention had been thus absorbed, Philip of Macedon

had been able to grasp all her dependencies on the Thermaic Gulf, and

thus to extend his power as far as the Peneus.

[Sidenote: B. C. 357.]

=249.= THE SACRED WAR. During the progress of the Social War, another

fatal quarrel began in central Greece, through the enmity of Thebes

and Phocis. Driven to fight for their existence, the Phocians seized

the sacred treasures at Delphi, which enabled them to raise and

maintain a large army of mercenaries, and even to bribe some of the

neighboring states either to aid them or remain neutral. Their first

general, Philome´lus, was defeated and slain at Titho´rea. His brother,

Onomar´chus, who succeeded to his command, used the Delphian treasures

with still less scruple, beside confiscating the property of all who

opposed him. By these means he conquered Locris and Doris, invaded

Bœotia, and captured Orchomenus.

[Sidenote: B. C. 352.]

=250.= Lyc´ophron, tyrant of Pheræ, now sought his aid against Philip of

Macedon, whose increasing power pressed heavily upon Thessaly. Phaÿl´lus,

who first led a force to the aid of Lycophron, was defeated; but

Onomarchus himself marched into Thessaly, worsted the king in two pitched

battles, and drove him from the country. He then returned into Bœotia,

where he captured Coronæa, but was recalled into Thessaly by another

invasion of Philip. This time his fortune changed; he was defeated,

and, with many other fugitives, plunged into the sea, hoping to reach

the Athenian ships which were lying off shore to watch the battle. He

perished, and his body, falling into the hands of Philip, was crucified

as a punishment of his sacrilege.