I
One advantage which accrued to the Athenians from the possession of the
Spartan captives was the immunity from invasion. For if the Spartans
prepared to make any movement against Attica, they could bring out
their prisoners, and threaten to put them to death. And in other
directions the future looked brighter than it had done for many years.
They held Pylos, which was garrisoned by Messenian troops, and served
as an open door, through which they could carry havoc over the whole
western district of Laconia; and the occupation of Cythera, which was
effected in the following year, gave them increased facility for
harassing the commerce of Sparta, and making descents on her eastern
coast.
Elated by these successes, the Athenians determined on a bolder flight,
and forgetting the lessons of Pericles, thought of recovering the
possessions which they had held on the mainland thirty years before.
With this intention they planned an attack, which was to be carried out
from three different points at once, on Boeotia. But the whole scheme
proved a failure, and led to a severe defeat at Delium; and about the
same time news arrived from Thrace which showed that the tide was
turning, and should have warned them, if they were wise, to set bounds
to their restless ambition.
Brasidas had long since recovered from the wounds received at Pylos.
The deep humiliation of Sparta, now reduced to become a suppliant for
peace, filled him with shame and sorrow, and in the eighth year of the
war he formed the bold design of organizing a campaign against the
coast-towns of Thrace, which were among the most important of the
Athenian tributaries. Having obtained the necessary commission from
Sparta, he collected a force of seventeen hundred heavy-armed infantry,
and in the summer following the disaster at Sphacteria, turned his
steps northward, and arrived without mishap at the borders of Thessaly.
The Thessalians generally were then on friendly terms with Athens, and,
apart from this, the passage of so large a force through their
territory caused suspicion and alarm among the inhabitants. But
Brasidas was a man of rare gifts: endowed with more than a full share
of the typical Spartan virtues, he combined with these a graciousness
of manner, and a winning eloquence, which made him an equal of the most
accomplished Athenian. He had, moreover, friends among the powerful
nobles of Thessaly, who undertook to guide him in safety to the
Macedonian frontier. On reaching the river Enipeus, he found his
passage barred by a Thessalian force, who seemed resolved to dispute
his progress. His courteous demeanour, and fair words, disarmed their
hostility, and he was allowed to pass. Fearing, however, a general
rising of the natives against him, and urged to despatch by his guides,
he pushed on by forced marches, and entering the passes of Olympus,
descended into the southern plain of Macedonia, whose king Perdiccas, a
shifty and treacherous barbarian, though nominally in alliance with
Athens, favoured the enterprise of Brasidas.
Perdiccas had undertaken to provide pay for half the Spartan force, in
return for help to be rendered against a rebel chieftain with whom he
was at war. But Brasidas, whose main object was to raise a revolt among
the Athenian allies, insisted on entering into negotiations with the
rebel, and having patched up a truce, conducted his troops to the
neighbourhood of Acanthus, a town on the eastern side of the Chalcidian
peninsula, where there was a party discontented with the Athenian rule.
In all the cities subject to Athens the general mass of the people were
found loyal towards her, or, at the worst, disinclined for any change;
and Acanthus was no exception. When Brasidas with his little army
appeared before the walls the people at first refused him admission.
But it was just before the vintage, and their grapes were hanging in
ripe clusters, exposed to the hand of the spoiler; and so, to save
their vineyards from ravage, they were at last induced to give him a
hearing.
It was very important for Brasidas to secure the voluntary adherence of
the Acanthians, whose action would have a powerful effect in
determining the attitude of the other Chalcidians towards them.
Accordingly he exerted all his skill as an orator, which was
considerable, to allay their suspicions, and rouse their enthusiasm for
the cause which he represented. That cause, he said, was the liberation
of Greece from the tyranny of Athens. Let none of them suppose that he
had come in the interests of a faction, to enslave the many to the few,
or the few to the many. He had bound the authorities of Sparta by the
most solemn oaths to respect the constitution of any state which
enlisted under their banner. Freedom for Greeks!--that was the
watchword which should find a response in every patriotic heart. After
this fine burst of sentiment, Brasidas descended to a much lower level,
and plainly intimated that if the Acanthians would not join him from
these high motives, he would employ coercion, and proceed to ravage
their estates, This last argument was decisive, and in order to save
their valuable harvest from destruction, they agreed to admit Brasidas
and his army into the town. Shortly afterwards their example was
followed by Stagirus, one day to become famous as the birthplace of
Aristotle.
It is melancholy to find a man of really pure and generous character
like Brasidas lending himself to be the mouthpiece of Spartan
hypocrisy. To him the sounding phrases and lofty professions which he
uttered may have meant something: but in their essence they were mere
hollow cant, intended to divert attention from the true issue, and drag
a peaceful and prosperous community into the private quarrels of
Sparta. So degraded was now the tone of politics in Greece, even among
her best and ablest men.