[Footnote 25: The Peloponnesian war broke out in 431 B.C., and lasted
until 404. Its result was the abasement of Athens and the elevation of
Sparta to supreme power in Greece. When it began, Athens with her
allies included all the coast cities of Asia Minor as far south as
Lycia, the cities bordering on the Thracian and Chalcidian shores, and
nearly all the islands of the Ægean Sea. Sparta at the same time was
leader in a confederacy of independent states, among which were nearly
all the Peloponnesian states, besides some of those in northern
Greece, those of Magna Græcia and Sicily. Athens was strong in her
navy, which comprized 300 galleys, while the Spartan strength lay in
her land forces. The treasury of Athens was full, that of Sparta weak.
After the war, the walls of Athens were demolished and she was
deprived of her foreign possessions. The government set over her was
an oligarchy of thirty persons, known in history as the thirty
tyrants. These men soon made their harsh rule so intolerable that
within sixteen months after Athens surrendered to Sparta they were
deposed and democratic rule was restored to the Athenians.]
[Footnote 26: From Book II of the "History of the Peloponnesian War."
Translated by Benjamin Jowett.]
[Footnote 27: One of the larger islands of the Ægean Sea, its area
being about one hundred and eighty square miles.]