[Footnote 36: From Book VII of the "History of the Peloponnesian War,"
translated by Benjamin Jowett. "The noblest piece of tragedy in all
written history," says John Morley of this book. Gray, the poet, in
one of his letters, inquired, "Is it, or is it not, the finest thing
you ever read in your life?" Macaulay, in a letter once wrote: "I do
assure you that there is no prose composition in the world that I
place so high as the Seventh book of Thucydides. Tacitus was a great
man, but he was not up to the Sicilian expedition." Praise is given to
this chapter by Mahaffy for "the sustained splendor of the narrative."
Grote had profound admiration for the famous picture contained in the
selection here given. He refers to its "condensed and burning phrases"
as imparting an impression which modern historians have sought in vain
to convey.]
[Footnote 37: The modern Catania, on the east coast of Sicily.]
[Footnote 38: The people of Acarnania, a province of Greece, lying on
the Ionian Sea south of the Ambracian Gulf.]
[Footnote 39: Commander of the Athenians.]
[Footnote 40: The Spartan general who had been sent to Syracuse by
advice of Alcibiades after he went over to the enemy.]
[Footnote 41: Next under Nicias in command of the expedition. He died
twenty-nine years before the birth of the orator of the same name.]
[Footnote 42: Here occurred one of the most memorable events in the
Peloponnesian war, the defense of Pylos under Demosthenes.]
[Footnote 43: This island lies immediately south of Pylos. It is long
and narrow and guards the Bay of Navarino, the largest harbor in
Greece, which was the scene of a famous battle between the English,
French, Turkish, and Russian fleets in 1827.]
[Footnote 44: This allowance of food was only about one-half the
amount usually given to a slave.]