THE SPARTANS SURRENDER
When Epitadas found that he was shut up on the island of Sphacteria,
he sent a messenger to Sparta to tell what had befallen him. The
ephors were so disturbed by his tidings that they at once sent some of
their number to the Bay of Pylos to see what could be done to set free
Epitadas and his men.
They soon saw that it would be too difficult a task to relieve the
island, so they begged Eurymedon to grant a truce until they sent
ambassadors to Athens to sue for peace.
Their request was granted, and the Spartan ambassadors at once set sail
for Athens.
When they entered the assembly, Athens, had she but known it, might
have ended the war with honour. But Pericles was no longer there to
tell her that to do so would be well. Cleon still ruled the assembly
with his rough eloquence. Nicias, the leader of those who desired
peace, although he bitterly disliked Cleon, was not strong enough to
overthrow him.
The assembly, urged by its leader, offered the Spartan ambassadors
terms which it knew they would not accept. After rejecting them, as the
Athenians expected, the ambassadors returned indignant to Pylos, and
the truce was at an end. But Sphacteria was not taken so easily as the
Athenians had dreamed. In spite of the strict blockade, food was taken
to the island, so that the Spartans were in no danger of starving.
Sometimes swimmers carrying with them linseed, poppy seeds and honey,
reached the island. Sometimes Helots, tempted by promise of freedom,
would manage, when the sky was dark and the sea stormy, to sail past
the enemy’s ships, taking cheese, meal and even wine to the Spartans.
In Athens, the people were growing impatient of the long blockade. When
Demosthenes sent messengers to the city to ask for reinforcements, they
began to be sorry that they had not offered more reasonable terms to
the ambassadors. They looked darkly at Cleon, and began to whisper that
but for his counsel peace would certainly have been made.
A meeting of the assembly was called, and Cleon, losing his temper when
Nicias urged that peace should be arranged without delay, said, ‘It
would be easy enough to take Sphacteria if our generals were men. If I
were general I would do it at once.’
Nicias was a quiet man, but these scornful words roused him to anger,
and he retorted that if Cleon thought he was able to take the island it
would be well that he should go and do so. He was himself a general,
while Cleon was only a leather-merchant, but he was willing to resign
in his favour.
At first Cleon thought that Nicias was but jesting, and he pretended
that he really wished to go to the help of Demosthenes. But when he
found that his opponent was in earnest, he declined the honour, saying
that while Nicias was a general, he himself had no training in military
affairs.
But the people were not willing to let the leather-merchant escape the
consequences of his rash words. They shouted that he must go and prove
that he could do as he had said.
When Cleon saw that there was no escape he grew reckless, and boasted
that he would not only go to Sphacteria, but that he would take the
island within twenty days, and either kill all the Spartans on it or
bring them prisoners to Athens.
Some there were who mocked at his words, others laughed. But all were
glad that the merchant should go, for they were tired of his rough
ways and rougher speech. If he went he might return with his promise
unfulfilled and his power with the people would then be lost. If he
came back in triumph, the Spartans would have been defeated.
Before long, Cleon set out at the head of an army for Pylos. When he
arrived he found Demosthenes already prepared to attack the island.
A large part of the forest on Sphacteria had just been burned down
by some Athenian soldiers. They had been sent to the island to
reconnoitre, and while making a fire to cook their dinner the trees
were accidentally set alight.
The wood had sheltered the Spartans from the enemy, and the fire
spoiled their chief defence, so that they were the less prepared to
face the army of nearly fourteen thousand Athenians, which, led by
Cleon and Demosthenes, now landed on the island.
Outnumbered as the Spartans were, for their army consisted of only
about four hundred and twenty soldiers and the same number of Helots,
they fought bravely as was their custom.
But the arrows of the Athenians soon greatly reduced their number,
while to add to the distress of the wounded, as well as of those who
had escaped, the ground over which they marched was hot with still
smouldering ashes of burnt wood.
At length Epitadas, the Spartan general, was slain, and the few
soldiers who were still able to fight retreated to a hill on which was
an old ruined fort. Here they took their stand, determined to keep the
enemy at bay. And they did so until the Athenians found a path up a
steep crag, from the top of which they could command the Spartan fort.
Unseen by the brave defenders, the enemy scaled the almost precipitous
path, and when they reached the top they at once began to shoot arrows
down upon the startled soldiers.
But soon Cleon bade them stay their arrows while he sent a herald to
the Spartans to bid them surrender.
Spartan troops had never yet yielded to a foe. Ever they had conquered
or fought to the death. Cleon believed that now, as their brave fellows
at Thermopylae had done, they would rather die than yield.
But the Spartans dropped their shields and waved their hands above
their heads to show that they would cease to fight. They begged to
be allowed to ask the advice of their friends on the mainland. Their
request was granted, and their friends bade them ‘to take counsel for
themselves, but to do nothing disgraceful.’
Two hundred and ninety-two Spartans, who were all that were still
alive on Sphacteria, then surrendered, one hundred and twenty of these
belonging to the noblest families in Sparta. Never after this surrender
were the Spartans considered invincible.
Cleon was now able to return to Athens, which he reached within twenty
days from the time he left the city, bringing with him, as he had
boasted that he would do, his Spartan prisoners.
The Athenians rejoiced at the success of their army, but they laughed
as they thought of the strange general who had led it to victory.
As for the prisoners, they were glad to hold them as hostages. The
Spartans would be less likely to invade Attica while their comrades
were in Athens.