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THE

PELOPONNESIAN WAR.

BOOK V.

YEAR X.-BEFORE CHRIST 422.

IN the following summer, the truce, made for a year, expired, of course, at the time of the Pythian Games. And, during this relaxation from war, the Athenians caused the Delians to evacuate the isle of Delos; imagining that, upon the taint of some crimes long since committed, they were not sufficiently pure to perform due service to the God, and that this yet was wanting to render that work of purgation complete, in which, as I have already related, they thought themselves justified in demolishing the sepulchres of the dead. The Delians settled again, so fast as they could remove themselves thither, at Atramyttium, bestowed upon them for this purpose by Pharnaces.

Cleon*, having obtained the commission from the Atheni

Cleon is now grown perfectly convinced that he is a very hero, and hath prevailed upon a majority of the people of Athens to be of the same mind, since, seriously and deliberately, they intrust him with a most important and delicate commission. He now imagines he can carry all before him, and pluck all the laurels of Brasidas from the head of that accomplished Spartan, even without having Demosthenes for his second. We may guess to what a height of insolence he was now grown from the Knights of Aristophanes. And, to set it in the most ludicrous view, the poet opens his play with Nicias and Demosthenes, whom he paints in a very injurious manner; and, no doubt, it must have been very grating to them, to see themselves represented in so low buffoonery upon the stage at Athens. "Demosthenes begins with a shower of curses on that execrable Paphla"gonian, Cleon; Nicias seconds him; and, then, both of them howl toge"ther in a most lamentable duetto. They next lay their heads together VOL. II.

B

ans, went by sea into the Thracian dominions, so soon as the suspension of arms expired, having under his command twelve hundred heavy-armed Athenians, three hundred horsemen, and larger numbers of their allied forces. His whole armament consisted of thirty sail. Touching first at Scione, yet blocked up, he drew from thence the heavy-armed, stationed there as guards; and, standing away, entered the haven of the Colophonians, lying at no great distance from Torone. Being here informed, by the deserters, that Brasidas was not in Torone, nor the inhabitants able to make head against him, he marched his forces by land towards that city, and sent ten of his ships about, to stand into the harbour. His first approach was to the new rampart, which Brasidas had thrown up quite round the city, in order to inclose the suburbs within its cincture, and thus, by the demolition of the old wall, had rendered it one intire city. When the Athenians came to the assault, Pasitelidas, the Lacedæmonian (who was commandant), and the garrison under his command, exerted themselves in its defence. But when they could no longer maintain it, and at

"about some means of redress. Demosthenes proposeth getting out of "their master Cleon's reach. 'Let us go then,' says Nicias. 'Aye; let "us go,' cries Demosthenes. Say no more,' says Nicias, 'let us go "over to the enemy.'' Aye, over to the enemy,' adds the other. 'But, "first,' says Nicias, 'let us go and prostrate ourselves before the images of "the Gods.' 'What images?' says Demosthenes; dost thou think then "there are any Gods?" "I do.'Upon what grounds?' 'Because I am "undeservedly the object of their hatred.'—Such are the daring misre"presentations Aristophanes makes of characters that by no means deserve "it! Demosthenes afterwards describes the arrogance of Cleon thus ; "He hath one foot fixed in Pylus, and the other in the assembly of the "people. When he moves, he struts and stretches at such a rate, that his "bum is in Thrace, his hands in Ætolia, and his attention amongst the "tribes at home.'- -Nicias then proposeth poisoning themselves by drink"ing bull's blood, like Themistocles ;- Or rather,' says Demosthenes, 'a "dose of good wine.' This is agreed upon, in order to cheer up their spi"rits, and enable them to confront Cleon, and play off against him the seller " of black-puddings. Nicias accordingly goes and steals the wine.”Yet in spite of the most outrageous ridicule, and the opposition of all wise and honest men at Athens, we see Cleon now at the head of an army, to stop the rapid conquests of Brasidas.

the same time the ships, sent round on purpose, had entered the harbour, Pasitelidas, fearing lest the ships might take the town now left defenceless, and when the rampart was carried by the enemy, he himself might be intercepted, abandons it immediately, and retired with all speed into the town: But the Athenians were already disembarked and masters of the place. The land-force also broke in instantly at his heels, by rushing along through the aperture in the old wall; and some, as well Peloponnesians as Toronéans, they slew in the moment of irruption. Some also they took alive, amongst whom was Pasitelidas, the commandant. Brasidas was indeed coming up to its relief, but, receiving intelligence on his march that it was taken, he retired; since he was forty stadia* off, too great a distance to prevent the enemy.

But Cleon and the Athenians now erected two trophies; one upon the harbour, the other at the rampart. They farther doomed to slavery the wives and children of the Toronéans. The male inhabitants, together with the Peloponnesians and every Chalcidéan that was found amongst them, amounting in all to seven hundred, they sent away captives to Athens. The Peloponnesians indeed were afterwards released, by virtue of the subsequent treaty; the rest were fetched away by the Olynthians, who made exchanges for them, body for body.

About the same time, the Baotians, by treachery, got possession of Panactum, a fort upon the frontier, belonging to the Athenians.

As for Cleon, having established a garrison at Torone, he departed thence, and sailed round Athos, as bound against Amphipolis.

But two vessels about this time, bound for Italy and Sicily, sailed out of the harbour of Athens, having on board Phæax, the son of Erasistratus, with whom two other persons were joined in commission, to execute an embassy there. For the Leontines, after the departure of the Athenians from Sicily, in consequence of the joint accommodation, had inrolled many

*About four miles.

strangers as denizens of their city, and the populace had a plan in agitation for a distribution of the lands. The noble, alarmed at this, gain the concurrence of the Syracusans and eject the commons. They were dispersed, and wandered up and down as so many vagabonds; whilst the noble, striking up an agreement with the Syracusans, abandoned and left in desolation their own city, settling at Syracuse as free citizens of that place. And yet, soon after, some of this number, dissatisfied even here, forsook Syracuse again, and seize upon Phoceæ, a quarter of the old city of the Leontines, and upon Bricinniæ, which is a fortress in the Leontine. Hither the greater part of the ejected commons resorted to them; and, adhering firmly together, from these strong holds they annoyed the country by their hostilities.

When the Athenians had intelligence of this, they send out Phæax, to persuade, by all proper methods, their old allies in that country, and to gain, if possible, the concurrence of the other Sicilians to take up arms, for the preservation of the people of Leontium, against the incroaching power of the Syracusans. Phæax, upon his arrival, recommendeth the scheme successfully to the Camarinéans and Agrigentines. But his negociations meeting with some obstacles at Gela, he desisted from addressing himself to the rest, since he was assured he could not possibly succeed. Retiring therefore through the district of the Siculi to Catane, and calling on his road at Bricinniæ, and having encouraged the malcontents there to persevere, he departed. Not but that, in this Sicilian voyage, both passing and repassing, and also upon the coast of Italy, he had urged to several cities "how expedient for them was the Athenian friendship."

He met also in his course with those Locrians, who were going to another settlement, after expulsion from Messene. They had been driven to this necessity by seditious factions at Messene, one of which had invited them thither since the joint accommodation among the Sicilians; and now they were forced to shift again, though Messene had for a time

being entirely in their power. Phæax therefore, meeting with these in their removal, gave them no annoyance; for the Locrians had been at a conference with him, to concert the measures of an agreement with the Athenians. These, however, were the only party of all the confederates, who, when the Sicilians had amicably ended their disputes, refused to treat with the Athenians, and were brought to such submission since merely by a war, in which they were embroiled against the Itonians and Meléans, who bordered upon them, and were colonies of their own. And, some time after this, Phæax truly returned to Athens.

But Cleon, who from Torone was gone about by sea against Amphipolis, marching away from Eïon, maketh an assault upon Stagirus, a colony of Andrians, but without success; yet Galepsus, a colony of the Thasians, he taketh by storm. He sent farther embassadors to Perdiccas, to summon his attendance in the expedition, according to the tenor of the new alliance. He sent others into Thrace to Polles, king of the Odomantians, that he would hire as large a body of Thracians as could be got, and bring them up under his own orders.And during this interval he himself lay quiet at Eïon.

But Brasidas, informed of these proceedings, placed himself in an opposite post at Cerdilium. This place belongeth to the Argilians, and is seated on an eminence on the other side of the river, and at no great distance from Amphipolis. From hence he had a perfect view of all Cleon's motions; so that now it was impossible for the latter to make any approach with his army from thence to Amphipolis, without being discovered. Brasidas, however, suspected that Cleon would approach, and, from a contempt of his opponents, would certainly advance thither, without waiting for reinforcements.

He had, at the same time, provided himself with fifteen hundred mercenary Thracians, and had assembled all the Edonian targeteers and horsemen. Of the Myrcinians and Chalcidéans he had a thousand targeteers, besides those in

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