Such stories are chiefly valuable as they make us acquainted with the political scandal of the time. But the story of the herald, Anthemokritus, and his death, cannot be altogether rejected. Though Thucydidês, not mentioning the fact, did not believe that the herald’s death had really been occasioned by the Megarians; yet there probably was a popular belief at Athens to that effect, under the influence of which the deceased herald received a public burial near the Thriasian gate of Athens, leading to Eleusis: see Philippi Epistol. ad Athen. ap. Demosthen. p. 159, R.; Pausan. i, 36, 3; iii, 4, 2. The language of Plutarch (Periklês, c. 30) is probably literally correct,—“the herald’s death appeared to have been caused by the Megarians,”—αἰτίᾳ τῶν Μεγαρέων ἀποθανεῖν ἔδοξε. That neither Thucydidês, nor Periklês himself, believed that the Megarians had really caused his death, is pretty certain: otherwise, the fact would have been urged when the Lacedæmonians sent to complain of the sentence of exclusion,—being a deed so notoriously repugnant to all Grecian feeling.
[126] Thucyd. i, 67. Μεγαρῆς, δηλοῦντες μὲν καὶ ἕτερα οὐκ ὀλίγα διάφορα, μάλιστα δὲ, λιμένων τε εἴργεσθαι τῶν ἐν τῇ Ἀθηναίων ἀρχῇ, etc.
[127] Thucyd. i, 67. λέγοντες οὐκ εἶναι αὐτόνομοι κατὰ τὰς σπονδάς. O. Müller (Æginet. p. 180) and Göller in his note, think that the truce (or covenant generally) here alluded to is, not the thirty years’ truce, concluded fourteen years before the period actually present, but the ancient alliance against the Persians, solemnly ratified and continued after the victory of Platæa. Dr. Arnold, on the contrary, thinks that the thirty years’ truce is alluded to, which the Æginetans interpreted (rightly or not) as entitling them to independence.
The former opinion might seem to be countenanced by the allusion to Ægina in the speech of the Thebans (iii, 64): but on the other hand, if we consult i, 115, it will appear possible that the wording of the thirty years’ truce may have been general, as,—Ἀποδοῦναι δὲ Ἀθηναίους ὅσα ἔχουσι Πελοποννησίων: at any rate, the Æginetans may have pretended that, by the same rule as Athens gave up Nisæa, Pegæ, etc., she ought also to renounce Ægina.
However, we must recollect that the one plea does not exclude the other: the Æginetans may have taken advantage of both in enforcing their prayer for interference. This seems to have been the idea of the Scholiast, when he says—κατὰ τὴν συμφωνίαν τῶν σπονδῶν.
[128] Thucyd. i, 67. κατεβόων ἐλθόντες τῶν Ἀθηναίων ὅτι σπονδάς τε λελυκότες εἶεν καὶ ἀδικοῖεν τὴν Πελοπόννησον. The change of tense in these two verbs is to be noticed.
[129] Thucyd. i, 68. οὐ γὰρ ἂν Κέρκυράν τε ὑπολαβόντες βίᾳ ἡμῶν εἶχον, καὶ Ποτίδαιαν ἐπολιόρκουν, ὧν τὸ μὲν ἐπικαιρότατον χωρίον πρὸς τὰ ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης ἀποχρῆσθαι, ἡ δὲ ναυτικὸν ἂν μέγιστον παρέσχε Πελοποννησίοις.
[130] Thucyd. i, 68. ἐν οἷς προσήκει ἡμᾶς οὐχ ἥκιστα εἰπεῖν, ὅσῳ καὶ μέγιστα ἐγκλήματα ἔχομεν, ὑπὸ μὲν Ἀθηναίων ὑβριζόμενοι, ὑπὸ δὲ ὑμῶν ἀμελούμενοι.
[131] Thucyd. i, 69.
[132] Thucyd. i, 69. ἡσυχάζετε γὰρ μόνοι Ἑλλήνων, ὦ Λακεδαιμόνιοι, οὐ τῇ δυνάμει τινὰ ἀλλὰ τῇ μελλήσει ἀμυνόμενοι, καὶ μόνοι οὐκ ἀρχομένην τὴν αὔξησιν τῶν ἐχθρῶν, διπλασιουμένην δὲ, καταλύοντες. Καίτοι ἐλέγεσθε ἀσφαλεῖς εἶναι, ὧν ἄρα ὁ λόγος τοῦ ἔργου ἐκράτει· τόν τε γὰρ Μῆδον, etc.