A Manual of Ancient History

by M. E. Thalheimer

In the greater Peloponnesian war (B. C. 431-404), nearly all central and southern Greece were allied with Sparta; most of the maritime states, with Athens. Within the latter city were crowded most of the people of Attica, in terror of the Spartan invasions. Great numbers died of the plague; its most illustrious victim was Pericles. A two years’ blockade of Platæa, by the Spartans, ended with the annihilation of the city. The revolt of Lesbos was subdued by Athens, and the Mytilenians were condemned to death, but the revengeful sentence was reversed. A revolution in Corcyra resulted in a seven days’ massacre of the aristocratic party. A solemn purification of Delos was performed, to mitigate the plague at Athens. The Athenians established a colony at Pylos, to harass Laconia, and were victors in several naval battles. Cleon, the tanner, with Demosthenes, the general, conquered the Spartans at Sphacteria. Nicias captured Cythera, and garrisoned its towns. The brutal character of the war was shown in the massacre of exiled Æginetans at Athens, and of two thousand Helots at Sparta. The disastrous battle or Delium ended the invasion of Bœotia by the Athenians, who lost, at the same time, all their possessions in Thrace. The Peace of Nicias was concluded B. C. 421, and Athens made a new league with some former allies of Sparta.

The Sicilian Expedition.

B. C. 420.

179. From two previous celebrations of the Olympic Games the Athenians had been excluded, but, in the summer of this year, the Elean heralds appeared again to invite their attendance. Those who looked to see Athens poverty-stricken, from her many losses, were surprised at the magnificence of her delegates, who made the most costly display in all the processions. Alcibiades entered on the lists seven four-horse chariots, and received two olive crowns in the races. This young man was among the ablest citizens that Athens ever possessed. His genius, bravery, and quickness in emergencies might have made him her greatest benefactor; but, through his unregulated ambition and utter lack of conscience, he became the cause of her greatest calamities.

180. War soon broke out between the Spartans and the Argives, in which the Spartan king, Agis, won the important battle of Mantinea, B. C. 418. The oligarchical party, gaining power at Argos, cast off the alliance with Athens, and made a treaty with Sparta. But the nobles abused their power in brutal outrages upon the people, who effected another revolution and obtained possession of the city. By their request, Alcibiades came to their aid with a fleet and army. Though the Spartans and Athenians were nominally at peace, the garrison of Pylos was still committing depredations in Laconia, and Spartan privateers were seriously injuring Athenian commerce.

181. About this time, an embassy from Sicily besought the aid of the Athenians for the city of Egesta. It was involved in a contest with its neighbor, Selinus, which had obtained help from Syracuse. The “war of races” had, indeed, broken out twelve years before in Sicily, and the Athenians had more than once sent aid to the Ionian cities, Leonti´ni and Camari´na, against their Dorian neighbors, who had joined the Peloponnesian League. Alcibiades threw his whole influence into the cause of Egesta, hoping at once to improve his wasted fortunes with Sicilian spoils, and gratify his ambition with the glory of conquest. He even hoped, beside making Athens supreme over all the Hellenic colonies, to conquer the empire of Carthage, in the western Mediterranean.

Nicias and all the moderate party opposed the enterprise. They only prevailed in having an embassy sent to Egesta, to ascertain if its people were really able to fulfill their promise of furnishing funds for the war. The envoys were completely outwitted. In the temple of Aphrodite they saw a magnificent display of vessels which appeared to be solid gold, but were really silver-gilt. They were feasted at the houses of citizens, and were surprised by the profusion of gold and silver plate which adorned their sideboards, not suspecting that the same articles were passing from house to house, and doing repeated service in their entertainment. Sixty talents of silver were paid as a first installment, and the commissioners went home with glowing accounts of Egestan wealth.

B. C. 415.

182. All doubt disappeared from most minds in Athens, and Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lamachus were appointed to lead an expedition to Sicily. The zeal of the Athenians knew no bounds. Young and old, rich and poor, alike demanded a share in the great expedition. The generals had difficulty in selecting from the throng of volunteers. The fleet was on the point of sailing, when a mysterious event threw the excited multitude into consternation. The Hermæ, which stood before every door in Athens, before every temple or gymnasium, and in every public square, were found one morning reduced to shapeless masses of stone. Not one escaped. The people, in an agony of superstitious horror, demanded the detection and punishment of the criminal. Suspicion fell upon Alcibiades, because he was known to have burlesqued the Eleusinian mysteries in a drunken frolic, and was supposed to be capable of any sacrilege. He indignantly denied his guilt, and demanded an immediate examination. But his enemies contrived to have it postponed until his return, thus sending him out under the burden of an unproved charge, which might be revived for his condemnation in case of disaster.