one out of pride deeme himselfe worthy to be first made free so they would soonest also rebell against theÌ„ And when they had thus preferred about 2000 which also with Crownes on their heads went in procession about the Temples as to receiue their liberty they not long after made them away and no man knew how they perished And now at this time with all their hearts they sent away 700 men of Armes more of the same men along with Brasidas The rest of the Army were Mercinaries hired by Brasidas out of Peloponnesus But Brasidas himselfe the Lacedaemonians sent out chiefly because it was his owne desire Notwithstanding the Chalcideans also longed to haue him as one esteemed also in Sparta euery way an actiue man And when he was out he did the Lacedaemonians very great seruice For by shewing himselfe at that present iust and moderate towards the Cities hee caused the most of them to reuolt and some of them he also tooke by Treason Whereby it came to passe that if the Lacedaemonians pleased to come to composition as also they did they might haue Townes to render and receiue reciprocally And also long after after the Sicilian Warre the vertue and wisedome which Brasidas shewed now to some knowne by experience by others beleeued vpon from report was the principall cause that made the Athenian Confederates affect the Lacedaemonians For being the first that went out and esteemed in all points for a worthy man he left behind him an assured hope that the rest also were like him Being now come into Thrace the Athenians vpon notice thereof declared Perdiccas an enemy as imputing to him this expedition and reinforced the Garrisons in the parts thereabouts Perdiccas with Brasidas and his Army together with his owne Forces marched presently against Arrhibaeus the sonne of Bromerus King of the Lyncestheans a people of Macedonia confining on Perdiccas his dominion both for a quarrell they had against him and also as desiring to subdue him When he came with his Army and Brasidas with him to the place where they were to haue fallen in Brasidas told him that hee desired before hee made Warre to draw Arrhibaeus by parly if he could to a League with the Lacedaemonians For Arrhibaeus had also made some proffer by a Herald to commit the matter to Brasidas arbitrement And the Chalcidean Ambassadours being present gaue him likewise aduice not to thrust himselfe into danger in fauour of Perdiccas to the end they might haue him more prompt in their owne affaires Besides the Ministers of Perdiccas when they were at Lacedaemon had spoken there as if they had meant to bring as many of the places about him as they could into the Lacedaemonian League So that Brasidas fauoured Arrhibaeus for the publique good of their owne State But Pâ—rdicâ—â—â—â— said that he brought not Brasidas thither to be a Iudge of his Controuersies but to destroy those enemies which he should shew him And that it will be an iniury seeing he payes the halfe of his Army for Brasidas to parly with Arrhibaeus Neuerthelesse Brasidas whether Perdiccas would or not and though it made a quarrell had conference with Arrhibaeus by whom also hee was induced to withdraw his Army But from that time forward Perdiccas in stead of halfe paid but a third part of his Army as conceiuing himselfe to haue been iniured The same Summer a little before the Vintage Brasidas hauing ioyned to his owne the forces of the Chalcideans marched to Acanthus a Colony of the Andrians And there arose sedition about receiuing him betweene such as had ioyned with the Chalcideans in calling him thither and the common people Neuerthelesse for feare of their fruits which were not yet gotten in The multitude was won by Brasidas to let him enter alone and then after he had said his mind to aduise what to doe amongst themselues And presenting himselfe before the multitude for he was not vneloquent though a Lacedaemonian he spake to this effect THE ORATION OF BRASIDAS MEN of Acanthus The reason why the Lacedaemonians haue sent me and this Army abroad is to make good what we gaue out in the beginning for the cause of our Warre against the Athenians which was that we meant to make a Warre for the Libertie of Greece But if we be come late as deceiued by the Warre there in the opinion we had that we our selues should soone haue pulled the Athenians downe without any danger of yours no man hath reason therefore to blame vs. For we are come assoone as occasion serued and with your helpe will do our best to bring them vnder But I wonder why you shut me forth of your gates and why I was not welcome For we Lacedaemonians haue vndergone this great danger of passing many dayes iournie through the Territory of Strangers and shewed all possible zeale be cause we imagined that we went to such Confederates as before wee came had vs present in their hearts and were desirous of our comming And therefore it were hard that you should now bee otherwise minded and withstand your owne and the rest of the Grecians liberty not onely in that your selues resist vs but also because others whom I goe to will be the lesse willing to come in making difficulty because you to whom I came first hauing a flourishng City and being esteemed wise haue refused vs For which I shall haue no sufficient excuse to pleade but must be thought either to pretend to set vp liberty vniustly or to come weake and without power to maintaine you against the Athenians And yet against this same Army I now haue when I went to encounter the Athenians at Nisaea though more in number they durst not hazzard battell Nor is it likely that the Athenians will send forth so great a number against you as they had in their Fleet there at Nisaea I come not hither to hurt but to set free the Grecians and I haue the Lacedaemonian Magistrates bound vnto me by great Oathes that whatsoeuer Confederates shall be added to their side at least by mee shall still enioy their owne Lawes And that wee shall not hold you as Confederates to vs brought in either by force or fraud but on the contrary be Confederates to you that are kept in seruitude by the Athenians And therefore I clayme not onely that you be not iealous of mee especially hauing giuen you so good assurance or thinke me vnable to defend you but also that you declare your selues boldly with mee And if any man be vnwilling so to doe through feare of some particular man apprehending that I would put the Citie into the hands of a few let him cast away that feare for I came not to side nor doe I thinke I should bring you an assured liberty if neglecting the ancient vse here I should enthrall either the Multitude to the Few or the Few to the Multitude For to be gouerned so were worse
that contriued the deposing of the People and the setting vp of the gouernment of the 400. For which also he was put to death when the Pâ—â—plâ— againe recouered their authority notwithstanding that he pleaded his owne cause the best of any man to that day It need not be doubted but from such a Master Thucydides was sufficiently 〈◊〉 to haue become a great Demagogue and of great authority with the People But it seemeth he had no desire at all to meddle in the gouernment because in those tiâ—â—s it was impossible for any man to giue good and profitable counsell for the Common-wealth and not incurre the displeasure of the People For their opinion was such of their owne power and of the facility of atchieuing whatsoeuer action they vndertooke that such men onely swayed the Assemblies and were esteemed wâ—se and good Common-wealths men as did put them vpon the most dangerous and desperate enterprizes Whereas he that gaue them temperate and discreet aduice was thought a Coward or not to vnderstand or else to maligne their power And no maruell for much prosperity to which they had now for many yeeres been accustomed maketh men in loue with themselues and it is hard for any man to loue that counsell which maketh him loue himselfe the lesse And it holdeth much more in a Multitude then in one Man For a man that reasoneth with himselfe will not be ashamed to admit of timerous suggestions in his businesse that he may the stronglyer prouide but in publique deliberations before a Multitude Feare which for the most part aduiseth well though it execute not so seldome or neuer sheweth it selfe or is admitted By this meanes it came to passe amongst the Athenians who thought they were able to doe any thing that wicked men and flatterers draue them headlong into those actions that were to ruine them and the good men either durst not oppose or if they did vndid themselues Thucydides therefore that he might not be either of them that committed or of them that suffered euill forbore to come into the Assemblies and propounded to himselfe a priuate life as farre as the eminency of so wealthy a person and the writing of the History he had vndertaken would permit For his opinion touching the gouernment of the State it is manifest that he least of all liked the Democracy And vpon diuers occasions hee noteth the emulation and contention of the Demagogues for reputation and glory of wit with their crossing of each others counsels to the dammage of the Publique the inconstancy of Resolutions caused by the diuersity of ends and power of Rhetorique in the Orators and the desperate actions vndertaken vpon the flattering aduice of such as desired to attaine or to hold what they had attained of authority and sway amongst the common people Nor doth it appeare that he magnifieth any where the authority of the Few amongst whom he saith euery one desireth to be chiefe and they that are vnderualued beare it with lesse patience then in a Democracy whereupon sedition followeth and dissolution of the gouernment Hee prayseth the gouernment of Athens when it was mixt of the Few and the Many but more he commendeth it both when Pisistratus raigned sauing that it was an vsurped power and when in the beginning of this Warre it was Democraticall in name but in effect Monarchicall vnder Pericles So that it seemeth that as he was of Regall descent so he best approued of the Regall Gouernment It is therefore no maruell if he meddled as little as he could in the businesse of the Common-wealth but gaue himselfe rather to the obseruation and recording of what was done by those that had the mannaging thereof Which also he was no lesse prompt diligent and faithfull by the disposition of his mind then by his fortune dignity and wisedome able to accomplish How he was disposed to a worke of this nature may be vnderstood by this that when being a young man he heard Herodotus the Historiographer reciting his History in Publique for such was the fashion both of that and many Ages after he felt so great a sting of aemulation that it drew teares from him insomuch as Herodotus himselfe tooke notice how violently his mind was set on letters and told his Father Olorus When the Peloponnesian Warre began to breake out he coniectured truely that it would prooue an Argument worthy his labour and no sooner it began then he began his History pursuing the same not in that perfect manner in which we see it now but by way of Commentary or plaine Register of the Actions and passages thereof as from time to time they fell out and came to his knowledge But such a Commentary it was as might perhaps deserue to be preferr'd before a History written by another For it is very probable that the eighth Booke is left the same it was when he first writ it neither beautified with Orations nor so well Cemented at the Transitions as the former seuen Bookes are And though he began to write as soone as euer the Warre was on foot yet began he not to perfect and polish his History till after he was banished For notwithstanding his retyred life vpon the Coast of Thrace where his owne possessions lay he could not auoyd a seruice of the State which proued to him afterwards very vnfortunate For whilest he resided in the I le Thasus it fell out that Brasidas the Lacedaemonian besieged Amphipolis a Citie belonging to the Athenians on the Confines of Thrace and Macedony distant from Thasus about halfe a dayes sayle To relieue which the Captaine thereof for the Athenians sent to Tbucydides to leuy a power and make haste vnto him for Thucydides was one of the Strategi that is had authority to raise forces in those parts for the seruice of the Common-wealth And he did accordingly But he came thither one night too late and found the City already yeelded vp And for this he was afterwards banished as if he had let slip his time through negligence or purposely put it off vpon feare of the Enemy Neuerthelesse he put himselfe into the Citie of Eion and preserued it to the Athenians with the repulse of Brasidas which came downe from Amphipolis the next morning and assaulted it The author of his banishment is supposed to haue been Gleon a most violent Sycophant in those times and thereby also a most acceptable Speaker amongst the people For where affaires succeed amisse though there want neither prouidence nor courage in the Conduction yet with those that iudge onely vpon euents the way to calumny is alwayes open and Enuy in the likenesse of Zeale to the Publique good easily findeth credit for an accusation After his Banishment he liued in Scaptâ—-Hyle a Citie of Thrace before mentioned as Plutarch writeth but yet so as he went abroad and was present at the Actions of the rest of the Warre as appeareth by his owne words in his fift Booke Where he saith that he
lib. 5. Sardes standeth at the foote of Tmolus and out of this Hill riseth the Riuer Pactolus Strab. lib. 13. Tolophon a City of the Locri Ozolae Thuc. lib. 3. Tomeus a Hill neere to Pylus in Messenia Thucyd. lib. 4. Torone and the Bay of Torone Torone is a Chalcidique City betweene the Singitique and Toronaean Bayes neere the Promontory Ampelus Herod lib. 7. The place of the Toronaean Bay is vnderstood out of Liuy lib. 44. where he saith that Cassandrea or Potidaea standeth betweene the Macedonian Sea and the Bay of Torone Tragâ—a an Iland neere to Samos Thuc. l. 1. Tragaeae Ilands about Miletus Strab lâ—b 14. Triopium a Promontory of the Cnidians Thuc. lib. 8. Vide â—nidus Tripodiscus a Village of Megaris Thucyd. lib. 4. Tritaea a City of Achaia remote from the Sea distant from Pharae 120 furlongs Paus. in Achaicis Also a City of the Locri Ozolae Thucyd. lib 3. Troas a Territory of Asia the lesse vpon the side of the Aegaean Sâ—a betweene Aeolis and Hellespont Strab. lib. 13. Troezen a maritime City of Argia the vtmost in the Bay of Hermione Strab. lib. 8. confining on Epidauria Pausan. in Corinthiacis Troia Vide Ilium Trogilium a Promontory and foot of the Mountaine Mycale ouer against the I le Samos which with Posiâ—eum a Promontory of that I le maketh the streight there of seuen furlongs ouer Strab. lib. 14. Z ZAcynthus an Iland ouer against Peloponnesus Strab. lib. 10. Now called Zanâ—e Zarex a maritime City of Laconia distant on one side from Epidaurus Limera 100 furlongs and from Cyphanta on the other side sixteene Furlongs Paus. in Laconicis Zeleia a City vnder Mount Ida toward Propontis distant from Cyzicus 190. furlongs and from the Sea 80. furlongs Strab. lib. 13. Zona a City on the shore of Doriscus in Thrace Herod lib. 7. THE FIRST BOOKE OF THE HISTORY OF THVCYDIDES The principall Contents The estate of Greece deriued from the remotest knowne Antiquity thereof to the beginning of the Peloponnesian Warre The Occasion and Pretexts of this Warre arising from the Controuersies of the Athenians with the Corinthians concerning Corcyra and Potidaea The Lacedaemonians instigated by the Confederates vndertake the Warre not so much at their instigation as of enuie to the greatnesse of the Athenian Dominion The degrees by which that Dominion was acquired The Warre generally decreed by the Confederates at Sparta The Demands of the Lacedaemonians The obstinacy of the Athenians and their Answer by the aduice of Pericles THVCYDIDES an Athenian wrote the Warre of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians as they warred against each other beginning to write as soone as the Warre was on foot with expectation it should proue a great one and most worthy the relation of all that had beene before it Coniecturing so much both from this that they flourished on both sides in all manner of prouision and also because hee saw the rest of Greece siding with the one or the other Faction some then presently and some intending so to doe For this was certainely the greatest Commotion that euer happened amongst the Grecians reaching also to part of the Barbarians and as a man may say to most Nations For the Actions that preceded this and those againe that are yet more ancient though the truth of them through length of time cannot by any meanes cleerely be discouered yet for any Argument that looking into times farre past I haue yet light on to perswade me I doe not thinke they haue beene very great either for matter of Warre or otherwise For it is euident that that which now is called Hellas was not of old constantly inhabited but that at first there were often remouals euery one easily leauing the place of his abode to the violence alwayes of some greater number For whiles Trafficke was not nor mutuall entercourse but with feare neither by Sea nor Land and euery man so husbanded the ground as but barely to liue vpon it without any stocke of Riches and planted nothing because it was vncertaine when another should invade them and carry all away especially not hauing the defence of Walls but made account to be Masters in any place of such necessary sustenance as might serue them from day to day they made little difficulty to change their habitations And for this cause they were of no ability at all eyther for greatnesse of Cities or other prouision But the fattest Soyles were alwaies the most subiect to these changes of Inhabitants as that which is now called Thessalia and Boeotia and the greatest part of Peloponnesus except Arcadia and of the rest of Greece whatsoeuer was most fertile For the goodnesse of the Land increasing the power of some particular men both caused Seditions whereby they were ruin'd at home and withall made them more obnoxious to the insidiation of strangers From hence it is that Attica from great antiquity for the sterility of the Soyle free from Seditions hath beene inhabited euer by the same People And it is none of the least euidences of what I haue said That Greece by reason of sundry transplantations hath not in other parts receiued the like augmentation For such as by Warre or Sedition were driuen out of other places the most potent of them as to a place of stability retired themselues to Athens where receiuing the Freedome of the Citty they long since so increased the same in number of People as Attica being incapable of them it selfe they sent out Colonies into Ionia And to me the imbecillity of ancient times is not a little demonstrated also by this that followeth For before the Trojan Warre nothing appeareth to haue beene done by Greece in Common nor indeed was it as I thinke called all by that one name of Hellas nor before the time of Hellen the sonne of Deucalion was there any such name at all But Pelasgicum which was the farthest extended and the other parts by Regions receiued their names from their owne Inhabitants But Hellen and his Sonnes being strong in Phthiotis and called in for their ayde into other Cities these Cities because of their conversing with them began more particularly to be called Hellenes and yet could not that name of a long time after prevaile vpon them all This is coniectured principally out of Homer for though borne long after the Trojan Warre yet he giues them not any where that name in generall nor indeed to any but those that with Achilles came out of Phthiotis and were the first so called But in his Poemes he mentionenh Danaans Argiues and Achaeans nor doth he likewise vse the word Barbarians because the Grecians as it seemeth vnto me were not yet distinguished by one common name of Hellenes oppositely answerable vnto them The Grecians then neyther as they had that Name in particular by mutuall entercourse nor after vniversally so termed did euer before the Trojan Warre for want of strength and correspondence enter into any
I conceiue it and assembled the said Forces not so much vpon fauour as by feare For it is cleere that he himselfe both conferred most Ships to that Action and that some also hee lent to the Arcadians And this is likewise declared by Homer if any thinke his testimony sufficient who at the deliuery of the Scepter vnto him calleth him Of many Iles and of all Argos King Now he could not liuing in the Continent haue beene Lord of the Ilands other then such as were adjacent which cannot bee many vnlesse hee had also had a Nauy And by this Expedition we are to estimate what were those of the Ages before it Now seeing Mycenae was but a small Citie or if any other of that Age seeme but of light regard let not any man for that cause on so weake an Argument thinke that Fleet to haue beene lesse then the Poets haue said and Fame reported it to bee For if the City of Lacedaemon were now desolate and nothing of it left but the Temples and floores of the buildings I thinke it would breed much vnbeliefe in posterity long hence of their power in comparison of the Fame For although of fiue parts of Peloponnesus it possesse two and hath the leading of the rest and also of many Confederates without yet the Citie being not close built and the Temples and other Edifices not costly and because it is but scatteringly inhabited after the ancient manner of Greece their power would seeme inferiour to the report Againe the same things happening to Athens one would coniecture by the sight of their Citie that their power were double to what it is Wee ought not therefore to bee incredulous concerning the Forces that went to Troy nor haue in regard so much the externall shew of a Citie as the power but we are to thinke that that Expedition was indeed greater then those that went before it but yet inferiour to those of the present Age if in this also we may credit the Poetry of Homer who being a Poet was like to set it foorth to the vtmost And yet euen thus it commeth short For hee maketh it to consist of 1200. Vessels those that were of Boeotians carrying 120. men apiece and those which came with Philoctetes 50. Setting forth as I suppose both the greatest sort and the least and therefore of the bignesse of any of the rest hee maketh in his Catalogue no mention at all but declareth that they who were in the Vessels of Philoctetes serued both as Mariners and Souldiers for he writes that they who were at the Oare were all of them Archers And for such as wrought not it is not likely that many went along except Kings and such as were in chiefe authority especially being to passe the Sea with Munition of Warre and in Bottomes without Deckes built after the old and Peiraticall fashion So then if by the greatest and least one estimate the meane of their Shipping it will appeare that the whole number of men considered as sent ioyntly from all Greece were not very many And the cause heereof was not so much want of men as of wealth For for want of victuall they carryed the lesser Army and no greater then they hoped might both follow the Warre and also maintaine it selfe When vpon their arriuall they had gotten the vpper hand in fight which is manifest for else they could not haue fortified their Campe it appeares that from that time forward they employed not there their whole power but that for want of victuall they betooke themselues part of them to the tillage of Chersonesus and part to fetch in Booties whereby diuided the Trojans the more easily made that tenne yeeres resistance as being euer a Match for so many as remained at the Siege Whereas if they had gone furnished with store of prouision and with all their Forces eased of Boothaling and Tillage since they were Masters of the Field they had also easily taken the Citie But they stroue not with their whole power but onely with such a portion of their Army as at the seuerall occasions chanced to bee present when as if they had pressed the Siege they had wonne the place both in lesse time and with lesse labour But through want of money not onely they were weake matters all that preceded this Enterprize but also this which is of greater name then any before it appeareth to bee in fact beneath the Fame and report which by meanes of the Poets now goeth of it For also after the Trojan Warre the Grecians continued still their shiftings and transplantations insomuch as neuer resting they improued not their power For the late returne of the Greekes from Ilium caused not a little innouation and in most of the Cities there arose seditions and those which were driven out built Cities for themselues in other places For those that are now called Boeotians in the sixtieth yeere after the taking of Troy expelled Arne by the Thessalians seated themselues in that Country which now Boeotia was then called Cadmeis But there was in the same a certaine portion of that Nation before of whom also were they that went to the Warfare of Troy And in the eightieth yeere the Doreans together with the Heracleides seazed on Peloponnesus And with much adoe after long time Greece had constant rest and shifting their seates no longer at length sent Colonies abroad And the Athenians planted Ionia and most of the Ilands and the Peloponnesians most of Italy and Sicily and also certaine parts of the rest of Greece But these Colonies were all planted after the Trojan Warre But when the power of Greece was now improoued and the desire of money withall their reuenues being enlarged in most of the Cities there were erected Tyrannies for before that time Kingdomes with honours limited were hereditary And the Grecians built Nauies and became more seriously addicted to the affaires of the Sea The Corinthians are said to haue been the first that changed the forme of shipping into the neerest to that which is now in vse and at Corinth are reported to haue beene made the first Gallies of all Greece Now it is well knowne that Aminocles the Ship-wright of Corinth built 4. Ships at Samos And from the time that Aminocles went to Samos vntill the end of this present Warre are at the most but 300. yeeres And the most ancient nauall Battaile that we know of was fought betweene the Corinthians and the Corcyraeans and from that Battaile to the same time are but 260. yeeres For Corinth seated on an Isthmus had beene alwaies a place of Traffique because the Grecians of old from within and without Peloponnesus trading by Land more then by Sea had no other intercourse one to another but thorow the Corinthians Territory And was also wealthy in money as appeares by the Poets who haue surnamed this Towne the Rich. And after the Grecians
by Harmodius and Aristogeiton and know not that Hippias had the gouernment as being the eldest sonne of Pisistratus and that Hipparchus and Thessalus were his brethren and that Harmodius and Aristogeiton suspecting that some of their Complices had that day and at that instant discouered vnto Hippias somewhat of their treason did forbeare Hippias as a man forewarned and desirous to effect somewhat though with danger before they should be apprehended lighting on Hipparchus slew him neere the Temple called Leocorium whilest he was setting forth the Panathenaicall Show And likewise divers other things now extant and which Time hath not yet involued in oblivion haue beene conceiued amisse by other Grecians as that the Kings of Lacedaemon in giving their suffrages had not single but double Votes And that Pitanate was a band of Souldiers so called there whereas there was neuer any such So impatient of labour are the most men in the search of truth and embrace soonest the things that are next to hand Now he that by the Arguments heere adduced shall frame a Iudgement of the things past and not beleeue rather that they were such as the Poets haue sung or Prose-writers haue composed more delightfully to the eare then conformably to the truth as being things not to bee disprooued and by length of time turned for the most part into the nature of Fables without credit but shall thinke them heere searched out by the most euident signes that can be and sufficiently too considering their antiquity hee I say shall not erre And though men alwaies iudge the present Warre wherein they liue to be greatest and when it is past admire more those that were before it yet if they consider of this Warre by the Acts done in the same it will manifest it selfe to bee greater then any of those before mentioned What particular persons haue spoken when they were about to enter into the Warre or when they were in it were hard for mee to remember exactly whether they were speeches which I haue heard my selfe or haue receiued at the second hand But as any man seemed to mee that knew what was neerest to the summe of the truth of all that hath beene vttered to speake most agreeably to the matter still in hand so haue I made it spoken heere But of the Acts themselues done in the Warre I thought not fit to write all that I heard from all Authors nor such as I my selfe did but thinke to bee true but onely those whereat I was my selfe present and those of which with all diligence I had made particular enquirie And yet euen of those things it was hard to know the certainty because such as were present at every Action spake not all after the same manner but as they were affected to the Parts or as they could remember To heare this History rehearsed for that there bee inserted in it no Fables shall bee perhaps not delightfull But hee that desires to looke into the truth of things done and which according to the condition of humanity may bee done againe or at least their like hee shall finde enough heerein to make him thinke it profitable And it is compiled rather for an EVERLASTING POSSESSION then to be rehearsed for a Prize The greatest Action before this was that against the Medes and yet that by two Battels by Sea and as many by Land was soone decided But as for this Warre it both lasted long and the harme it did to Greece was such as the like in the like space had never beene seene before For neither had there euer bin so many Cities expugned and made desolate what by the Barbarians and what by the Greekes warring on one another and some Cities there were that when they were taken changed their inhabitants nor so much banishing and slaughter some by the Warre some by sedition as was in this And those things which concerning former time there went a fame of but in fact rarely confirmed were now made credible As Earthquakes generall to the greatest part of the World and most violent withall Eclipses of the Sunne oftner then is reported of any former time Great droughts in some places and thereby Famine and that which did none of the least hurt but destroyed also its part the Plague All these Euils entred together with this Warre which began from the time that the Athenians and Peloponnesians brake the League which immediately after the Conquest of Euboea had beene concluded betweene them for thirty yeeres The Causes why they brake the same and their Quarrels I haue therefore set downe first because no man should bee to seeke from what ground so great a Warre amongst the Grecians could arise And the truest Quarrell though least in speech I conceiue to bee the growth of the Athenian power which putting the Lacedaemonians into feare necessitated the Warre But the Causes of the breach of the League publikely voyced were these EPIDAMNVS is a Citie scituate on the right hand to such as enter into the Iönian Gulfe bordering vpon it are the Taulantij Barbarians a people of Illyris This was planted by the Corcyraeans but Captaine of the Colony was one Phalius the sonne of Heratoclidas a Corinthian of the linage of Hercules and according to an ancient Custome called to this charge out of the Metropolitan Citie besides that the Colony it selfe consisted in part of Corinthians and others of the Dorique Nation In processe of time the Citie of Epidamnus became great and populous and hauing for many yeeres together beene annoyed with sedition was by a Warre as is reported made vpon them by the confining Barbarians brought low and deprived of the greatest part of their power But that which was the last accident before this Warre was that the Nobility forced by the Commons to fly the Cittie went and ioyned with the Barbarians and both by Land and Sea robbed those that remained within The Epidamnians that were in the Towne oppressed in this manner sent their Ambassadours to Corcyra as being their Mother Cittie praying the Corcyraeans not to see them perish but to reconcile vnto them those whom they had driven forth and to put an end to the Barbarian Warre And this they intreated in the forme of Suppliants sitting downe in the Temple of Iuno But the Corcyraeans not admitting their â—upplication sent them away againe without effect The Epidamnians now despairing of reliefe from the Corcyraeans and at a stand how to proceed in their present affaires sending to Delphi enquired at the Oracle whether it were not best to deliuer vp their Citie into the hands of the Corinthians as of their Founders and make tryall what ayde they should obtaine from thence And when the Oracle had answered That they should deliuer it and take the Corinthians for their Leaders they went to Corinth and according to the advice of the Oracle gaue their Citie
their enemies fall off the least and as for their Bodies they vse them in the seruice of the Common-wealth as if they were none of their owne but their minds when they would serue the State are right their owne Vnlesse they take in hand what they haue once aduised on they account so much lost of their owne And when they take it in hand if they obtaine any thing they thinke lightly of it in respect of what they looke to winne by their prosecution If they faile in any attempt they doe what is necessary for the present and enter presently into other hopes For they alone both haue and hope for at once whatsoeuer they conceiue through their celerity in execution of what they once resolue on And in this manner they labour and toyle all the dayes of their liues What they haue they haue no leasure to enioy for continuall getting of more Nor Holiday esteeme they any but whereon they effect some matter profitable nor thinke they ease with nothing to doe a lesse torment than laborious businesse So that in a word to say they are men borne neither to rest themselues nor suffer others is to say the truth Now notwithstanding men of Lacedaemon that this Citie your Aduersary bee such as wee haue said yet you still delay time not knowing that those onely are they to whom it may suffice for the most part of their time to sit still who though they vse not their power to doe iniustice yet bewray a minde vnlikely to swallow injuries but placing equity belike in this that you neither doe any harme to others nor receiue it in defending of your selues But this is a thing you hardly could attaine though the States about you were of the same condition But as we haue before declared your Customes are in respect of theirs antiquated and of necessity as it happeneth in Artes the new ones will preuaile True it is that for a City liuing for the most part in peace vnchanged customes are the best but for such as bee constrained to vndergoe many matters many deuices will be needfull Which is also the reason why the Athenian Customes through much experience are more new to you then yours are to them Here therefore giue a Period to your slacknesse and by a speedy invasion of Attica as you promised relieue both Potidaea and the rest lest otherwise you betray your friends and kindred to their cruellest enemies and lest wee and others be driuen through despaire to seeke out some other League Which to doe were no iniustice neither against the Gods Iudges of mens Oathes nor against Men the hearers of them For not they breake the League who being abandoned haue recourse to others but they that yeeld not their assistance to whom they haue sworne it But if you meane to follow the businesse seriously wee will stay for else wee should doe irreligiously neither should wee finde any other more conformable to our manners then your selues Therefore deliberate well of these points and take such a course that Peloponnesus may not by your leading fall into worse estate then it was left vnto you by your Progenitors Thus spake the Corinthians The Athenian Ambassadours who chanced to bee residing in Lacedaemon vpon their businesse when they heard of this Oration thought it fit to present themselues before the Lacedaemonians not to make Apologie for what they were charged with by the other Citties but to shew in generall that it was not fit for them in this case to take any sudden resolution but further time to consider Also they desired to lay open the power of their Citty to the elder sort for a remembrance of what they knew already and to the yonger for an information of what they knew not supposing that when they should haue spoken they would encline to quietnesse rather then to Warre And therefore they presented themselues before the Lacedaemonians saying That they also if they might haue leaue desired to speake in the Assembly who willed them to come in And the Athenians went into the Assembly and spake to this effect THE ORATION OF THE Ambassadours of ATHENS THough our Ambassage was not to this end that wee should argue against our Confederates but about such other Affaires as the Citie was pleased to employ vs in yet hauing heard of the great exclamation against vs wee came into the Court not to make answer to the criminations of the Cities for to pleade before you here were not to pleade before the Iudges either of them or vs but to the end you may not be drawne away to take the worst resolution at the perswasion of the Confederates in matters of so great importance And withall touching the summe of the Oration made against vs to informe you that what wee possesse wee haue it iustly and that our Citie deserueth reputation But what neede wee now to speake of matters long past confirmed more by heare-say then by the eyes of those that are to heare vs relate them But our actions against the Persian and such as you your selues know as well as wee those though it bee tedious to heare them euer objected wee must of necessity recite For when wee did them we hazarded our selues for some benefit of which you as had your parts in the substance so must wee haue ours if that be any benefit in the commemoration And wee shall make recitall of them not by way of deprecation but of protestation and declaration of what a Citty in case you take ill advice you haue to enter the list withall Wee therefore say that wee not onely first and alone hazarded Battell against the Barbarian in the Fields of Marathon but also afterwards when hee came againe beeing vnable to resist him by Land embarqued our selues euery man that was able to beare Armes and gaue him Battell amongst the rest by Sea at Salamis which was the cause that kept him backe from sailing to Peloponnesus and laying it waste Cittie after Cittie for against so many Gallies you were not able to giue each other mutuall succour And the greatest proofe of this is the Persian himselfe who when his Fleet was ouercome and that hee had no more such Forces went away in haste with the greatest part of his Armie Which being so and euident that the whole State of the Grecians was embarqued in their Fleet we conferred to the same the three things of most aduantage namely the greatest number of Gallies the most prudent Commander and the most liuely courage For of 400. Gallies in the whole our owne were few lesse then two thirds and for Commander Themistocles who was the principall cause that the Battell was fought in the streight whereby he cleerely saued the whole businesse and whom though a Stranger you your selues haue honoured for it more then any man that came vnto you and a forwardnesse wee shewed more adventurous then any other in this that when none of them had ayded vs by Land before
one fashion And as for a Nauie wherein consisteth the strength of the Athenians wee shall prouide it both out of euery ones particular wealth and with the money at Delphi and Olympia For taking this at interest wee shall bee able to draw from them their forraigne Mariners by offer of greater wages for the Forces of the Athenians are rather mercenarie then domesticke Whereas our owne power is lesse obnoxious to such accidents consisting more in the persons of men then in money And if wee ouercome them but in one Battell by Sea in all probability they are totally vanquished And if they hold out wee also shall with longer time apply our selues to Nauall affaires And when wee shall once haue made our skill equall to theirs we shall surely ouermatch them in courage For the valour that wee haue by nature they shall neuer come vnto by teaching but the experience which they exceed vs in that must wee attaine vnto by industry And the money wherewith to bring this to passe it must be all our parts to contribute For else it were a hard case that the Confederates of the Athenians should not sticke to contribute to their owne seruitude and wee should refuse to lay out our money to bee reuenged of our enemies and for our owne preseruation and that the Athenians take not our money from vs and euen with that doe vs mischiefe Wee haue also many other wayes of Warre as the reuolt of their Confederates which is the principall meanes of lessening their reuenue the building of Forts in their Territorie and many other things which one cannot now foresee For the course of Warre is guided by nothing lesse then by the points of our account but of it selfe contriueth most things vpon the occasion VVherein he that complies with it with most temper standeth the firmest and hee that is most passionate oftenest miscarries Imagine wee had differences each of vs about the limits of our Territorie with an equall Aduersary wee must vndergoe them But now the Athenians are a match for vs all at once and one Citie after another too strong for vs. Insomuch that vnlesse wee oppose them ioyntly and euery Nation and City set to it vnanimously they will ouercome vs asunder without labour And know that to be vanquished though it trouble you to heare it brings with it no less then manifest seruitude which but to mention as a doubt as if so many Cities could suffer vnder one were very dishonourable to Peloponnesus For it must then bee thought that wee are either punished vpon merit or else that wee endure it out of feare and so appeare degenerate from our Ancestours for by them the liberty of all Greece hath beene restored whereas wee for our parts assure not so much as our owne but claiming the reputation of hauing deposed Tyrants in the seuerall Cities suffer a Tyrant Citie to be established amongst vs. Wherein we know not how we can auoyd one of these three great faults Foolishnesse Cowardise or Negligence For certainely you auoyde them not by imputing it to that which hath done most men hurt Contempt of the Enemie for Contempt because it hath made too many men miscarry hath gotten the name of Foolishnesse But to what end should wee obiect matters past more then is necessary to the busines in hand wee must now by helping the present labour for the future For it is peculiar to our Countrey to attaine honour by labour and though you be now somewhat aduanced in honour and power you must not therefore change the custome for there is no reason that what was gotten in want should be lost by wealth But wee should confidently goe in hand with the Warre as for many other causes so also for this that both the God hath by his Oracle aduised vs thereto and promised to bee with vs himselfe and also for that the rest of Greece some for feare and some for profit are ready to take our parts Nor are you they that first breake the Peace which the God in as much as hee doth encourage vs to the Warre iudgeth violated by them but you fight rather in defence of the same For not hee breaketh the Peace that taketh reuenge but hee that is the first invader· So that Seeing it will be euery way good to make the Warre and since in common wee perswade the same and seeing also that both to the Cities and to priuate men it will bee the most profitable course put off no longer neither the defence of the Potidaeans who are Doreans and besieged which was wont to bee contrary by Iönians nor the recouery of the liberty of the rest of the Grecians For it is a case that admitteth not delay when they are some of them already oppressed and others after it shall be knowne wee met and durst not right our selues shall shortly after vndergoe the like But thinke Confederates you are now at a necessity and that this is the best advice And therefore giue your Votes for the Warre not fearing the present danger but coueting the long Peace proceeding from it For though by warre groweth the confirmation of Peace yet for loue of ease to refuse the warre doth not likewise auoyde the danger But making account that a Tyrant Citie set vp in Greece is set vp alike ouer all and reigneth ouer some already and the rest in intention we shall bring it againe into order by the warre and not onely liue for the time to come out of danger our selues but also deliuer the already enthralled Grecians out of seruitude Thus said the Corinthians The Lacedaemonians when they had heard the opinion of them all brought the Balles to all the Confederates present in order from the greatest State to the least And the greatest part gaue their Votes for the Warre Now after the War was decreed though it were impossible for them to goe in hand with it presently because they were vnprouided and euery State thought good without delay seuerally to furnish themselues of what was necessary yet there passed not fully a yeere in this preparation before Attica was invaded and the Warre openly on foot IN THE MEANE TIME they sent Ambassadours to the Athenians with certaine Criminations to the end that if they would giue eare to nothing they might haue all the pretext that could bee for raising of the Warre And first the Lacedaemonians by their Ambassadours to the Athenians required them to banish such as were vnder curse of the Goddesse Minerua for Pollution of Sanctuary Which Pollution was thus There had beene one Cylon an Athenian a man that had beene Victor in the Olympian exercises of much Nobility and power amongst those of old time and that had married the Daughter of Theagenes a Megarean in those dayes Tyrant of Megara To this Cylon asking counsell at Delphi the God answered That on the greatest Festiuall day hee should seaze the Cittadell of Athens Hee therefore hauing gotten
Forces of Theagenes and perswaded his Friends to the Enterprize seazed on the Cittadell at the time of the Olimpicke Holidayes in Peloponnesus with intention to take vpon him the Tyranny Esteeming the Feast of Iupiter to bee the greatest and to touch withall on his Particular in that he had beene Victor in the Olympian exercises But whether the Feast spoken of were meant to be the greatest in Attica or in some other place neither did hee himselfe consider nor the Oracle make manifest For there is also amongst the Athenians the Diasia which is called the greatest Feast of Iupiter Meilichius and is celebrated without the City wherein in the confluence of the whole people many men offered Sacrifices not of liuing Creatures but such as was the fashion of the Natiues of the place But hee supposing hee had rightly vnderstood the Oracle laid hand to the enterprise and when the Athenians heard of it they came with all their Forces out of the Fields and lying before the Cittadell besieged it But the time growing long the Athenians wearied with the Siege went most of them away and left both the Guard of the Cittadell and the whole businesse to the nine Archontes with absolute authority to order the same as to them it should seeme good For at that time most of the afaffaires of the Common-weale were administred by those 9. Archontes Now those that were besieged with Cylon were for want both of victuall and Water in very euill estate and therefore Cylon and a Brother of his fled priuily out but the rest when they were pressed and some of them dead with famine sate downe as suppliants by the Altar that is in the Cittadell And the Athenians to whose charge was committed the guard of the place raysing them vpon promise to doe them no harme put them all to the Sword Also they had put to death some of those that had taken Sanctuary at the Altars of the Seuere Goddesses as they were going away And from this the Athenians both themselues and their posterity were called accursed and sacrilegious persons Heereupon the Athenians banished those that were vnder the curse and Cleomenes a Lacedaemonian together with the Athenians in a Sedition banished them afterwards againe and not onely so but dis-enterred and cast forth the bodies of such of them as were dead Neuerthelesse there returned of them afterwards againe and there are of their race in the Citie vnto this day This Pollution therefore the Lacedaemonians required them to purge their Citie of Principally forsooth as taking part with the Gods but knowing withall that Pericles the sonne of Xantippus was by the Mothers side one of that Race For they thought if Pericles were banished the Athenians would the more easily bee brought to yeeld to their desire Neuerthelesse they hoped not so much that hee should bee banished as to bring him into the enuie of the Citie as if the misfortune of him were in part the cause of the Warre For being the most powerfull of his time and hauing the sway of the State hee was in all things opposite to the Lacedaemonians not suffering the Athenians to giue them the least way but inticing them to the Warre Contrariwise the Athenians required the Lacedaemonians to banish such as were guilty of breach of Sanctuary at Toenarus For the Lacedaemonians when they had caused their Helotâ—s Suppliants in the Temple of Neptune at Toenarus to forsake Sanctuary slew them For which cause they themselues thinke it was that the great Earthquake happened afterwards at Sparta Also they required them to purge their Citie of the pollutioÌ„ of Sanctuary in the Temple of Pallas Chalcioeca which was thus After that Pausanias the Lacedaemonian was recalled by the Spartans from his charge in Hellespont and hauing bin called in question by them was absolued though hee was no more sent abroad by the State yet hee went againe into Hellespont in a Gallie of Hermione as a priuate man without leaue of the Lacedaemonians to the Grecian Warre as hee gaue out but in truth to negotiate with the King as hee had before begunne aspiring to the Principality of Greece Now the benefit that hee had laid vp with the King and the beginning of the whole businesse was at first from this When after his returne from Cyprus he had taken Byzantium when he was there the first time which being holden by the Medes there were taken in it some neere to the King and of his kindred vnknowne to the rest of the Confederates hee sent vnto the King those neere ones of his which hee had taken and gaue out they were runne away This hee practised with one Gongylus and Eretrian to whose charge hee had committed both the Towne of Byzantium and the Prisoners Also he sent Letters vnto him which Gongylus carried wherein as was afterwards knowne was thus written The Letter of Pausanias to the King PAVSANIAS Generall of the Spartans being desirous to doe thee a courtesie sendeth backe vnto thee these men whom hee hath by Armes taken prisoners And I haue a purpose if the same seeme also good vnto thee to take thy Daughter in marriage and to bring Sparta and the rest of Greece into thy subiection These things I account my selfe able to bring to passe if I may communicate my counsels with thee If therefore any of these things doe like thee send some trusty man to the Sea side by whose mediation wee may conferre together These were the Contents of the Writing Xerxes being pleased with the Letter sends away Artabazus the sonne of Pharnaces to the Sea side with commandement to take the gouernment of the Prouince of Dascylis and to dismisse Megabates that was Gouernour there before and withall giues him a Letter to Pausanias which hee commanded him to send ouer to him with speed to Byzantium and to shew him the Seale and well and faithfully to performe whatsoeuer in his affaires he should by Pausanias be appointed to doe Artabazus after hee arriued hauing in other things done as hee was commanded sent ouer the Letter wherein was written this answer The Letter of Xerxes to Pausanias THVS saith King Xerxes to Pausanias For the men which thou hast saued and sent ouer the Sea vnto mee from Byzantium thy benefit is laid vp in our House indelebly registred for euer And I like also of what thou hast propounded And let neither night nor day make thee remisse in the performance of what thou hast promised vnto mee Neither bee thou hindred by the expence of Gold and Siluer or multitude of Souldiers requisite whithersoeuer it bee needfull to haue them come But with Artabazus a good man whom I haue sent vnto thee doe boldly both mine and thine owne businesse as shall bee most fit for the dignity and honour of vs both Pausanias hauing receiued these Letters whereas he was before in great authority for his conduct at Plataea became
they would abrogate the Act concerning the Megareans By which Act they were forbidden both the Fayres of Attica and all Ports within the Athenian dominion But the Athenians would not obey them neither in the rest of their Commands nor in the abrogation of that Act but recriminated the Megareans for hauing tilled holy ground and vnset-out with bounds and for receiuing of their Slaues that reuolted But at length when the last Ambassadours from Lacedaemon were arriued namely Rhamphias Melesippus and Agesander and spake nothing of that which formerly they were wont but onely this That the Lacedaemonians desire that there should be Peace which may bee had if you will suffer the Grecians to bee gouerned by their owne Lawes The Athenians called an Assembly and propounding their opinions amongst themselues thought good after they had debated the matter to giue them an answer once for all And many stood forth and deliuered their mindes on eyther side some for the Warre and some that this Act concerning the Megareans ought not to stand in their way to Peace but to bee abrogated And Pericles the sonne of Xantippus the principall man at that time of all Athens and most sufficient both for speech and action gaue his aduice in such manner as followeth THE ORATION OF PERICLES MEN of Athens I am still not onely of the same opinion not to giue way to the Peloponnesians notwithstanding I know that men haue not the same passions in the Warre it selfe which they haue when they are incited to it but change their opinions with the events but also I see that I must now aduise the same things or very neere to what I haue before deliuered And I require of you with whom my counsell shall take place that if wee miscarry in ought you will eyther make the best of it as decreed by Common Consent or if wee prosper not to attribute it to your owne wisdome onely For it falleth out with the euents of Actions no lesse then with the purposes of man to proceed with vncertainety which is also the cause that when any thing happeneth contrary to our expectation wee vse to lay the fault on Fortune That the Lacedaemonians both formerly and especially now take counsell how to doe vs mischiefe is a thing manifest For whereas it is said in the Articles that in our mutuall controuersies we shall giue and receiue trials of Iudgement and in the meane time eyther side hold what they possesse they neuer yet sought any such tryall themselues nor will accept of the same offered by vs. They will cleere themselues of their accusations by Warre rather then by words and come hither no more now to expostulate but to command For they command vs to arise from before Potidaea and to restore the Aeginetae to the liberty of their owne Lawes and to abrogate the Act concerning the Megareans And they that come last command vs to restore all the Grecians to their liberty Now let none of you conceiue that wee shall goe to Warre for a trifle by not abrogating the Act concerning Megara yet this by them is pretended most and that for the abrogation of it the Warre shall stay nor retaine a scruple in your mindes as if a small matter moued you to the Warre for euen this small matter containeth the tryall and constancy of your resolution Wherein if you giue them way you shall hereafter bee commanded a greater matter as men that for feare will obey them likewise in that But by a stiffe-deniall you shall teach them plainely to come to you heereafter on termes of more equality Resolue therefore from this occasion eyther to yeeld them obedience before you receiue damage or if wee must haue Warre which for my part I thinke is best be the pretence weighty or light not to giue way nor keepe what wee possesse in feare For a great and a little claime imposed by equals vpon their neighbours before Iudgement by way of command hath one and the same vertue to make subiect As for the Warre how both wee and they be furnished and why wee are not like to haue the worse by hearing the particulars you shall now vnderstand The Peloponnesians are men that liue by their labour without money eyther in particular or in common stocke Besides in long Warres and by Sea they are without experience for that the Warres which they haue had one against another haue beene but short through pouerty and such men can neither man their Fleets nor yet send out their Armies by Land very often because they must bee farre from their owne wealth and yet by that be maintained and be besides barred the vse of the Sea It must bee a stocke of money not forced Contributions that support the Warres and such as liue by their labour are more ready to serue the Warres with their bodies then with their money For they make account that their bodies will out-liue the danger but their money they thinke is sure to bee spent especially if the Warre as it is likely should last So that the Peloponnesians and their Confederates though for one Battell they bee able to stand out against all Greece besides yet to maintaine a Warre against such as haue their preparations of another kinde they are not able in as much as not hauing one and the same counsell they can speedily performe nothing vpon the occasion and hauing equality of vote and being of seuerall races euery one will presse his particular interest whereby nothing is like to bee fully executed For some will desire most to take reuenge on some enemie and others to haue their estates least wasted and being long before they can assemble they take the lesser part of their time to debate the Common businesse and the greater to dispatch their owne priuate affaires And euery one supposeth that his owne neglect of the Common estate can doe little hurt and that it will bee the care of some body else to looke to that for his owne good Not obseruing how by these thoughts of euery one in seuerall the Common businesse is ioyntly ruined But their greatest hindrance of all will be their want of money which being raised slowly their actions must bee full of delay which the occasions of warre will not endure As for their fortifying here and their Nauie they are matters not worthy feare For it were a hard matter for a Citie equall to our owne in time of peace to fortifie in that manner much lesse in the Countrey of an Enemie and wee no lesse fortified against them And if they had a Garrison here though they might by excursions and by the receiuing of our Fugitiues annoy some part of our Territory yet would not that bee enough both to besiege vs and also to hinder vs from sayling into their Territories and from taking reuenge with our Fleet which is the thing wherein our strength lyeth For wee haue more experience in Land-seruice by vse of
imported hither whereby we no lesse familiarly enioy the commodities of all other Nations then our owne Then in the studies of Warre wee excell our Enemies in this wee leaue aur Citie open to all men nor was it euer seene that by banishing of strangers we denyed them the learning or sight of any of those things which if not hidden an Enemie might reape aduantage by not relying on secret preparation and deceipt but vpon our owne courage in the action They in their discipline hunt after valour presently from their youth with laborious exercise and yet wee that liue remissely vndertake as great dangers as they For example the Lacedaemonians inuade not our dominion by themselues alone but with the ayde of all the rest But when wee inuade our neighbours though wee fight in hostile ground against such as in their owne ground fight in defence of their owne substance yet for the most part wee get the victorie Neuer Enemie yet fell into the hands of our whole Forces at once both because wee apply our selues much to Nauigation and by Land also send many of our men into diuers Countries abroad But when fighting with a part of it they chance to get the better they boast they haue beaten the whole and when they get the worse they say they are beaten by the whole And yet when from ease rather then studious labour and vpon naturall rather then doctrinall valour wee come to vndertake any danger wee haue this oddes by it that we shall not faint before-hand with the meditation of future trouble and in the action wee shall appeare no lesse confident then they that are euer toyling procuring admiration to our Citie as well in this as in diuers other things For we also giue our selues to brauery and yet with thrift and to Philosophy and yet without mollification of the minde And we vse riches rather for opportunities of action then for verball ostentation And hold it not ashame to confesse pouerty but not to haue auoided it Moreouer there is in the same men a care both of their owne and of the publique affaires and a sufficient knowledge of State matters euen in those that labour with their hands For we onely thinke one that is vtterly ignorant therein to be a man not that meddles with nothing but that is good for nothing We likewise weigh what we vndertake and apprehend it perfectly in our mindes not accounting words for a hindrance of action but that it is rather a hindrance to action to come to it without instruction of words before For also in this we excell others daring to vndertake as much as any and yet examining what wee vndertake whereas with other men ignorance makes them dare and consideration dastards and they are most rightly reputed valiant who though they perfectly apprehend both what is dangerous and what is easie are neuer the more thereby diuerted from aduenturing Againe we are contrary to most men in matter of bounty For we purchase our friends not by receiuing but by bestowing benefits And he that bestoweth a good turne is euer the most constant friend because hee will not lose the thankes due vnto him from him whom he bestowed it on Whereas the friendship of him that oweth a benefit is dull and flat as knowing his benefit not to be taken for a fauor but for a debt So that we onely doe good to others not vpon computation of profit but freenesse of trust In summe it may be said both that the City is in generall a Schoole of the Grecians and that the men here haue euery one in particular his person disposed to most diuersity of actions and yet all with grace and decency And that this is not now rather a brauery of words vpon the occasion then reall truth this power of the Citie which by these institutions we haue obtained maketh euident For it is the onely power now found greater in proofe then fame and the onely power that neither grieueth the invader when he miscarries with the quality of those he was hurt by nor giueth cause to the subiected States to murmure as being in subiection to men vnworthy For both with present and future Ages we shall be in admiration for a power not without testimony but made euident by great arguments and which needeth not either a Homer to praise it or any other such whose Poems may indeed for the present bring delight but the trutâ— will afterwards confute the opinion conceiued of the actions For we haue opened vnto vs by our courage all Seas and Lands and set vp eternall Monuments on all sides both of the euill we haue done to our enemies and the good wee haue done to our friends Such is the Citie for which these men thinking it no reason to lose it valiantly fighting haue dyed And it is fit that euery man of you that bee left should bee like-minded to vndergoe any trauell for the same And I haue therefore spoken so much concerning the Citie in generall as well to shew you that the stakes betweene vs and them whose Citie is not such are not equall as also to make knowne by effects the worth of these men I am to speake of the greatest part of their praises being therein already deliuered For what I haue spoken of the Citie hath by these and such as these beene atchieued Neither would praises and actions appeare so leuelly concurrent in many other of the Grecians as they doe in these the present revolution of these mens liues seeming vnto mee an argument of their vertues noted in the first act thereof and in the last confirmed For euen such of them as were worse then the rest doe neuerthelesse deserue that for their valour shewne in the Warres for defence of their Countrey they should bee preferred before the rest For hauing by their good actions abolished the memory of their euill they haue profited the State thereby more then they haue hurt it by their priuate behauiour Yet there was none of these that preferring the further fruition of his wealth was thereby growne cowardly or that for hope to ouercome his pouerty at length and to attaine to riches did for that cause withdraw himselfe from the danger For their principall desire was not wealth but reuenge on their Enemies which esteeming the most honourable cause of danger they made account through it both to accomplish their reuenge and to purchase wealth withall putting the vncertainety of successe to the a count of their hope but for that which was before their eyes relying vpon themselues in the Action and therein chusing rather to fight and dye then to shrinke and bee saued They fled from shame but with their bodies they stood out the Battell and so in a moment whilest Fortune inclineth neither way left their liues not in feare but in opinion of victory Such were these men worthy of their Country and for you that remaine you may pray for a safer furtune but
who being arriued with Cnemus intimated to the Cities about to prouide their Gallies and caused those they had before to be repayred Phormio likewise sent to Athens to make knowne both the Enemies preparation and his owne former victory and withall to will them to send speedily vnto him as many Gallies as they could make ready because they were euery day in expectation of a new fight Heereupon they sent him twenty Gallies but commanded him that had the charge of them to goe first into Crete For Nicias a Cretan of Gortys the publike Host of the Athenians had perswaded them to a voyage against Cydonia telling them they might take it in being now their Enemie Which he did to gratifie the Polichnitae that bordered vpon the Cydonians Therefore with these Gallies hee sayled into Crete and together with the Polichnitae wasted the Territory of the Cydonians where also by reason of the Winds and weather vnfit to take Sea in hee wasted not a little of his time In the meane time whilest these Athenians were Wind-bound in Crete the Peloponnesians that were in Cyllene in order of Battell sayled along the Coast to Panormus of Achaia to which also were their Land-forces come to ayde them Phormio likewise sayled by the shore to Rhium Molychricum and anchored without it with twenty Gallies the same hee had vsed in the former Battell Now this Rhium was of the Athenians side and the other Rhium in Peloponnesus lyes on the opposite shore distant from it at the most but seuen furlongs of Sea and these two make the mouth of the Crissaean Gulfe The Peloponnesians therefore came to an anchor at Rhium of Achaia with 77. Gallies not farre from Panormus where they left their Land Forces After they saw the Athenians and had lyen sixe or seuen daies one against the other meditating and prouiding for the Battell the Peloponnesians not intending to put off without Rhium into the wide Sea for feare of what they had sufferd by it before nor the other to enter the Streight because to fight within they thought to be the Enemies aduantage At last Cnemus Brasidas and the other Commanders of the Peloponnesians desiring to fight speedily before a new supply should arriue from Athens called the Soldiers together and seeing the most of them to be fearefull through their former defeat and not forward to fight againe encouraged them first with words to this effect THE ORATION OF CNEMVS MEn of Peloponnesus If any of you be afraid of the Battell at hand for the successe of the Battell past his feare is without ground For you know wee were inferiour to them then in preparation and set not forth as to a fight at Sea but rather to an expedition by Land Fortune likewise crossed vs in many things and somewhat wee miscarried by vnskilfulnesse so as the losse can no way be ascribed to cowardise Nor is it iust so long as we were not ouercome by meere force but haue somewhat to alledge in our excuse that the mind should bee deiected for the calamity of the euent But we must thinke that though Fortune may faile men yet the courage of a valiant man can neuer faile and not that we may iustifie cowardise in any thing by pretending want of skill and yet bee truely valiant And yet you are not so much short of their skill as you exceede them in valour And though this knowledge of theirs which you so much feare ioyned with courage will not bee without a memory also to put what they know in execution yet without courage no act in the world is of any force in the time of danger For feare confoundeth the memory and skill without courage auaileth nothing To their oddes therefore of skill oppose your oddes of valour and to the feare caused by your ouerthrow oppose your being then vnprouided You haue further now a greater Fleet and to fight on your owne shore with your aydes at hand of men of Armes and for the most part the greatest number and best prouided get the victory So that wee can neither see any one cause in particular why wee should miscarry and whatsoeuer were our wants in the former Battell supplyed in this will now turne to our instruction With courage therefore both Masters and Mariners follow euery man in his order not forsaking the place assigned him And for vs wee shall order the battaile as well as the former Commanders and leaue no excuse to any man of his cowardize And if any will needes be a coward hee shall receiue condigne punishment and the valiant shall be rewarded according to their merit Thus did the Commanders encourage the Peloponnesians And Phormio he likewise doubting that his Souldiers were but faint-hearted and obseruing they had consultations apart and were afraid of the multitude of the enemies Gallies thought good hauing called them together to encourage and admonish them vpon the present occasion For though he had alwayes before told them and predisposed their mindes to an opinion that there was no number of Gallies so great which setting vpon them they ought not to vndertake and also most of the Souldiers had of long time assumed a conceit of themselues that being Athenians they ought not to decline any number of Gallies whatsoeuer of the Peloponnesians yet when he saw that the sight of the enemy present had deiected them he thought fit to reuiue their courage and hauing assembled the Athenians said thus THE ORATION OF PHORMIO SOuldiers hauing obserued your feare of the enemies number I haue called you together not enduring to see you terrified with things that are not terrible For first they haue prepared this great number and oddes of Gallies for that they were ouercome before and because they are euen in their owne opinions too weake for vs. And next their present boldnesse proceeds onely from their knowledge in Land-seruice in confidence whereof as if to be valiant were peculiar vnto them they are now come vp wherin hauing for the most part prospered they thinke to doe the same in seruice by Sea But in reason the oddes must be ours in this as well as it is theirs in the other kinde For in courage they exceed vs not and as touching the aduantage of either side we may better be bold now then they And the Lacedaemonians who are the leaders of the Confederates bring them to fight for the greatest part in respect of the opinion they haue of vs against their wills For else they would neuer haue vndertaken a new battaile after they were once so cleerely ouerthrowne Feare not therefore any great boldnesse on their part But the feare which they haue of you is farre both greater and more certaine not onely for that you haue ouercome them before but also for this that they would neuer beleeue you would goe about to resist vnlesse you had some notable thing to put in practice vpon them For when the enemy is the greater number as
within the Wall againe and Hippias was there-vpon come to him committed him to custody but without bonds and withall assaulting the Wall on a sudden when they expected not tooke it and slew as many of the Arcadians and Barbarians as were within And when hee had done brought Hippias in againe according as hee had promised But after he had him there laid hold on him and caused him to bee shot to death and restored Notium to the Colophonians excluding onely such as had Medized Afterwards the Athenians sent Gouernours to Notium of their owne and hauing gathered together the Colophonians out of all Cities whatsoeuer seated them there vnder the Law of the Athenians Paches when he came backe to Mieylene tooke in Pyrrha and Eressus and hauing found Salaethus the Lacedaemonian hidden in Mitylene apprehended him and sent him together with those men he had put in custody at Tenedos and whomsoeuer else he thought Author of the Reuolt to Athens Hee likewise sent away the greatest part of his Armie and with the rest stayed and settled the State of Mitylene and the rest of Lesbos as he thought conuenient These men and Salaethus with them being arriued at Athens the Athenians slew Salaethus presently though hee made them many offers and amongst other to get the Armie of the Peloponnesians to rise from before Plataea for it was yet besieged but vpon the rest they went to Councell and in their passion decreed to put them to death not onely those men there present but also all the men of Mitylene that were of age and to make slaues of the Women and children laying to their charge the Reuolt it selfe in that they reuolted not being in subiection as others were And withall the Peloponnesian Fleet which durst enter into Ionia to their ayde had not a little aggrauated that Commotion For by that it seemed that the Reuolt was not made without much premeditation They therefore sent a Gally to enforme Paches of their Decree with command to put the Mitylenians presently to death But the next day they felt a kind of repentance in themselues and began to consider what a great and cruell Decree it was that not the Authors onely but the whole Citie should be destroyed Which when the Ambassadors of the Mitylenians that were there present such Athenians as fauoured them vnderstood they wrought with those that bare office to bring the matter again into debate wherin they easily preuailed forasmuch as to them also it was well knowne that the most of the Citie were desirous to haue meanes to consult of the same anew The Assembly beeing presently met amongst the opinions of diuers others Cleon also the sonne of Cleaenetus who in the former Assembly had won to haue them killed being of all the Citizens most violent and with the people at that time farre the most powerfull stood forth and said in this manner THE ORATION OF CLEON. I Haue often on other occasions thought a Democratie vncapable of dominion ouer others but most of all now for this your repentance concerning the Mitylenians For through your owne mutuall security and opennesse you imagine the same also in your Confederates and consider not that when at their perswasion you commit an errour or relent vpon compassion you are softned thus to the danger of the Common-wealth not to the winning of the affections of your Confederates Nor doe you consider that your gouernment is a Tyranny and those that be subiect to it are against their willes so and are plotting continually against you and obey you not for any good turne which to your owne detriment you shall doe them but onely for that you exceed them in strength and for no good will But the worst mischiefe of all is this that nothing wee decree shall stand firme and that we will not know that a City with the worse Lawes if immoueable is better then one with good Lawes when they bee not binding and that a plaine wit accompanied with modesty is more profitable to the State then dexterity with arrogance and that the more ignorant sort of men doe for the most part better regulate a Common-wealth then they that are wiser For these loue to appeare wiser then the Lawes and in all publike debatings to carry the victory as the worthiest things wherein to shew their wisdome from whence most commonly proceedeth the ruine of the States they liue in Whereas the other sort mistrusting their owne wits are content to be esteemed not so wise as the Lawes and not able to carpe at what is well spoken by another and so making themselues equall Iudges rather then contenders for mastery gouerne a State for the most part well Wee therefore should doe the like and not be carried away with combates of eloquence and wit to giue such counsell to your multitude as in our owne iudgements wee thinke not good For my owne part I am of the opinion I was before and I wonder at these men that haue brought this matter of the Mitylenians in question againe and thereby cause delay which is the aduantage onely of them that doe the iniury For the sufferer by this meanes comes vpon the doer with his anger dulled whereas reuenge the opposite of iniurie is then greatest when it followes presently I doe wonder also what he is that shall stand vp now to contradict mee and shall thinke to proue that the iniuries done vs by the Mitylenians are good for vs or that our calamities are any dammage to our Confederates For certainely he must either trust in his eloquence to make you beleeue that that which was decreed was not decreed or moued with lucre must with some elaborate speech endeuour to seduce you Now of such matches of eloquence as these the Citie giueth the prizes to others but the danger that thence proceedeth she her selfe sustaineth And of all this you your selues are the cause by the euill institution of these matches in that you vse to bee spectators of words and hearers of actions beholding future actions in the words of them that speake well as possible to come to passe and actions already past in the Orations of such as make the most of them and that with such assurance as if what you saw with your eyes were not more certaine then what you heare related You are excellent men for one to deceiue with a speech of a new straine but backward to follow any tryed aduice slaues to strange things contemners of things vsuall You would euery one chiefly giue the best aduice but if you cannot then you will contradict those that doe You would not be thought to come after with your opinion but rather if any thing bee acutely spoken to applaud it first and to appeare ready apprehenders of what is spoken euen before it be out but slow to preconceiue the sequell of the same You would heare as one may say somewhat else then what our life is conuersant
are inhabited by the Lipareans who are a Colonie of the Cnidians and dwell in one of the same Ilands no great one called Lipara and thence they goe forth and husband the rest which are Dydime Strongyle and Hiera The Inhabitants of those places haue an opinion that in Hiera Vulcan exerciseth the craft of a Smith For it is seene to send forth abundance of fire in the day time and of Smoake in the night These Ilands are adiacent to the Territorie of the Siculi and Messanians but were Confederates of the Syracusians When the Athenians had wasted their Fields and saw they would not come in they put off againe and went to Rhegium And so ended this Winter and the fifth yeere of this Warre written by Thucydides The next Summer the Peloponnesians and their Confederates came as farre as the Isthmus vnder the conduct of Agis the Sonne of Archidamus intending to haue inuaded Attica but by reason of the many Earthquakes that then happened they turned backe and the inuasion proceeded not About the same time Euboea being then troubled with Earthquakes the Sea came in at Orobiae on the part which then was Land and being impetuous withall ouerflowed most part of the Citie whereof part it couered and part it washed downe and made lower in the returne so that it is now Sea which before was Land And the People as many as could not preuent it by running vp into the higher ground perished Another inundation like vnto this hapned in the I le of Atalanta on the Coast of Locris of the Opuntians and carried away part of the Athenians Fort there and of two Gallies that lay on dry Land it brake one in pieces Also there happened at Peparethus a certaine rising of the water but it brake not in And a part of the Wall the Towne-house and some few houses besides were ouerthrowne by the Earthquakes The cause of such inundation for my part I take to be this that the Earthquake where it was very great did there send off the Sea and the Sea returning on a sudden caused the Water to come on with greater violence And it seemeth vnto me that without an Earthquake such an accident could neuer happen The same Summer diuers others as they had seuerall occasions made Warre in Sicily So also did the Sicilians amongst themselues and the Athenians with their Confederates But I will make mention onely of such most memorable things as were done either by the Confederates there with the Athenians or against the Athenians by the Enemie Charaeades the Athenian Generall being slaine by the Syracusians Laches who was now sole Commander of the Fleet together with the Confederates made Warre on Mylae a Towne belonging to Messana There were in Mylae two companies of Messanians in Garrison the which also laid a certaine Ambush for those that came vp from the Fleet. But the Athenians and their Confederates both put to flight those that were in ambush with the slaughter of the most of them and also assaulting their Fortification forced them on composition both to render the Citadell and to goe along with them against Messana After this vpon the approach of the Athenians and their Confederates the Messanians compounded likewise and gaue them Hostages and such other security as was requisite The same Summer the Athenians sent thirtie Gallies about Peloponnesus vnder the command of Demosthenes the sonne of Antisthenes and Proclus the sonne of Theodorus and 60. Gallies more with 2000. men of Armes commanded by Nicias the sonne of Niceratus into Melos For the Athenians in respect that the Melians were Ilanders and yet would neither bee their Subiects nor of their League intending to subdue them But when vpon the wasting of their Fields they still stood out they departed from Melos and sayled to Oropus in the opposite Continent Beeing there arriued within night the men of Armes left the Gallies and marched presently by Land to Tanagra in Boeotia To which place vpon a signe giuen the Athenians that were in the Citie of Athens came also forth with their whole Forces led by Hipponnicus the sonne of Callias and Eurymedon the sonne of Thucles and ioyned with them and pitching their Campe spent the day in wasting the Territory of Tanagra and lay there the night following The next day they defeated in Battell such of the Tanagrians as came out against them and also certaine succours sent them from Thebes and when they had taken vp the Armes of those that were slaine and erected a Trophie they returned backe the one part to Athens the other to their Fleet. And Nicias with his 60. Gallies hauing first sailed along the Coast of Locris and wasted it came home likewise About the same time the Peloponnesians erected the Colonie of Heraclea in Trachinia with this intention The Melians in the whole containe these three parts Paralians Hiâ—rans and Trachinians Of these the Trachinians being afflicted with Warre from the Oeteans their borderers thought at first to haue ioyned themselues to the Athenians but fearing that they would not bee faithfull vnto them they sent to Lacedaemon choosing for their Ambassadour Tisamenus And the Dorians who are the Mother Nation to the Lacedaemonians sent their Ambassadours likewise with him with the same requests For they also were infested with Warre from the same Oeteans Vpon audience of these Ambassadours the Lacedaemonians concluded to send out a Colonie both intending the reparation of the iniuries done to the Trachinians and to the Doreans and conceiuing withall that the Towne would stand very commodiously for their Warre with the Athenians inasmuch as they might thereby haue a Nauie ready where the passage was but short against Euboea and it would much further their conuoyance of Souldiers into Thrace And they had their minde wholly bent to the building of the place First therefore they asked counsell of the Oracle in Delphi and the Oracle hauing bidden them doe it they sent Inhabitants thither both of their owne people and of the neighbours about them and gaue leaue also to any that would to goe thither out of the rest of Greece saue onely to the Ionians Achaians and some few other Nations The Conductors of the Colonie were three Lacedaemonians Leon Alcidas and Damagon who taking in it hand built the Citie which is now called Heraclâ—a from the very Foundation being distant from Thermopylae fortie Furlongs and from the Sea twenty Also they made houses for Gallies to lye vnder beginning close to Thermopylae against the very streight to the end to haue them the more defensible The Athenians when this Citie was peopled were at first afraid and thought it to bee set vp especially against Euboea because from thence to Ceneum a Promontory of Euboea the passage is but short But it fell out afterwards otherwise then they imagined for they had no great harme by it The reason whereof was this That
constrained in the later end of the day to come to a Sea-fight hauing bin drawne forth about the passage of a certaine Boat to vndertake 16. Gallies of Athens and 8. of Rhegium and being ouercome by the Athenians fell off with the losse of one Gallie and went speedily each side to their own Campe at Messana and Rhegium and the night ouertooke them in the action After this the Locrians departed out of the Territory of the Rhegians and the Fleet of the Syracusians and their Confederates came together to an Anchor at Peloriâ— and had their Land-forces by them But the Athenians and Rhegians came vp to them and finding their Gallies empty of men fell in amongst them and by meanes of a Grapnel cast into one of their Gallies they lost that Gallie but the men swam out Vpon this the Syracusians went aboard and whilest they were towed along the shore towards Messana the Athenians came vp to them againe and the Syracusians * opening themselues charged first and sunke another of their Gallies so the Syracusians passed on to the Port of Messana hauing had the better in their passage by the shore and in the Sea-fight which were both together in such manner as is declared The Athenians vpon newes that Camarina should by Archias and his complices bee betrayed to the Syracusians went thither In the meane time the Messanians with their whole power by Land and also with their Fleet warred on Naxus a Chalcidique Citie their borderer The first day hauing forced the Naxians to retire within their Walls they spoiled their fields the next day they sent their Fleet about into the Riuer Acesine which spoiled the Countrey as it went vp the Riuer with their Land-forces assaulted the City In the meane time many of the Siculi Mountainers came down to their assistance against the Messanians which when they of Naxus perceiued they tooke heart and encouraging themselues with an opinion that the Leontines and all the rest of the Grecians their Confederates had come to succour them sallied suddenly out of the Citie and charged vpon the Messanians and put them to flight with the slaughter of a thousand of their Souldiers the rest hardly escaping home For the Barbarians fell vpon them and slew the most part of them in the High-wayes And the Gallies that lay at Messana not long after diuided themselues and went to their seuerall homes Hereupon the Leontines and their Confederates together with the Athenians marched presently against Messana as being now weakned and assaulted it the Athenians with their Fleet by the Hauen and the Land-forces at the Wall to the Field But the Messanians and certaine Locrians with Demoteles who after this losse had beene left there in Garrison issuing forth and falling suddenly vpon them put a great part of the Leontines Armie to flight and slew many but the Athenians seeing that disbarked and relieued them and comming vpon the Messanians now in disorder chased them againe into the Citie Then they erected a Trophie and put ouer to Rhegium After this the Grecians of Sicily warred one vpon another without the Athenians All this while the Athenians at Pylus besieged the Lacedaemonians in the Iland and the Armie of the Peloponnesians in the Continent remained still vpon the place This keeping of Watch was exceeding painefull to the Athenians in respect of the want they had both of Corne and Water for there was no Well but one and that was in the Fort it selfe of Pylus and no great one And the greatest number turned vp the grauell and drunke such water as they were like to finde there They were also scanted of roome for their Campe and their Gallies not hauing place to ride in they were forced by turnes some to stay ashore and others to take their victuall and lye off at Anchor But their greatest discouragement was the time which they had stayed there longer then they had thought to haue done for they thought to haue famished them out in a few dayes being in a desart Iland and hauing nothing to drinke but salt water The cause hereof were the Lacedaemonians who had proclaimed that any man that would should carry in Meale Wine Cheese and all other esculents necessary for a Siege into the Iland appointing for the same a great reward of siluer and if any Helote should carry in any thing they promised him liberty Heereupon diuers with much danger imported victuall but especially the Helotes who putting off from all parts of Peloponnesus wheresoeuer they chanced to bee came in at the parts of the Iland that lay to the wide Sea But they had a care aboue all to take such a time as to bee brought in with the Wind. For when it blew from the Sea they could escape the watch of the Gallies easily For they could not then lye round about the Iland at Anchor And the Helotes were nothing tender in putting ashoare for they ranne their Gallies on ground valued at a price in money and the men of Armes also watched at all the landing places of the Iland But as many as made attempt when the weather was calme were intercepted There were also such as could diue that swam ouer into the Iland through the Hauen drawing after them in a string Bottles filled with Poppy tempred with Honie and pounded Lintseed wherof some at the first passed vnseene but were afterwards watched So that on either part they vsed all possible art one side to send ouer food the other to apprehend those that carried it The People of Athens being aduertised of the state of their Armie how it was in distresse and that victuall was transported into the Iland knew not what they should doe to it and feared lest Winter should ouertake them in their Siege fearing not onely that to prouide them of necessaries about Peloponnesus and in a desart place withall would bee a thing impossible but also that they should be vnable to send forth so many things as were requisite though it were Summer and againe that the parts thereabout being without Harbour there would bee no place to lye at Anchor in against them but that the Watch there ceasing of it selfe the men would by that meanes escape or in some foule weather bee carried away in the same Boats that brought them meate But that which they feared most was that the Lacedaemonians seemed to haue some assurance of them already because they sent no more to negotiate about them And they repented now that they had not accepted of the Peace But Cleon knowing himselfe to be the man suspected for hindering the agreement said that they who brought the newes reported not the truth Whereupon they that came thence aduising them if they would not beleeue it to send to view the estate of the Army he and Theogenes were chosen by the Athenians to view it But when hee saw that hee must of force eyther
Brasidas should assault it and for the future and tooke into it such as according to the Proclamation made came downe from Amphipolis Brasidas with many Boats came suddenly downe the Riuer to Eion and attempted to seaze on the point of the ground lying out from the wall into the Sea and thereby to command the mouth of the Riuer he assayed also the same at the same time by Land and was in both beaten off but Amphipolis hee furnished with all things necessary Then reuolted to him Myrcinus a City of the Edonians Pittacus the King of the Edonians being slaine by the sons of Goaxis and by Braure his owne wife And not long after Gapselus also and Oesyme Colonies of the Thasians Perdiccas also after the taking of these places came to him and helped him in assuring of the same After Amphipolis was taken the Athenians were brought into great feare especially for that it was a City that yeelded them much profit both in Timber which is sent them for the building of Gallies and in reuenue of money and because also though the Lacedaemonians had a passage open to come against their Confederates the Thessalians conuoying them as farre as to Strymon yet if they had not gotten that Bridge the Riuer being vpwards nothing but a vast Fenne and towards Eion well guarded with their Gallies they could haue gone no further which now they thought they might easily doe and therefore feared lest their Confederates should reuolt For Brasidas both shewed himselfe otherwise very moderate and also gaue out in speech that he was sent forth to recouer the liberty of Greece And the Cities which were subiect to the Athenians hearing of the taking of Amphipolis and what assurance he brought with him and of his gentlenesse besides were extremely desirous of innouation and sent Messengers priuily to bid him draw neere euery one striuing who should first reuolt For they thought they might doe it boldly falsely estimating the power of the Athenians to be lesse then afterwards it appeared and making a iudgment of it according to blind wilfulnesse rather then safe forecast It being the fashion of men what they wish to be true to admit euen vpon an vngrounded hope and what they wish not with a Magistrall kind of arguing to reiect Withall because the Athenians had lately receiued a blow from the Boeotians and because Brasidas had said not as was the truth but as serued best to allure them that when he was at Nisaea the Athenians durst not fight with those forces of his alone they grew confident thereon and beleeued not that any man would come against them But the greatest cause of all was that for the delight they tooke at this time to innouate and for that they were to make triall of the Lacedaemonians not till now angry they were content by any meanes to put it to the hazzard Which being perceiued the Athenians sent Garrison Souldiers into those Cities as many as the shortnesse of the time and the season of Winter would permit And Brasidas sent vnto Lacedaemon to demand greater forces and in the meane time prepared to build Gallies on the Riuer of Strymon But the Lacedaemonians partly through enuy of the principall men and partly because they more affected the redemption of their men taken in the Iland and the ending of the Warre refused to furnish him The same Winter the Megareans hauing recouered their Long-walls holden by the Athenians rased them to the very ground Brasidas after the taking of Amphipolis hauing with him the Confederates marched with his Army into the Territory called Acte This Acte is that prominent Territorie which is disioyned from the Continent by a Ditch made by the King And Athos a high mountaine in the same determineth at the Aegean Sea Of the Cities it hath one is Sane a Colony of the Andrians by the side of the said Ditch on the part which looketh to the Sea towards Euboea The rest are Thyssus Cleonae Acrothoi Olophyxus and Dion and are inhabited by promiscuous Barbarians of two languages some few there are also of the Chalcidean Nations but the most are Pelasgique of those Tyrrhene Nations that once inhabited Athens and Lemnos and of the Bisaltique and Chrestonique Nations and Edonians and dwell in small Cities the most of which yeelded to Brasidas But Sane and Dion held out for which cause he stayed with his Army and wasted their Territories But seeing they would not hearken vnto him he led his Army presently against Torone of Chalcidea held by the Athenians He was called in by the Few who were ready withall to deliuer him the Citie and arriuing there a little before breake of day he sate downe with his Army at the Temple of Castor and Pollux distant about three Furlongs from the Citie So that to the rest of the City and to the Athenian Garrison in it his comming was vnperceiued But the Traitors knowing hee was to come some few of them being also priuily gone to him attended his approach and when they perceiued he was come they tooke in vnto them seuen men armed onely with Daggers for of twenty appointed at first to that seruice seuen only had the courage to go in and were led by Lysistratus of Olynthus which getting ouer the wal towards the main Sea vnseen went vp for the Towne standeth on a hils side to the watch that kept the vpper end of the Towne and hauing slaine the watchmen brake open the Posterne Gate towards Canastraea Brasidas this while with the rest of his Army lay still and then comming a little forward sent 100 Targettiers before who when the Gates should be opened and signe agreed on be set vp should run in first These men expecting long and wondering at the matter by little and little were at length come vp close to the City Those Toroneans within which helped the men that entred to performe the enterprize when the Posterne Gate was broken open and the Gate leading to the Market place opened likewise by cutting asunder the Barre went first and fetch some of them about to the Posterne to the end that they might suddenly affright such of the Towne as knew not the matter both behind and on either side and then they put vp the signe appointed which was fire and receiued the rest of the Targettiers by the Gate that leadeth to the Market place Brasidas when he saw the signe made his Army rise and with a huge cry of all at once to the great terrour of those within entred into the City running Some went directly in by the Gate and some by certaine squared Timber-trees which lay at the wall which hauing been lately downe was now againe in building for the drawing vp of Stone Brasidas therefore with the greatest number betooke himselfe to the highest places of the City to make sure the winning of it by possessing the places of aduantage But
Generals and willed them to speake their minds And whilest Alcibiades was in his Oration and the Citizens at the Assemblie the Souldiers hauing secretly pulled downe a little Gate which was but weakely built entred the City and were walking vp and downe in the Market And the Catanaeans such as fauoured the Syracusians seeing the Army within for feare stole presently out of the Towne being not many The rest concluded the League with the Athenians and willed them to fetch in the rest of the Army from Rhegium After this the Athenians went backe to Rhegium and rising from thence came to Catana with their whole Army together Now they had newes from Camarina that if they would come thither the Camarinaeans would ioyne with them and that the Syracusians were manning their Nauy Whereupon with the whole Army they went along the Coast first to Syracuse where not finding any Nauy manned they went on to Camarina And being come close vp to the shore they sent a Herald vnto them but the Camarinaeans would not receiue the Army alledging that they had taken an Oath not to receiue the Athenians with more then one Gallie vnlesse they should haue sent for more of their owne accord Hauing lost their labour they departed and landed in a part of the Territorie of Syracuse and had gotten some booty But the Syracusian Horsemen comming out and killing some stragglers of the light-armed they returned againe to Catana Heere they finde the Gallie called Salaminia come thither from Athens both for Alcibiades who was commanded to come home to purge himselfe of such things as were laid to his charge by the State and also for other Souldiers that were with him whereof some were accused for prophanation of the Mysteries and some also for the Mercuries For the Athenians after the Fleet was put to Sea proceeded neuerthelesse in the search of those that were culpable both concerning the Mysteries and the Mercuries And making no enquirie into the persons of the informers but through iealousie admitting of all sorts vpon the report of euill men apprehended very good Citizens and cast them into prison Choosing rather to examine the fact and finde the truth by torments then that any man how good soeuer in estimation being once accused should escape vnquestioned For the People hauing by fame vnderstood that the Tyranny of Pisistratus and his sonnes was heauie in the latter end and withall that neither themselues nor Harmodius but the Lacedaemonians ouerthrew it were euer fearefull and apprehended euery thing suspiciously For the fact of Aristogiton and Harmodius was vndertaken vpon an accident of loue which vnfolding at large I shall make appeare that neither any other nor the Athenians thēselues report any certainety either of their owne Tyrants or of the fact For the old Pisistratus dying in the Tyranny not Hipparchus as the most thinke but Hippias who was his eldest sonne succeeded in the gouernment Now Harmodius a man in the flower of his youth of great beautie was in the power of one Aristogiton a Citizen of a middle condition that was his Louer This Harmodius hauing beene sollicited by Hipparchus the sonne of Pisistratus and not yeelding discouered the same vnto Aristogiton Hee apprehending it as Louers vse with a great deale of anguish and fearing the power of Hipparchus lest hee should take him away by force fell presently as much as his condition would permit to a contriuing how to pull downe the Tyranny In the meane time Hipparchus hauing againe attempted Harmodius and not preuailed intended though not to offer him violence yet in secret as if forsooth he did it not for that cause to doe him some disgrace For neither was the gouernment otherwise heauy till then but carried without their euill will And to say the truth these Tyrants held vertue and wisdome in great account for a long time and taking of the Athenians but a twentieth part of their reuenues adorned the Citie mannaged their Warres and administred their religion worthily In other points they were gouerned by the Lawes formerly established saue that these tooke a care euer to preferre to the Magistracy men of their owne adherence And amongst many that had the annuall office of Archon Pisistratus also had it the sonne of Hippias of the same name with his Grandfather who also when he was Archon dedicated the Altar of the twelue Gods in the Market-place and that other in the Temple of Apollo Pythius And though the People of Athens amplifying afterwards that Altar which was in the Market-place thereby defaced the Inscription yet that vpon the Altar that is in the Temple of Apollo Pythius is to bee seene still though in Letters somewhat obscure in these words PISISTRATVS the sonne of HIPPIAS erected this to stand i th' Temple of Apollo Pythius witnesse of his command And that Hippias being the elder Brother had the gouernment I can affirme as knowing it by a more exact relation then other men And it may be knowne also by this It appeares that of all the legitimate brethren this onely had children as is both signified by the Altar and also by that Pillar which for a testimony of the iniustice of the Tyrants was erected in the Athenian Cittadell In which there is no mention of any sonne of Thessalus or of Hipparchus but of fiue sonnes of Hippias which he had by Myrrhine the daughter of Callias the sonne of Hyperochidas For it is probable that the eldest was first married and in the forepart of the Pillar his name after his fathers was the first not without reason as being both next him in age and hauing also inioyed the Tyranny Nor indeed could Hippias haue easily taken on him the gouernment on a sudden if his brother had dyed seazed of the Tyranny and he been the same day to settle it on himselfe Whereas he retained the same with abundant security both for the customary feare in the people and diligence in the Guard and was not to seeke like a younger brother to whom the gouernment had not continually been familiar But Hipparchus came to be named for his mis-fortune and thereby grew an opinion afterwards that he was also Tyrant This Harmodius therefore that had denyed his sute hee disgraced as he before intended For when some had warned a sister of his a Virgin to be present to carry a little Basket in a Procession they reiected her againe when she came and said that they had neuer warned her at all as holding her vnworthy the honour This was taken heauily by Harmodius but Aristogiton for his sake was farre more exasperated then he Whereupon with the rest of the Conspirators he made all things ready for the execution of the designe Onely they were to stay the time of the Holiday called the great Panathenaea vpon which day onely such Citizens as lead the Procession might without suspition be armed in good number And they were to begin the fact themselues but the rest were to helpe
would haue imposed the same condition vpon vs. For these causes vvee tooke vpon vs our dominion ouer them both as worthy of the same in that wee brought the greatest Fleet and promptest courage to the seruice of the Grecians whereas they with the like promptnesse in fauour of the Medes did vs hurt and also as being desirous to procure our selues a strength against the Peloponnesians And follow any other wee will not seeing wee alone haue pulled downe the Barbarian and therefore haue right to command or at least haue put our selues into danger more for the liberty of the Peloponnesians then of all the rest of Greece and our owne besides Now to seeke meanes for ones owne preseruation is a thing vnblameable And as it is for our owne safeties cause that vvee are now heere so also wee finde that the same will be profitable for you Which vvee will make plaine from those very things which they accuse and you as most formidable suspect vs of being assured that such as suspect vvith vehement feare though they may be wonne for the present with the sweetnesse of an Oration yet vvhen the matter comes to performance will then doe as shall be most for their turne Wee haue told you that wee hold our Dominion yonder vpon feare and that vpon the same cause wee come hither now by the helpe of our friends to assure the Cities heere and not to bring you into subiection but rather to keepe you from it And let no man obiect that we be sollicitous for those that are nothing to vs. For as long as you be preserued and able to make head against the Syracusians wee shall be the lesse annoyed by their sending of Forces to the Peloponnesians And in this point you are very much vnto vs. For the same reason it is meete also that vvee replant the Leontines not to subiect them as their kindred in Euboea but to make them as puissant as wee can that being neere they may from their owne Territory weaken the Syracusians in our behalfe For as for our Warres at home wee are a match for our enemies without their helpe And the Chalcidean whom hauing made a slaue yonder the Syracusian said wee absurdly pretend to vindicate into liberty heere is most beneficiall to vs there without Armes paying money onely but the Leontines and other our friends heere are the most profitable to vs when they are most in liberty Now to a Tyrant or Citie that raigneth nothing can bee thought absurd if profitable nor any man a friend that may not bee trusted to Friend or Enemy he must bee according to the seuerall occasions But here it is for our benefit not to vveaken our friends but by our friends strength to weaken our enemies This you must needs beleeue in as much as yonder also wee so command ouer our Confederates as euery of them may bee most vsefull to vs. The Chians and Methymnaeans redeeme their liberty with prouiding vs some Gallies the most of the rest with a Tribute of money somewhat more pressing Some againe of our Confederates are absolutely free notwithstanding that they be Ilanders and easie to be subdued The reason whereof is this they are scituate in places commodious about Peloponnesus It is probable therefore that heere also we will so order our affaires as shall be most for our owne turne and most according to our feare as we told you of the Syracusians For they affect a dominion ouer you and hauing by aduantage of your suspicion of vs drawne you to their side will themselues by force or if we goe home without effect by your want of friends haue the sole command of Sicily Which if you ioyne with them must of necessity come to passe For neither will it be easie for vs to bring so great Forces againe together nor will the Syracusians want strength to subdue you if we bee absent Him that thinketh otherwise the thing it selfe conuinceth for when you called vs in to ayde you at the first the feare you pretended was onely this that if we neglected you the Syracusians would subdue you and we thereby should participate of the danger And it were vniust that the argument you would needs haue to preuaile then with vs should now haue no effect with your selues or that you should be iealous of the much strength we bring against the power of the Syracusians when much rather you should giue the lesse eare vnto them We cannot so much as stay here without you and if becomming perfidious we should subdue these States yet we are vnable to hold them both in respect of the length of the voyage and for want of meanes of guarding them because they be great and prouided after the manner of the Continent Whereas they not lodged neeâ—â— you in a Campe but inhabiting neere you in a Citie of greater power then this of ours will be alwayes watching their aduantages against you And when an opportunity shall be offered against any of your Cities will be sure not to let it slip This they haue already made to appeare both in their proceedings against the Leontines and also otherwise And yet haue these the face to moue you against vs that hinder this and that haue hitherto kept Sicily from falling into their hands But we on the otherside inuite you to a farre more reall safety and pray you not to betray that safety which we both of vs hold from one another at this present but to consider that they by their owne number haue way to you alwayes though without Confederates whereas you shall seldome haue so great an ayde againe to resist them Which if through your iealousie you suffer to goe away without effect or if it miscarry you will hereafter wish for the least part of the same when their comming can no more doe you good But Camarinaeans bee neither you nor others moued with their calumnies We haue told you the very truth why wee are suspected and summarily wee will tell it you againe clayming to preuaile with you thereby We say we command yonder lest else we should obey and we assert into liberty the Cities here lest else we should be harmed by them Many things vvee are forced to be doing because many things vve haue to bevvare of And both novv and before vve came not vncalled but called as Confederates to such of you as suffer vvrong Make not your selues Iudges of vvhat vve doe nor goe about as Censors vvhich vvere novv hard to doe to diuert vs but as farre as this busie humour and fashion of ours may be for your ovvne seruice so farre take and vse it And thinke not the same hurtfull alike to all but that the greatest part of the Grecians haue good by it For in all places though vve be not of any side yet both he that looketh to be wronged and hee that contriueth to doe the wrong by the obuiousnesse of the hope that the one hath of our ayd and of
Army forward the Syracusians and their Confederates still pressing them in the same manner shooting and darting at them from euery side The Athenians hasted to get the Riuer Asinarus not onely because they were vrged on euery side by the assault of the many Horsemen and other multitude and thought to be more at ease when they were ouer the Riuer but out of wearinesse also and desire to drinke When they were come vnto the Riuer they rushed in without any order euery man striuing who should first get ouer But the pressing of the Enemy made the passage now more difficult For being forced to take the Riuer in heaps they fell vpon and trampled one another vnder their feet and falling amongst the Speares and vtensiles of the Armie some perished presently and others catching hold one of another were carried away together downe the streame And not only the Syracusians standing along the farther banke being a steepe one killed the Athenians with their shot from aboue as they were many of them greedily drinking and troubling one another in the hollow of the Riuer but the Peloponnesians came also downe and slew them with their Swords and those especially that were in the Riuer And suddenly the water was corrupted Neuerthelesse they drunke it foule as it was with blood and mire and many also fought for it In the end when many dead lay heaped in the Riuer and the Armie was vtterly defeated part at the Riuer and part if any gat away by the Horsemen Nicias yeelded himselfe vnto Gylippus hauing more confidence in him then in the Syracusians To be for his owne person at the discretion of him and the Lacedaemonians and no further slaughter to be made of the Souldiers Gylippus from thenceforth commanded to take prisoners So the residue except such as were hidden from them which were many they carried aliue into the Citie They sent also to pursue the 300. which brake through their guards in the night and tooke them That which was left together of this Armie to the publike was not much but they that were conueyed away by stealth were very many and all Sicily was filled with them because they were not taken as those with Demosthenes were by composition Besides a great part of these were slaine for the slaughter at this time was exceeding great none greater in all the Sicilian Warre They were also not a few that dyed in those other assaults in their March Neuerthelesse many also escaped some then presently and some by running away after seruitude the Rendez-uous of whom was Catana The Syracusians and their Confederates being come together returned with their prisoners all they could get and with the spoile into the Citie As for all other the prisoners of the Athenians and their Confederates they put them into the Quarries as the safest custodie But Nicias and Demosthenes they killed against Gylippus his will For Gylippus thought the victory would be very honourable if ouer and aboue all his other successe he could carry home both the Generals of the Enemy to Lacedaemon And it fell out that the one of them Demosthenes was their greatest Enemy for the things he had done in the Iland and at Pylus and the other vpon the same occasion their greatest friend For Nicias had earnestly laboured to haue those prisoners which were taken in the Iland to bee set at liberty by perswading the Athenians to the Peace For which cause the Lacedaemonians were inclined to loue him And it was principally in confidence of that that he rendred himselfe to Gylippus But certaine Syracusians as it is reported some of them for feare because they had beene tampering with him lest being put to the torture hee might bring them into trouble whereas now they were well enough and others especially the Corinthians fearing he might get away by corruption of one or other being wealthy and worke them some mischiefe afresh hauing perswaded their Confederates to the same killed him For these or for causes neere vnto these was hee put to death being the man that of all the Grecians of my time had least deserued to be brought to so great a degree of misery As for those in the Quarries the Syracusians handled them at first but vngently For in this hollow place first the Sunne and suffocating ayre being without roofe annoyed them one way and on the other side the nights comming vpon that heate autumnall and cold put them by reason of the alteration into strange diseases Especially doing all things for want of roome in one and the same place and the Carkasses of such as dyed of their wounds or change of ayre or other like accident lying together there on heaps Also the smell was intollerable besides that they were afflicted with hunger and thirst For for eight moneths together they allowed them no more but to euery man a Cotyle of water by the day and two Cotiles of Corne. And whatsoeuer misery is probable that men in such a place may suffer they suffered Some 70 dayes they liued thus thronged Afterwards retaining the Athenians and such Sicilians and Italians as were of the Army with them they sold the rest How many were taken in all it is hard to say exactly but they were 7000 at the fewest And this was the greatest action that hapned in all this Warre or at all that we haue heard of amongst the Grecians being to the Victors most glorious and most calamitous to the vanquicted For being wholly ouercome in euery kinde and receiuing small losse in nothing their Army and Fleet and all that euer they had perished as they vse to say with an vniuersall destruction Few of many returned home And thus passed the businesse concerning Sicily THE EIGHTH BOOK OF THE HISTORIE OF THVCYDIDES The principall Contents The Reuolt of the Athenian Confederates and the Offers made by Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus the Kings Lieutenants of the lower Asia draw the Lacedaemonians to the Warre in Ionia and Hellespont First in Ionia and the Prouinces of Tissaphernes who by the Councell of Alcibiades and conniuence of Astyochus hindereth their proceedings Alcibiades in the meane while to make way for his returne into his countrey giueth occasion of sedition about the gouernment whence ensued the authority of the 400 vnder the pretext of the 5000 the recalling of Alcibiades by the Army and at length by his countenance the deposing againe of the 400 and end of the Sedition But in the meane time they lose Euboea Mindarus Successor of Astyochus finding himselfe abused by Tissaphernes carrieth the Warre to Pharnabazus into Hellespont and there presently loseth a Battell to the Athenians before Abydus being then Summer and the 21 yeere of the Warre WHen the newes was told at Athens they beleeued not a long time though it were plainly related and by those very Souldiers that escaped from the defeat it selfe that all was so vtterly lost at it was When they knew it they were mightily offended with
refuge and moderator of the others insolence This he said hee was certaine that the Cities thought in that they had learned the same by the actions themselues And that therefore what was yet propounded by Alcibiades he by no meanes approued But those of the Conspiracy there assembled not onely approued the present proposition but also made preparation to send Pisander and others Ambassadours to Athens to negotiate concerning the reduction of Alcibiades the dissolution of the Democracie and the procuring vnto the Athenians the friendship of Tissaphernes Now Phrynichus knowing that an ouerture was to bee made at Athens for the restoring of Alcibiades and that the Athenians would embrace it and fearing lest being recalled he should doe him a mischiefe in regard hee had spoken against it as one that would haue hindred the same betooke himselfe to this course He sends secret Letters to Astyochus the Lacedaemonian Generall who was yet about Miletus and aduertised him that Alcibiades vndid their affaires and was procuring the friendship of Tissaphernes for the Athenians writing in plaine termes the whole businesse and desiring to bee excused if hee rendred euill to his enemy with some disaduantage to his Countrey Astyochus had before this laid by the purpose of reuenge against Alcibiades especially when he was not in his owne hands And going to him to Magnesia and to Tissaphernes related vnto them what aduertisement he had receiued from Samos and made himselfe the appeacher For he adhered as was said to Tissaphernes for his priuate lucre both in this and in diuers other matters which was also the cause that concerning the pay when the abatement was made hee was not so stout in opposing it as hee ought to haue beene Hereupon Alcibiades sendeth Letters presently to those that were in office at Samos accusing Phrynichus of what hee had done and requiring to haue him put to death Phrynichus perplexed with this discouery brought into danger indeed sends againe to Astyochus blaming what was past as not well concealed and promised now to be ready to deliuer vnto him the whole Armie at Samos to be destroyed writing from point to point Samos being vnwalled in what manner he would doe it and saying that since his life was brought in danger they could not blame him though he did this or any other thing rather then be destroyed by his most deadly enemies This also Astyochus reuealed vnto Alcibiades But Phrynichus hauing had notice betimes how he abused him and that Letters of this from Alcibiades were in a manner come he anticipates the newes himselfe and tels the Armie That whereas Samos was vnwalled and the Gallies rid not all within the Enemy meant to come and assault the Harbour That hee had sure intelligence hereof and that they ought therefore with all speed to raise a Wall about the Citie and to put Garrisons into other places thereabouts Now Phrynichus was Generall himselfe and it was in his owne power to see it done They then fell to walling wherby Samos which they meant to haue done howsoeuer was so much the sooner walled in Not long after came Letters from Alcibiades that the Army was betrayed by Phrynichus and that the Enemy purposed to inuade the Harbour where they lay But now they thought not Alcibiades worthy to be beleeued but rather that hauing foreseene the designe of the enemy he went about out of malice to fasten it vpon Phrynichus as conscious of it likewise So that he did him no hurt by telling it but bare witnesse rather of that which Phrynichus had told them of before After this Alcibiades endeuoured to encline and perswade Tissaphernes to the friendship of the Athenians for though Tissaphernes feared the Peloponnesians because their Fleete was greater then that of the Athenians yet if hee had beene able he had a good will to haue beene perswaded by him especially in his anger against the Peloponnesians after the dissension at Cnidus about the League made by Theramenes for they were already falne out the Peloponnesians being about this time in Rhodes wherein that which had beene before spoken by Alcibiades how that the comming of the Lacedaemonians was to restore all the Cities to their liberty was now verifyed by Lichas in that he said it was an Article not to be suffered that the King should hold those Cities which he and his Ancestors then or before had holden Alcibiades therefore as one that laboured for no trifle with all his might applyed himselfe to Tissaphernes The Athenian Ambassadours sent from Samos with Pisander being arriued at Athens were making their propositions to the People And related vnto them summarily the points of their businesse and principally this That if they would call home Alcibiades and not suffer the Gouernment to remaine in the hands of the People in such manner as it did they might haue the King for their Confederate and get the victory of the Peloponnesians Now when many opposed that point touching the Democracie and the enemies of Alcibiades clamoured withall that it would bee a horrible thing hee should return by forcing the Gouernmēt when the Eumolpidae and Ceryces bare witnesse against him concerning the Mysteries for which he fled and prohibited his returne vnder their curse Pisander at this great opposition and querimony stood out and going amongst them tooke out one by one those that were against it and asked them Whether now that the Peloponnesians had as many Gallies at Sea to oppose them as they themselues had and Confederate Cities more then they and were furnished with money by the King and Tissaphernes the Athenians being without they had any other hope to saue their State but by perswading the King to come about to their side And they that were asked hauing nothing to answer then in plaine termes hee said vnto them This you cannot now obtaine except wee administer the State with more moderation and bring the power into the hands of a Few that the King may rely vpon vs. And wee deliberate at this time not so much about the forme as about the preseruation of the State for if you mislike the forme you may change it againe hereafter And let vs recall Alcibiades who is the onely man that can bring this to passe The People hearing of the Oligarchy tooke it very haynously at first But when Pisander had proued euidently that there was no other way of safety in the end partly for feare and partly because they hoped againe to change the Gouernment they yeelded thereunto So they ordered that Pisander and tenne others should goe and treate both with Tissaphernes and with Alcibiades as to them should seeme best Withall vpon the accusation of Pisander against Phrynichus they discharged both Phrynichus and Scironidas his fellow-Commissioner of their Command and made Diomedon and Leon Generals of the Fleet in their places Now the cause why Pisander accused Phrynichus and said he had betrayed Iäsus
the other the Army to an Oligarchy And presently there was an Assembly of the Souldiers called wherein they depriued the former Commanders and such Captaines of Gallies as they had in suspition of their charge and chose others both Captaines of Gallies and Commanders in their places of which Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus were two And they stood vp and encouraged one another both otherwise and with this That they had no cause to be deiected for the Cities reuolting from them For they at Athens being the lesser part had forsaken them who were not onely the greater part but also euery way the better prouided For they hauing the whole Nauy could compell the rest of the cities subiect vnto them to pay in their mony as well now as if they were to set out from Athens it selfe And that they also had a Citie namely Samos no weake one but euen such a one aâ— when they were enemies wanted little of taking the Dominion of the Sea from the Athenians That the seat of the Warre was the same it was before and that they should be better able to prouide themselues of things necessary hauing the Nauie then they should be that were at home in the City And that they at Athens were Masters of the entrance of Piraeus both formerly by the fauour of them at Samos and that now also vnlesse they restore them the Gouernment they shall againe bee brought to that passe that those at Samos shall bee better able to barre them the vse of the Sea then they shall bee to barre it them of Samos That it was a trifle and worth nothing which was conferred to the ouercomming of the Enemy by the Citie and a small matter it would be to lose it seeing they had neither any more Siluer to send them for the Souldiers shifted for themselues nor yet good direction which is the thing for which the Citie hath the command of the Armies Nay that in this point they erred which were at Athens in that they had abrogated the Lawes of their Countrey whereas they at Samos did both obserue the same themselues and endeuour to constraine the other to doe so likewise So that such of them in the Campe as should giue good councell were as good as they in the Citie And that Alcibiades if they would decree his security and his returne would with all his heart procure the King to bee their Confederate And that which is the maine thing if they fayled of all other helpes yet with so great a Fleet they could not faile of many places to retire to in which they might finde both Citie and Territorie When they had thus debated the matter in the Assembly and encouraged one another they made ready as at other times whatsoeuer was necessary for the Warre And the tenne Ambassadours which were sent to Samos from the Foure-hundred hearing of this by the way at Delos whither they were come already stayed still there About the same time also the Souldiers of the Peloponnesian Fleet at Miletus murmured amongst themselues that Astyochus and Tissaphernes ouerthrew the state of their Affaires Astyochus in refusing to fight both before when their owne Fleete was stronger and that of the Athenians but small and also now whilest they were said to bee in sedition and their Fleet diuided and in expecting the Phoenician Fleet in fame not in fact to come from Tissaphernes And Tissaphernes in that hee not onely brought not in that Fleete of his but also impaired theirs by not giuing them their pay neither fully nor continually And that they therefore ought no longer to delay time but to hazard battell This was vrged principally by the Syracusians Astyochus and the Confederates when they heard of the murmur and had in Counsell resolued to fight especially after they were informed that Samos was in a tumult putting forth with their whole Fleet to the number of 121 Sayle with order giuen to the Milesians to march by Land to the same place went to Mycale But the Athenians being come out from Samos with their Fleet of 82 Gallies and riding now at Glauce of the Territory of Mycale for in this part toward Mycale Samos is but a little way from the Continent when they descryed the Peloponnesian Fleet comming against them put in againe to Samos as not esteeming themselues a sufficient number to hazard their whole fortune on the Battell Besides they stayed for the comming of Strombichides from Hellespont to their ayde for they saw that they of Miletus had a desire to fight with those Gallies that went from Chius against Abydus for they had sent vnto him before So these retired into Samos And the Peloponnesians putting in at Mycale there encamped as also did the Land-forces of the Milesians and others of the Countrey thereabouts The next day when they meant to haue gone against Samos they receiued newes that Strombichides with his Gallies was arriued out of Hellespont and thereupon returned presently to Miletus Then the Athenians on the other side with the addition of these Gallies went to Miletus being now one hundred and eight Sayle intending to fight but when no body came out against them they likewise went backe to Samos Immediately after this the same Summer the Peloponnesians who refused to come out against the Enemy as holding themselues with their whole Fleete too weake to giue them Battell and were now at a stand how to get Money for the maintenance of so great a number of Gallies sent Clearchus the sonne of Rhamphias with fortie Gallies according to the order at first from Peloponnesus to Pharnabazus For not onely Pharnabazus himselfe had sent for and promised to pay them but they were aduertised besides by Ambassadours that Byzantium had a purpose to reuolt Hereupon these Peloponnesian Gallies hauing put out into the maine Sea to the end that they might not be seene as they passed by and tossed with Tempests part of them which were the greatest number and Clearchus with them got into Delos and came afterwards to Miletus againe but Clearchus went thence againe into the Hellespont by Land and had the command there and part vnder the charge of Elixus a Megarean which were tenne Sayle went safely through into the Hellespont and caused Byzantium to reuolt And after this when they of Samos heard of it they sent certaine Gallies into Hellespont to oppose them and to be a guard to the Cities thereabouts and there followed a small fight betweene them of eight Gallies to eight before Byzantium In the meane time they that were in authority at Samos and especially Thrasybulus who after the forme of Gouernment changed was still of the minde to haue Alcibiades recalled at length in an Assembly perswaded the Souldiers to the same And when they had decreed for Alcibiades both his returne and his security he went to Tissaphernes and fetched Alcibiades to Samos accounting it their onely meanes of safety to winne Tissaphernes from the
Peloponnesians to themselues An Assembly being called Alcibiades complained of and lamented the calamity of his owne exile and speaking much of the businesse of the State gaue them no small hopes of the future time hyperbolically magnifying his own power with Tissaphernes to the end that both they which held the Oligarchy at home might the more feare him and so the Conspiracies dissolue and also those at Samos the more honour him and take better heart vnto themselues and withall that the Enemy might obiect the same to the vtmost to Tissaphernes and fall from their present hopes Alcibiades therefore with the greatest boast that could bee affirmed that Tissaphernes had vndertaken to him that as long as he had any thing left if hee might but trust the Athenians they should neuer want for maintenance no though hee should bee constrained to make Money of his owne bed and that he would fetch the Phoenician Fleet now at Aspendus not to the Peloponnesians but to the Athenians And that then onely hee would rely vpon the Athenians when Alcibiades called home should vndertake for them Hearing this and much more they chose him presently for Generall together with those that were before and commited vnto them the whole gouernment of their affaires And now there was not a man that would haue sold his present hopes both of subsisting themselues and being reuenged of the Foure-hundred for any good in the world and were ready euen then vpon those words of his contemning the Enemie there present to set sayle for Piraeus But he though many pressed it by all meanes forbade their going against Piraeus being to leaue their Enemies so neere but since they had chosen him Generall he was he said to goe to Tissaphernes first and to dispatch such businesse with him as concerned the Warre And as soone as the Assembly brake vp he tooke his iourney accordingly to the end that he might seeme to communicate euery thing with him and for that he desired also to bee in more honour with him and to shew that hee was Generall and a man capable to doe him good or hurt And it happened to Alcibiades that he awed the Athenians with Tissaphernes and Tissaphernes with the Athenians When the Peloponnesians that were at Miletus heard that Alcibiades was gone home whereas they mistrusted Tissaphernes before now they much more accused him For it fell out that when at the comming of the Athenians with their Fleet before Miletus they refused to giue them Battell Tissaphernes became therby a great deale slacker in his payment besides that he was hated by them before this for Alcibiades sake the Souldiers now meeting in Companies apart reckoned vp one to another the same matters which they had noted before and some also men of value and not the common Souldier alone recounted this withall how they had neuer had their full stipend that the allowance was but small and yet not continually paid and that vnlesse they either fought or went to some other place where they might haue maintenance their men would abandon the Fleet and that the cause of all this was in Astyochus who for priuate lucre gaue way to the humour of Tissaphernes Whilest these were vpon this consideration there happened also a certaine tumult about Astyochus For the Mariners of the Syracusians and Thurians by how much they were a multitude that had greater liberty then the rest with so much the stouter importunity they demaunded their pay And he not onely gaue them somewhat an insolent answer but also threatned Dorieus that amongst the rest spake for the Souldiers vnder himselfe and lift vp his staffe against him When the Souldiers saw that they tooke vp a cry like Seamen indeed all at once and were running vpon Astyochus to haue stricken him But foreseeing it he fled to an Altar and was not stricken but they were parted againe The Milesians also tooke in a certaine Fort in Miletus built by Tissaphernes hauing priuily assaulted it and cast out the Garrison that was within it These things were by the rest of the Confederates and especially by the Syracusians well approued of but Lichas liked them not saying it behoued the Milesians and the rest dwelling within the Kings Dominion to haue obeyed Tissaphernes in all moderate things and till such time as the Warre should haue been well dispatched to haue courted him And the Milesians for this and other things of this kind were offended with Lichas and afterwards when hee dyed of sickenesse would not permit him to bee buried in that place where the Lacaedaemonians then present would haue had him Whilest they were quarrelling about their businesse with Astyochus and Tissaphernes Mindarus commeth in from Lacedaemon to succeed Astyochus in his charge of the Fleet. And as soone as he had taken the Command vpon him Astyochus departed But with him Tissaphernes sent a Carian named Cauleites one that spake both the Languages both to accuse the Milesians about the Fort and also to make an Apologie for himselfe Knowing that the Milesians went principally to exclaime vpon him and that Hermocrates went with them and would bewray how Tissaphernes vndid the businesse of the Peloponnesians with Alcibiades and dealt on both hands For he was continually at enimity with him about the payment of the Souldiers wages and in the end when Hermocrates was banished from Syracuse and other Commanders of the Syracusian Fleet namely Potamis Miscon and Demarchus were arriued at Miletus Tissaphernes lay more heauy vpon him being an Outlaw then before and accused him amongst other things that he had asked him mony and because he could not haue it became his Enemie So Astyochus and Hermocratâ—s and the Milesians went their way to Lacedaemon Alcibiades by this time was come backe from Tissaphernes to Samos And those Ambassadours of the Foure-hundred which had beene sent out before to mollifie and to informe those of Samos came from Delos now whilest Alcibiades was present An Assembly being called they were offering to speake but the Souldiers at first would not heare them but cryed out to haue them put to death for that they had deposed the People yet afterwards with much adoe they were calmed and gaue them hearing They declared That the change had beene made for the preseruation of the City not to destroy it nor to deliuer it to the Enemy for they could haue done that before now when the Enemy during their gouernment assaulted it That euery one of the 5000 was to participate of the Gouernment in their turnes And their friends were not as Chaereas had laid to their charge abused nor had any wrong at all but remained euery one quietly vpon his owne Though they deliuered this and much more yet the Souldiers beleeued them not but raged still and declared their opinions some in one sort some in another most agreing in this to goe against Piraeus And now Alcibiades appeared to be the first
in shipping 15. D. called of old Phâ—â—â—ia 15. E. conuenieÌ„tly situated for passage into Sicily 25 D. Corcyraeans not accustomed to league with others 22 B. 19. D. masters of the Sea 18. D. diuerse of them taken by the Corinthians in Aâ—actorium 30. C. their sedition beginneth 182. D the great men take Sanctuary 185. A. they encampe on Istone 191. B. Corinthians protect Epidamnus â—5 C. their expostulation with the Athenians 29. C. Corinthia inuaded by the Athenians 235. D. Corinth how farre from the Sea that looketh towards Athens 236. A. Corinthians fall off from the Lacedaemonians to the Argiues and why 305. D. they fall off againe from the Argiues and why 321. A. they resolue to ayde the Syracusians 400. B. Coronâ—a 53. A. Corontae 142. A. Cortyta 242. D. Corycus 476. D. 487. C.E. Coryphasium 213. A. Cos 491. D. Councell of the Beane 509. A. Cranij 98. D. 99. D. 31â— D. Crissaean Gulfe 56. B. 128. A. 126. A. 131. D. Crocylium 197. C. In Customes as in Arts the newest preuaile 35. C. Cuâ—â—ome of the Lacedaemonians not hastily to condemne a Spartan 70. B. Custome of the Thracians touching gifts 138. D. Cyclades gouerned by the sonnes of Minos 3. E. Cyclopes 350 A. Cydonia 130. B. Cyllene 18. C. 130. C. Cylon 66. B. Cyme 486. D. Cynossemâ— 532. B. Cynuria 24â— A. 315. A. Cyreneans 443. C. Cyrrhus 140. D. Cythera opposite to Malâ—â— 241. B. taken by the Athenians 141. â—â— Cytherodices 241. B. Cytheraeans remoued into the Cyclades 243. D. 〈◊〉 56. A. 〈◊〉 recouered by the Athenians 533. D. D DAphnus 486. C. Dâ—scoâ— 387. D. Daâ—lia 98. A. Decelâ—a The incommodities arising to the Athenians by the fortification there 428. B.D. Delphi 17. B. Deâ—os the Treasury of the Athenian Tributes 53. C. Delos consecrated 200. E. no man might bee borne or suffered to dye in Delos 201. B. Delian Games 201. B. Delians driuen out of Delos are receiued into Aâ—â—â—myttium 290. A. replanted in Delos 309. A. 〈◊〉 in the Territory of 〈◊〉 254. B. taken by the 〈◊〉 â—61 B. Battell at Deliâ—â— 265. A. 〈◊〉 Democracy conspired against at Athens 56. C. Democracy dissolued at Argos 338. E. Dâ—mocracy what it is 401. B. Demosthenes inuadeth Aetolia 196 B. is defeated 198 D. feareth to returne to Athens 198. E. hee maketh Peace with the Peloponnesians shut vp in Olpae and why 205· B. his acts in Acarnania 202. D. sequ he attempteth Siphâ— in Boeotia 261. A. he taketh in Pylus 212. D. he putteth the Foâ—t before Epidaurus into the hands of the Epidaurians and how 338. hee arriueth at Syracuse 437. C. his attempt on Epipolae 438. C. aduiseth to rise from before Syracuse 441. C. is taken Prisoner 464. D. 〈◊〉 141 C. 〈◊〉 brother to Perdiccas 31. B. Dialogue betweene the Athenians and Melians 341. A. Dâ—â—tyiaâ—s 339. A. Didyme â—92 B. 〈◊〉 137. E. Diomilus a Fugitiue of Aâ—dres 405. C. slaine at Epipolae 406. A. Dion in Macedonie 256. A. Dion in Mount Athos 273. A. Doberus 139. C. Dolopia 142. B. Dorieus of Rhodes victor in the Olympian Games 149. B. Doris Metrapolitan of the Lacedaemonians 56. A. Drabescus 53. A. Droans 141 C. Drimyssa 486. D. Dyme 129. D. E EArthquake attributed to the violation of Religion 67. A. Earthquake at Delos 86. B. Earthquake hindreth the Lacedaemonians from inuading Attica 53. B. 192. D. Earthquakes 240. C. 232. D. 318. A. 192. A. 193. A. their naturall cause 193. B. Echinades 142. B. C. Eclipse of the Sunne 97. D. 240. C. of the Moone 444 A. it keepeth Nicias from remouing from before Syracuse ibib Eâ—tioneia fortifyed by whom and why 522. A. Egestaean Ambassadours at Athens 354. C. the Egestaeans deceiue the Athenians and how 376. B. Eidomene 140. C. Eidonia 140. B Eidonians 53. A. Eion 51 E. 214. C. 240. A. Elaphâ—bolion 302. A.B. Eleans their League with Corinth 308. A. their quarrell with the Lepreates 308. B. and with the Lacedaemonians 308. C. they leaue the Argiue Army and why 328. D. they refuse to be comprehended in the Peace betweene the Lacedaemonians and Athenians 300. A. Eleatis 26. B. 93. C. Eleus an Iland adiacent to Miletus 483. E. Eâ—ipeus 255. C. Eorda 140. B. Ephesus 73. A. Ephori their power to imprison their King 69. B. Ephyre 26. B. Epidamnus 14. D. Epidamnians implore the ayde of the Corcyraeans 15. B. they put themselues into the protection of the Corinthians ibid. Epidaurus taken by the Corcyraeans 18. B. Epidaurus 111. C. Epidaurian war 323. C. Epidaurus besieged by the Athenians 335. D. Epidaurus Limera 242. E. Epidemiurgi Magistrates 31. A. Epipolae 405. B. Erae reuolteth from the Athenians 479. D. Eressus 162. A. reuolteth 481. B. 529. D. Eretrians betray the Athenians 526. C. Erineus 56. A. Erythrae 157. D. 161. A. Euarchus Tyrant of Astacus 98. D. 99. C. Euboea reuolteth from the Athenians 59. B. recouered by Pericles 59. C. Euboea 147. B. Euboeans send to Agis for protection 472. A. Euenus 128. C. Euesperitae 443. C. Eupolium 199. D. Euristheus 6. B.C. Europus 140 D. Euryalus 405. D. 415. A Eurymedon slaine 444. D. Eurytanians 196. C. Euxine Sea 137. D. Exaction cause of reuolt 52. B. F FAble of Alcmaeon 142. D. Factions of the Grecians 12. A. Fattest soyles most subiect to change of inhabitants 2. C. Feare the cause of faith in Leagues 150. C. Feare of iniury to come cause of Warre 151. B. Fire A great fire in Plataea 124. â— Fires significant 136. C. 187. A. Fire breaketh out of Aetna 209. B. Fleet of Athenians at Salamis how great 40. B. the Fleet for Sicily 366. C. how great 374. D. not receiued by the cities of Sicily 375. B.C. Fort before Epidaurus 335. E. the Fortification of the Peloponnesians about Plataea 155. A. Funerall at Athens for the first slaine in the Warre 100. A. G GAâ—â—es Olympian 5. A. Gapselus 271. C. 292. B. Garments of the Lacedaemonian Nobility 5. A. Gela when and by whom built 352. A. Geomori 480. C. Geraestus 147. B. Geranea 55. B. 56. B. D. 250. C. Getes 139. C. Gigonus 33. A. Gongylus keepeth the Syracusians from yeelding to the Athenians 414. D. Gortynia 140. D. Grashoppers worne by the Athenians 4. D. Greece diuided into Leagues 11. D. Grestonia 140. B. Guifâ—s the custome of the Thracians to take gifts 38. D. Gylippus Generall of the Peloponnesians at Syracuse 404 A arriueth at Syracuse 415. A. his message to the Athenians 415. B. H HAlias 54. E. 111. C. Harmodius 12. C. solicited to loue by Hipparchus 380. A. Hellanicus the Historiographer 51. D. Hellas whence so called 3. B. Hellen the sonne of Deucalion 3. B. Helorine way 388. A. Helotes 33. B. why called Messenians ib. the plots of the Lacedaemonians to keepe them weake 256. D. Heraclea when and by whom built 195. C. infested by the Thessalians ibid. commodiously seated for the Warre against Athens 194. D. Heraclea 255 A. weakned by the Dolopians 322. D. Heracleides 3. B. 8.
so called from Pelops The increase of the power of the Pelopians c A kindred and race of men whereof was Hercules This Family was persecuted by Euristheus who was of the House of Perseus and driuen into Attica thither he following them was slaine by the Athenians d Astidamia the Mother of Euristheus was Atreus his Sister * Atreus and Thyestes Sonnes of Pelops at the impulsion of their Mother slew this Crysippus who was their halfe Brother viz. by the Father and for this fact Atreus fled to Euristheus Atreus King of Mycenae after the death of Pelops e The House of Pelops f The House of Perseus g The Sonne of Atreus heyre to the power of both Houses both of the Pelopeides and of the Perseides Mycenae though no great Citie yet was of great power * 1. Laconia 2. Arcaedia 3. Argolica 4. Messenia 5. Elis. Morea * Laconia Messenia The City of Sparta lesse and the City of Athens greater then for the proportion of their power A Suruey of the Fleet sent to Troy * As Achyles Vlysses Ajax Diomedes Patroclus and the like * The whole number of men estimating the Ships at a medium to carry 85. men apiece which is the meane betweene 120. and 50 come to 102000. men carried in these 1200. Ships Yet the Author makes it a light matter in respect of the present Warre The pouerty of the Gâ—â—ekes was the cause why the Troians could so long hold out The state of Greece after the Troian Warre Boeotia more anciently Cadmeis The Jonians were the Colonies of the Athenians The difference 〈◊〉 Tyranny and 〈◊〉 Authâ—rity At Corinth were made 〈◊〉 first 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 oâ— thâ—â—e tiâ—â— of Oare one aboue another * By this it 〈…〉 Thucydides 〈…〉 who le 〈◊〉 * Bâ— Periander 〈…〉 of Corinth 〈…〉 of his Sonne 〈◊〉 Herod in Thâ—lia The meanes of the wealth of Corinth Corinth surnamed the Rich. The Ionians had a Nauy in Cyrus his time Polycrates Tyrant of Samos had a Nauy in the time of Cambyses * The Phocaeans in the time of Taâ—quinius came into the Mouth of Tyber entred into amity with the Romans and thence went and built Marseilles amongst the Sauage Nations of the Ligurians and Gaules Iustin l. 42. * Medes and Persians vsed heere promiscuously the Medan Monarchy being translated to the Persians * Of the Corinthians Iönians and Phoceans Egina The shipping of Greece very meane before this Warre The causes why the Grecians neuer ioyned their forces in any great action The Iâ—nians kept downe by the Persian * Pisistratus â—nd hâ—s sâ—nnes The Lacedaemonians put downe the Tyrants through all Grâ—ece * Xerxes * A Fleet of 1200. Gallies and 2000. Hulks of the round manner of building Cerâ— Nepos in vita Themistoclis * The Athenians being admonished by the Oracle for their safety against the Medes to put themselues within Walls of wood Themistocles interpreting the Oracle they went into their Gallies All Greece deuided into two Leagues the Lacedaemonians and their League and the Athenians and their League * This variance began vpon this That Cimoâ— hauing beene sent for to aydâ— the Lacedaemonians against the Helots was sent backe with his Athenians out of distrust the Lacedaemonians had of thâ—ir forward spirit which the Athenians toâ—ke for a disgrace The manner how the Lacedaemonians dealt with their Confederates * The gouernment of the Few that is to say of the Nobility The manner how the Athenians handled their Confederates * Hence it is that through all this History Subiects and Confederates are taken for the same thing especially with the Athenians * Of the People of Athens it selfe excluding theiâ— Confederates Digression to shew how negligently men receiue the fame of things past by the example of their error touching the Story of Hippias the sonne of Pisistratus which it seemes he willingly mentions both heere and heereafter on light occasion * Panathenaica were Solemnities instituted by Theseus in memory of that he had drawn together all the Athenians that liued dispersed in Attica into the Citie of Athens Paus. in Arcad. * Lucan seemeth to retaine the same errour in Harmodias * A Tribe of the Lacedaemonians The diligence of the Author in the enquirie of the truth of what he wrote both touching the Orations and the Actions * To the analogie and fitnesse of what was to be said so that though he vsed not their words yet he vsed the arguments that best might serue to the purpose which at any time was in hand The vse of this History * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Both Poet and Historiographers of old recited their Histories to captate glory This emulation of glory in their writings he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈…〉 Sea viz. oâ—e 〈◊〉 and 〈…〉 And 2. 〈…〉 Thermopyle 〈…〉 Earthquakes Eclipses Famine Pestilence concomitants of this Warre * By the Athenians Negroponte The causes of the Warre Feare necessitates the Warre in the Lacedaemonians The first pretext Dyrrhachium Durâ—zzo Now the Gulfe of Venice called so from 〈◊〉 â—n Jllyrian 〈◊〉 now Slauonia and Dalmatia * Jnhabitants of Corcyra now Corfù * Corcyra was a Colony of Corinth and Epidamnus of Corcyra * Corfâ— * Either the Epidamnians had offended the Corcyraeans or the manner was 〈◊〉 those 〈◊〉 to tâ—ke Sanctuary not only for crimes but for obâ—aining aid in extremities tacitely disclaiming all other helpe saue that of the Gods and those to whom they trade supplication The Epidanians neglected by their Mother Citie Corcyra procure thâ— protection of the Corinthians * By Homer this Ile is called Phaeacia The Corinthians send inhabitants to Epidamnus The Corcyraeans angry at the aydes sent by the Corinthians make Warre on Epidamnus * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diuers occasions force men from their Country Sentence of Law which is commonly called Banishment Prescription when the Sentence is death for which cause they fly into banishment But those that are here meant are such as in Seditions being the weaker Faction fly for feare of being murdered which I call heere banished men or might call them perhaps better Outlawes or Fugitiues but neither of them properly The Florentines and other places of Italy that were or are Democraticall wherein such banishment can onely happen call the properly Fuoruâ—citi The Corcyraeans besiege Epidamnus The Corinthians send an Armie to relieue it Cephalonia * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men in armâ—â—â— The Corcyraeans offer to stand to Arbitrement * Meaning the Athenians The Corinthians vnwilling to accept it and not without cause The Corinthian Fleet. * Either heere or before it is likely the number hath beene mis-written for a little before hee sayes they had made ready 3000. * A Hauen famous afterward for the Battell betweene Augustus Caesar and Marcus Antonius The Corcyraean Fleet. * It is said 〈◊〉 that the Corcyraeans had iâ— all 1â—0 Gallies which number agreeeth with this 80. that 〈◊〉 and the 40. that maintained the
sterling * Not at Athens because they would not seeme to challenge a propriety in that mony * Of Apollo The History of the time betweene the Persian and Peloponnesian War pretermitted by other Writers briefly deliuered by Thucydides The steps of the Athenians toward their great Dominion The Athenians take Lion And Scyros And Carystus And Naxus their Confederate now Niâ—sia The cause of reuolts from the Athenians The Athenians defeate the Persian vpon the Riuer of Eurymedon They warre on Thasus They take Amphypolis and afterwards receiue a great ouerthrâ—w at Drabescus 〈◊〉 Thrace The Lacedaemoniaâ—◠〈…〉 to invade 〈…〉 hindred by an Earth-quake * The Lacedaemonians employed the 〈…〉 Warre and 〈…〉 husbandry and 〈…〉 workes which wâ—s 〈…〉 by this kâ—nd of men and they 〈…〉 by 〈◊〉 Helotes bâ—cause the first of them so employed were Captiues of the Towne of Helos in Laconia Thasâ—s rendred to the Athenians The Lacedaemonians send for ayde to the Athenians in their Warre against Ithome The first dissention betweene the Lacedaemonians and the Athenians * The Lacedaemonians were Doreans the Athenians Iâ—nians The Athenians being had in suspicion by the Lacedaemonians ioyne with the Argiues The Helotes in Ithome after ten yeeres siege compound and quit Peloponnesus The Athenians receiue them and place them in Naupactus * Lepanto Megara reuolteth from the Lacedaemonians to the Athenians * The Hauen and Arsenall of Megara The Athenians send an Armie into Egypt to ayde the Rebels against the King of Persia. * Cairo The Athenians fight by Sea against the Corinthians and Epidaurians After that against the Peloponnesians * Some Iland 〈…〉 Peloponnesus whose 〈◊〉 is not now knowâ—â— Then against the Aeginetâ— The Corinthians ayde Aegina * A ridge of a 〈…〉 the entrance into the 〈◊〉 The Corinthians receiue a great losse in Megaris The Athenians build their long Walles from both sides of the City to the Sea * The Doreans the Mother Nation of the Lacedaemonians inhabited a little Countrey on the North side of Phocis called Doris and Terapolis from the foure Cities it contained of which those here mentioned were three and the fourth was Pindus * Gulfe of Corinth The Lacedaemonians fight with the Athenians at Tanagra The Athenians ouerthrow the Boeotians at Oenophyta that is to say the Vineyards and subdue Boeotia and Phocis Aegina yeelded to the Athenians The Athenians sayle round Peloponnesus and waste it * A Citie of Corinthians neere the Riuer Tuenas The end of the Athenians Forces in Aegypt A supply of Athenians going to Aegypt defeated by the forces of the King The Athenians invade Thessaly * Famous for the Battell betweâ—ne Iul Caesar and Cn. Pompeius The Athenians vnder Pericles besiege Oeniades Truce for 5. yeere betweene the Athenians and Peloponnesians The Athenians warre on Cyprus dyeth The Holy Warre The Athenians recouer Chaeronea taken by the Boeotian Outlawes The Athenians defeated at Coronea by the Outlawes lose Boeotia Euboea reuolteth from the Athenians Megara reuolteth Euboea subdued by the Athenians Peace for 30. yeeres betweene the Athenians and Peloponnesians The Athenians warre vpon Samos Sâ—alimine Siâ— Mitilene * Not the Writer of the History Samos yeelded to the Athenians The businesse about Corcyra and Potidaea before related Betweene the Persian and Peloponnesian Warre fifty yeeres The Oracle consulted by the Lacedaemonians encourageth them to the Warre Consultation of the Peloponnesians in generall whether they should enter into a Warre or not * All Land Souldiers all of one manner of Arming and discipline * Though this be here said in the person of a Corinthian yet it was neuer thought on by any of that side till Alcibiades put it into their heads when he reuolted from his Countrey The Warre decreed by all the Confederates * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fashion it seemeth as now in some places to prsent a Box or Vrne and a little Ball or stone or beane to him that gaue his Vote to the end hee might put his Ball into the part of the Vrne that was for affirmation or negation as he saw cause The Lacedaemonians send Ambassages to the Athenians about expiation of Sacriledges only to pick better quarrels for the Warre * Excommunication extending also to posterity * The Oracles were alwayes obscure that evasion might be found to salue their credit and whether they were the imposture of the Deuill or of men which is the more likely they had no presention nor secure wise coniecture of the future * Images of liuing creatures made of paste * The Gouernours or Rulers of the City * of Minerua * The Lacedaemonians that 〈◊〉 raâ—gne of Codrus 〈◊〉 Athens and were defected some of them being entâ—ed the City could not get awâ—y but sate at those 〈◊〉 and were diâ—missed safe but some of them slaine as they 〈…〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eumenides * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pericles alwayes aduerse to the Lacedaemonians The 〈…〉 Lacedaemonians to expiate the violation of 〈◊〉 also on their parts The occasion and maner of the death of 〈◊〉 in the Temple of 〈◊〉 Chalcioeca Pausanias practiseth with the King of Persia against the State of Greece Pausanias groweth proud vpon the receipt of these Letters * Scytale properly a Staffe here a forme of Letter vsed by the Lacedaemonians in this manner they had two round staues of one bignesse whereof the State kept one and the man whom they employed abroad kept the otheâ— and when they would write they wrapped about it a small thong of Parchment and hauing thereon written tooke it off againe and sent onely that thong which wrapped likewise about the other staffe the letters ioyned againe and might be read This serued in stead of Cyfre It seemes Pausanias retained his Staffe from the time he had charge at Byzantium Pausanias his ambition in dedication of the Tripode at Delphi Pausanias accused of practice with the Helotes * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken both in good and bad sense for a man with whom another man 〈◊〉 in loue Hee sends Letters to the King which are opened by the way Pausanius by the arte of the Ephori made to betray himselfe He flyeth into Sanctuary * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Both the Temple the ground consecrated wherin stande to the Temple Alâ—â— and edâ—fices for the â—se of their Religion * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Temple or Church of the Goddesse * Caeada a pit neere Lacedaemon Themistocles in the same Treason * A kinde of banishment wherein the Athenians wrote vpon the shell of an Oyster the name of him they would banish vsed principally against great men whose power or faction they feared might breed alteration in the State and was but for certaine yeeres Themistocles pursued by the Athenians and Peloponnesians flyeth to Corcyra Thence is put ouer to the maine Land and goeth to the King of the Melossions * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cornelius Nepos in the life of Themistocles saies it was their
spare was not this a horrible cruelty you committed in this businesse three crimes one in the necke of another First the breach of the composition then the death that followed of our men and thirdly the falsifying of your promise to saue them if we did no hurt to any thing of yours in the Fields And yet you say that we are the transgressors and that you for your parts deserue not to vndergo a iudgement But it is otherwise And if these men iudge aright you shall be punished now for all your crimes at once We haue herein men of Lacedaemon beene thus large both for your sakes and ours For yours to let you see that if you condemne them it will bee no iniustice for ours that the equity of our reuenge may the better appeare Be not moued with the recitall of their vertues of old if any they had which though they ought to helpe the wronged should double the punishment of such as commit wickednesse because their offence doth not become them Nor let them fare euer the better for their lamentation or your compassion when they cry out vpon your Fathers Sepulchers and their owne want of friends For we on the other side affirme that the Youth of our Citie suffered harder measure from them and their Fathers partly slaine at Coronea in bringing Boeotia to your Confederation and partly aliue and now old and depriued of their children make farre iuster supplication to you for reuenge And pitty belongeth to such as suffer vndeseruedly but on the contrary when men are worthily punished as these are it is to bee reioyced at And for their present want of friends they may thanke themselues For of their owne accord they reiected the better Confederates And the Law hath beene broken by them without precedent wrong from vs in that they condemned our men spitefully rather then iudicially in which point wee shall now come short of requiting them for they shall suffer Legally and not as they say they doe with hands vpheld from battell but as men that haue put themselues vpon triall by consent Maintaine therefore yee Lacedaemonians the Law of the Grecians against these men that haue transgressed it and giue vnto vs that haue suffered contrary to the Law the iust recompence of our alacritie in your seruice And let not the words of these giue vs a repulse from you But set vp an example to the Grecians by presenting vnto these men a tryall not of words but of facts which if they be good a short narration of them will serue the turne if ill compt Orations doe but veyle them But if such as haue the authority as you haue now would collect the matter to a head and according as any man should make answer thereunto so proceed to sentence men would be lesse in the search of faire speeches wherewith to excuse the foulenesse of their actions Thus spake the Thebans And the Lacedaemonian Iudges conceauing their Interrogatory to stand well Namely whether they had receiued any benefit by them or not in this present War For they had indeed intreated the both at other times according to the ancient league of Pausanias after the Medan Warre to stand neutrall and also a little before the Siege the Plataeans had reiected their proposition of being common friend to both sides according to the same league taking themselues in respect of these their iust offers to be now discharged of the league and to haue receiued euill at their hands caused them one by one to be brought forth and hauing asked them againe the same question Whether they had any way benefited the Lacedaemonians and their Confederates in this present Warre or not as they answered Not led them aside and slew them not exempting any Of the Plataeans themselues they slew no lesse then 200 Of Athenians who were besieged with them 25. The Women they made slaues and the Thebans assigned the Citie for a yeere or thereabouts for an habitation to such Megareans as in sedition had been driuen from their owne and to all those Plataeans which liuing were of the Theban faction But afterwards pulling it all downe to the very foundation they built a Hospitall in the place neere the Temple of Iuno of 200 foot diameter with chambers on euery side in circle both aboue and below vsing therein the roofes and doores of the Plataeans buildings And of the rest of the stuffe that was in the Citie wall as Brasse and Iron they made Bedsteds and dedicated them to Iuno to whom also they built a stone Chappell of 100 foote ouer The Land they confiscated and set it to farme afterwards for ten yeeres to the Thebans So farre were the Lacedaemonians alienated from the Plataeans especially or rather altogether for the Thebans sake whom they thought vsefull to them in the Warre now on foot So ended the businesse at Plataea in the fourscore and thirteenh yeere after their league made with the Athenians The 40 Gallies of Peloponnesus which hauing been sent to ayde the Lesbians fled as hath beene related through the wide Sea chased by the Athenians and tossed by stormes on the Coast of Crete came thence dispersed into Peloponnesus and found thirteene Gallies Leucadians and Ambraciotes in the Hauen of Cystene with Brasidas the sonne of Tellis come thither to be of counsell with Alcidas For the Lacedaemonians seeing they failed of Lesbos determined with their Fleet augmented to sayle to Corcyra which was in sedition there being but twelue Athenian Gallies about Naupactus to the end they might be there before the supply of a greater Fleet should come from Athens So Brasidas and Alcidas employed themselues in that The sedition in Corcyra began vpon the comming home of those Captiues which were taken in the battels by Sea at Epidamnus and released afterwards by the Corinthians at the ransome as was voyced of eighty talents for which they had giuen security to their Hostes but in fact for that they had perswaded the Corinthians that they would put Corcyra into their power These men going from man to man solicited the Citie to reuolt from the Athenians And two Gallies being now come in one of Athens another of Corinth with Ambassadors from both those States the Corcyreans vpon audience of them both decreed to hold the Athenians for their Confederates on Articles agreed on but withall to remaine friends to the Peloponnesians as they had formerly been There was one Pithias voluntary Hoste of the Athenians and that had bin principall Magistrate of the people Him these men called into iudgement and laid to his charge a practice to bring the Citie into the seruitude of the Athenians He againe being acquit called in question fiue of the wealthiest of the same men saying they had cut certaine Stakes in the ground belonging to the Temples both of Iupiter and of Alcinus vpon euery of which there lay a penalty of a Stater And the cause going
against them they tooke Sanctuary in the Temples to the end the summe being great they might pay it by portions as they should be taxed But Pithias for he was also of the Senate obtained that the Law should proceed These fiue being by the Law excluded the Senate and vnderstanding that Pithias as long as he was a Senator would cause the people to hold for friends and foes the same that were so to the Athenians conspired with the rest and armed with Daggers suddenly brake into the Senate house and slew both Pithias and others as well priuate men as Senators to the number of about sixty persons onely a few of those of Pithias his faction escaped into the Athenian Gallie that lay yet in the Harbour When they had done this and called the Corcyreans to an Assembly they told them that what they had done was for the best and that they should not be now in bondage to the Athenians And for the future they aduised them to be in quiet and to receiue neither party with more then one Gallie at once and to take them for enemies if they were more And when they had spoken forced them to decree it accordingly They also presently sent Ambassadors to Athens both to shew that it was fit for them to doe what they had done and also to disswade such Corcyreans as were fled thither of the other faction from doing any thing to their preiudice for feare the matter should fall into a relapse When these arriued the Athenians apprehended both the Ambassadors themselues as seditious persons and also all those Corcyreans whom they had there preuailed with and sent them to custody in Aegina In the meane time vpon the comming in of a Gallie of Corinth with Ambassadours from Lacedaemon those that mannaged the State assayled the Commons and ouercame them in fight And night comming on the Commons fled into the Citadell and the higher parts of the Citie where they rallyed themselues and encamped and made themselues Masters of the Hauen called the Hallaique Hauen But the Nobility seazed on the Market place where also the most of them dwelt and on the Hauen on the side toward the Continent The next day they skirmished a little with shot and both parts sent abroad into the Villages to solicite the slaues with promise of liberty to take their parts And the greatest part of the slaues tooke part with the Commons and the other side had an aide of 800 men from the Continent The next day but one they fought againe and the people had the Victory hauing the oddes both in strength of places and in number of men And the women also manfully assisted them throwing Tyles from the houses and enduring the tumult euen beyond the condition of their Sexe The Few began to flie about twilight and fearing lest the people should euen with their shout take the Arsenall and so come on and put them to the sword to stoppe their passage set fire on the houses in circle about the Market place and vpon others neere it Much goods of Merchants was hereby burnt and the whole City if the wind had risen and carried the flame that way had been in danger to haue been destroyed When the people had gotten the Victory the Corinthian Gallie stole away and most of the auxiliaries gat ouer priuily into the Continent The next day Nicostratus the sonne of Diotrephes an Athenian Commander came in with 12 Gallies and 500 Messenian men of Armes from Naupactus and both negotiated a reconciliation and induced them to the end they might agree to condemne ten of the principall authors of the Sedition who presently fled and to let the rest alone with Articles both betweene themselues and with the Athenians to esteeme friends and enemies the same the Athenians did When he had done this he would haue been gone but the people perswaded him before he went to leaue behind him fiue of his Gallies the better to keepe their aduersaries from stirring and to take as many of theirs which they would man with Corcyreans and send with him To this he agreed and they made a List of those that should imbarke consisting altogether of their enemies But these fearing to be sent to Athens tooke Sanctuary in the Temple of Castor and Pollux But Nicostratus endeauoured to raise them and spake to them to put them into courage but when hee could not preuaile the people arming themselues on pretence that their diffidence to goe along with Nicostratus proceeded from some euill intention tooke away their Armes out of their houses and would also haue killed some of them such as they chanced on if Nicostratus had not hindred them Others also when they saw this tooke Sanctuary in the Temple of Iuno and they were in all aboue foure hundred But the people fearing some innouation got them by perswasion to rise and conueying them into the Iland that lyeth ouer against the Temple of Iuno sent them their necessaries thither The Sedition standing in these termes the fourth or fifth day after the putting ouer of these men into the Iland arriued the Peloponnesian Fleet from Cyllene where since their voyage of Ionia they had lyen at Anchor to the number of three and fiftie saile Alcidas had the command of these as before and Brasidas came with him as a Counsellour And hauing first put in at Sybota a Hauen of the Continent they came on the next morning by breake of day toward Corcyra The Corcyraeans being in great tumult and feare both of the Seditious within and of the inuasion without made ready threescore Gallies and still as any of them were manned sent them out against the Enemie whereas the Athenians had aduised them to giue leaue to them to goe forth first and then the Corcyraeans to follow after with the whole Fleet together When their Gallies came forth thus thinne two of them presently turned to the Enemie and in others they that were aboord were together by the eares amongst themselues and nothing was done in due order The Peloponnesians seeing their confusion opposed themselues to the Corcyraeans with twenty Gallies onely the rest they set in array against the twelue Gallies of Athens whereof the Salaminia and the Paralus were two The Corcyraeans hauing come disorderly vp and by few at once were on their part in much distresse but the Athenians fearing the Enemies number and doubting to bee invironed would neuer come vp to charge the Enemie where they stood thicke nor would set vpon the Gallies that were placed in the middest but charged one end of them and drowned one of their Gallies and when the Peloponnesians afterwards had put their Fleet into a circular figure they then went about and about it endeuouring to put them into disorder which they that were fighting against the Corcyraeans perceiuing and fearing such another chance as befell them formerly at Naupactus went to their ayde and vniting themselues came vpon
those within sufficient to giue him battell hee marched with his Army to the City and sent ten of his Gallies about into the Hauen And first he came to the New-wall which Brasidas had raised about the Citie to take in the Suburbs making a breach in the Old-wall that the whole might be one Citie And Pasitelidas a Lacedaemonian Captaine of the Towne with the Garrison there present came to the defence fought with the Athenians that assaulted it But being oppressed and the Gallies which were before sent about being by this time come into the Hauen Pasitelidas was afraid lest those Gallies should take the Towne vnfurnished of defendants before he could get backe and that the Athenians on the otherside should winne the wall and he be intercepted betweene them both and thereupon abandoned the wall and ran backe into the Citie But the Athenians that were in the Gallies hauing taken the towne before he came and the Land-army following in after him without resistance and entring the City by the breach of the Old-wall slew some of the Peloponnesians and Toronaeans on the place and some others amongst whom was the Captaine Pasitelidas they tooke aliue Brasidas was now comming with aide towards Torone but aduertised by the way that it was already lost went backe againe being about forty Furlongs short of preuenting it Cleon and the Athenians erected two Trophies one at the Hauen another at the Wall The Women and Children of the Toronaeans they made slaues but the men of Torone and the Peloponnesians and such Chalcideans as were amongst them in all about 700 they sent away prisoners to Athens The Peloponnesians were afterward at the making of the Peace dismissed the rest were redeemed by the Olynthians by exchange of man for man About the same time the Boeotians tooke Panactum a Fort of the Athenians standing in their Confines by treason Cleon after he had settled the Garrison in Torone went thence by Sea about the mountaine Athos to make Warre against Amphipolis About the same time Phaeax the sonne of Erasistratus who with two others was sent Ambassador into Italy and Sicily departed from Athens with two Gallies For the Leontines after the Athenians vpon the making of the Peace were gone out of Sicily receiued many strangers into the freedom of their City and the Commons had a purpose also to haue made diuision of the Land But the great men perceiuing it called in the Syracusians and draue the Commons out And they wandred vp and down euery one as he chanced the great men vpon conditions agreed on with the Syracusians abandoning and deserting that city went to dwell with the priuiledge of free Citizens in Syracusa After this againe some of them vpon dislike relinquished Syracusa and seazed on Phoceae a certaine place part of the City of the Leontines and vpon Bricinniae a Castle in the Leontine Territory thither also came vnto them most of the Commons that had before been driuen out and settling themselues made Warre from those places of strength Vpon intelligence hereof the Athenians sent Phaeax thither to perswade their Confederates there and if they could all the Sicilians ioyntly to make Warre vpon the Syracusians that were now beginning to grow great to try if they might thereby preserue the common people of the Leontines Phaeax arriuing preuailed with the Camarinaeans and Agrigentines but the businesse finding a stop at Gelas hee went vnto no more as conceiuing he should not be able to perswade theÌ„ So he returned through the cities of the Siculi vnto Catana hauing been at Bricinniae by the way and there encouraged them to hold out and from Catana he set saile and departed In his voyage to Sicily both going and comming hee dealt as hee went by with sundry Cities also of Italy to enter into friendship with the Athenians He also lighted on those Locrians which hauing dwelt once in Messina were afterwards driuen out againe being the same men which after the Peace in Sicily vpon a sedition in Messina wherein one of the factious called in the Locrians had been then sent to inhabite there and now were sent away againe For the Locrians held Messina for a while Phaeax therfore chancing to meet with these as they were going to their owne City did them no hurt because the Locrians had been in speech with him about an agreement with the Athenians For when the Sicilians made a generall Peace these onely of all the Confederates refused to make any Peace at all with the Athenians Nor indeed would they haue done it now but that they were constrained thereunto by the Warre they had with the Itonians and Melaeans their owne Colonies and borderers And Phaeax after this returned to Athens Cleon who was now gone from Torone and come about to Amphipolis making Eion the seat of the Warre assaulted the Citie of Stagirus a Colony of the Andrians but could not take it But Gampselus a Colony of the Thasians hee tooke by assault And hauing sent Ambassadours to Perdiccas to will him to come to him with his forces according to the League and other Ambassadors into Thrace vnto Pollâ—s King of the Odomaâ—ians to take vp as many mercenary Thracians as he could he lay still in Eion to expect their comming Brasidas vpon notice hereof sate downe ouer against him at Cerdylium This is a place belonging to the Argilians standing high and beyond the Riuer not farre from Amphipolis and from whence hee might discerne all that was about him So that Cleon could not but be seene if he should rise with his Army to goe against Amphipolis which he expected he would doe and that in contempt of his small number he would goe vp with the Forces he had then present Withall he furnished himselfe with 1500 mercenary Thracians and tooke vnto him all his Edonians both horsemen and Targettiers He had also of Myrcinians and Chalcideans 1000 Targettiers besides them in Amphipolis But for men of Armes his whole number was at the most 2000 and of Grecian horsemen 300. With 1500 of these came Brasidas and sate down at Cerdylium the rest stood ready ordered with Clearidas their Captaine within Amphipolis Cleon for a while lay still but was afterwards forced to doe as was expected by Brasidas For the Souldiers being angry with their stay there and recounting with themselues what a command his would be and with what ignorance and cowardize against what skill and boldnesse of the other and how they came forth with him against their wils he perceiued their muttering and being vnwilling to offend them with so long a stay in one place dislodged and led them forward And he tooke the same course there which hauing succeeded well before at Pylus gaue him cause to thinke himselfe to haue some iudgement For he thought not that any body would come forth to giue him
battell and gaue out he went vp principally to see the place And stayed for greater forces not to secure him in case he should be compelled to fight but that he might therewith enuiron the Citie on all sides at once and in that manner take it by force So he went vp and set his Army down on a strong hill before Amphipolis standing himselfe to view the Fens of the riuer Strymon and the scituation of the Citie towards Torace and thought he could haue retired againe at his pleasure without battell For neither did any man appeare vpon the walls nor come out of the Gates which were all fast shut insomuch as he thought he had committed an errour in comming without Engines because he thought he might by such meanes haue wonne the Citie as being without defendants Brasidas as soone as he saw the Athenianâ— remoue came downe also from Cerdylium and put himselfe into Amphipolis He would not suffer them to make any sally nor to face the Athenians in order of battell mistrusting his owne Forces which he thought inferiour not in number for they were in a manner equall but in worth for such Athenians as were there were pure and the Lemnians and Imbrians which were amongst them were of the very ablest but prepared to set vpon them by a wile For if he should haue shewed to the enemy both his number and their Armour such as for the present they were forced to vse he thought that thereby he should not so soone get the victory as by keeping them out of sight and out of their contempt till the very point Wherefore chusing to him selfe 150 men of Armes and committing the charge of the rest to Clearidas he resolued to set suddenly vpon them before they should retire as not expecting to take them so alone another time if their succours chanced to arriue And when he had called his Souldiers together to encourage them and to make knowne vnto them his designe he said as followeth THE ORATION OF BRASIDAS to his Souldiers MEN of Peloponnesus as for your Countrey how by valour it hath euer retained her liberty and that being Dorians you are now to fight against Ionians of whom you were euer wont to get the victory let it suffice that I haue touched it thus briefly But in what manner I intend to charge that I am now to enforme you of lest the venturing by few at once and not altogether should seeme to proceed from weaknesse and so dishearten you I doe coniecture that it was in contempt of vs and as not expecting to bee fought withall that the enemy both came vp to this place and that they haue now betaken themselues carelesly and out of order to view the Countrey But he that best obseruing such errours in his enemies shall also to his strength giue the onset not alwayes openly and in ranged battell but as is best for his present aduantage shall for the most part attaine his purpose And these wiles carry with them the greatest glory of all by which deceiuing most the enemy a man doth most benefit his friends Therefore whilest they are secure without preparation and intend for ought I see to steale away rather then to stay I say in this their loosnesse of resolution and before they put their minds in order I for my part with those I haue chosen will if I can before they get away fall in vpon the midst of their Army running And you Clearidas afterwards as soone as you shall see me to haue charged and as it is probable to haue put them into affright take those that are with you both Amphipolitans and all the rest of the Confederates and setting open the Gates runne out vpon them and with all possible speed come vp to stroke of hand for there is great hope this way to terrifie them seeing they which come after are euer of more terrour to the enemy then those that are already present and in fight And be valiant as is likely you should that are a Spartan and you Confederates follow manfully and beleeue that the parts of a good Souldier are willingnesse sense of shame and obedience to his Leaders and that this day you shall either gaine your selues liberty by your valour and to be called Confederates of the Lacedaemonians or else not onely to serue the Athenians your selues and at the best if you be not led Captiues nor put to death to be in greater seruitude then before but also to be the hinderers of the liberty of the rest of the Grecians But be not you cowards seeing how great a matter is at stake and I for my part will make it appeare that I am not more ready to perswade another then to put my selfe into action When Brasidas had thus said he both prepared to goe out himselfe and also placed the rest that were with Clearidas before the Gates called the Thracian Gates to issue forth afterwards as was appointed Now Brasidas hauing been in sight when he came downe from Cerdylium and againe when he sacrificed in the City by the Temple of Pallas which place might be seene from without it was told Cleon whilst Brasidas was ordering of his men for he was at this time gone off a little to looke about him that the whole Army of the enemies was plainly to be discerned within the Towne and that the feet of many men and horses ready to come forth might be discerned from vnder the Gate Hearing this he came to the place and when he saw it was true being not minded to fight vntill his aides arriued and yet making no other account but that his retreat would be discouered he commanded at once to giue the signall of retreat and that as they went the left Wing should march formost which was the only meanes they had to withdraw towards Eion But when he thought they were long about it causing the right Wing to wheel about and lay open their disarmed parts to the enemy hee led away the Army himselfe Brasidas at the same time hauing spied his opportunity and that the Army of the Athenians remoued said to those about him and the rest These men stay not for vs it is apparant by the wagging of their Speares and of their heads For where such motion is they vse not stay for the charge of the enemy Therefore open me some body the Gates appointed and let vs boldly and speedily sally forth vpon them Then hee went out himselfe at the Gate towards the Trench and which was the first Gate of the Long-wall which then was standing and at high speed tooke the straightway in which as one passeth by the strongest part of the Towne there standeth now a Trophy And charging vpon the midst of the Athenian Army which was terrified both with their owne disarray and the valour of the man forced them to flie And Clearidas as was appointed hauing issued out by the Thracian Gates was withall comming