IV.

4. c. 114,

the party disposed to revolt, it was taken. The SECT. Athenians, except a few who were killed, and the greatest part of the Toronæans, fled to the neighboring fortress of Lecythus. Brasidas summoned Thucyd. 1. the place, offering permission for the Athenians to 115, 116. depart with their effects, and promising to the Toronæans the full injoyment of their rights as citizens of Toronë, together with the restoration of whatever of their property had fallen into his possession or under his power. The terms were inviting to men in their perilous situation; yet the Athenians, having prevailed upon the Toronæans to adhere to them, refused to surrender, but requested a day of truce for the burial of the dead. What followed deserves notice, in the great scarcity of any inlarged patriotism among the Greeks, as an instance of the firmness with which they often adhered to partyprinciple. Brasidas granted two days, and used the opportunity for employing all his eloquence and all his address in the endevor to conciliate the Toronæans to his interest. But the democratical party remained true to the Athenians; and not till machines were prepared, and a force was assembled, scarcely possible for them to resist, nor then till an accident occasioned a sudden panic, they quitted their fort of earth and wood, and most of them, getting aboard vessels lying at hand, escaped across the gulph into Pallenë. Such was the concluding event of the eighth year of the war.

XVI.

SECTION V.

Negotiation for Peace between Athens and Lacedæmon.

Truce con

cluded for a Year. Transactions in Thrace. War renewed. Thespiæ oppressed by Thebes. War between Mantineia and Tegea. Remarkable Instance of Athenian Superstition.

CHAP. INTELLIGENCE of the rapid successes of Brasidas, coïnciding with the unfortunate event of the battle of Delium, and accompanied with reasonable apprehension of spreding defection among the subject cities, was of powerful effect to damp the wild ambition, and lower the unruly haughtiness of the Athenian people. It began again to be very generally observed and regretted among them, that their leaders, those in whom they most trusted, had advised them ill; and that so favorable an opportunity for making an advantageous peace, as that which had been proudly rejected, might not again recur. Fortunately for them, at this time, no spirit of enterprize animated the Lacedæmonian councils. The successes of Brasidas, highly gratifying as far as they tended to dispose the Athenians to peace, excited at the same time some apprehension among the Lacedæmonian leaders, that their own allies, and even the Lacedæmonian people, might be excited to desire the continuance of the war, to which they were anxious to put a conclusion. The great object of the principal families was to recover their kinsmen and friends, prisoners in Athens; and while they dreaded a reverse of fortune, that might renew the arrogance of their enemies, they feared also such success as might too much elate their allies. Such being the sentiments on both sides, negotiations for peace were opened, and, in the beginning of spring, a truce

V.

for a year was concluded. Each party retained SECT. what it possessed, but the Peloponnesians however conceded the intire command of the Grecian seas Thucyd. 1. 4. c. 118, to Athens; excluding themselves totally from the 119. use of long ships (the general term for ships of war) and of any vessel of the row-galley kind of above five hundred talents measurement, which, according to Arbuthnot, was scarcely more than twelve ton. To this treaty the Lacedæmonians, Corinthians, Sicyonians, Epidaurians, and Megarians only were parties, on the side of the Peloponnesian confederacy; but they ingaged to use their interest for persuading the Boeotians and Phocians to accede; and it was the professed purpose of the truce to give opportunity for negotiating a general and permanent peace.

While these measures were taking in Greece for putting an end to the ravages of war, circumstances arose in Thrace to disturb the effect of the negotiation, and to give new fewel to animosity. The c. 120. people of Scionë, the principal town of the fruitful peninsula of Pallenë, reckoned themselves a Peloponnesian people; referring their origin to a colony of Achaians of Pellenë or Pallenë, in Peloponnesus, who had established themselves on the coast of Thrace in returning from the war of Troy. This tradition tended to establish, among the Scionæans, a general partiality for the Peloponnesian connection, to which those of higher rank would otherwise incline; and a party among them communicated to Brasidas their desire to reject the dominion of Athens, and to be received under his protection. To correspond concerning the proposal was not easy; for not only the Athenians commanded the sea, but by the possession of Potidea on the isthmus, they completely com

XVI.

CHAP. manded also the communication by land. Brasidas therefore, who chose always to depend upon his own address rather than that of any deputies, and who refused no danger in the prosecution of the great objects of his command, resolved to go himself to Scionë, and, in a small swift boat, escorted by one trireme, he arrived safe in the harbor. He was so well assured of the strength of his party in the town, that he ventured immediately to assemble the people, and exert that eloquence which he had already found so useful. He began with his usual declaration, which experience had proved no less politic than liberal, that no man should suffer in person, property, or privileges for past political conduct, or existing poli'tical connections.' He was then large in praise of the Scionæan people, who, notwithstanding the ' peculiar danger to which their situation, inclosed 'within a peninsula, exposed them, in revolting

Thucyd. 1.

against that tyrannical power which at present 'commanded the seas, had nevertheless not waited 'till freedom should be forced upon them through the prevalence of the Peloponnesian arms, but had been forward to assert it ;' and he concluded with assurances of his readiness to give all protection, and his wish to do all honor, to a people 'who, he was confident, would prove themselves among the most meritorious allies of Lace' dæmon.'

The rhetoric and the liberality of Brasidas had 4. c. 121. their desired effect. Many, even of those who before were adverse to the revolt, became now satisfied with it, and the whole people vied in paying honors, public and private, to the Spartan general. From the city he received a golden crown, which was in solemn ceremony placed on

his head, as the deliverer of Greece; and individuals presented him with fillets, a usual mark of approving admiration to the conquerors in the public games; which, as something approaching to divine honor, was esteemed among the highest tokens of respect.

SECT.

V.

4. c. 122.

Scionë being thus gained, Brasidas was extending his views to Potidea and Mendë, in both which places he held correspondence, when commissioners arrived, Aristonymus from Athens, and Thucyd.1. Athenæus from Lacedæmon, to announce the cessation of arms. The intelligence was joyful to the new allies of Lacedæmon in Thrace, as the terms of the treaty removed at once all the peril of the situation in which they had placed themselves. With regard to the Scionæans alone a dispute arose. Aristonymus, finding upon inquiry that the vote in assembly, by which they formally acceded to the Lacedæmonian alliance, had not passed till two days after the signing of the articles, declared them excluded from the benefit of the treaty. Brasidas, on the contrary, no way pleased with a truce that checked him in the full career of success, the first of any importance obtained by the Lacedæmonians in the war, and conceiving himself strongly pledged to preserve the Scionæans from Athenian vengeance, insisted that the revolt, truly considered, had taken place before the signing of the articles, and he refused to surrender the town. Aristonymus sent information of this to Athens, where preparation was immediately made to vindicate the claim of the commonwealth by arms. The Lacedæmonian government, disposed to support Brasidas, remonstrated; but the Athenian people, indignant, as Thucydides says, that not only their continental subjects, but now