they confined themselves to a policy of defence, he did not despair of eventual success. The Athenians accordingly returned an answer on all the points in exact accordance with the advice of their great leader; they declared that they were ready to leave everything to arbitration, but yield nothing to intimidation.

The peace might have lingered on indefinitely, had not a fresh trouble in the course of the next few weeks been a signal for war. This happened at the little town of Platea, so famous for the great victory over the Persians, and so faithfully attached to the cause of Athens. For generations it had been at bitter feud with Thebes, and Thebes might indeed feel naturally aggrieved at its separation from the common Boeotian league. The present seemed to the Thebans a good opportunity for taking decisive action. It was one dark night in the spring when three hundred Thebans came up to the gate of Platea during the first sleep of the citizens; their political friends of the oligarchic faction in the town gave them admission; they summoned the inhabitants to surrender, and the inhabitants when the demand was first made were prepared to do so. But they soon discovered, even in the darkness, that their enemies were not many in number, and might very possibly be overpowered. They proceeded to establish communications with each other by breaking through the walls of their private houses.1 They also made barricades with waggons across some of the streets. When the morning came they sallied forth, and either slew their invaders or took them prisoners. A large reinforcement from Thebes had set out to help the first band, but the river Asopus was swollen by the heavy rains, and could with difficulty be forded, so that they came too late. The Platæans sent off word instantly to Athens to say what had happened, and in return the Athenians had sent a herald begging them to do nothing to the Thebans until they had taken counsel with them;

1 Compare Job xxiv. 16: “In the dark they dig through houses which they had marked for themselves in the daytime." The building materials used in the East would probably be very similar to those at Platea, and their nature would easily admit of such a step being taken.

but the herald came too late. The prisoners had already been put to death in cold blood, one more lamentable instance of the natural cruelty of the human mind, and of the heathen want of reverence for human life. "And they killed them," henceforth becomes a frequent phrase with Thucydides to explain how, after a battle, the victors butchered the vanquished, although these prisoners were connected with them by a thousand ties of language, religion, and national associations.

As the news of this event spread in every direction, men felt that the crisis was come, and that they must gird up themselves for action. In the midst, however, of all this activity, a universal gloom spread over the country. It was foreseen that a time of heavy misfortune was coming on the land. Everywhere there were discordant reports of oracles and prophecies, earthquakes and eclipses, and rumours of the audible voices of the angry gods. The Lacedæmonians issued circular orders for the assemblage of the army of allies for the invasion of Attica. On the appointed day a force assembled at the Isthmus of Corinth, and the Spartan king, Archidamus, took the command. He sent Melesippus as an envoy-the last envoy that would ever be sent-still hoping that the Athenians might yield. But the Athenians had resolved that, when once the Lacedæmonian army had begun its march, they would receive neither herald nor envoy. Melesippus was not even allowed to enter the city. He was told that he must quit the territory before sunset, and the guides who escorted him were ordered to prevent him from saying a word to any one. When they arrived at the frontier, the guides took leave of him, and Melesippus exclaimed, in words of awful truth, "This day will be the beginning of many calamities to the Greeks."

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

A.-CONTRASTS OF THE WAR,

WE must be content to point out the following obvious points of opposition between the contending parties :

In the first place, then, the Dorians were opposed to the Ionians, and hence, in the well-known phrase, it was called the Doric war. 2nd. The union of the free Greeks against the evil ambition of one State.

3rd. Land forces against sea forces.

4th. Large bodies of men practised in war against wealth.

5th. Slow and deliberate conviction against determined rash

ness.

6th. Maintenance of ancient custom as opposed to the desire of novelty.

7th. Union of nations and tribes against one arbitrarily formed. 8th. Aristocracy against democracy.

This difference was manifested in the first half of the war by Athens changing, while Sparta only restored, governments; for in this instance, also, the power of Sparta was in strictness only employed in upholding ancient establishments, as an aristocracy may indeed be overthrown, but cannot be formed, in a moment.—Müller's Dorians.

B. THE LACEDÆMONIANS THE CHIEF MOVERS IN BEGINNING
THE WAR.

"Athens could not have avoided the war without such an abnegation both of dignity and power as no nation under any government will ever submit to, and as would even have left her without decent security for her individual rights. To accept the war tendered to her was a matter, not merely of prudence, but of necessity; the tone of exaction assumed by the Spartan envoys would have rendered concession a mere evidence of weakness and fear. As the account of Thucydides bears out the judgment of Pericles on this important point, so it also shows us that Athens was not less in the right upon the received principles of international dealing. It was not Athens (as the Spartans themselves afterwards came to feel), but her enemies, who broke the provisions of the truce, by encouraging the revolt of Potidea, and by promising invasion of Attica; it was not Athens, but her enemies, who after thus breaking the truce, made a string of exorbitant demands in order to get up as good a case as possible for war. The case made out by Pericles, justifying the war on grounds both of right and prudence, is in all its main points borne out by the impartial voice of Thucydides It is common to ascribe the Peloponnesian war to the ambition of Athens, but this is a partial view of the case. The aggressive sentiment, partly fear, partly hatred, was on the side of the Peloponnesians, who were not ignorant that Athens desired the con

tinuance of peace, but were resolved not to let her stand as she was at the conclusion of the thirty years' truce; it was their purpose to attack her and break down her empire, as dangerous, wrong, and anti-Hellenic. The war was thus partly a contest of principle, involving the popular proclamation of the right of every Grecian state to autonomy against Athens; partly a contest of power, wherein Spartan and Corinthian ambition was not the less conspicuous and far more aggressive in the beginning than Athenian."-Grote's History of Greece, vol. vi. pp. 149-151.

C.-ALLIES OF SPARTA AND ATHENS.

Athens.

All the islands of the Egean (except Melos and Thera), Corcyra, Zacynthus, Chios, Lesbos, Samos; the Greek colonies on the coast of Asia Minor, and on the shores of Thrace and Macedon; Naupactus, Platæa, and some places of Acarnania.

Sparta.

All the Peloponnesus, except Argos and Achaia, which stood neutral; Boeotia, Locris, Phocis, and Megara; Ambracia, Anactorium, and the island of Leucas.

D.-PLATEA.

"Platea was situated on the slope of Mount Citharon, and its terraces descend into the great plain of Thebes, the last town or village, for it is hardly more, which the traveller would visit before he crossed into the pass which would lead him into Attica. In this situation was the secret at once of its glory and its misfortunes. Far enough removed from Thebes to claim a political independence from her dominion; the refuge, in all probability, of the aboriginal inhabitants, who, claiming as they did, a descent from the nymphs of Citharon and the torrent Asopus, entrenched themselves under their native crags and within their ancestral streams from the encroachments of the new city, which lay enthroned on her sevengated hill. Platea had always been an object of the jealousy and anger of her powerful neighbour and reputed sovereign. But close behind the mountain wall of Citharon was a hardly less powerful friend, ever ready to succour. In less than two hours the Platean citizen could turn his back on the hated Thebes, and look down upon the sacred plain of Eleusis, and feel that he was a welcome guest in the genial atmosphere of Attica. Therefore it was that the fortunes of Platea were naturally united with those of Athens. With the Athenians her sons had shared the danger and the glory of Marathon, and when the second great battle for the independence of Greece was fought under her walls, they had (to fulfil the injunction of an ancient oracle) removed the landmarks which divided their territory from that of Attica, and so made themselves one with the city with whom they were thus linked in indissoluble amity, alike against the Persian oppressors and the Theban traitors, who on that memorable day appeared side by side in the hostile

camp. When, therefore, the great war between Athens and Sparta was on the point of breaking out, it was natural that Thebes should seize the opportunity of plucking for ever this thorn from her side. What Hungary is to Austria, what Poland is to Russia (we are not instituting any comparison of the merits of the respective cases), that Platea was to Thebes."- Quarterly Review.

CHAPTER XXVII.

FROM THE BREAKING OUT OF THE WAR TO THE DEATH OF PERICLES.

ARCHIDAMUS now formally proceeded to the invasion of Attica. His vast army-perhaps not less than B.C. 431. one hundred thousand men-was practically irresistible. He did not however proceed, as his soldiers expected, into the heart of the country, but wasted some days on the siege of a frontier fort, which, through the Spartan inexperience of sieges, he was unable to take. He hoped, too, that an Athenian army would come out against him, but no Athenians appeared. About midsummer he came down to Acharna, about seven miles from Athens-a rich and famous deme, famous for corn, and vines, and olives, and its oak forests on the neighbouring hills. He found that Acharna was deserted. Pericles had persuaded the people, who sorrowfully and reluctantly obeyed, to abandon their farms, and homesteads, and temples, and that outdoor life which they so passionately loved, and take refuge within the walls. From those walls they were able to discern the ravage wrought by the Spartans. The corn was just ripe, but the enemy destroyed every hope of the harvest. This sight was very hard for the people to bear. They clamoured to be led against the enemy, and loaded Pericles with reproaches. But this statesman is said to have observed, that trees cut down might shoot up again, but that men were not so easily replaced. He contented himself with defending their walls and sending out cavalry to skirmish. When Archidamus had satisfied himself that there was no chance of a general engagement, and his provisions were well-nigh spent, he re