was not allowed, but they called heralds from the coasts, and, after several messages, a Lacedæmonian advanced forward, and cried aloud, that they were permitted to treat with the enemy, provided they did not submit to dishonourable terms. Upon this they held a conference, after which they surrendered at discretion, and were kept till the next day. The Athenians then raising a trophy, and restoring the Lacedæmonians their dead, embarked for their own country, after distributing the prisoners among the several ships, and committing the guard of them to the captains of the galleys. In this battle one hundred and twenty-eight Lacedæmonians fell out of four hundred and twenty, which was their number at first; so that there survived not quite three hundred, an hundred and twenty of whom were inhabitants of the city of Sparta. The siege of the island (to compute from the beginning of it, including the time employed in the truce) had lasted threescore and twelve days. They all now left Pylus, and Cleon's promise, though deemed so vain and rash, was found literally true. But the most surprising circumstance was the capitulation that had been made; for it was believed that the Lacedæmonians, so far from surrendering their arms, would die sword in hand. Being come to Athens, they were ordered to remain prisoners till a peace should be concluded, provided the Lacedaemonians did not make any incursions into their country, for that then they should all be put to death. They left a garrison in Pylus. The Messenians in Naupactus, who had formerly possessed it, sent thither the flower of

their youth, who very much infested the Lacedæmonians, by their incursions; and as these Messenians spoke the language of the country, they prevailed with a great number of slaves to join them. The Lacedæmonians, dreading a greater evil, sent several deputations to Athens, but to no purpose; the Athenians being too much elated with their prosperity, and especially their late success, to listen to any terms. For two or three years successively hostilities were carried on with alternate success, and nothing but the humbling of the one or other of the two rival states could decide the quarrel. The Athenians made themselves masters of the island of Cythera; but, on the other hand, were defeated by the Lacedæmonians at Delion. At length the two nations began to grow weary of a war which put them to great expense, and did not procure them any real advantage. A truce for a year was, therefore, concluded between them, which served to pave the way for a moré lasting reconciliation. The death of the two generals, that commanded the contending armies, served not a little to hasten this event. Brasidas, the Lacedæmonian, was killed as he was conducting a sally, when besieged in Amphipolis; and Cleon, the Athenian, despising an enemy to which he knew himself superior, was set upon unawares, and, flying, for safety, was killed by a soldier who happened to meet him. Thus these two men, who had long opposed the tranquillity of Greece, and raised their reputations, but in a very different way, fell a sacrifice to their own ambition.

They were, however, men of very opposite cha

racters. Brasidas had courage and conduct, modera tion and integrity; and it was he alone who, at this time, kept up the sinking reputation of his country. He was the only Spartan since Pausanias, who appeared with any established character among the confederates, to whom he behaved so well, that they were again brought under the dependance of Sparta; and several cities came in to him as their common deliverer from the tyranny of Athens The inhabitants of Amphipolis, besides their joining with the other allies in solemnizing his funeral in a public manner, instituted anniversary games and sacrifices to his memory as a hero; and so far considered him as their founder, that they destroyed all the monuments which had been preserved as marks of their being an Athenian colony. His opposition to the peace was not so much the effect of his obstinacy, as of a true Spartan zeal for the honour of his country, which he was sensible had been treated by the Athenians with too much insolence and contempt. He had now a fair prospect of bringing them to reason, as he was gaining ground upon them, and every day making fresh conquests; and, however he might be transported with the glory of performing great actions, yet the main end of his ambition seems to have been, the bringing the war to a happy conclusion: I must not here omit the generous answer his mother made to the persons whỏ brought her the news of his death. Upon her asking them whether he died honourably, they naturally fell into encomiums on his great exploits and his

and though it was not of itself a match for Sparta, yet they knew it was far from being contemptible; and that it held too good a correspondence with its neighbours, not to make itself capable of giving them a great deal of uneasiness. The matter having been canvassed and debated most part of the winter, the Lacedæmonians, to bring the treaty to a conclusion, gave out, that they resolved, as soon as the season would permit, to fortify in Attica. Upon which the Athenians grew more moderate in their demands, and a peace was concluded in the tenth year of the war between the two states and their confederates, for fifty years, the chief articles being that the garrisons should be evacuated, and the towns and prisoners restored, on both sides. This was called the Nician peace, because Nicias, who was just the reverse of his rival Cleon, was the chief instrument in effecting it. Besides the tender concern he always expressed for his country, he had more particular ends in it, in securing his reputation: for he had been upon many expeditions, and had generally succeeded in them; but yet he was sensible how much he owed to his good fortune and his cautious management, and he did not care to risk what he had already got from the hopes of more.

CHAPTER X.

FROM THE PEACE OF NICIAS, TO THE END OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR.

EVERY thing now promised a restoration of former tranquillity. The Boeotians and Corinthians were the first who shewed signs of discontent, and used their utmost endeavours to excite fresh troubles. To obviate any dangers arising from that quarter, the Athenians and Lacedæmonians united in a league offensive and defensive, which served to render them more formidable to the neighbouring states, and more assured with regard to each other. Yet still the former animosities and jealousies fermented at bottom; and while friendship seemed to gloss over external appearances, fresh discontents were gathering within. The character, indeed, of Nicias, was peaceable, and he did all in his power to persuade the Athenians to seek the general tranquillity. But a new promoter of troubles was now beginning to make his appearance, and from him, those who wished for peace had every thing to fear. This was no other than the celebrated Alcibiades, the disciple of Socrates, a youth equally remarkable for the beauty of his person and the greatness of his mental accomplishments.

The strict intimacy between Alcibiades and So