Peloponnesiăcum bellum

, a celebrated war which continued for 27 years between the A then i ans and the inhabitants of Peloponnesus with their respective allies. It is the most famous and the most interesting of all the wars which have happened between the inhabitants of Greece; and for the minute and circumstantial description which we have of the events and revolutions which mutual animosity produced, we are indebted more particularly to the correct and authentic writings of Thucydides and of Xenophon. The circumstances which gave birth to this memorable war are these. The power of Athens, under the prudent and vigorous administration of Pericles, was already extended over Greece, and it had procured itself many admirers and more enemies, when the Corcyreans, who had been planted by a Corinthian colony, refused to pay their founders those marks of respect and reverence which among the Greeks every colony was obliged to pay to its mother country. The Corinthians wished to punish that infidelity; and when the people of Epidamnus, a considerable town on the Adriatic, had been invaded by some of the barbarians of Illyricum, the people of Corinth gladly granted to the Epidamnians that a istance which had in vain been solicited from the Corcyreans, their founders and their patrons. The Corcyreans were offended at the interference of Corinth in the affairs of their colony; they manned a fleet, and obtained a victory over the Corinthian ve els which had a isted the Epidamnians. The subsequent conduct of the Corcyreans, and their insolence to some of the Elians, who had furnished a few ships to the Corinthians, provoked the Peloponnesians, and the discontent became general. Amba adors were sent by both parties to Athens to claim its protection, and to justify these violent proceedings. The greatest part of the A then i ans heard their various reasonings with moderation and with compa ion; but the enterprising ambition of Pericles prevailed, and when the Corcyreans had reminded the people of Athens, that in all the states of Peloponnesus they had to dread the most malevolent enemies, and the most insidious of rivals, they were listened to with attention, and were promised support. This step was no sooner taken, than the Corinthians appealed to the other Grecian states, and particularly to the Lacedæmonians. Their complaints were accompanied by those of the people of Megara and of Ægin a, who bitterly inveighed against the cruelty, injustice, and insolence of the A then i ans. This had due weight with the Lacedæmonians, who had long beheld with concern and with jealousy the ambitious power of the A then i ans, and they determined to support the cause of the Corinthians. However, before they proceeded to hostilities, an emba y was sent to Athens, to represent the danger of entering into a war with the most powerful and flourishing of all the Grecian states. This alarmed the A then i ans, but when Pericles had eloquently spoken of the resources and the actual strength of the republic, and of the weakne of the allies, the clamours of his enemies were silenced, and the answer which was returned to the Spartans was taken as a declaration of war. The Spartans were supported by all the republics of the Peloponnesus, except Argos and part of Achaia, besides the people of Megara, Bœotia, Phocis, Locris, Leucas, Ambracia, and Anactorium. The Platæans, the Lesbians, Carians, Chians, Me enians, A carn an i ans, Zacynthians, Corcyreans, Dorians, and Thracians, were the friends of the A then i ans, with all the Cyclades, except Eubœa, Samos, Melos, and Thera. The first blow had already been struck, May 7, B.C. 431, by an attempt of the Bœotians to ♦ surprise Platæa; and therefore Arch i dam us king of Sparta, who had in vain recommended moderation to the allies, entered Attica at the head of an army of 60,000 men, and laid waste the country by fire and sword. Pericles, who was at the head of the government, did not attempt to oppose them in the field; but a fleet of 150 ships set sail, without delay, to ravage the coasts of the Peloponnesus. Megara was also depopulated by an army of 20,000 men, and the campaign of the first year of the war was concluded in celebrating, with the most solemn pomp, the funerals of such as had nobly fallen in battle. The following year was remarkable for a pestilence which raged in Athens, and which destroyed the greatest part of the inhabitants. The public calamity was still heightened by the approach of the Peloponnesian army on the borders of Attica, and by the ♠ unsucce ful expedition of the A then i ans against Epidaurus and in Thrace. The pestilence which had carried away so many of the A then i ans proved also fatal to Pericles, and he died about two years and six months after the commencement of the Peloponnesian war. The following years did not give rise to decisive events; but the revolt of Lesbos from the alliance of the A then i ans was productive of fresh troubles. Mitylene the capital of the island was recovered, and the inhabitants treated with the greatest cruelty. The island of Corcyra became also the seat of new seditions, and those citizens who had been carried away prisoners by the Corinthians, and for political reasons treated with lenity, and taught to despise the alliance of Athens, were no sooner returned home, than they raised commotions and endeavoured to persuade their countrymen to join the Peloponnesian confederates. This was strongly opposed; but both parties obtained by turns the superiority, and ma acred, with the greatest barbarity, all those who obstructed their views. Some time after Demosthenes the A then i an general invaded Ætolia, where his arms were attended with the greatest succe . He also fortified Pylos in the Peloponnesus, and gained so many advantages over the confederates, that they sued for peace, which the insolence of Athens refused. The fortune of the war soon after changed, and the Lacedæmonians, under the prudent conduct of Brasidas, made themselves masters of many valuable places in Thrace. But this victorious progre was soon stopped by the death of their general, and that of Cleon the A then i an commander; and the pacific disposition of Nicias, who was now at the head of Athens, made overtures of peace and universal tranquillity. Plistoanax the king of the Spartans wished them to be accepted; but the intrigues of the Corinthians prevented the discontinuation of the war, and therefore hostilities began anew. But while war was carried on with various succe in different parts of Greece, the A then i ans engaged in a new expedition; they yielded to the persuasive eloquence of Gorgias of Leontium, and the ambitious views of Alcibiades, and sent a fleet of 20 ships to a ist the Sicilian states against the tyrannical power of Syracuse, B.C. 416. This was warmly opposed by Nicias; but the eloquence of Alcibiades prevailed, and a powerful fleet was sent against the capital of Sicily. These vigorous though impolitic measures of the A then i ans were not viewed with indifference by the confederates. Syracuse, in her distre , implored the a istance of Corinth, and Gylippus was sent to direct her operations, and to defend her against the power of her enemies. The events of battles were dubious, and though the A then i an army was animated by the prudence and intrepidity of Nicias, and the more hasty courage of Demosthenes, yet the good fortune of Syracuse prevailed; and after a campaign of two years of bloodshed, the fleets of Athens were totally ruined, and the few soldiers that survived the destructive siege, made prisoners of war. So fatal a blow threw the people of Attica into consternation and despair, and while they sought for resources at home, they severely felt themselves deprived of support abroad, their allies were alienated by the intrigues of the enemy, and rebellion was fomented in their dependent states and colonies on the Asiatic coast. The threatened ruin, however, was timely averted, and Alcibiades, who had been treated with cruelty by his countrymen, and who had for some time resided in Sparta, and directed her military operations, now exerted himself to defeat the designs of the confederates, by inducing the Persians to espouse the cause of his country. But in a short time after, the internal tranquillity of Athens was disturbed, and Alcibiades, by wishing to abolish the democracy, called away the attention of his fellow-citizens from the prosecution of a war which had already cost them so much blood. This, however, was but momentary; the A then i ans soon after obtained a naval victory, and the Peloponnesian fleet was defeated by Alcibiades. The A then i ans beheld with rapture the succe of their arms; but when their fleet, in the absence of Alcibiades, had been defeated and destroyed near Andros by Lysander the Lacedæmonian admiral, they showed their discontent and mortification by eagerly listening to the accusations which were brought against their naval leader, to whom they gratefully had acknowledged themselves indebted for their former victories. Alcibiades was disgraced in the public a embly, and 10 commanders were appointed to succeed him in the management of the republic. This change of admirals, and the appointment of Callicratidas to succeed Lysander, whose office had expired with the revolving year, produced new operations. The A then i ans fitted out a fleet, and the two nations decided their superiority near Arginusæ, in a naval battle. Callicratidas was killed, and the Lacedæmonians conquered, but the rejoicings which the intelligence of this victory occasioned were soon stopped, when it was known that the wrecks of some of the disabled ships of the A then i ans, and the bodies of the slain, had not been saved from the sea. The admirals were accused in the tumultuous a embly, and immediately condemned. Their succe ors in office were not so prudent, but they were more unfortunate in their operations. Lysander was again placed at the head of the Peloponnesian forces, instead of Eteonicus, who had succeeded to the command at the death of Callicratidas. The age and the experience of this general seemed to promise something decisive, and indeed an opportunity was not long wanting for the display of his military character. The superiority of the A then i ans over that of the Peloponnesians, rendered the former insolent, proud, and negligent, and when they had imprudently forsaken their ships to indulge their indolence, or pursue their amusements on the sea-shore at Ægo spot am us, Lysander attacked their fleet, and his victory was complete. Of 180 sail, only nine escaped, eight of which fled, under the command of Conon, to the island of Cyprus, and the other carried to Athens the melancholy news of the defeat. The A then i an prisoners were all ma acred; and when the Peloponnesian conquerors had extended their dominion over the states and communities of Europe and Asia, which formerly acknowledged the power of Athens, they returned home to finish the war by the reduction of the capital of Attica. The siege was carried on with vigour, and supported with firmne , and the first A then i an who mentioned capitulation to his countrymen, was instantly sacrificed to the fury and the indignation of the populace, and all the citizens unanimously declared, that the same moment would terminate their independence and their lives. This animated language, however, was not long continued; the spirit of faction was not yet extinguished at Athens; and it proved, perhaps, more destructive to the public liberty, than the operations and a aults of the Peloponnesian besiegers. During four months, negotiations were carried on with the Spartans by the aristocratical part of the A then i ans, and at last it was agreed that to establish the peace, the fortifications of the A then i an harbours must be demolished, together with the long walls which joined them to the city; all their ships, except 12, were to be surrendered to the enemy; they were to resign every pretension to their ancient dominions abroad; to recall from banishment all the members of the late aristocracy; to follow the Spartans in war, and, in the time of peace, to frame their constitution according to the will and the prescriptions of their Peloponnesian conquerors. The terms were accepted, and the enemy entered the harbour, and took po e ion of the city, that very day on which the A then i ans had been accustomed to celebrate the anniversary of the immortal victory which their ancestors had obtained over the Persians about 76 years before, near the island of Salamis. The walls and fortifications were instantly levelled with the ground, and the conquerors observed, that in the demolition of Athens, succeeding ages would fix the era of Grecian freedom. The day was concluded with a festival, and the recitation of one of the tragedies of Euripi des, in which the misfortunes of the daughter of Agamemnon, who was reduced to misery, and banished from her father’s kingdom, excited a kindred sympathy in the bosom of the audience, who melted into tears at the recollection that one moment had likewise reduced to misery and servitude the capital of Attica, which was once called the common patrone of Greece, and the scourge of Persia. This memorable event happened about 404 years before the christian era, and 30 tyrants were appointed by Lysander over the government of the city. Xenophon , Hellenica .— Plutarch , Lysander , Pericles , Alcibiades , Nicias , & Agesilaus .— Diodorus , bk. 11 , . — Aris toph anes. — Thucydides. — Plato. — Aristotle. — Lycias. — I so crates. — Cornel i us Nepos , Lysander , Alcibiades , . — Cicero , De Officiis , bk. 1 , ch. 24 . ♦ ‘supprise’ replaced with ‘surprise’ ♠ ‘unsuccesful’ replaced with ‘unsucce ful’