Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/203

Rh Athens. But the Athenians were too triumphant to listen, and the unexpected success of Cleon, who had, as he promised, taken the Spartans in Sphacteria within twenty clays, had given him great influence in the assembly, and induced the people to follow his policy, which was to continue the war at all hazards, rather than that of the cautious and respectable Nicias, who was for making peace. They won a victory over the Corinthians in the autumn of B.C. 425; in the next year they occupied the island of Cythera, off the southern shore of Lacedaemonia, as well as other places on the mainland; they seized Nisaea, the harbour-town of Megara; and finally they were inspired with hopes of securing Boeotia, where a democratic party, envious of Thebes, was inviting their presence. A double invasion was planned, but owing to some mistake, the two armies failed to unite, and the Athenians sustained a severe defeat at Delium.

The same year also the war was transferred by Brasidas to the Thraceward towns. Among other places he successfully attacked Amphipolis, which the historian Thucydides, commanding a small fleet at Thasus, failed to relieve. The Athenians were particularly sensitive as to the loss of these towns owing to their corn and timber trade with them, and the countries round the Black Sea, which necessitated making voyages along the northern shores.

Accordingly in B.C. 423 they concluded a year's truce with a view of a more permanent settlement. Nevertheless the year was not free from war. A revolt of two cities in the Chalcidian peninsula,