Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/407

 TERMS OF THE CONVENTION. 385 since the battle of JEgospotami, was so much superior to any- thing which could be brought to meet it, and indicated so strongly the full force of Persia operating in the interests of Sparta, that the Athenians began to fear a repetition of the same calam- itous suffering which they had already undergone from Lysander. A portion of such hardship they at once began to taste. Not a single merchant-ship reached them from the Euxine, all being seized and detained by Antalkidas ; so that their main supply of imported corn was thus cut off. Moreover, in the present en- couraging state of affairs, the jEginetan privateers became doubly active in harassing the coasting trade of Attica ; and this combina- tion, of actual hardship with prospective alarm, created a para- mount anxiety at Athens to terminate the war. Without Athens, the other allies would have no chance of success through their own forces ; while the Argeians also, hitherto the most obstinate, had become on their own account desirous of peace, being afraid of repeated Lacedaemonian invasions of their territory. That Sparta should press for a peace, when the terms of it -were suggested by herself, is not wonderful. Even to her, triumphant as her position now seemed, the war was a heavy burden. 1 Such was the general state of feeling in the Grecian world, when Tiribazus summoned the contending parties into his presence, probably at Sardis, to hear the terms of the convention which had just come down from Susa. He produced the original edict, and having first publicly exhibited the regal seal, read aloud as follows : " King Artaxerxes thinks it just that the cities hi Asia, and the islands of Klazomense and Cyprus, shall belong to him. He thinks it just also, to leave all the other Hellenic cities autono- mous, both small and great, except Lemnos, Imbros, and Sky- ros, which are to belong to Athens, as they did originally. Should any parties refuse to accept this peace, I will make war upon them, along with those who are of the same mind, by land as well as by sea, with ships and with money." 2 1 Xen. Hellen. v, 1,28, 29. 2 Xen. Hellen. v, 1 31. In this document there is the same introduction of the first person im mediately following the third, as in the correspondence between Pausanias and Xerxes (Thucyd. i, 128, 129). VOL. ix. 17 25oc,