Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/163

 BEGINNING OF THE PELOPONNEblAN WAR. Hi BO Athens of subduing these towns, through the assistance of Si- talkas, king of the Odrysian Thracians. That prince had married the sister of Nymphodorus, a citizen of Abdera ; who engaged lo render him, and his son Sadokus, allies of Athens. Sent for to Atheixv and appointed proxenus of Athens at Abdera, which was one of the Athenian subject .allies, JNymphodorus made this alliance, and promised, in the name of Sitalkes, that a sufficient Thracian force should be sent to aid Athens in the reconquest of her revolted towns : the honor of Athenian citizenship was at the same time conferred upon Sadokus. 1 Nymphoderus farther established a good understanding between Perdikkas of Macedo- nia and the Athenians, who were persuaded to restore to him Therma, which they had before taken from him. The Athenians had thus the promise of powerful aid against the Chalkidians and Potidaeans : yet the latter still held out, with little prospect of immediate surrender. Moreover, the town of Astakus, in Akarnania, which the Athenians had captured during the sum- mer, in the course of their expedition round Peloponnesus, was recovered during the autumn by the deposed despot Euarchus, assisted by forty Corinthian triremes and one thousand hoplitos. This Corinthian armament, after restoring Euarchus, made some unsuccessful descents both upon other parts of Akarnania and upon the island of Kephallenia: in the latter, they were en- trapped into an ambuscade, and obliged to return home with con- siderable loss. 2 It was towards the close of this autumn also that Perikles, chosen by the people for the purpose, delivered the funeral ora- tion at the public interment of those warriors who had fallen during the campaign. The ceremonies of this public token of respect have already been described in a former chapter, on occasion of the conquest of Samos : but that which imparted to the present scene an imperishable interest, was the discourse of the chosen statesman and orator ; probably heard by Thucydides himself, and in substance reproduced. A large crowd of citizens and foreigners, of both sexes and all ages, accompanied the ^uneral procession from Athens to the suburb called the outer Kerameikus, where Perikles, mounted upon a lofty stage pre- 1 Thucyi ii, 29. * Thucyd. ii, 33.