Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/185

 SECOND AND THIRD YEARS OF THE WAR. 163 lie loss=, over and above the private misery, which this unexpected enemy inflicted upon Athens, was incalculable. Out of twelve hundred horsemen, all among the rich men of the state, three hundred died of the epidemic ; besides four thousand and four hundred hoplites out of the roll formerly kept, and a number of the poorer population so great as to defy computation. 1 No efforts of the Peloponnesians could have done sc much to ruin Athens, or to bring the war to a termination such as ihey desired : and the distemper told the more in their favor, as it never spread at all into Peloponnesus, though it passed from Athens to soms of the more populous islands. 2 The Lacedaemonian army was withdrawn from Attica somewhat earlier than it would otherwise have been, for fear of taking the contagion. 3 But it was while the Lacedaemonians were yet in Attica, and during the first freshness of the terrible malady, that Porikles equipped and conducted from Peiraeus an armament of one hun- dred triremes, and four thousand hoplites to attack the coasts of Peloponnesus : three hundred horsemen were also carried in some horse-transports, prepared for the occasion out of old iriremes. To diminish the crowd accumulated in the city, was doubtless of beneficial tendency, and perhaps those who went aboard, might consider it as a chance of escape to quit an infected home. But unhappily they carried the infection alo&3 with them, which desolated the fleet not less than the city, and crippled all its efforts. Reinforced by fifty ships of war from Chios and Les- bos, the Athenians first landed near Epidaurus in Peloponnesus, ravaging the territory, and making an unavailing attempt upon the city : next, they made like incursions on the more southerly portions of the Argolic peninsula, Trcezen, Halieis, and Her- mione ; and lastly attacked and captured Prasioa, on the eastern coast of Laconia. On returning to Athens, the same armament 1 Thucyd. iii. 87. TOV 6e uXXov o^ov uvE^evpero^ upcd/iug. Diodorus makes them above 10,000 (xii, 58) freemen and slaves together, which must be greatly beneath the reality. 8 Thucyd. ii, 54. TUV u//lwi> %upluv T& -KoT^vav&puTruTaTa. He does not ipecify what places these were : perhaos Chios, but hardly Lesbos, otherwise the fact would have been noticed when the revolt of that island occurs.
 * Thucyd. ii, 57.