Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/206

 184 HISTORY OF GREECE hardships, even of the army without, in the cold ui winter, were very severe, and they had become thoroughly tired both of the duration and the expense of the siege. The cost to Athens had been not less than two thousand talents ; since the assailant force had never been lower than three thousand hoplites, during the entire two years of the siege, and for a portion of the time considerably greater, each hoplite receiving two drachmas per diem. The Athenians at home, when they learned the terms of the capitula- tion, were displeased with the generals for the indulgence shown, since a little additional patience would have constrained the city to surrender at discretion : in which case the expense would have been partly made good by selling the prisoners as slaves, and Athenian vengeance probably gratified by putting the warriors to death. 1 A body of one thousand colonists were sent from Athens to occupy PotidaBa and its vacant territory. 2 Two full years had now elapsed since the actual commencement of war, by the attack of the Thebans on Plataea ; yet the Pelo ponnesians had accomplished nothing of what they expected. They had not rescued Potidzea, nor had their twice-repeated invasion, although assisted by the unexpected disasters arising from the epidemic, as yet brought Athens to any sufficient humil- iation, though perhaps the envoys which she had sent during the foregoing summer with propositions for peace, contrary to the advice of Perikles, may have produced an impression that she could not hold out long. At the same time, the Peloponne- sian allies had on their side suffered little damage, since the ravages inflicted by the Athenian fleet on their coast may have been nearly compensated by the booty which their invading tr<"ops gained in Attica. Probably by this time the public opin- ion in Greece had contracted an unhappy familiarity with the state of war, so that nothing but some decisive loss and humilia- tion on one side at least, if not on both, would suffice to terminate it. In this third spring, the Peloponnnesians did not repeat their annual march ioto Attica, deterred, partly, we may sup- 1 Thucyd. ii, 70; iii 3 17. However, the displeasure of the Athenians against the commanders cannot have heen very serious, since Xenophcn was appointed to command against the Chalkidians in the ensuing year.
 * Diodor. xii. 46.