Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/347

 ARMISTICE. -SPARTAN ENVOYS AT ATHENS. 325 during the like interval ; but it was agreed that they should keep strict and unremitting watch over the island, yet without landing upon it. For the subsistence of the detachment in the island, the Lacedaemonians were permitted to send over every day two choenikes of barley-meal in cakes, ready baked, two kotylae of wine, 1 and some meat, for each hoplite, together with half that quantity for each of the attendant Helots ; but this was all to be done under the supervision of the Athenians, with peremptory obligation to send no secret additional supplies. It was, more- over, expressly stipulated that if any one provision of the armis- tice, small or great, were violated, the whole should be considered as null and void. Lastly, the Athenians engaged, on the return of the envoys from Athens, to restore the triremes in the same condition as they received them. Such terms sufficiently attest the humiliation and anxiety ol the Lacedaemonians ; while the surrender of their entire naval force to the number of sixty triremes, which was forthwith car- ried into effect, demonstrates at the same time that they sincerely believed in the possibility of obtaining peace. Well aware that they were themselves the original beginners of the war, at a time when the Athenians desired peace, and that the latter had besides made fruitless overtures while under the pressure of the epidemic, they presumed that the same dispositions still pre- vailed at Athens, and that their present pacific wishes would be eo gladly welcomed as to procure without difficulty the relinquish- ment of the prisoners in Sphakteria. 2 The Lacedaemonian envoys, conveyed to Athens in an Athe- nian trireme, appeared before the public assembly to set forth their mission, according to custom, prefacing their address with ' Thucyd. iv, 16. The choenix was equivalent to about two pints, Eng- lish dry measure : it was considered as the usual daily sustenance for a slave. Each Lacedaemonian soldier had, therefore, double of this daily al- lowance, besides meat, in weight and quantity not specified: the fact that the quantity of meat is not specified, seems to show that they did ij ot fear abuse in this item. The kotyla contained about half a pint, English wine measure : each Lacedaemonian soldier had, therefore, a pint of wine daily. It was always the practice in Greece to drink the wine with a large admixture of water. Thucyd. iv, 21 : compare vii, 18.