Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/354

 332 HISTORY OF GREECE modified by subsequent negotiation, it seems to present 3oaic pin sibility, but little of long-sighted wisdom : for while, on the one hand, it called upon Sparta to give up much which was not in her possession and must have been extorted by force from allies, on the other hand, the situation of Athens was not the same as it had been when she concluded the thirty years' truce ; nor does it seem that the restoration of Achaia and Troezen would have been of any material value to her. Nisaea and Pegre which would have been tantamount to the entire Megarid, inas- much as Megara itself could hardly have been held with both it<* ports in the possession of an enemy would, indeed, have been highly valuable, since she could then have protected her territory against invasion from Peloponnesus, besides possess- ing a port in the Corinthian gulf. And it would seem that if able commissioners had now been named for private discussion with the Lacedasmonian envoys, under the present urgent desire of Sparta, coupled with her disposition to abandon her allies, this important point might possibly have been pressed and car- ried, in exchange for Sphakteria. Nay, even if such acquisition had been found impracticable, still, the Athenians would have been able to effect some arrangement which would have widened the breach, and destroyed the confidence, between Sparta and her allies; a point of great moment for them to accomplish. There was therefore every reason for trying what could be done by negotiation, under the present temper of Sparta ; and the step, by which Kleon abruptly broke off such hopes, was decidedly mischievous. On the return of the envoys without success to Pylus, 1 twenty days after their departure from that place, the armistice immedi- ately terminated ; and the Lacedaemonians redemanded the tri remes which they had surrendered. But Eurymedon refused compliance with this demand, alleging that the Lacedaemonians had, during the truce, made a fraudulent attempt to surprise the rock of Pylus, and had violated the stipulations in other ways besides ; while it stood expressly stipulated in the truce, that the violation by either side even of the least among its conditions, should cancel all obligation on both sides. Tbucydides, without 1 Thuovd. iv, 39.