Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/373

 CONDUCT OF KLEOXt. 351 ablest specimens of generalship in the whole war, and distinguished not less by the dextrous employment of different descriptions of troops, than by care to spare the lives of the assailants, belongs altogether to Demosthenes, yet if Kleon had not been competent to stand up in the Athenian assembly and defy those gloomy predictions which we see attested in Thucydides, Demosthenes would never have been reinforced nor placed in condition to land on the island. The glory of the enterprise, therefore, belongs jointly to both : and Kleon, far from stealing away the laurels of Demosthenes (as Aristophanes represents, in his comedy of the Knights), was really the means of placing them on his head, though he at the same time deservedly shared them. It has hitherto been the practice to look at Kleon only from the point of view of his opponents, through whose testimony we know him : but the real fact is, that this history of the events of Sphakteria, when properly surveyed, is a standing disgrace to those opponents and no inconsiderable honor to him ; exhibiting them as alike destitute of political foresight and of straightforward patriotism, as sacrificing the opportunities of war, along with the lives of their fellow-citizens and soldiers, for the purpose of ruining a political enemy. It was the duty of Nikias, as strategus, to pro- pose, and undertake in person if necessary, the reduction of Sphakteria : if he thought the enterprise dangerous, that was a good reason for assigning to it a larger military force, as we shall find him afterwards reasoning about the Sicilian expedition, but not for letting it slip or throwing it off upon others. 1 The return of Kleon and Demosthenes to Athens, within the twenty days promised, bringing with them near three hundred Lacedaemonian prisoners, must have been by far the most tri- umphant and exhilarating event which had occurred to the Athenians throughout the whole war. It at once changed the prospects, position, and feelings of both the contending parties. Such a number of Lacedaemonian pi-isoners, especially one hun- dred and twenty Spartans, was a source of almost stupefaction to the general body of Greeks, and a prize of inestimable value to the captors. The return of Demosthenes in the preceding year from the Ambrakian gulf, when he brought with him three hun- 1 Plutarch, Nikias. c. 8 ; Thueyd. v, 7.