Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/391

 CHOICE OF BRASIDAS TO ACT IN THRACE. 36'J so perfidious in the contrivance, so murderous in the purpose, and BO complete in the execution, stands without parallel in Grecian history, we might almost say, without a parallel in any history. It implies a depravity far greater than the rigorous execution of a barbarous customary law against prisoners of war or rebels, even in large numbers. The ephors must have employed nu merous instruments, apart from each other, for the performance of this bloody deed ; yet it appears that no certain knowledge could be obtained of the details ; a striking proof of the mysteri- ous efficiency of this Council of Five, surpassing even that of the Council of Ten at Venice, as well as of the utter absence of public inquiry or discussion. It was while the Lacedaemonians were in this state of uneasi- ness at home, that envoys reached them from Perdikkas of Mace- donia and the Chalkidians of Thrace, entreating aid against Athens ; who was considered likely, in her present tide of suc- cess, to resume aggressive measures against them. There were, moreover, other parties, in the neighboring cities 1 subject to Athens, who secretly favored the application, engaging to stand forward in open revolt as soon as any auxiliary force should arrive to warrant their incurring the hazard. Perdikkas (who had on his hands a dispute with his kinsman Arrhibasus, prince of the Lynkestce-Macedonians, which he was anxious to be ena- bled to close successfully) and the Chalkidians offered at the same time to provide the pay and maintenance, as well as to fa- cilitate the transit, of the troops who might be sent to them ; and what was of still greater importance to the success of the enter- prise, they specially requested that Brasidas might be invested with the command. 2 He had now recovered from his wounds received at Pylus, and his reputation for adventurous valor, great as it was from positive desert, stood out stiil more conspicuously, because not a single other Spartan had as yet distinguished him- quite sufficient to give a full and distinct meaning to the expression xal TOTE (Thuevd. iv,80) on which Dr. Thirlwall insists ; without the necessity of going back to any more remote point of antecedent time. 1 Thucyd. iv, 79. ^TTuprri doKOvvra dpaari/pioi' elvat f TU nuvra, etc. VOL. vi. 1C* 24oc
 * Thucyd. iv, 80. / !rpov-&vfj.>)-&j)ffav 6e KOI oi Xa/i/aJ//f uvSpa Iv rt t