Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/420

 398 mSTORY OF GREECE. there was much doubt whether it would be granted, and perfect certainty of such delay and publicity as would put the Athenians on their guard. But though such was the temper of the Thessa- Uan people, yet the Thessalian governments, all oligarchical, sympathized with Lacedsemon ; and the federal authority or power of the tagus, which bound together the separate cities, was generally very weak. What was of still greater importance, the Macedonian Perdikkas, as well as the Chalkidians, had in every city powerful guests and partisans, whom they prevailed upon to exert themselves actively in forwarding the passage of the army.' To these men Brasidas sent a message at Pharsalus, as soon as he reached Herakleia ; and Nikonidas, of Larissa, with other Thessalian friends of Perdikkas, assembling at Melitaea, in Achaia Phthiotis, undertook to escort him through Thessaly. By their countenance and support, combined with his-own bold- ness, dexterity, and rapid movements, he was enabled to aacom plish the seemingly impossible enterprise of running through the country, not only without the consent but against the feeling of its inhabitants, simply by such celerity as to forestall opposition, After traversing Achaia Phthiotis, a territory dependent on the Thessalians, Brasidas began his march from Melitaea through Thessaly itself, along with his powerful native guides. Notwith- standing all possible secrecy and celerity, his march became so far divulged, that a body of volunteers from the neighborhood, of- fended at the proceeding, and unfriendly to Nikonidas, assembled to oppose his progress down the valley of the river Enipeus. Reproaching him with wrongful violation of an independent territory, by the introduction of armed forces without permission from the general government, they forbade him to proceed far ther. His only chance of making progress lay in disarming their opposition by fair words. His guides excused themselves by saying that the suddenness of his arrival had imposed upon them as his guests the obligation of conducting him through, without waiting to ask for formal permission : to offend their countrymen, however, was the farthest thing from their thoughts and they would renounce the enterprise if the persons now assembled persisted in their requisition. The same conciliatory 1 Thacyd. iv, 78.