Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/423

 BRASIDAS Al AKAN1HUS. 401 bseus, and was so far satisfied with the propositions made thai he withdrew his troops without marching over the pass into Lynkus. Too feeble to act alone, Perdikkas loudly complained, and contracted his allowance for the future so as to provide for only one-third of the army of Brasidas instead of one- half. Tc this inconvenience, however, Brasidas submitted, in haste to begin his march into Chalkidike, and his operations jointly with the Chalkidians, for seducing or subduing the subject-allies of Athens. His first operation was against Akanthus, on the isthmus of the peninsula of Athos, the territory of which he invaded a little before the vintage, probably about the middle of September ; when the grapes were ripe, but still out, and the whole crop of course exposed to ruin at the hands of an enemy superior in force : so important was it to Brasidas to have es- caped the necessity of wasting another month in conquering the Lynkestge. There was within the town of Akanthus a party in concert with the Chalkidians, anxious to admit him, and to revolt openly from Athens. But the mass of the citizens were averse to this step : and it was only by dwelling on the terrible loss from exposure of the crop without, that the anti-Athenian party could persuade them even to grant the request of Brasidas to be admitted singly, 1 so as to explain his purposes formally before the public assembly, which would take its own decision after- wards. " For a Lacedemonian (says Thucydides) he was no mean speaker : " and if he is to have credit for that which we find written in Thucydides, such an epithet would be less than his desert. Doubtless, however, the substance of the speech is genuine : and it is one of the most interesting in Grecian his- tory ; partly as a manifesto of professed Lacedaemonian policy, partly because it had a great practical effect in determining, on an occasion of paramount importance, a multitude which, though unfavorably inclined to him, was not beyond the reach of argu 1 Tl.'.ucyd. iv, 84, 01 6k irepl TOV Sixeadai, avrbv Kar' ovf iaraaia^jv, ol re fterU TUV Xa^Kideuv tat i) <5ty/iOf ouuf de, 6iu TOV nupnov TO 6 foe en e%a ovrof ireurdev TO TrTtfj-Qo ; virb TOV 'Biraaidov <5fccn9ai re UVTOV fiovov Kal uKoiiaas rcf Bovfavaaadat. 6e%eTai, etc. VOL. vi. 26oc.