Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/439

 CONDUCT OF THUC1DIDES. 417 lions upon which the security of Amphipolis rested; precautions both of them obvious, either of them sufficient. The one leaves the bridge under a feeble guard, 1 and is caught so unprepared everywhere, that one might suppose Athens to be in profound peace ; the other is found with his squadron, not at Eion, but at Thasos ; an island out of all possible danger, either from Bra- sidas, who had no ships, or any other enemy. The arrival of Brasidas comes on both of them like a clap of thunder. Nothing more is required than this plain fact, under the circumstances, to prove their improvidence as commanders. The presence of Thucydides on the station of Thrace was im- portant to Athens, partly because he possessed valuable family connections, mining property, and commanding influence among the continental population round Amphipolis. 2 This was one main reason why he was named ; the Athenian people confid- ing partly in his private influence, over and above the public force under his command, and looking to him, even more than to his colleague Eukles, for the continued security of the town : instead of which they find that not even their own squadron under him is at hand near the vulnerable point, at the moment when the enemy comes. Of the two, perhaps, the conduct of Eukles admits of conceivable explanation more easily than that of Thucydides. For it seems that Eukles had no paid force in Amphipolis ; only the citizen hoplites, partly Athenian, partly of other lineage. Doubtless, these men found it irksome to keep guard through the winter on the Strymonian bridge : and Eukles might fancy that, by enforcing a large perpetual guard, he 1 Thucyd. iv, 103. v2,aKt) dc rif Ppa^eta KadetaTT/KEi, yv fttaauftevof padiui; 6 Bpaaitiaf, ufta ftev Tfj<; K/joSoaiaf ovarje, ufia di KCU e//wvof ovrof Kal uirpoado KTjrof irpoaireau v, duQij rr/v yetyvQav, etc. PUTUV, etc. Rotscher, in his Life of Thucydides (Leben dcs Thukydides, Gottingen, 1842, sect. 4, pp. 97-99), admits it to be the probable truth, that Thucy- dides was selected for this command expressly in consequence of his pri- vate influence in the region around. Yet this biographer still repeats the view generally taken, that Thucydides did everything which an able com mander could do, and was most unjustly condemned. VOL. vr. 18* 27oc-
 * Thucyd. iv, 105. KOL d<r' O.VTOV diivacr&at, kv roZf TrpaJrotf TUV fyircf