Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/459

 BRASIDAS AT SKIONE. 4,^ was placed on his head, the burst of individual sentiment and sympathy was the strongest of which the Grecian bosom was capable. " They crowded round him individually, and encircled his head with fillets, like a victorious athlete," l says the historian This remarkable incident illustrates what I observed before, that the achievements, the self-relying march, the straightforward pol- itics and probity of this illustrious man, who in character was more Athenian than Spartan, yet with the good qualities of Athens predominant, inspired a personal emotion towards him such as rarely found its way into Grecian political life. The sympathy and admiration felt in Greece towards a victorious athlete was not merely an intense sentiment in the Grecian mind, but was, perhaps of all others, the most wide-spread and Pan- Hellenic. It was connected with the religion, the taste, and the love of recreation, common to the whole nation, while politics tended rather to disunite the separate cities : it was farther a sentiment at once familiar and exclusively personal. Of its exag- gerated intensity throughout Greece the philosophers often com- plained, not without good reason ; but Thucydides cannot convey a more lively idea of the enthusiasm and unanimity with which Brasidas was welcomed at Skione, just after the desperate resolu- tion taken by the citizens, than by using this simile. The Lacedaemonian commander knew well how much the utmost resolution of the Skionseans was needed, and how speedily their insular position would draw upon them the vigorous invasion of Athens. He accordingly brought across to Pallene a consider- able portion of his army, not merely with a view to the defence of Skione, but also with the intention of surprising both Mende and Potidasa, in both which places there were small parties of con- spirators prepared to open the gates. It was in this position that he was found by the commissiot ers who came to announce formally the conclusion of the truce for one year, and to enforce its provisions : Athenacus from Sparta, 1 Thucyd. iv, 121. Kat d^uoaf'p /*ev xpvati are&uvi;) uve^rjaav uf iisvvra rrjv 'E/.Au(5a, liig. re eraiviovv TE nai npoaijp^ovTO tJanep Compare Plutarch, Perikles, c. 28: compare rlso Ivrause (Olympia), sect. 17, p. 162 (Wicn, 1838). It was customary to place a fillet of cloth or lineo on the head of the victors at Olympia, before putting on the olive wrcatb