Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/472

 450 HISTORY OF GREECE. men, above the military age, should be named to such posts. Indeed, Brasidas himself was an illustrious departure from the ancient rule. The mission of these officers was intended to guard against the appointment of any but Spartans to such posts, for there were no Spartans in the army of Brasidas. One of the new-comers, Klearidas, was made governor of Amphipolis ; another, Pasitelidas, of Torone. 1 It is probable that these in- specting commissioners may have contributed to fetter the activity of Brasidas: and the newly-declared hostility of Perdikkas, together with disappointment in the non-arrival of the fresh troops intended to join him, much abridged his means. We hear of only one exploit performed by him at this time, and that too more than six months after the retreat from Macedonia, about January or February 422 B.C. Having established intelligence with some parties in the town of Potida?a, in the view of sur- prising it, he contrived to bring up his army in the night to the foot of the walls, and even to plant his scaling ladders, without 1 Thucyd. iv, 132. Kal TUV Tjftuvruv avruv Trapavofiuf uvfipa( ^Jjjov K 27ro/3TJ7f, uare TUV irb'Xeuv apxovrac Kadio-dvat Kal fj.rj TO if Most of the commentators translate fjpuvTuv, "young men" which is not the usual meaning of the word : it signifies, ' men of militaiy age," which includes both young and middle-aged. If we compare iv, 132 with iii, 3G, v, 32, and v, 116, we shall see that T/@UVTE really has this larger meaning : compare also ftzxpi ilftut ("> 46), which means, " until the age of military service commenced." It is not therefore necessary to suppose that the men taken out hy Ischag oras were very young, for example that they were below the age of thirty as Manso, O. Muller, and Goller would have us believe. It is enough that they were within the limits of the military age, both ways. Considering the extraordinary reverence paid to old age at Sparta, it is by no means wonderful that old men should have been thought exclusively fitted for such commands, in the ancient customs and constitution. The extensive operations, however, in which Sparta became involved through the Pcloponnesian war, would render it impossible to maintain euch a maxim in practice : but at this moment, the step was still recognized as a departure from a received maxim, and is characterized as such bj Thucydides under the term irapavo/nuf. I explain role VTvxoi>aiv to refer to the case of men not Spartans being named to these posts : see in reference to this point, the stress which Bras idp > lays on the fact that Klearidas was a Spartan, Thucyd. v 9.