Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/475

 EXPIRATION OF THE TRUCE. 453 But the month of March, or the Attic Elaphebolion, 422 B.C., the time prescribed for expiration of the one year's truce, had now arrived. It has already been mentioned that this truce had never been more than partially observed : Brasidas in Thrace had disregarded it from the beginning, and both the contracting powers had tacitly acquiesced in the anomalous condition, of war in Thrace coupled with peace elsewhere. Either of them had thus an excellent pretext for breaking the truce altogether ; and as neither acted upon this pretext, we plainly see that the par- amount feeling and ascendent parties, among both, tended to peace of their own accord, at that time. Nor was there anything except the interest of Brasidas, and of those revolted subjects of Athens to whom he had bound himself, which kept alive the wai in Thrace. Under such a state of feeling, the oath taken t> maintain the truce still seemed imperative on both parties, alway? excepting Thracian affairs. Moreover, the Athenians were to a certain degree soothed by their success at Mend and Skione, and by their acquisition of Perdikkas as an ally, during the summer and autumn of 423 B.C. But the state of sentiment between the contracting parties was not such as to make it pos- sible to treat for any longer peace, or to conclude any new agree- ment, though neither were disposed to depart from that which had been already concluded. The mere occurrence of the last day of the truce made no practical difference at first in this condition of things. The truce had expired : either party might renew hostilities ; but neither actually did renew them. To the Athenians, there was this additional motive for abstaining from hostilities for a few months longer : the great Pythian festival would be celebrated at Delphi in July or the beginning of August, and as they had been excluded from that holy spot during all the interval between the beginning of the war and the conclusion of the one year's truce, their pious feelings seem now to have taken a peculiar longing towards the visits, pilgrimages, and festivals connected with it. Though the truce, therefore, had really ceased, no actual warfare took place until the Pythian games were over. 1 debated passage of Thucyl. v, 1. Tov 6' tinyiyv(yivnv tfe/nvj ai psv
 * This seems to me the most reasonable sense to put upon the much-