Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/479

 NIKIAS AND KLEON. 457 war. 1 Consistently with this well-defined plan of action, Peri- kies, had he lived, would have taken care to interfere vigorously and betimes to prevent Brasidas from making his conquests : had such interference been either impossible or accidentally frus- trated, h.3 would have thought no efforts too great to recover them. To maintain undiminished the integrity of the empire, as well as that impression of Athenian force upon which the empire rested, was his cardinal principle. Now it is impossible to deny that in reference to Thrace, Kleon adhered more closely than his rival Nikias to the policy of Perikles. It was to Nikias, more than to Kleon, that the fatal mistake made by Athens in not interfering speedily after Brasidas first broke into Thrace is to be imputed : it was Nikias and his partisans, desirous of peace at almost any price, and knowing that the Lacedaemonians also desired it, who encouraged his countrymen, at a moment of great public depression of spirit, to leave Brasidas unopposed in Thrace, and rely on the chance of negotiation with Sparta for arresting his progress. The peace-party at Athens carried their point of the truce for a year, with the promise and for the ex- press purpose of checking the farther conquests of Brasidas ; also with the farther promise of maturing that truce into a per- manent peace, and obtaining under the peace even the restora tion of Amphipolis. Such was the policy of Nikias and his party, the friends of peace and opponents of Kleon. And the promises which they thus held out might perhaps appear plausible in March 422 B.C., at the moment when the truce for one year was concluded. But the subsequent events had frustrated them in the most glaring manner, and had even shown the best reason for believing that no such expectations could possibly be realized while Brasidas was in unbroken and unopposed action. For the Lacedaemonians, though seemingly sincere in concluding the truce on the basis of itii possidetis, and desiring to extend it to Thrace as well as else- where, had been unable to enfoi'ce the observance of it upon Brasidas, or to restrain him even from making new acquisitions, 1 Thucyd. i, 142, 143, 144; ii, 13. adi rb vavrwbv TJ Tvsodai, TO. re rijv ^v[iuux uv &i& X t P^f 2#fiv l(T%i)v avrolf unb TOVTUV tlvcu ruv xptjpuruv 1% Trpojadov, etc. VOL. VI. 20