Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/481

 WAR-POLICY OF KLEON. 459 not, or could not, enforce performance of their stipulation, even after the death of Brasidas : much less could they have done so during his life, when there was his great personal influence, stren- uous will, and hopes of future conquest, to serve as increased obstruction to them. Such anticipations were also plainly sug- gested by the recent past : so that in putting them into the mouth of Kleon, we are only supposing him to read the lesson open before his eyes. Now since the war-policy of Kleon, taken at this moment aftei the expiration of the one year's truce, may be thus shown to be not only more conformable to the genius of Perikles, but also founded on a juster estimate of events both past and future, than thf peace-policy of Nikias, what are we to say to the historian, wh<y, without refuting such presumptions, every one of which is deduced from his own narrative, nay, without even indicating their exis- tence, merely tells us that " Kleon opposed the peace in order that he might cloke dishonest intrigues and find matter for plau- sible crimination?" We cannot but say of this criticism, with profound regret that such words must be pronounced respecting any judgment of Thucydides, that it is harsh and unfair towards Kleon, and careless in regard to truth and the instruction of his readers. It breathes not that same spirit of honorable impar- tiality which pervades his general history : it is an interpolation by the officer whose improvidence had occasioned to his country- men the fatal loss of Amphipolis, retaliating upon the citizen who justly accused him : it is conceived in the same tone as his unaccountable judgment in the matter of Sphakteria. Rejecting on this occasion the judgment of Thucydides, we may confidently affirm that Kleon had rational public grounds for urging his countrymen to undertake with energy the recon- quest of Amphipolis. Demagogue and leather-seller though he was, he stands here honorably distinguished, as well from the lameness and inaction of Nikias, who grasped at peace with hasty credulity through sickness of the efforts of war, as from the restless movement and novelties, not merely unprofitable but ruinous, which we shall presently find springing up under the auspice^ of Alkibiades. Perikles had said to his countrymen, at a time when they were enduring all the miseries of pestilence, and were in a state of dcspondercy even greater than that which