Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/500

 478 HISTORY OF GREECE. their opposition enfeebled it from the beginning, kept within too narrow limits the force assigned to it, and was one main reason which frustrated its success. Had Perikles been alive, Amphipolis might perhaps still have been lost, since its capture was the fault of the officers employed to defend it. But if lost, it would probably have been attacked and recovered with the same energy as the revolted Samos had been, with the full force and the best generals that Athens could furnish. With such an armament under good officers, there was nothing at all impracticable in the reconquest of the place ; especially as at that time it had no defence on three sides except the Strymon, and might thus be approached by Athenian ships on that navigable river. The armament of 'Kleon, 1 even if his rein- forcements had arrived, was hardly sufficient for the purpose. But Perikles would have been able to concentrate upon it the whole strength of the city, without being paralyzed by the con tentions of political party : he would have seen as clearly as Kleon, that the place could only be recovered by force, and that its recovery was the most important object to which Athens could devote her energies. It was thus that the Athenians, partly from political intrigue, partly from the incompetence of Kleon, underwent a disastrous defeat instead of carrying Amphipolis. But the death of Bras- idas converted their defeat into a substantial victory. There remained no Spartan either like or second to that eminent man, either as a soldier or a conciliating politician ; none who could replace him in the confidence and affection of the allies of Athens in Thrace ; none who could prosecute those enterprising plans against Athens on her unshielded side, which he had first shown 1 Amphipolis was actually thus attacked by the Athenians eight years afterwards, by ships on the Strymon, Thucyd. vii, 9. Everiuv orpar^ydf USTU Hepd'iKnov arpaTevactf in' ' A/j.iiro?i.iv Qpg.%1 TtoTJiolg, TTJV i>x eihsv, if 6e TUV Srpiyzova KEpi/topicae TpiTJpeif /c row TroTa[iov i, opfiufievof k^ 'Ijiepalov. (In the eighteenth year of the war.) But the fortifications of the place seem to have been materially altered during the interval. Instead of one long wall, with three sides open to the river, it seems to have acquired a curved wall, only open to the river on a comparatively narrow space near to the lake ; wMle this curved wall joined the bridge southerly by means of a parallel pair of long walls with road between