Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/502

 480 HISTORY OF GREECE. mentions the latter except in connection with some proceeding represented as unwise or discreditable. The barbarities which the offended majesty of empire thought itself entitled to practise in ancient times against dependencies revolted and reconquered, reach their maximum in the propositions against Mitylene and Skione : both of them are ascribed to Kleon by name as their author. But when we come to the slaughter of the Melians, equally barbarous, and worse in respect to grounds of excuse, in- asmuch as the Melians had never been subjects of Athens, we find Thucydides mentioning the deed without naming the proposer. 1 Respecting the foreign policy of Kleon, the facts already nar- rated will enable the reader to form an idea of it as compared with that of his opponents. I have shown grounds for believing that Thucydides has forgotten his usual impartiality in criticizing this personal enemy; that in regard to Sphakteria, Kleon was really one main and indispensable cause of procuring for his country the greatest advantage which she obtained throughout the whole war ; and that in regard to his judgment as advocating the prosecution of war, three different times must be distin- guished: 1. After the first blockade of the hoplites in Sphak- teria ; 2. After the capture of the island ; 3. After the expi- ration of the one year truce. On the earliest of those three occasions he was wrong, for he seems to have shut the door on all possibilities of negotiation, by his manner of dealing with the Lacedaemonian envoys. On the second occasion, he had fair and plausible grounds to offer on behalf of his opinion, though it turned out unfortunate : moreover, at that time, all Athens was warlike, and Kleon is not to be treated as the peculiar adviser of that policy. On the third and last occasion, after the expiration of the truce, the political counsel of Kleon was right, judi- cious, and truly Periklean, much surpassing in wisdom that of his opponents. We shall see in the coming chapters how those opponents managed the affairs of the state after his death ; how Nikias threw away the interests of Athens in the enforce- ment of the conditions of peace ; how Nikias and Alkibiades together shipwrecked the power of their country on the shores of Syracuse. Ami when we judge the demagogue Kleon in this 1 ThucjcLv, 116.