Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/150

132 132 HISTORY OP GREECE. themselves blockaded by sea and confined to their walls, the} sent to Athens, both to entreat succor, as allies ' and lonians, and to represent that, if Syracuse succeeded in crushing them, she and the other Dorians in Sicily would forthwith send over the positive aid which the Peloponnesians had so long been invoking. The eminent rhetor Georgias of Leontini, whose peculiar style of speaking is said to have been new to the Athenian assembly, and to have produced a powerful effect, was at the head of this embassy. It is certain that this rhetor procured for himself numerous pupils and large gains, not merely in Athens but in many other towns of Central Greece,2 though it is exaggeration to ascribe to his pleading the success of the present application. Now the Athenians had a real interest as well in protecting these Ionic Sicilians from being conquered by the Dorians in the island, as in obstructing the transport of Sicilian corn to Pelopon- nesus : and they sent twenty triremes under Laches and Charce- akes, with instructions, while accomplishing these objects, to as- certain the possibility of going beyond the defensive, and making conquests. Taking station at Rhegium, Laches did something towards rescuing the Ionic cities in part from their maritime blockade, and even undertook an abortive expedition against the Lipari isles, which were in alliance with Syracuse. 3 Throughout the ensuing year, he pressed the war in the neighborhood of Rhegium and Messene, his colleague Charoeades being slain. Attacking Mylae in the Messenian territory, he was fortunate enough to gain so decisive an advantage over the troops of Mes- sene, that that city itself capitulated to him, gave hostages, and enrolled itself as ally of Athens and the Ionic cities. 4 He also 1 Thucyd. vi, 86. markable that Thucydides, though he is said, with much probability, to have been among the pupils of Georgias, makes no mention of that rhetor personally as among the envoys. Diodorus probably copied from Ephorus, the pupil of Isokrates. Among the writers of the Isokratean school, the persons of distinguished rhetors, and their supposed political efficiency, counted for much more than in the estimation of Thucydides. Pausauias (vi, 17, 3) speaks of Tisias also as having been among the envoys in this celebrated legation. 3 Thncyd. iii, 88; Dioc'or. xii, 54. 4 Thucyd. iii, 90; vi, 6
 * Thucyd. iii, 86; Diodor. xii, 53; Plato, Hipp. Maj. p. 282, B. It is re-