Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/26

8 8 HJSTORV OP GREECE Ecntiment of JSikias himself, that at the moment of concluding the peace which bears his name, the position of Sparta was one of disadvantage and dishonor in reference to Athens ; l alluding chiefly to the captives in the hands of the latter ; for as to other matters, the defeats of Delium and Amphipolis, with the serious losses in Thrace, would more than countervail the acquisitions of Nisaea, Pylus, Kythera, and Methone. Yet so inconsiderate and short-sighted were the philo-Laconian leanings of Nikias and the men who now commanded confidence at Athens, that they threw away this advantage, suffered Athens to be cheated of all those hopes which they had themselves held out as the inducement for peace, and nevertheless yielded gratuitously tc Sparta all the main points which she desired. Most certainly there was never any public recommendation of Kleon, as far as our information goes, so ruinously impolitic as this alliance with Sparta and surrender of the captives, wherein both Nikias and Alkibiades concurred. Probably the Spartan ephors amused Nikias, and he amused the Athenian assembly, with fallacious assurances of certain obedience in Thrace, under alleged peremp- tory orders given to Klearidas. And now that the vehement leather-dresser, with his criminative eloquence, had passed away, replaced only by an inferior successor, the lamp-maker 2 Hyper- bolus, and leaving the Athenian public under the undisputed guidance of citizens eminent for birth and station, descender from gods and heroes, there remained no one to expose effectivelj the futility of such assurances, or to enforce the lesson of simph- and obvious prudence : " Wait, as you are entitled to wait, until the Spartans have performed the onerous part of their bargain, before you perform the onerous part of yours. Or, if you choose to relax in regard to some of the concessions which they have sworn to make, at any rate stick to the capital point of all, and lay before them the peremptory alternative Amphipolis in ex- change for the captives." 1 Thticyd. v, 28. KOTO, -yap TOV XP VOV TOVTOV rj re AaKedaipuv &T] KOKUf JJKOVE Kdi VTTEputydj) 6lU TUf ^Vfllpopuf. (JWKitZf) TiEJUV V ftV T$ Kahti (Athenian) iv 6s Topuv r) ^vu^.nic, etc. * Aristophan. Pac. (65-887.