Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/29

11 INCREASED INFLUENCE OF AlcuOS 11 procured for Sparta almost gratuitously the only boon for which she seriously cared. The many critics on Grecian history, who think no term too harsh for the demagogue Kleon, ought in fair- ness to contrast his political counsel with that of his rivals, and see which of the two betokens greater forethought in the management of the foreign relations of Athens. Amphipolis had been once lost by the improvident watch of Thucydides and Eukles : it was now again lost by the improvident concessions of Nikias. So much was the Peloponnesian alliance unhinged by the number of states which had refused the peace, and so greatly was the ascendency of Sparta for the time impaired, that new combi- nations were now springing up in the peninsula. It has already been mentioned that the truce between Argos and Sparta was just now expiring : Argos therefore was free, with her old pre- tensions to the headship of Peloponnesus, backed by an undimin- ished fulness of wealth, power, and population. Having taken no direct part in the late exhausting war, she had even earned money by lending occasional aid on both sides ; l while her military force was just now farther strengthened by a step of very considerable importance. She had recently set apart a body of a thousand select hoplites, composed of young men of wealth and station, to receive constant military training at the public expense, and to be enrolled as a separate regiment by themselves, apart from the other citizens. 2 To a democratical government like Argos, such 1 Thucyd. v, 28. Aristophan. Pac. 407, about the Argeians, dixodev He characterizes the Argeians as anxious for this reason to prolong the war between Athens and Sparta. This passage, as well as the whole tenor of the play, affords ground for affirming that the Pax was represented during the winter immediately preceding the Peace of Nikias, about four or five months after the battle of Amphipolis and the death of Kleon and Brasidas ; not two years later, as Mr. Clinton would place it, on the authority of a date in the play itself, upon which he lays too great stress. 2 Thucyd. v, 67. 'Apyeiur oi XiTiiot. /loyadfj-, olf i] -Kokiq KK. Tro/lAor- ucKT/criv TUV if rbv n6fa/j.ov (ty/zooip Trapelxe. Diodorus (xii, 75) represents the first formation of this Thousand-regiment at Argos as having taken place just about this time, and I think he is hero worthy of credit ; so that I do not regard the expression of Thucydides en ffoAJUn) as indicating a time more than two years prior to the battle of Man- tincia. For Grecian military training, two years of constant practice would