Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/95

 15EVOLT OF EUB(EA /3 III could Athens endure a disaster, in itself so immense and aggravated, under the present distressed condition of the city. Her last fleet was destroyed, her nearest and most precious island torn from her side ; an island, which of late had yielded more to her wants than Attica itself, but which was now about to become a hostile and aggressive neighbor. 1 The previous revolt of Euboea, occurring thirty-four years before, during the maximum of Athenian power, had been even then a terrible blow to Athens, and formed one of the main circumstances which forced upon her the humiliation of the Thirty years' truce. But this second re- volt took place when she had not only no means of reconquering the island, but no means even of defending Peiraus against the blockade by the enemy's fleet. The dismay and terror excited by the news at Athens was unbounded, even exceeding what had been felt after the Sicilian catastrophe, or the revolt of Chios. Nor was there any second reserve now in the treasury, such as the thousand talents which had rendered such essential service on the last-mentioned occasion. In addition to their foreign dangers, the Athenians were farther weighed down by two intes- tine calamities in themselves hardly supportable, alienation of their 'own fleet at Samos, and the discord, yet unappeased, within their own walls ; wherein the Four Hundred still held provision- ally the reins of government, with the ablest and most unscru- pulous leaders at their head. In the depth of their despair, the Athenians expected nothing less than to see the victorious fleet of Agesandridas more than sixty triremes strong, including the recent captures off" the Peincus, forbidding all importation, and threatening them with approaching famine, in combination with Agis and Dekeleia. The enterprise would have been easy for there were neither ships nor seamen to repel him ; and his arrival at this critical moment would most probably have enabled the Four Hundred to resume their ascendency, with the means as well as the disposition to introduce a Lacedaemonian garrison 1 Thuoycl. viii, 95. To show what Eubcca became at a later period, see Demosthenes, DC Fals. Legat. c. 64, p. 409 : T& iv Evftoip KaraoKevao&t]- yoftfva bpfiTjTTipia l' i/3o;3f dppufitvav A/OTUV yeyove, etc VOL. VIII. 4