Book 4
And this change of government lasted a very long time, though effected by a very few men through the triumph of a faction.
The same summer, when Antandrus was going to be strengthened by the Mytilenaeans, as they were planning [when we last mentioned them], Demodocus and Aristides, the commanders of the ships sent to levy contributions, being about the Hellespont, (for Lamachus, their third colleague, had sailed with ten ships into the Pontus,) became aware of the provisions made for the place, and thinking there was danger of its becoming what Anaea was to Samos—where the Samian exiles had established themselves, and both assisted the Peloponnesians by sending pilates to their squadrons, and threw the Samians in the city into confusion, and received those who deserted them—on these grounds they collected a force from the allies and set sail, and having defeated in a battle those who came out from Antandrus against them, retook the place.
Not long after, Lamachus, who had sailed into the Pontus, having anchored in the river Calex, in the territory of Heraclea, lost his ships in consequence of a rain Poppo ἄνωθεν by coelitus. See Arnold's note. in the interior, and the flood coming suddenly down upon them. He himself and his troops went by land through the Bithynian Thracians, who are situated across the strait in Asia, to Chalcedon, the Megarean colony at the mouth of the Pontus.
The same summer Demosthenes, the Athenian general, went to Naupactus with forty ships immediately after the return from the Megarid.
For communications respecting the affairs of Boeotia were being carried on with Hippocrates and him by certain men in the cities, who wished to change the constitution, and to bring them under a democracy like that of Athens; it being especially under the direction of Ptoeodorus, an exile from Thebes, that these preparations were made by them.
A party was to betray to them Siphae, a seaport town in the Thespian territory, on the Crisaean Bay; while Chaeronea, which was dependent on what was formerly called the Minyan, but now the Boeotian Orchomenus, was to be delivered up by another party in that city; the exiles from it also co-operating most warmly, and raising mercenary troops from the Peloponnese. Chaeronea is the frontier town too of Boeotia, near to Phanotis in Phocis, and a party of Phocians joined in the design. On the other hand, the Athenians were to seize Delium, the sanctuary of Apollo in the territory of Tanagra, looking towards Euboea;
and these measures were to be simultaneously executed on the same day; that the Boeotians might not oppose them in a body at Delium, but have to attend to their own respective neighbourhoods that were being revolutionized.
And should the attempt succeed, and Delium be fortified, they confidently hoped, that even if no change in their constitution were immediately made by the Boeotians, yet when these posts were occupied by Athenian garrisons, and the land was being plundered, and the several parties had a rallying place close at hand, that things would not remain in their present position, but that, in the course of time, when the Athenians supported the disaffected, and the power of the oligarchs was disunited, they would settle them to their own advantage. Such then was the design in preparation.
Now Hippocrates himself, with a force raised at home, was ready, when the time came, to take the field against the Boeotians; but Demosthenes he sent on before, with the forty ships mentioned, to Naupactus; that after raising in those quarters an army of Acamanians and the other allies, he might sail to Siphae, in expectation of its being betrayed to him: and the day had been fixed between them on which they were simultaneously to carry out these plans.
Accordingly, Demosthenes went to Naupactus, and finding $Aeniadae compelled by all the Acarnanians to join the Athenian confederacy, and having himself raised all the allies on that side, and marched first against Salynthius and the Agraeans, and reduced them to subjection, he proceeded to make his other preparations for going at the proper time to Siphae.
About the same part of the summer, when Brasidas, being on his march with one thousand seven hundred heavy-armed to the Thrace-ward countries, had come to Heraclea in Trachinia; and when, on his sending before him a messenger to his partisans in Pharsalus, and requesting them to conduct himself and his army through the country, there came to Melitia, in Achaia, Panaerus, Dorus, Hippolochidas, Torylaus, and Strophacus, who was proxenus to the Chalcidians; upon that he proceeded on his march, being conducted both by other Thessalians, and especially by Niconidas of Larissa, who was a friend of Perdiccas.
For on other grounds it was not easy to pass through Thessaly without an escort, and with an armed force, especially, to pass through a neighbour's country without having obtained his consent, was regarded with suspicion by all the Greeks alike. Besides, the great mass of the Thessalians had always been on friendly terms with Athens;
so that, had not Thessaly, by the constitution of their country, been under the dominion of a few individuals, rather than in the enjoyment of civil equality, he would never have made his way; since even as it was, another party, of contrary views to those who have been named, met him on his march on the river Enipeus, and tried to stop him, telling him that he did wrong in advancing without the national consent.
But his conductors said that they would not escort him against their will, and that they were only attending him as friends, on his unexpectedly coming to them. Brasidas himself also told them that he came as a friend both to the country of the Thessalians and to themselves, and was bringing his forces against the Athenians, who were at war with his country, and not against them; nor did he know of any enmity existing between the Thessalians and the Lacedaemonians, to prevent their having access to each other's territory:
and now he would not advance against their will (for neither indeed could he); but yet he claimed not to be obstructed After hearing this, they went away; and he, without halting at all, pushed on at a rapid pace, according to the advice of his conductors, before a greater force might be collected to stop him. And so on the day of his setting out from Melitia he performed the whole distance to Pharsalus, and encamped on the river Apidanus;
thence to Phacium, and thence to Peraebia. At that point his Thessalian escort returned; but the Peraxbians, who were subject to the Thessalians, brought him to Dium, in the dominions of Perdiccas, a town of Macedonia lying under Mount Olympus, on the side of Thessaly.
In this way Brasidas stole a rapid march through Thessaly, before any one was prepared to stop him, and reached Perdiccas and Chalcidice.
For what brought the army up out of the Peloponnese, while the affairs of Athens were so prosperous, was the fear of the Thrace-ward cities which had revolted from the Athenians, and that of Perdiccas:
the Chalcidians thinking that the Athenians would in the first place march against them, (and moreover, the cities near to them which had not revolted, secretly joined in the invitation,) and Perdiccas, though not an open enemy, yet being afraid, on his part also, because of his old quarrels with the Athenians, and most of all being desirous of reducing to subjection Arrhibaeus, the king of the Lyncestians.
And what contributed to their getting the army out of the Peloponnese the more easily, was the misfortune of the Lacedaemonians at that time. For as the Athenians were pressing hard upon the Peloponnese, and especially upon their territory, they hoped to divert them from it most effectually, if they annoyed them in return by sending an army to their allies; especially as they were ready to maintain it, and were calling them to their aid, with a view to revolting.
Besides, they were glad to have a pretext for sending away some of the Helots; lest in the present state of affairs, when Pylus was occupied by an enemy, they might attempt some revolution.
Indeed through fear of their youth and great numbers, they even perpetrated the following deed: (for at all times most of the Lacedaemonian institutions were framed particularly with a view to the Helots, to guard against them.) They made proclamation, that as many of them as claimed to have done the state most service against the enemy should be picked out, professing that they would give them their liberty; thus applying a test to them, and thinking that those who severally claimed to be first made free, would also, through their high spirit, be most ready to attack them.
Having thus selected as many as two thousand, the Helots crowned themselves, and went round to the temples, on the strength of having gained their freedom; but the Spartans soon after did away with them, and no one ever knew by what means they were severally dispatched. And on this occasion they eagerly sent away seven hundred of them with Brasidas as heavy-armed troops:
the rest of his army he induced by pay to follow him from the Peloponnese. As for Brasidas himself, it was chiefly at his own desire that the Lacedaemonians sent him out.
But the Chalcidians were also very anxious to have him, as a man who both appeared, while in Sparta, to be active in every thing, and after he had gone from home, proved himself most valuable to the Lacedaemonians.
For at that present time, by showing himself just and moderate towards the cities, he caused their revolt in most instances; while other places he took through their being betrayed to him; so that the Lacedaemonians, if they might wish to conclude peace, (as they did,) had towns to give and receive back, and a respite from the war in the Peloponnese. And at a later period of the war, after what had happened in Sicily, it was the probity and tact of Brasidas at this time, experienced by some and heard of by others, that most raised amongst the allies of Athens a strong inclination towards the Lacedaemonians.
For by going out first, and showing himself to be in all respects a worthy man, he left amongst them an assured hope that the rest also were like him.
On his arrival then at this time in the countries Thrace-ward, the Athenians, when they heard it, declared war against Perdiccas, thinking that he was the cause of his march thither; and kept a closer watch over their allies in that quarter.
Perdiccas immediately took Brasidas and his army, and led them with his own forces against Arrhibaeus the son of Bromerus, king of the Lyncestian Macedonians, whose territory bordered on his own; for he had a quarrel with him, and wished to reduce him to subjection.
But when he had come with his army, accompanied by Brasidas, to the pass into Lyncus, Brasidas told him that he wished to go, before hostilities were commenced, and by means of words bring Arrhibaeus into alliance with the Lacedaemonians, if he could.
Indeed Arrhibaeus sent a herald to make some advances, being willing to refer the matter to Brasidas as an arbitrator between them: and the Chalcidian envoys who were with him, advised him not to remove the apprehensions of Perdiccas, that they might be able to command his more hearty assistance in their own affairs also.
Besides, the envoys from Perdiccas had made at Lacedaemon a declaration to this effect, that he would bring many places around him into alliance with them; so that Brasidas, on the strength of this, thought himself entitled to arrange the affairs of Arrhibaeus in Or, κοινῇ μᾶλλον may signify on more public grounds, i. e. on the strength of what Perdiccas had held out at Sparta as a national advantage that would result from their sending troops to co-operate with him. Poppo and Bloomfield think it signifies more impartially. common with Perdiccas, rather than leave them to him alone.
But Perdiccas said that he had not taken Brasidas as an arbitrator in their disputes, but rather to destroy the enemies he should point out to him; and, that he would act unjustly. if, while he supported half his army, he should hold a conference with Arrhibaeus.
But Brasidas, against the king's will, and after a quarrel with him, had a meeting with Arrhibaeus, and being persuaded by his arguments, drew off the army before they entered his country. And Perdiccas after this supplied but a third, instead of half, towards the support of the army, considering himself to be aggrieved.
The same summer, Brasidas, accompanied by the Chalcidians, immediately made an expedition against Acanthus, the colony of the Andrians, a little before the vintage.
The people there were divided into parties amongst themselves on the subject of receiving him, those who with the Chalcidians joined in inviting him, and the commons [who were opposed to it]. Nevertheless, through fear for their fruit, which was still out, when the commons were urged by Brasidas to admit him alone, and to decide after hearing him, they admitted him. And coming forward to speak to the people, (being, for a Lacedaemonian, not deficient in eloquence,) he addressed them as follows:
"The sending out, Acanthians, of myself and my army by the Lacedaemonians, has been executed to verify the reason we alleged for hostilities at the commencement of them, viz. that to liberate Greece we should go to war with the Athenians.
And if we have been long in coming to you, through being disappointed in our expectation regarding the war in those parts, according to which we hoped quickly by ourselves, and without any risk on your part, to overthrow the Athenians, let no one find fault with us; for now, when we had an opportunity, we are come, and will endeavour, in concert with you, to subdue them. But I am astonished at my being shut out of your gates, and that my arrival should be unwelcome to any of you.
For we Lacedaemonians, as thinking that we should come to men who in feeling, at any rate, were on our side, even before we actually joined them, and that we should be welcome to you, ran the great risk of making a march of many days through the country of strangers, and If the τε after κίνδυνον is to be retained, I think Haack's explanation of the passage the only one that can give it its true force, viz. that παρασχόμενοι is carelessly introduced instead of παρεσχόμεθα. If Poppo's objection to this be considered valid, I should then agree with him in omitting τε. evinced all possible zeal:
and now, if you have aught else in mind, or if you should stand in the way of your own liberty, and that of the rest of the Greeks, it would be a hard case.