5*4 ATT 
of Pontus. He re-eftablilhed, and by force of arms, the 
Phocians in the management of the temple of Delphos, 
whereof they had been dilpoftefTed by the Lacedemonians. 
He entirely i'ubdued Euboea, and rendered the Athenian 
power every where rel'peHuble. 
In the difpute between the Samians and Milefians, the 
Athenians lided with the latter, by the perfnafion of Peri¬ 
cles; who, Petting Pail for Samos with a fleet of forty fliips, 
there eftablillied democracy, and left a garrifon in the 
town. After his departure, the citizens who had with¬ 
drawn themfelves on his approach, having received a rein¬ 
forcement from the governor of Samos, entered the town 
by night, and put all the garrifon to the fword. Pericles, 
getting intelligence of this, returned with a greater force 
than before, defeated the Samian fleet, and blockaded the 
town. In vain did the Phenicians come to its relief. Pe¬ 
ricles, having received an additional reinforcement, batter¬ 
ed the walls with Pitch vigour, that he obliged the Samians 
to capitulate, and to pay the expences of the war. This 
exploit added greatly to the reputation and glory of Peri¬ 
cles. The Corcyreans likewife, finding themfelves unable 
to make head againft the Corinthians, who had attacked 
them, implored the aftiftance of the Athenians. The 
Corinthians too, on their part. Pent deputies to Athens, 
which for a conliderable time kept the public refolutions 
in fufpenfe. But the Corcyreans Po far prevailed at iaft, 
as to procure themfelves to be received into alliance with 
the Athenians; who did not, however, choofe openly to 
declare war againft the Corinthians, being by no means 
difpleafed to fee thole two powerful maritime Ptates weak¬ 
ening each other by their mutual quarrels. 
The Athenians at lad, grown infolent from their fuc- 
cefs, wantonly attacked every date which they even fuf- 
petfted to be an enemy. They commanded the inhabitants 
of Potidea not only to demolidi the walls of tiieir city on 
the Pallenus fide, but likewife to difmifs the magidrates, 
whom, as a Corinthian colony, they had received from 
Corinth. The Corinthians, provoked at this indance of 
the Athenian injuflice, declared war againd them, and 
fent an army into the territory of Potidea. An engage¬ 
ment enfued, in which vidtory declared for the Athenians. 
In this battle Alcibiades, as yet a very young man, and 
his mailer Socrates, chiefly didinguilhed themfelves. 
That philofopher was obferved to fupport the fatigues of 
war with an eafe that mud have been the confequence of 
the hardy temperate life to which he had inured himfelf; 
and in the aftion he behaved with a courage that would 
have done honour to the braved veteran. On this occa- 
Pion he procured the prize of valour to be adjudged to his 
jcholar Alcibiades, intending by that means to inlpire him 
with a love of glory. This advantage of the Athenians 
did not at all lubdue the relidance of the Potideans, who 
refolved to complain to the Spartans. Thefe readily ef- 
poufed their quarrel, and lecretly prevailed with Perdiccas 
king of Macedon to take arms in their behalf. A battle 
enfued, in which the Athenians having broken the main 
body of that prince’s army, obtained the victory, and laid 
fiege to Potidea. The Corinthians, having likewife com¬ 
plained at Sparta, obtained, like all thole who had been 
injured by the Athenians, a very favourable hearing from 
tl,ie Lacedemonians, who at lad declared the peace to be 
infringed on the part of tiie Athenians, and proclaimed 
war again!! them. 
It is certain, that the overgrown power of the Athenians; 
the prefumption infpired by the victories over the Perfians, 
of which they attributed the whole honour to themfelves; 
their affectation of fuperiority over the Spartans, and their 
overbearing behaviour to their allies, by alluming to them¬ 
felves an exclufive power of judging in every matter that 
concerned the whole confederacy ; had at this time of¬ 
fended all their neighbours. The Lacedemonians, there¬ 
fore, and the other dates of Greece, thought it now 
highly neceffary to humble their pride ; and for that pur¬ 
pose made ufe of every pretext to jollify an open decla¬ 
ration of war. During their hoftile preparations, the 
I C A. 
Lacedemonians endeavoured to cover their refolutions- 
with the appearance of equity. Among other old fub- 
jedts of-difpute revived by them, they required the Athe¬ 
nians to reltore liberty to the cities over which they had 
afPumed an authority ; and particularly to abrogate a law- 
made by them againft the inhabitants of Megara. Peri¬ 
cles anfwered their complaints with great (trength of ar¬ 
gument. He demonitrated, that thefe were by no means 
lufficient grounds for a war; and at the fame time convinced 
the Athenians, that they had no reafon to be alarmed at 
the threats of the Lacedemonians, being in a much better 
fituation to fupport a war than they. 
It was, however, the intereft of Pericles to engage the 
Athenians in a war; for they had already pa,Ted a law ob¬ 
liging him to render an account of the public money. To 
avoid the ftorm that threatened him, he indulged the Athe¬ 
nians in their inclination for war, which, by employing 
them about a bufinefs more urgent, and more directly in- 
terelting, might not only divert them from prying minutely 
into his preceding management of the public funds, but 
might likewife give him additional importance in the Ptate, 
by obliging them, in the conduit of the war, to have fre¬ 
quent recourfe to his counfel and direction. The people, 
in the mean time, held an alTembly to deliberate on the 
demands of the Lacedemonians. Pericles, on this occalion, 
juftified the meafures of the Athenians with admirable 
eloquence. He demonfirated the demands of the Lace¬ 
demonians to be no other than affected pretences, under 
which they hoped to conceal their jealoufy, the real mo¬ 
tive of their conduit, as they could not behold, without 
an envious eye, the Athenians polleHed of the fuperiority 
in Greece ; that it would be difgraceful in the Athenians 
to have their meafures controuled by fuch enemies ; and 
that the fword was the Ihortelt and the only method to 
fettle the controverfy. Still farther to encourage the 
Athenians to undertake this war, he gave them a flatter¬ 
ing delcription of their army, their navy, and their funds. 
This delcription made a Itronger impreflion, and animated 
them the more, becaufe they knew certainly that it was 
juft. For there were at that time in the public treafury 
9600 talents; the contributions of their allies amounted 
to 460 more ; and they had an army of 30,000 men, and 
a fleet of 300 galleys. Pericles, after giving his opinion 
for the war, proceeded next to deliver his fentiments with 
refpect to the conduit of it. He adviled the Athenians 
never to hazard a general battle, efpeciaily far from home ; 
to make the defence of the city their principal object; and 
by all means to preferve their fuperiority at lea. 
The war that now enfued is known in hiilorv by the 
name of the Peloponntjian war. It was ot twenty-ieven 
years duration ; and was attended with an iinmenfe ex¬ 
pence, and an incredible effulion of blood. In the courfe 
of it, eacli party experienced the molt cruel reverfes- of 
fortune ; and difplayed a courage that might have pro¬ 
cured them, if united, the greateft advantages over their 
common enemies. Thucydides writes the hiftory of the 
firft twenty-one years of the war, and Xenophon continues 
it. It has already been obferved, that the jealoufy, con¬ 
ceived by the other ftates of Greece, of the exorbitant 
power ot the Athenians, was the more immediate occalion 
of this war. All the ftates within the Peloponnefe, ex¬ 
cept the Argives alone, joined the Lacedemonians, who 
were further fupported by the Megarians, Locrians, Boeo¬ 
tians, and forne others. The Athenians, on the other 
hand, were fupported by the inhabitants of Chios and} 
Lelbos, by the city of Platea, and all their tributary coun¬ 
tries, fuch as Ionia, the Hellefpont, the cities of Thrace, 
&c. Hoftilities were begun by the Thebans in the year 
B.C. 431, who attacked Platea, a city of Bneotia, in al¬ 
liance with Athens. All Greece was immediately in mo¬ 
tion. The Lacedemonians marched towards rhe ifthmus 
of Corinth, a narrow neck of land, about fix miles broad, 
which joins the Peloponnefe to the country properly called 
Greece. Archidamus, one of the Spartan kings, before 
advancing farther, difpatched .an ambaffudor to the At be¬ 
ts pians> 
