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B.C. 425.

and Sophc

larger Athenian

fleet, arrive in Sicily.

the Leontine land-force, but the Athenian force, landing from their ships, attacked the assailants while in the disorder of pursuit, and drove them back within the walls. The scheme against Messênê, however, had now become impracticable, so that the Athenians crossed the strait to Rhegium'.

Thus indecisive was the result of operations in Eurymedon Sicily, during the first half of the seventh year of klês, with a the Peloponnesian war: nor does it appear that the Athenians undertook anything considerable during the autumnal half, though the full fleet under Eurymedon had then joined Pythodôrus. Yet while the presence of so large an Athenian fleet at Rhegium would produce considerable effect upon the Syracusan mind,—the triumphant promise of Athenian affairs, and the astonishing humiliation of Sparta, during the months immediately following the capture of Sphakteria, probably struck much deeper. In the spring of the eighth year of the war, Athens was not only in possession of the Spartan prisoners, but also of Pylus and Kythêra, so that a rising among the Helots appeared noway improbable. She was in the full swing of hope, while her discouraged enemies were all thrown on the defensive. Hence the Sicilian Dorians, intimidated by a state of affairs so different from that in which they had begun the war three years before, were now eager to bring about a pacification in their island3. The Dorian city of Kamarina, which 1 Thucyd. iv. 25. 2 Thucyd. iv. 48.

3

Compare a similar remark made by the Syracusan Hermokratês, nine years afterwards, when the great Athenian expedition against Syracuse was on its way-respecting the increased disposition to union

had hitherto acted along with the Ionic or Chalkidic cities, was the first to make a separate accommodation with its neighbouring city of Gela; at which latter place deputies were invited to attend from all the cities in the island, with a view to the conclusion of peace'.

the Sicilian

Gela.

Hermokra

This congress met in the spring of 424 B.C., B.C. 424. when Syracuse, the most powerful city in Sicily, Congress of took the lead in urging the common interest which cities at all had in the conclusion of peace. The Syracusan Speech of Hermokratês, chief adviser of this policy in his tês. native city, now appeared to vindicate and enforce it in the congress. He was a well-born, brave, and able man, superior to all pecuniary corruption, and clear-sighted in regard to the foreign interests of his country; but at the same time, of pronounced oligarchical sentiments, mistrusted by the people, seemingly with good reason, in regard to their internal constitution. The speech which Thucydidês places in his mouth, on the present occasion, sets forth emphatically the necessity of keeping Sicily at all cost free from foreign intervention, and of settling at home all differences which might arise between the various Sicilian cities. Hermokratês impresses upon his hearers that the aggressive schemes of Athens, now the greatest power in Greece, were directed against all Sicily, and threatened all cities alike, Ionians not less than Dorians. If they enfeebled one another by internal quarrels, and then invited the Athenians as arbitrators, the result would be ruin and slavery to all. The Atheamong the Sicilian cities, produced by common fear of Athens (Thucyd. vi. 33). 2 Thucyd. viii. 45.

I Thucyd. iv. 58.

nians were but too ready to encroach everywhere, even without invitation: they had now come, with a zeal outrunning all obligation, under pretence of aiding the Chalkidic cities who had never aided them, but in the real hope of achieving conquest for themselves. The Chalkidic cities must not rely upon their Ionic kindred for security against evil designs on the part of Athens: as Sicilians, they had a paramount interest in upholding the independence of the island. If possible, they ought to maintain undisturbed peace; but if that were impossible, it was essential at least to confine the war to Sicily, apart from any foreign intruders. Complaints should be exchanged, and injuries redressed, by all, in a spirit of mutual forbearance; of which Syracuse the first city in the island and best able to sustain the brunt of war,-was prepared to set the example; without that foolish over-valuation of favourable chances so ruinous even to first-rate powers, and with full sense of the uncertainty of the future. Let them all feel that they were neighbours, inhabitants of the same island, and called by the common name of Sikeliots; and let them all with one accord repel the intrusion of aliens in their affairs, whether as open assailants or as treacherous mediators1.

See the speech of Hermokratês, Thucyd. iv. 59-64. One expression in this speech indicates that it was composed by Thucydidês many years after its proper date, subsequently to the great expedition of the Athenians against Syracuse in 415 B.C.; though I doubt not that Thucydidês collected the memoranda for it at the time.

Hermokratês says, "The Athenians are now near us with a few ships, lying in wait for our blunders”οἱ δύναμιν ἔχοντες μεγίστην τῶν Ἑλλήνων τάς τε ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν τηροῦσιν, ὀλίγαις ναυσὶ παρόντες, &c. (iv. 60).

Now the fleet under the command of Eurymedon and his colleagues

peace made the Sicilian

Eurymedon

and with

Athenian

This harangue from Hermokratês, and the earnest General dispositions of Syracuse for peace, found general between sympathy among the Sicilian cities, Ionic as well cities. as Doric. All of them doubtless suffered by the accedes to war, and the Ionic cities, who had solicited the in- the peace, tervention of the Athenians as protectors against draws the Syracuse, conceived from the evident uneasiness of fleet. the latter a fair assurance of her pacific demeanour for the future. Accordingly the peace was accepted by all the belligerent parties, each retaining what they possessed, except that the Syracusans agreed to cede Morgantinê to Kamarina, on receipt of a fixed sum of money'. The Ionic cities stipulated that Athens should be included in the pacification; a condition agreed to by all, except the Epizephyrian Lokrians. They next acquainted Eurymedon and his colleagues with the terms; inviting them

at Rhegium included all or most of the ships which had acted at Sphakteria and Korkyra, together with those which had been previously at the strait of Messina under Pythodôrus. It could not have been less than fifty sail, and may possibly have been sixty sail. It is hardly conceivable that any Greek, speaking in the early spring of 424 B.C., should have alluded to this as a small fleet: assuredly Hermokratês would not thus allude to it, since it was for the interest of his argument to exaggerate rather than extenuate, the formidable manifestations of Athens.

But Thucydidês composing the speech after the great Athenian expedition of 415 B.C., so much more numerous and commanding in every respect, might not unnaturally represent the fleet of Eurymedon as "a few ships," when he tacitly compared the two. This is the only way that I know, of explaining such an expression.

The Scholiast observes that some of the copies in his time omitted the words oλiyaıs vavoi : probably they noticed the contradiction which I have remarked; and the passage may certainly be construed without those words.

1 Thucyd. iv. 65. We learn from Polybius (Fragm. xii. 22, 23, one of the Excerpta recently published by Maii from the Cod. Vatic.) that Timæus had in his 21st book described the Congress of Gela at considerable length, and had composed an elaborate speech for Hermokratês: which speech Polybius condemns, as a piece of empty declamation. 2 Thucyd. v. 5.

Displeasure of the

against

and his

colleagues.

to accede to the pacification in the name of Athens, and then to withdraw their fleet from Sicily. These generals had no choice but to close with the proposition. Athens thus was placed on terms of peace with all the Sicilian cities; with liberty of access reciprocally for any single ship of war, but not for any larger force, to cross the sea between Sicily and Peloponnesus. Eurymedon then sailed with his fleet home1.

On reaching Athens, however, he and his colAthenians leagues were received by the people with much disEurymedon pleasure. He himself was fined, and his colleagues Sophoklês and Pythodôrus banished, on the charge of having been bribed to quit Sicily, at a time when the fleet (so the Athenians believed) was strong enough to have made important conquests. Why the three colleagues were differently treated, we are not informed. This sentence was harsh and unmerited; for it does not seem that Eurymedon had it in his power to prevent the Ionic cities from concluding peace-while it is certain that without them he could have achieved nothing serious. All that seems unexplained, in his conduct as recounted by Thucydidês, is,—that his arrival at Rhegium with the entire fleet in September 425 B.C., does not seem to have been attended with any increased vigour or success in the prosecution of the war. But the Athenians (besides an undue depreciation of the Sicilian cities which we shall find fatally misleading them hereafter) were at this moment at the maximum of extravagant hopes, counting upon new triumphs everywhere, impatient of disappointment, and careless of proportion between the means enThucyd. vi. 13-52. Thucyd. iv. 65.

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