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104 Chapters
THE THEBANS ATTACK THE PLATAEANS The cause of the Peloponnesian War was jealousy—jealousy between Athens and Sparta. Each wished to be the chief State in Greece, and the only way to settle the dispu…
ATTICA IS INVADED BY THE SPARTANS In the month of May 431 B.C. Attica itself was invaded by a large Spartan army, under king Archidamus. Before he crossed the border into Attica the king bade his a…
THE LAST WORDS OF PERICLES When the Spartans marched out of Attica, the country folk left the sheltering walls of Athens to go back to their fields, to dig, to plough, to sow. They hoped in due time…
THE SIEGE OF PLATAEA The Peloponnesian War began with an attack upon the little town of Plataea. Two years later, in the early summer of 429 B.C. , Plataea was again attacked, this time by the Spart…
THE SENTENCE OF DEATH In the fourth year of the Peloponnesian War the city of Mytilene threw off the yoke of Athens. Mytilene was the capital of Lesbos, an island near the coast of Asia. The city ha…
BRASIDAS LOSES HIS SHIELD In 425 B.C. , the seventh year of the war, an Athenian fleet of about forty ships, under an admiral named Eurymedon, was forced by stormy weather to seek shelter on the pro…
THE SPARTANS SURRENDER When Epitadas found that he was shut up on the island of Sphacteria, he sent a messenger to Sparta to tell what had befallen him. The ephors were so disturbed by his tidings t…
BRASIDAS THE SPARTAN The Athenians were encouraged by the victory they had gained at Sphacteria to hope for still greater success to their arms, and in 424 B.C. they marched boldly into the country…
AMPHIPOLIS SURRENDERS TO BRASIDAS Amphipolis belonged to the Athenians, who had sent Thucydides and Eucles to guard the city lest it should be attacked by the Spartans. Thucydides had not only the c…
ALCIBIADES THE FAVOURITE OF ATHENS The Peace of Nicias, which was made for fifty years, did not last more than six. Thucydides tells us that it did not really last even so long. For although for six…
