These disasters deterred the Athenians, for seven years, from any farther enterprises. On the recal of Cimon, however, he was sent with a fleet to Cyprus, which had been recovered by the Persians. He was proceeding to execute this commission with his usual success, when he received, at the siege of Citium, a wound, of which he died.
Artaxerxes, at length, foreseeing nothing but clis L aster from the prosecution of an Athenian war, made proposals of peace. Athens obtained the most ho nourable conditions : the independence of the Gre cian colonies in Asia Minor, and the exclusion of all Persian ships from the Grecian seas. Such was the glorious termination•of a war, which had lasted, with little interval, for upwards of fifty years.
While Greece was thus triumphing over the com mon enemy, the flame of discord began to rage in her own bosom. Sparta beheld, with a jealous eye, a power formerly so inferior, carrying off all the-prizes of glory and ambition. She had been thwarted be sides in two measures supported by her after the re treat of Xerxes; one, that all those states which had assisted the Persians, should be excluded from the common council of Greece; the other, that the Io nians should be stransportd into Europe, where they would be secure from Persian resentment. Justice seemed to sanction the one measure, and generosity the other. Both, however, were successfully oppo sed by Themistocles ; who conceived that the first would give Sparta too great a preponderance, and that the last would raise up a powerful commercial rival .to Athens. These discontents, silently ferment-* ing, would probably have broken out sooner, had not. Sparta been occupied at home by a dreadful insur rection of her slaves. The Athenians generously sent troops to her aid, and were highly offended when they found that these had been dismissed, while the troops of the other allies were retained. They took a most extraordinary method of revenging this slight. The Lacedemonians having undertaken an expedition into Phocis, Athens sent a body of troops to the isthmus to cut off their retreat. The Lacedemonians then marched into Bceotia, and threatened Attica.
An army being brought to oppose them, a battle was fought at Tana gra , in which the Athenians were VOL. in. PART I.
defeated. In consequence of this success, the The bans were encouraged to apply to Sparta for aid against the smaller towns of Bceotia,which had thrown of their authority, and were protected by Athens. The Spartans accordingly sent a powerful army to their support ; but the Athenians, under the conduct • of Myronides, an active and able officer, attacked the confederates, though greatly superior in number, and gained a complete victory, which placed all Bceotia at their disposal.
The Athenians, some time after, had another dif ference with the Lacedemonians, on the subject of Megara. Plistonax, king of Sparta, marched with an army into Attica; but Pericles, by a bribe of ten ta lents, persuaded him to return. Pericles, in account ing for this sum to the people, is said to have stated it as « laid out in a fit manner on a proper occasion:" the first notice we find in history of secret-service money.
About this time the Athenians being applied to for assistance by the Sybarites against the Crotoniats, sent an expedition, which restored the former to their city.
Megara was not the only city which threw off the yoke of Athens ; a number of the maritime states, who groaned under her exactions, endeavoured to retrieve • the fatal error they had committed, of commuting naval service for money. Pericles, however, with a fleet and army, sailing to each successively, reduced them, and rendered their bondage still heavier than before. He particularly distinguished himself in the expeditions to Eubcea and Samos.
The train of dissension, however, was now laid on the Grecian continent, and required only a spark to ( produce a mighty conflagration. That spark was not t wanting. A quarrel arising between the Corinthians t and Corcyreans, both sides sent ambassadors to re quest assistance from Athens. An assembly of the people being called, and having heard the argu ments of both parties, decided at first in favour of the Corinthians, but afterwards, with characteristic levity, changed to the side of the Corcyreans, whose alliance, as a naval power, appeared likely to be more useful. A squadron was accordingly sent to. the aid of the latter people, and assisted them in an obstinate engagement which they maintained against their adversaries. The Corinthians, anxious to find out other employment for the Athenian arms, con trived to excite a rebellion in Chalcidicc, one of their finest dependencies, bordering on Thrace and Macedonia. The Potideans, who took the lead in this affair, being attacked by an Athenian fleet and army, received from Corinth an aid of 2000 men, who threw themselves into their city ; notwithstand ing which, after an obstinate defence, they were re dueed to extremity.