The Athenians, having suffered this loss, and ha ving no longer Cleon to urge them into violent mea sures, listened to. the voice of reason, and, under the auspices of Nicias, concluded a treaty of peace with tne Lacedemonians. In this treaty it was stipulated, that all the places taken on both sides, in the course of the war, should be mutually restored.
This condition has certainly the appearance of being moderate and reasonable ; yet it involved, fact, an extensive violation of the most solemn en ' gagements. Each party had gained possession of these towns, not as conquerors, but as allies ; they had been uniformly welcomed by one party, whose power they had established by crushing the opposite. l'his party now complained, that, from being the rulers of their country, they were left exposed to all the resentment of the sovereign state from which they had revolted, and, what was more dreadful, to the .vengeance of their fellow citizens, whom they had pu nished or expelled. The cities of the Chalcidice rai sed loud outcries against Sparta ; they refused to yield to a treaty in which they had not been consult ed ; and general murmurs arose among the allies of both nations. The Corinthians saw in this crisis an opportunity of acting a distinguished part, by espou r• sing the cause of the Chalcidian cities, and of all who thought themselves aggrieved by the treaty in question ; and their league was joined by Argos, Mantinea, and Elis.
This confederacy seems evidently to have at first been chiefly formed with the view of resisting the pretensions of Athens ; yet such was the restless am bition of that republic, that she soon became one of its leading members. So fair au opportunity of humbling the power of Sparta, it was thought, should not be lost. Nicias, the leader of the aristocratical and pacific party, had prevailed for a time, only through the sudden death of Cleon, the leader of the popular party, which was destined to hold perpetual sway in Athens. The place of the latter was soon supplied by a man of far superior talents ; by Alci biades, the greatest orator, the most accomplished gentleman, and the first general, of his age ; but whose total want of principle rendered these acquire ments, not the safety, but the ruin of himself and of his country. With the view of breaking of the treaty, he is said to have employed an artifice, one of the most shameless that is mentioned in history. Lacedemonian ambassadors arrived, and, being intro duced to the senate, sliewed full powers to conclude a treaty, not only of peace, but of alliance for the re duction of the mutinous states. Alcibiades, having invited them to his house, after great professions of zeal in their cause, advised them, in order to nego tiate with greater advantage, to conceal the extent of their powers. Next day, in the assembly of the
people, he was the first to demand from them the production of full powers ; and when they, in con formity to his private advice, denied that they were possessed of such, he immediately burst into a violent invective, contrasted their present declaration with that of the day before, and, accusing them of false hood and treachery, procured their immediate dis missal.
War was now kindled in Peloponnesus ; but the Athenians acted only the part of auxiliaries. Their favourite object was the extension of their mari time dominion. They reduced Scione, a town of Chalcidice, in the peninsula of Pallene, and avenged, with the most atrocious severity, the revolt of the inhabitants. This cruelty, however, proved rather hurtful to their interests. It roused a spirit of resist ance, which, joined to the interference of Perdicias, rendered it impossible for them to make any farther progress in that quarter. They turned next to an enterprise, the most disgraceful and unjustifiable in which they ever engaged. The island of Melos, one of the finest of the Cyclades, had been peopled by a Lacedemonian colony ; yet, notwithstanding its connection with that state, it had, during the whole war, observed the strictest neutrality. The Athe nians, however, now sent an armament to take pos session of it. They first asked admittance to the assembly of the people : But the Melians, dreading .their eloquence-, and the contagious character of po pular government, chose rather to admit them to an audience of the senate. The conference which took place is preserved by Thucydides, and gives a most curious, but most unfavourable view of the foreign politics of Athens. The only thing like a right which her ambassadors urge, is founded on their ha ving delivered Greece from Persian invasion, whence they infer that they are entitled to command it. Be ing pressed, however, on this subject, they decline any discussion on the justness of the proceeding, and openly appeal to the law of the strongest. The Me lians then endeavour to persuade them, that their own interest would not be promoted by so violent a proceeding. The reply .of the Athenians discovers the most unbounded confidence in their own good .fortune, and in the power of their state, which no thing, they apprehended, can shake. The Melians, finding entreaties and argument fruitless, prepared to defend themselves by force of arms. Their resist ance was long and vigorous ; but, the island being at length taken, the Athenians completed their iniquity, •oy putting to death all the males above the age of fourteen, and selling the rest as slaves.