. Six thousand years of history. the ^gean, and in conveying troops to assail-able points on the mainland, wherever the cause of Spartawas favored. After the death of Pericles, the people ofAthens gave their confidence to unworthy demagogues, ofwhom the most notorious was Cleon. The chief generalson the Athenian side were Demosthenes (to be carefullydistinguished from the great orator of a later time) andNicias; the chief on the Spartan side was the famous Bras-idas, who had much success against the Athenian colonieson the coast of Thrace. Before the end of this periodthe brilliant Alcibiades
. Six thousand years of history. the ^gean, and in conveying troops to assail-able points on the mainland, wherever the cause of Spartawas favored. After the death of Pericles, the people ofAthens gave their confidence to unworthy demagogues, ofwhom the most notorious was Cleon. The chief generalson the Athenian side were Demosthenes (to be carefullydistinguished from the great orator of a later time) andNicias; the chief on the Spartan side was the famous Bras-idas, who had much success against the Athenian colonieson the coast of Thrace. Before the end of this periodthe brilliant Alcibiades began to display his powers as astatesman at Athens. In B. C. 422 a battle near Amphip-olis, on the coast of Thrace, ended in the defeat of theAthenians, and the deaths of Cleon and of Brasidas, thelatter an irreparable loss to Sparta. On the death ofCleon, the mild and cautious Nicias became one of the lead-ing statesmen at Athens. His efforts for peace resulted inthe conclusion of a truce between Athens and Sparta inB. C. CO < ; Q ; CO LU Q< mo HISTORY OF GREECE 119 The complaints of bad faith as to keeping the terms oftruce, and the distrust and jealousy of each other felt bySparta and Athens, soon led to a renewal of hostilities,instigated by the chief Athenian statesman, decisive occurred until the Athenians, turningtheir attention westward, resolved to send an expeditionagainst Syracuse, the great Dorian settlement in Sicily,with a view to the reduction of that fertile and wealthyisland, and the acquirement of a great dominion in thewest. Athens, the great repeller of Eastern invasion,appeared now as the assailant of others. She had becomethe mistress of the sea, and was hoping now to gain pos-session of such sway in the Mediterranean from end toend as might enable her, with the resources of Sicily andof Magna Grsecia at command, to crush Sparta and becomethe foremost power of the world. It was in the year B. C. 415 that Athens e
Size: 1405px × 1778px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectworldhistory, bookyea
