78 CAUSES OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR [l their walls, give hostages, surrender their ships, and pay a full indemnity by regular instalments. The Byzantians too made terms and became subjects as before. ii8 Not long afterwards occurred the affairs of Corcyra The history is re- and Potidaea, which have been already sumcd from chap. 88. narrated, and the various other circum- Thc Laccdae^nonians ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ j^^ ^^ ^j^^ Peloponnesian havtng deaded to go to ^ war, obtain the sanction War. Fifty ycars elapsed between the of the Delphian oracle, retreat of Xerxes and the beginning of the war ; during these years took place all those opera- tions of the Hellenes against one another and against the Barbarian which I have been describing. The Athenians acquired a firmer hold over their empire and the city itself became a great power. The Lacedaemonians saw what was going on, but during most of the time they remained inactive and hardly attempted to interfere. They had never been of a temper prompt to take the field unless they were compelled ; and they were in some degree em- barrassed by wars near home. But the Athenians were growing too great to be ignored and were laying hands on their allies. They could now bear it no longer : they made up their minds that they must put out all their strength and overthrow the Athenian power by force of arms. And therefore they commenced the Peloponnesian War. They had already voted in their own assembly that the treaty had been broken and that the Athenians were guilty ^; they now sent to Delphi and asked the God if it would be for their advantage to make war. He is reported to have answered that, if they did their best, they would be conquerors, and that he himself, invited or uninvited, would take their part. 119 So they again summoned the allies, intending to put to Activity of the Corin- them the question of war or peace. thians in pressing on When their representatives arrived, an the war. assembly was held ; and the allies said what they Tiad to say, most of them complaining of the
- But cp. vii. 18 med.
