Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/121

13-16] MOTIVES OF THE TWO GREAT POWERS II3 rel3'ing on the help of those who had, should seize their opportunit}' and revolt, as they had done once before. Moreover, the truce for thirty years which they had made with Argos was on the point of expiring ; the Argives were unwilling to renew it unless Cynuria were restored to them, and the Lacedaemonians deemed it impossible to fight against the Argives and Athenians combined. They suspected also that some of the Peloponnesian cities would secede and join the Argives, which proved to be the case. Upon these grounds both governments thought it de- 15 sirable to make peace. The Lacedae- ^, , . , , The a est re of the monians were the more eager of the Lacedacmomans is the two, because they wanted to recover stronger because they the prisoners taken at Sphacteria : for "'"* '" ^^«^^ *' , ^ , c ■ prisoners. the Spartans among them were 01 high rank, and all alike related to themselves. They had negotiated for their recovery immediately after they were taken, but the Athenians, in the hour of their prosperity, would not as yet agree to fair terms ^ After their defeat at Delium, the Lacedaemonians were well aware that they would now be more compliant, and therefore they had at once made a truce for a year, during which the envoys of the two states were to meet and advise about a lasting peace. When Athens had received a second blow at 16 Amphipolis, and Brasidas and Cleon, Brasidns and Chan who had been the two greatest enemies for vcfy different reasons of peace,- the one because the war ^""^ *«'" ^«'f '""f' ' .to peace. But now they brought him success and reputation, „,.^ ,/^,„^ ^„j j^r-^-^^ and the other because he fancied that and P/eistoanax, the in quiet times his rogueries would be '^'"' ^'"'^'"^. """ -^ I . their respective states, more transparent and his slanders less ^^^,g ^^^^.f^ „ strong credible, — had fallen in the battle, ^ the motive for putting an two chief aspirants for political power '" '"" *' "'"'• at Athens and Sparta, Pleistoanax ^ the son of Pausanias, " Cp. IV. 41 fin. ^ Reading 01 Iv before (Kartpq. Or, omitting oJ (V and inserting a comma after I'/ytfioyiav : 'these i.e. Cleon and