displayed sound judgment and decision, and was one of the essential causes of the success.—Effect produced at Athens by the arrival of the Lacedæmonian prisoners.—The Athenians prosecute the war with increased hopefulness and vigor. The Lacedæmonians make new advances for peace without effect.—Remarks upon the policy of Athens—her chance was now universally believed to be most favorable in prosecuting the war.—Fluctuations in Athenian feeling for or against the war: there were two occasions on which Kleon contributed to influence them towards it.—Expedition of Nikias against the Corinthian territory.—He reëmbarks—ravages Epidaurus—establishes a post on the peninsula of Methana.—Eurymedon with the Athenian fleet goes to Korkyra. Defeat and captivity of the Korkyræan exiles in the island.—The captives are put to death—cruelty and horrors in the proceeding.—Capture of Anaktorium by the Athenians and Akarnanians.—Proceedings of the Athenians at Chios and Lesbos.—The Athenians capture Artaphernes, a Persian envoy, on his way to Sparta.—Succession of Persian kings—Xerxes, Artaxerxes Longimanus, etc., Darius Nothus. 313-363 CHAPTER LIII. EIGHTH YEAR OF THE WAR. Important operations of the eighth year of the war.—Capture of Kythêra by the Athenians. Nikias ravages the Laconian coast.—Capture of Thyrea—all the Æginetans resident there are either slain in the attack or put to death afterwards as prisoners.—Alarm and depression among the Lacedæmonians—their insecurity in regard to the Helots.—They entrap, and cause to be assassinated, two thousand of the bravest Helots.—Request from the Chalkidians and Perdikkas that Spartan aid may be sent to them under Brasidas.—Brasidas is ordered to go thither, with Helot and Peloponnesian hoplites.—Elate and enterprising dispositions prevalent at Athens. Plan formed against Megara. Condition of Megara.—The Athenians, under Hippokratês and Demosthenês, attempt to surprise Nisæa and Megara.—Conspirators within open the gate, and admit them into the Megarian Long Walls. They master the whole line of the Long Walls.—The Athenians march to the gates of Megara—failure of the scheme of the party within to open them.—The Athenians attack Nisæa—the place surrenders to them.—Dissension of parties in Megara—intervention of Brasidas.—Brasidas gets together an army, and relieves Megara—no battle takes place—the Athenians retire.—Revolution at Megara—return of the exiles from Pegæ, under pledge of amnesty—they violate their oaths, and effect a forcible oligarchical revolution.—Combined plan by Hippokratês and Demosthenês for the invasion of Bœotia on three sides at once.—Demosthenês, with an Akarnanian force, makes a descent on Bœotia at Siphæ in the Corinthian gulf—his scheme fails and he retires.—Disappointment of the Athenian plans—no internal movements take place in Bœotia.