[270] The remarks of Dionysius Halikarnassus, tending to show that the number of dead buried on this occasion was so small, and the actions in which they had been slain so insignificant, as to be unworthy of so elaborate an harangue as this of Periklês,—and finding fault with Thucydidês on that ground,—are by no means well-founded or justifiable. He treats Thucydidês like a dramatic writer putting a speech into the mouth of one of his characters, and he considers that the occasion chosen for this speech was unworthy. But though this assumption would be correct with regard to many ancient historians, and to Dionysius himself in his Roman history,—it is not correct with reference to Thucydidês. The speech of Periklês was a real speech, heard, reproduced, and doubtless dressed up, by Thucydidês: if therefore more is said than the number of the dead or the magnitude of the occasion warranted, this is the fault of Periklês, and not of Thucydidês. Dionysius says that there were many other occasions throughout the war much more worthy of an elaborate funeral harangue,—especially the disastrous loss of the Sicilian army. But Thucydidês could not have heard any of them, after his exile in the eighth year of the war: and we may well presume that none of them would bear any comparison with this of Periklês. Nor does Dionysius at all appreciate the full circumstances of this first year of the war,—which, when completely felt, will be found to render the splendid and copious harangue of the great statesman eminently seasonable. See Dionys. H. de Thucyd. Judic. pp. 849-851. CHAPTER XLIX. FROM THE BEGINNING OE THE SECOND YEAR DOWN TO THE END OF THE THIRD YEAR OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. At the close of one year after the attempted surprise of Platæa by the Thebans, the belligerent parties in Greece remained in an unaltered position as to relative strength. Nothing decisive had been accomplished on either side, either by the invasion of Attica, or by the flying descents round the coast of Peloponnesus: in spite of mutual damage inflicted,—doubtless, in the greatest measure upon Attica,—no progress was yet made towards the fulfilment of those objects which had induced the Peloponnesians to go to war. Especially, the most pressing among all their wishes—the relief of Potidæa—was noway advanced; for the Athenians had not found it necessary to relax the blockade of that city. The result of the first year’s operations had thus been to disappoint the hopes of the Corinthians and the other ardent instigators of war, while it justified the anticipations both of Periklês and of Archidamus.