Produced by Charles Franks, Delphine Lettau and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders. HTML version by Al Haines. STORIES FROM THUCYDIDES RETOLD BY H. L. HAVELL B. A. FORMERLY SCHOLAR OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OXFORD _O my poor Kingdom, sick with civil blows!_ SHAKESPEARE, _Henry IV_. CONTENTS PROLOGUE CORINTH AND CORCYRA THE SURPRISE OF PLATAEA THE PLAGUE AT ATHENS INVESTMENT OF PLATAEA NAVAL VICTORIES OF PHORMIO THE REVOLT OF LESBOS ESCAPE OF TWO HUNDRED PLATAEANS. FALL OF PLATAEA CAPTURE OF A HUNDRED AND TWENTY SPARTANS AT SPHACTERIA CAMPAIGNS OF BRASIDAS IN THRACE THE HOLLOW PEACE THE ATHENIANS IN SICILY EPILOGUE PROLOGUE In a former volume we have traced the course of events which ended in the complete overthrow of Xerxes and his great army. Our present task is to describe the chief incidents in the cruel and devastating war, commonly known as the Peloponnesian War, which lasted for twenty-seven years, and finally broke up the Athenian Empire. The cause of that war was the envy and hatred excited in the other states of Greece by the power and greatness of Athens; and in order to make our story intelligible we must indicate briefly the steps by which she rose to that dangerous eminence, and drew upon herself the armed hostility of half the Greek world. We take up our narrative at the point of time when the Athenians returned to their ruined homes after the defeat of the Persians at Plataea. Of their ancient city nothing remained but a few houses which had served as lodgings for the Persian grandees, and some scattered fragments of the surrounding wall. Their first task was to restore the outer line of defence, and by the advice of Themistocles the new wall took in a much wider circuit than the old rampart which had been destroyed by the Persians. The whole population toiled night and day to raise the bulwark which was to guard their temples and their homes, using as materials the walls of the houses which had been sacked and burnt by the Persians, with whatever remained of public buildings, sacred or profane, and sparing not even the monumental pillars of graves in the urgency of their need.