that she was entirely occupied with the final capture of Ithome, and the settlement of her interests in Arcadia.(838) But that the war, which was now renewed by Athens, nevertheless extended to the whole Peloponnesian league, is shown by the connected attacks of Tolmides on the Spartan harbour Gytheium, and the cities of Sicyon and Corinth, and also by the expedition of Pericles in the Corinthian gulf. The five years’ truce in 451 B.C. was only an armistice between Athens and the Peloponnesian confederacy, which left Bœotia to shake off the Athenian yoke by its own exertions. This was also the time of the Sacred war, in which a Spartan and an Athenian army, one coming after the other, the first gave the management of the temple to the Delphians, and the second, against all ancient right,(839) to the Phocians. At the end of these five years Megara revolted from the Athenians, and in consequence an invasion of Attica by the Peloponnesians took place, which, though it did not produce any immediate result, was soon followed by the thirty years’ truce, in which Athens ceded her conquests in Megaris and Peloponnesus,(840) and on the mainland returned within her ancient boundaries; but she preserved the same power over her other confederates. For when the Athenians soon afterwards attacked the revolted island of Samos, the Peloponnesians indeed debated whether they should protect it, but the proposal of Corinth was adopted, that Athens should be allowed to deal with her allies as she pleased.(841) 12. If now we consider the events which have been briefly traced in the foregoing pages, it will be perceived, that the principle on which the Lacedæmonians constantly acted was one of self-defence, of restoring what had been lost, or preserving what was threatened with danger; whereas the Athenians were always aiming at attack or conquest, or the change of existing institutions. While the Spartans during this period, even after the greatest victories, did not conquer a foot of land, subjugate one independent state, or destroy one existing institution; the Athenians, for a longer or for a shorter time, reduced large tracts of country under their dominion, extended their alliance (as it was called) on all sides, and respected no connexion sanctioned by nature, descent, or antiquity, when it came in conflict with their plans of empire. But the astonishing energy of the Athenian people, which from one point kept the whole of Greece in constant vibration, almost paralysed Sparta; the natural slowness of that state became more and more apparent: which having been, as it were, violently transplanted into a strange region, only began by degrees to comprehend the policy of Athens.