II
The surprise of Plataea was the first open violation of the Thirty
Years' Truce, and from this time forward all Greece was involved for
many years in civil war. Public opinion was strongly on the side of
the Spartans, who stood forward as champions of the liberties of
Greece; but there was great enthusiasm on both sides, and the popular
imagination was much excited by the approaching struggle between the
two imperial cities. Both in Sparta and in Athens there was a younger
generation, who had grown up during a long period of peace, and now
entered gaily into the contest with all the light-hearted ignorance of
youth. Old prophecies current among the people, foretelling a great
war of Greeks against Greeks, passed from mouth to mouth, and the
professional soothsayers, whose business it was to collect and expound
such sayings, found eager hearers. The gods themselves could not be
indifferent on the eve of such mighty events, so deeply affecting the
destiny of the nation which worshipped them in a thousand temples; and
an earthquake, which had recently occurred at Delos, the sacred island
of Apollo, where such a visitation had never been known before, was
interpreted as a portent of great things to come.
While the Peloponnesians were mustering their forces at the Isthmus,
the rural population of Attica were breaking up their homes, and
flocking by thousands into the city.
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