It is melancholy to find a man of really pure and generous character
like Brasidas lending himself to be the mouthpiece of Spartan
hypocrisy. To him the sounding phrases and lofty professions which he
uttered may have meant something: but in their essence they were mere
hollow cant, intended to divert attention from the true issue, and
drag a peaceful and prosperous community into the private quarrels of
Sparta. So degraded was now the tone of politics in Greece, even among
her best and ablest men.
II
On the banks of the Strymon, just where the river sweeps round in a
sharp curve, west and east, the Athenians had founded, six years
before the outbreak of the war, the colony of Amphipolis. It was a
site which had long been coveted by the leaders of Greek colonial
enterprise, being the key to the richest district in Thrace, with
unrivalled facilities for commerce, and close to the gold-mines of
Mount Pangeus. A previous attempt which was made by the Athenians to
occupy the position had ended in ruinous disaster; but nearly thirty
years later a second body of emigrants, led by Hagnon from Athens, met
with much better success; Amphipolis now grew and prospered, and at
the time which we have reached was the most important city in the
Athenian empire.
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