In this altered mood they
agreed to make a truce for one year with Sparta, which would give time
to arrange the conditions of a lasting peace, and leave them at
leisure to repair the shattered fabric of their empire. Two
commissioners, an Athenian and a Spartan, were at once despatched to
announce the conclusion of the truce to Brasidas. They found him at
Torone, preparing to set out a second time for the western peninsula,
and continue his intrigues against the subjects of Athens. In the
interview which followed a dispute arose between Brasidas and the
commissioners, as to whether Scione should be admitted into the truce.
Brasidas asserted that the city had joined the Spartan alliance before
the truce was signed; but the Athenian commissioner loudly protested
that the revolt occurred after the conclusion of the truce,--and such,
indeed, was the fact. Brasidas, however, was bound in honour to defend
the hapless community which had been drawn by his fatal influence into
so fearful a peril; and in the existing confusion of the Greek
calendar it was not easy to establish a date with perfect exactitude.
Accordingly Brasidas refused to surrender Scione to the vengeance of
Athens, and placed the town in a state of defence. Not content with
this, he extended the same measures of protection to Mende, which
revolted after the arrival of the commissioners.
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