THE ATHENIANS IN SICILY
I
The Peloponnesian War may be conveniently divided into four chief
periods. The first of these periods lasted for ten years, down to the
peace of Nicias. The second extends from the peace of Nicias to the
massacre of Melos. In the third, the scene of war was shifted from
Greece to Sicily, and it was there that the Athenian power really
received its death-blow. The fourth and final period begins after the
overthrow of the Athenians at Syracuse, and ends, nine years
afterwards, with their final defeat at Aegospotami, and the downfall
of the Athenian empire.
It is the third of these periods which will occupy our attention for
the remainder of the present volume, and as the momentous events which
we have to relate occurred entirely in Sicily, it is necessary to say
something of the previous history of that great island. The connexion
of the Greeks with Sicily begins in the latter half of the eighth
century before Christ, when settlers from Chalcis in Euboea founded
the city of Naxos on the north-eastern coast, under the shadow of
Aetna. Naxos in its turn sent out colonists, who built the cities of
Leontini and Catana, the former on an inland site, commanding the
great plain which extends southwards from Aetna, the latter on the
coast, in a line with the centre of the same plain.
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