25 New Leaders and New Strategies

In 424 B.C., the Athenians executed bold strategies to capture Megara and to impose friendly democratic governments in Boeotia, and thereby break the power of the Peloponnesian League. Athenian generals Demosthenes and Hippocrates secured the port of Nisaea, but the plot to betray Megara miscarried. Later in the year, two Athenian columns were to enter Boeotia while democrats raised revolts in many of the cities there. The democratic risings failed, and the western Athenian column was delayed, allowing the Thebans to inflict a severe defeat on the main Athenian column near Delium. The two defeats dashed Athenian hopes of quick victory. Meanwhile, Brasidas, a veteran Spartan officer, marched a force of mercenaries and freed helots to Macedon, where in alliance with King Perdiccas II he raised new rebellions in the Chalcidice. In a daring winter raid, Brasidas captured Amphipolis, the Athenian bastion on the Strymon River and the base for the mines of Pangaeum. Thucydides, who was serving at the time as a general in the Athenian army, failed to relieve the city. He was exiled by the Athenian assembly and became a historian. In 423−422 B.C., the Athenians committed major forces under Cleon to reconquer the Chalcidice. The fighting climaxed at Amphipolis in 422 B.C., where both Cleon and Brasidas were killed. Both King Pleistoanax of Sparta, recently returned from exile, and Nicias, the conservative opponent of Cleon, suddenly found their respective political opponents in disarray. They moved their cities to conclude a general peace of 50 years, but this Peace of Nicias proved to be peace between political factions rather than between belligerent states.