the south-west of Peloponnese, with a
harbour sheltered by the isle of Sphacteria. The Spartans, in alarm,
withdrew their invading force from Attica, and attempted to recover
Pylos, landing over 400 of their best men on Sphacteria. The locality
now became the scene of a desperate struggle, which finally resulted in
the Spartans on Sphacteria being completely isolated.

So seriously did the Lacedaemonians regard this blow that they invited
the Athenians to make peace virtually in terms of an equal alliance; but
the Athenians were now so confident of a triumphant issue that they
refused the terms--chiefly at the instigation of Cleon. Some supplies,
however, were got into Sphacteria, owing to the high rewards offered by
the Lacedaemonians for successful blockade-running. At this moment,
Cleon, the Athenian demagogue, having rashly declared that he could
easily capture Sphacteria, was taken at his word and sent to do it. He
had the wit, however, to choose Demosthenes for his colleague, and to
take precisely the kind of troops Demosthenes wanted; with the result
that within twenty days, as he had promised, the Spartans found
themselves with no other alternatives than annihilation or surrender.
Their choice of the latter was an overwhelming blow to Lacedaemonian
prestige.

_III.--Victories of Lacedaemon_

The capture of the island of Cythera in the next summer gave the
Athenians a second strong station from which they could constantly
menace the Peloponnese. On the other hand, in this year the Sicilians
were awakening to the fact that Athens was not playing a disinterested
part on behalf of the Ionian states, but was dreaming of a Sicilian
empire. At a sort of peace congress, Hermocrates of Syracuse
successfully urged all Sicilians to compose their quarrels on the basis
of _uti possidetis,_ and thus deprive the Athenians of any excuse for
remaining. Thus for the time Athenian aspirations in that quarter were
checked.

At Megara this year the dissensions of the oligarchical and popular
factions almost resulted in its capture by the Athenians. The
Lacedaemonian Brasidas, however--who had distinguished himself at
Pylos--effected an entry, so that the oligarchical and Peloponnesian
party became permanently established in power. The most important
operations were now in two fields. Brasidas made a dash through Thessaly
into Macedonia, in alliance with Perdiccas of Macedon, with the hope of
stirring the cities of Chalcidi