singularly
combined the power of persuasion with that more rapid and abrupt style
of oratory which takes an audience by storm and defies all resistance.
As the accomplished man of genius and the liberal patron of literature
and art, Pericles is worthy of the highest admiration. By these
qualities he has justly given name to the most brilliant intellectual
epoch that the world has ever seen. But on this point we have already
touched, and shall have occasion to refer hereafter in the sketch of
Grecian literature.

In the third year of the war (B.C. 429) Archidamus directed his whole
force against the ill-fated town of Plataea. The siege that ensued is
one of the most memorable in the annals of Grecian warfare. Plataea
was but a small city, and its garrison consisted of only 400 citizens
and 80 Athenians, together with 110 women to manage their household
affairs. Yet this small force set at defiance the whole army of the
Peloponnesians. The latter, being repulsed in all their attempts to
take the place by storm, resolved to turn the siege into a blockade,
and reduce the city by famine. The Plataeans endured a blockade of two
years, during which the Athenians attempted nothing for their relief.
In the second year, however, about half the garrison effected their
escape; but the rest were obliged to surrender shortly afterwards (B.C.
427). The whole garrison, consisting of 200 Plataeans and 25
Athenians, were now arraigned before five judges sent from Sparta.
Their indictment was framed in a way which precluded the possibility of
escape. They were simply asked "Whether, during the present war, they
had rendered any assistance to the Lacedaemonians and their allies?"
Each man was called up separately before the judgment-seat, and the
same question having been put to him and of course answered in the
negative, he was immediately led away to execution. The town of
Plataea was transferred to the Thebans, who a few months afterwards
levelled all the private buildings to the ground. Thus was Plataea
blotted out from the map of Greece (B.C. 427). In recording the fall of
Plataea we have anticipated the order of chronology.

The most important event in the fourth year of the war (B.C. 428) was
the revolt of Mytilene; the capital of Lesbos, and of the greater part
of that island. The Athenians sent out a fleet which blockaded
Mytilene both by sea and land, The Peloponnesians promised their
assistance; but from various ca