Tolmides, the fon of Tolmaeus, in confidence of his former fuccefs and military reputation, was preparing to invade Boeotia at an unfeasonable time, and that, over and above the regular troops, he had perfuaded the bravest and most spirited of the Athenian youth, to the number of a thousand, to go volunteers in that expedition, he addreffed him in public and tried to divert him from it, making ufe, among the reft, of thofe well-known words, "if you regard not the opinion of Pericles,

yet wait at least for the advice of time who is "the best of all counsellors." This faying, for the prefent, gained no great applaufe: but when, a few days after, news was brought, that Tolmides was defeated and killed at Coronea, together with many of the braveft citizens, it procured Pericles great refpe& and love from the people, who confidered it as a proof, not only of his fagacity, but of his affection for his countrymen.

Of his military expeditions, that to the Cherfonefus procured him most honour, because it proved very falutary to the Greeks who dwelt there. For he not only ftrengthened their cities, with the addition of a thousand able-bodied Athenians, but raised fortifications acrofs the Ifthmus from fea to fea; thus guarding against the incurfions of the Thracians who were fpread about the Cherfonefus, and putting an end to thofe long and grievous wars under which that diftrict had fmarted by reafon of the neighbourhood of the barbarians, as well as to the robberies with which it had been infefted by perfons who lived upon the borders, or were inhabitants of the country. But the expedition moft celebrated among ftrangers, was that by fea around Peloponnefus. He fet fail from Pegae in the terri

tories

This defeat happened in the fecond year of the eightythird Olympiad, four hundred and forty-five years before the Chriftian Era, and more than twenty-years before the death of Pericles.

tories of Megara with an hundred ships of war, and not only ravaged the maritime cities, as Tolmides had done before him, but landed his forces, and penetrated a good way up the country. The terror of his arms drove the inhabitants into their walled towns, all but the Sicyonians who made head against him at Nemea, and were defeated in a pitched battle; in memory of which victory he erected a trophy. From Achaia, a confederate State, he took a number of men into his gallies, and failed to the oppofite fide of the continent, then paffing by the mouth of the Achelous, he made a defcent in Acarnania, fhut up the Oeneadae within their walls, and having laid waste the country, returned home. In the whole course of this affair, he appeared terrible to his enemies, and to his countrymen an active and prudent commander; for no miscarriage was committed, nor did even any unfortunate accident happen during the whole

sime.

Having failed to Pontus with a large and well equipped feet, he procured the Grecian cities there all the advantages they defired, and treated them with great regard. To the barbarous nations that furrounded them, and to their kings and princes, he made the power of Athens very refpectable, by fhewing with what fecurity her fleets could fail, and that he was in effect miftrefs of the feas. He left the people of Sinope thirteen fhips under the command of Lamachus, and a body of men to act against Timefileos their tyrant. And when the tyFant and his party were driven out, he caufed a decree to be made, that a colony of fix hundred Athenian volunteers fhould be placed in Sinope, and put in poffeffion of thofe houses and lands which had belonged to the tyrants..

He did not, however, give way to the wild defires of the citizens, nor would he indulge them,

when

when, elated with their strength and good fortune, they talked of recovering Egypt, and of attempting the coaft of Perfia. Many were likewife at this time poffeffed with the unfortunate paffion for Sicily, which the orators of Alcibiades's party afterwards inflamed ftill more. Nay, fome even dreamt of Hetruria and Carthage, and not without fome ground of hope, as they imagined, becaufe of the great extent of their dominions and the fuccefsful courfe of their affairs.

But Pericles restrained this impetuofity of the citizens, and curbed their extravagant defire of conqueft; employing the greateft part of their forces in ftrengthening and fecuring their prefent acquifitions, and confidering it as a matter of confequence to keep the Lacedaemonians within bounds; whom he therefore oppofed, as on other occafions, fo particularly in the facred war. For when the Lacedaemonians, by dint of arms, had restored the temple to the citizens of Delphi, which had been feized by the Phocians, Pericles, immediately after the departure of the Lacedaemonians, marched thither and put it into the hands of the Phocians again. And as the Lacedaemonians had engraved

on.

For the Athenians had been mafters of Egypt, as we find in the fecond book of Thucydides. They were driven out of it by Mégabyzus, Artaxerxes's lieutenant, in the fir year of the eightieth Olympiad. And it was only in the laft year of the eighty-firft Olympiad, that Pericles made that fuccefsful expedition about Peloponnefus; therefore it is not ftrange that the Athenians, now in the height of profperity, talked of recovering their footing in a country which they had fo lately loft.

+ Hetruria feems oddly joined with Carthage; but we may confider that Hetruria was on one fide of Sicily, and Carthage on the other. The Athenains, therefore, after they had devoured Sicily in their thoughts, might think of extending their conquests to the countries on the right and left; in the fame manner as king Pyrrhus indulged his wild ambition to fubdue Sicily, Italy and Afric.

on the forehead of the brazen wolf the privilege which the people of Delphi had granted them of confulting the oracle firft, Pericles caufed the fame privilege for the Athenians, to be infcribed on the wolf's right fide.

The event fhewed, that he was right in confining the Athenian forces to act within the bounds of Greece. For, in the first place, the Euboeans revolted, and he led an army against them. Soon after, news was brought that Megara had commenced hoftilities, and that the Lacedaemonian forces, under the command of king Plistonax, were upon the borders of Attica. The enemy offered him battle; he did not chufe, however, to rifque an engagement with fo numerous and refolute an But as Pliftonax was very young, and army. chiefly directed by Cleandrides, a counfellor whom the Ephori had appointed him on account of his tender age, he attempted to bribe that counsellor, and fucceeding in it to his wifh, perfuaded him to draw off the Peloponnefians from Attica. The foldiers difperfing and retiring to their refpective homes, the Lacedaemonians were fo highly incensed, that they laid a heavy fine upon the king, and as he was not able to pay it, he withdrew from Lacedaemon. As for Cleandrides, who fled from juftice, they condemned him to death. He was the father of Gylippus who defeated the Athenians in Sicily, and who feemed to have derived the vice of avarice from him as an hereditary diftemper. He was led by it into bad practices, for which he was banished with ignominy from Sparta, as we have related in the Life of Lyfander.

In the accounts for this campaign Pericles put down ten talents laid out for a neceffary use, and the people

This wolf is faid to have been confecrated and placed by the fide of the great altar, on occafion of a wolf's killing a thief who had robbed the temple, and leading the Delphians to the place where the treasure lay.

people allowed it, without examining the matter. clofely or prying into the fecret. According to fome writers, and among the reft Theophraftus the philofopher, Pericles fent ten talents every year to Sparta, with which he gained all the magiftracy, and kept them from acts of hoftility; not that he purchased peace with the money, but only gained time, that he might have leifure to make preparations to carry on the war afterwards with advantage.

Immediately, after the retreat of the Lacedaemonians, he turned his arms against the revolters, and paffing over into Euboea with fifty fhips and five thousand men, he reduced the cities. He expelled the Hippobotae, perfons distinguished by their opulence and authority among the Chalcidians; and having exterminated all the Heftiaeans, he gave their city to a colony of Athenians. The caufe of this feverity was their having taken an Athenian ship, and murdered the whole crew.

Soon after this, the Athenians and Lacedaemonians having agreed upon a truce for thirty years, Pericles caufed a decree to be made for an expedi tion against Samos. The pretence he made ufe of was, that the Samians, when commanded to put an end to the war with the Milefians, had refused it. But as he seems to have entered upon this war merely to gratify Afpafia, it may not be amifs to enquire by what art or power the captivated the greateft ftatefmen, and brought even philofophers to fpeak of her fo much to her advantage.

It is agreed, that he was by birth a || Milefian, and the daughter of Axiochus. She is reported to have trod in the fteps of § Thargelia who was defcended

Miletum, a city in Ionia, was famous for producing perfons of extraordinary abilities.

This 'Thargelia, by her beauty, obtained the fovereignty of Theffaly. However, the came to an untimely end; for the was murdered by one of her lovers.