tocratic party, a man of virtuous but unenterprising character, and a military officer of moderate abilities. Under his auspices a peace for fifty years, commonly known by the name of the 'Peace of Nicias,' was concluded in the tenth year of the war (421 B. C.). It was not long, however, till the contest was resumed. Offended that its allies had given up a contest undertaken for the assertion of its alleged rights, Corinth refused to be a party to the treaty of peace, and entered into a new quadruple alliance with Argos, Elis, and Mantinæa, a city of Arcadia; the ostensible object of which confederation was the defense of the Peloponnesian states against the aggressions of Athens and Sparta. This end seemed not difficult of attainment, as fresh distrust had arisen between the two last-mentioned republics, on account of the reluctance felt and manifested by both to give up certain places which they had bound themselves by treaty mutually to surrender. The jealousies thus excited were fanned into a violent flame by the artful measures of Alcibiades, a young Athenian, who now began to rise into political power, and whose genius and character subsequently exercised a strong influence upon the affairs of Athens.
Alcibiades. Alcibiades was the son of Clinias, an Athenian of high
rank. Endowed with uncommon beauty of person, and talents of the
very highest order, he was unfortunately deficient in that unbending
integrity which is an essential element of every character truly great,
and his violent passions sometimes impelled him to act in a manner which
has brought disgrace on his memory. While still very young, Alcibiades
served in the Athenian army, and became the companion and pupil of
Socrates, one of the wisest and most virtuous of the Grecian sages. Having
rendered some service to his country in a protracted and useless war
with Lacedæmon, and being possessed of a talent for addressing the
passions of the multitude, Alcibiades, as others had done before him,
became the undisputed head of public affairs in Athens. But this preëminence
was not of long continuance. An opinion arose among the people
that he designed to subvert the constitution, and his fall was as quick as
his promotion. Many of his friends were put to death, and he, while absent
on an expedition, deprived of his authority. Being thus left without
a public director of affairs, Athens, as usual, was torn by internal discords:
the aristocratic faction succeeded in overthowing the democratic government
(411 B. C.), and establishing a council of 400 individuals to administer
the affairs of state, with the power of convoking an assembly of
5000 of the principal citizens for advice and assistance in any emergency.
These 400 tyrants, as they were popularly called, were no sooner invested
with authority, than they annihilated every remaining portion of the free
institutions of Athens. They behaved with the greatest insolence and
severity towards the people, and endeavored to confirm and perpetuate
their usurped power, by raising a body of mercenary troops in the islands
of the Ægean, for the purpose of overawing and enslaving their fellow-citizens.
The Athenian army was at this period in the island of Samos,
whither it had retired after an expedition against the revolted cities of
Asia Minor. When intelligence arrived of the revolution in Athens, and
the tyrannical proceedings of the oligarchical faction, the soldiers indignantly
refused to obey the new government, and sent an invitation to Alcibiades
to return among them, and assist in reëstablishing the democratic con-
