XXII.  Events proved that Perikles was right in confining the Athenian empire to Greece.  First of all Euboea revolted, and he was obliged to lead an army to subdue that island.  Shortly after this, news came that the Megarians had become hostile, and that an army, under the command of Pleistoanax, king of the Lacedaemonians, was menacing the frontier of Attica.  Perikles now in all haste withdrew his troops from Euboea, to meet the invader.  He did not venture on an engagement with the numerous and warlike forces of the enemy, although repeatedly invited by them to fight:  but, observing that Pleistoanax was a very young man, and entirely under the influence of Kleandrides, whom the Ephors had sent to act as his tutor and counsellor because of his tender years, he opened secret negotiations with the latter, who at once, for a bribe, agreed to withdraw the Peloponnesians from Attica.  When their army returned and dispersed, the Lacedaemonians were so incensed that they imposed a fine on their king, and condemned Kleandrides, who fled the country, to be put to death.  This Kleandrides was the father of Gylippus, who caused the ruin of the Athenian expedition in Sicily.  Avarice seems to have been hereditary in the family, for Gylippus himself, after brilliant exploits in war, was convicted of taking bribes, and banished from Sparta in disgrace.  This is more fully set forth in the Life of Lysander.

XXIII.  When Perikles submitted the accounts of the campaign to the people, there was an item of ten talents, “for a necessary purpose,” which the people passed without any questioning, or any curiosity to learn the secret.  Some historians, amongst whom is Theophrastus the philosopher, say that Perikles sent ten talents annually to Sparta, by means of which he bribed the chief magistrates to defer the war, thus not buying peace, but time to make preparations for a better defence.  He immediately turned his attention to the insurgents in Euboea, and proceeding thither with a fleet of fifty sail, and five thousand heavy armed troops, he reduced their cities to submission.  He banished from Chalkis the “equestrian order,” as it was called, consisting of men of wealth and station; and he drove all the inhabitants of Hestiaea out of their country, replacing them by Athenian settlers.

He treated these people with this pitiless severity, because they had captured an Athenian ship, and put its crew to the sword.

XXIV.  After this, as the Athenians and Lacedaemonians made a truce for thirty years, Perikles decreed the expedition against Samos, on the pretext that they had disregarded the commands of the Athenians, to cease from their war with the Milesians.  It was thought that he began this war with the Samians to please Aspasia, and this is, therefore, a good opportunity to discuss that person’s character, and how she possessed so great influence and ability that the leading politicians of the day were at her feet, while philosophers