“My spear the spider’s home shall be,”

remembering with pleasure the proverb that in time of peace men are awakened, not by trumpets, but by crowing cocks.  They railed at those who said that it was fated that the war should last thrice nine years, and, having thus accustomed themselves to discuss the whole question, they proceeded to make peace, and thought that now they were indeed free from all their troubles.  The name of Nikias was now in every man’s mouth, and he was called the favourite of heaven, and the man chosen by the gods for his piety to confer the greatest of blessings upon the Greeks.  For they regarded the peace as the work of Nikias, just as the war had been the work of Perikles.  The latter, they thought, for no adequate reasons, had involved the Greeks in the greatest miseries, while the former had relieved them of their troubles by persuading them to become friends.  For this reason this peace is to this day called the peace of Nikias.

X. The terms of the peace were that each party should restore the cities and territory which it had taken, and that it should be determined by lot which side should restore its conquests first.  We are told by Theophrastus that Nikias, by means of bribery, arranged that the lot should fall upon the Lacedaemonians to make restitution first.  When, however, the Corinthians and Boeotians, dissatisfied with the whole transaction, seemed likely by their complaints and menaces to rekindle the war, Nikias induced Athens and Sparta to confirm the peace by entering upon an alliance, which enabled them to deal with the malcontents with more authority, and give them more confidence in one another.

All these transactions greatly displeased Alkibiades, who was naturally disinclined to peace, and who hated the Lacedaemonians because they paid their court to Nikias and disregarded him.  For this reason, Alkibiades from the very outset opposed the peace, but ineffectually at first.  When, however, he observed that the Lacedaemonians were no longer regarded with favour by the Athenians, and were thought to have wronged them by forming an alliance with the Boeotians, and not restoring to Athens up the cities of Panaktus and Amphipolis, he seized the opportunity of exciting the people by exaggerated accounts of the misdeeds of the Lacedaemonians.  Moreover he prevailed upon the people of Argos to send ambassadors to Athens to conclude an alliance.  As, however, at the same time ambassadors, with full powers to settle all matters in dispute, came from Lacedaemon, and in a preliminary conference with the Senate were thought to have made very reasonable and just proposals, Alkibiades, fearing that they might create an equally favourable impression when they spoke before the popular assembly, deceived them by solemnly declaring with an oath that he would assist them in every way that he could, provided that they would deny that they came with full powers to decide, saying that by this