SECOND AND THIRD YEARS OF THE WAR. 153 Such calamities might, indeed, be foreseen : but there was one still greater calamity, which, though actually then impending, could not be foreseen : the terrific pestilence which will be re- counted in the coming chapter. The bright colors, and tone of cheerful confidence, which pervade the discourse of Perikles, appear the more striking from being in immediate antecedence to the awful description of this distemper : a contrast to which Thucydides was, doubtless, not insensible, and which is another circumstance enhancing the interest of the composition. CHAPTER XLIX. FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE SECOND YEAR DOWN TO THE END OF THE THIRD YEAR OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. AT the close of one year after the attempted surprise of Pla- taea by the Thebans, the belligerent parties in Greece remained in an unaltered position as to relative strength. Nothing deci- sive had been accomplished on either side, either by the invasion of Attica, or by the flying descents round the coast of Pelopon- nesus : in spite of mutual damage inflicted, doubtless, in the greatest measure upon Attica, no progress was yet made towards the fulfilment of those objects which had induced the Peloponnesians to go to war. Especially, the most pressing among all their wishes the relief of Potidoea was noway advanced ; for the Athenians had not found it necessary to relax the blockade of that city. The result of the first year's opera- tions had thus been to disappoint the hopes of the Corinthians and the other ardent 'instigators of war, while it justified the anticipations both of Perikles and of Archidamus. A second devastation of Attica was resolved upon for the commencement of spring; and measures were taken for carry- ing it all over that territory, since the settled policy of Athena
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