BEGINNING? OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAK. 75 though he offered himself to be among those left behind, he could not determine the citizens to so bold an enterprise, and he therefore sallied forth hi the way proposed with a small detach- ment, in order to try and procure relief from without, especi- ally some aid or diversion from Peloponnesus. But he was able to accomplish nothing beyond some partial warlike operations among the Chalkidians, 1 and a successful ambuscade against tho citizens of Sermylus, which did nothing for the relief of the blockaded town : it had, however, been so well-provisioned that it held out for two whole years, a period full of important events elsewhere. From these two contests between Athens and Corinth, first indirectly at Korkyra, next distinctly and avowedly at Potidaea, sprung those important movements in the Lacedaemonian alliance which will be recounted in the next chapter. CHAPTER XLVIII. FROM THE BLOCKADE OF POTIDJEA DOWN TO THE END OF THL FIRST YEAR OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. EVEN before the recent hostilities at Korkyra and Potidzea, it had been evident to reflecting Greeks that the continued obser- vance of the thirty years' truce was very uncertain, and that the mingled hatred, fear, and admiration, which Athens inspired throughout Greece, would prompt Sparta and the Spartan con- federacy to seize the first favorable opening for breaking down the Athenian power. That such was the disposition of Sparta, was well understood among the Athenian allies, however consider- ations of prudence and general slowness in resolving might post* pone the moment of carrying it into effect. Accordingly, not only the Samians when they revolted had applied to the Spartan
1 Thucyd. i, 65.
