The Wars of the Cities

WHEN the Athenians, in the summer of 431, seeing that hostilities had commenced, conducted the envoy of King Archidamos back to the frontier without hearing him, the Spartan, in taking leave of his escort, declared :” This day will be the beginning of great ills for Greece.“ ¹ The breach of the agreements of 446 opened a period of uninterrupted wars, in which the Greek cities exhausted themselves one after another. Greece would scarcely know peace until the day when it was imposed on her by the Macedonian conqueror. How did the struggle begin, and who were responsible? The question of the origin of a war is always delicate and always disputed. The belligerents had an interest in not saying too clearly who began it. ² Thucydides is of opinion that war was inevitable, and that the cause was the growing power of Athens and the feelings of jealousy or fear which it inspired in the other cities, and particularly in Sparta. ³