y the following circumstances. The two
chief hindrances to peace were Kleon and Brasidas; as war concealed
the baseness of the former, and added to the glory of the latter.
Kleon was able to commit many crimes undetected, and Brasidas
performed many great exploits while the war lasted; wherefore, when
both of these men fell before the walls of Amphipolis, Nikias,
perceiving that the Spartans had long been desirous of peace, and that
the Athenians no longer hoped to gain anything by continuing the war,
and that both parties were weary of it, began to consider how he might
reconcile them, and also pacify all the other states of Greece, so as
to establish peace upon a durable and prosperous basis. At Athens, the
richer classes, the older men, and the country farmers all wished for
peace. By constantly arguing with the others he gradually made them
less eager for war, and at length was able to intimate to the Spartans
that there were good hopes of coming to terms. They willingly believed
him because of his high character for probity, and more especially
because he had shown great kindness to the Spartan prisoners taken at
Pylos. A truce for one year had already been arranged between them,
and during this they conversed freely with one another, and, enjoying
a life of leisure and freedom from the restraints and alarms of war,
began to long for an unbroken period of peace, and to sing:

"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 territ