seaboard of the Persian empire. Many, too, were
inflamed with that ill-starred notion of an attempt on Sicily, which was
afterward blown into a flame by Alcibiades and other orators. Some even
dreamed of the conquest of Etruria and Carthage, in consequence of the
greatness which the Athenian empire had already reached, and the full
tide of success which seemed to attend it.

Pericles, however, restrained these outbursts, and would not allow the
people to meddle with foreign states, but used the power of Athens
chiefly to preserve and guard her already existing empire, thinking it
to be of paramount importance to oppose the Lacedaemonians, a task to
which he bent all his energies, as is proved by many of his acts,
especially in connection with the Sacred War. In this war the
Lacedaemonians sent a force to Delphi, and made the Phocians, who held
it, give it up to the people of Delphi: but as soon as they were gone
Pericles made an expedition into the country, and restored the temple to
the Phocians; and as the Lacedaemonians had scratched the oracle which
the Delphians had given them, on the forehead of the brazen wolf there,
Pericles got a response from the oracle for the Athenians, and carved it
on the right side of the same wolf.

Events proved that Pericles was right in confining the Athenian empire
to Greece. First of all Euboea revolted, and he was obliged to lead an
army to subdue that island. Shortly after this, news came that the
Megarians had become hostile, and that an army, under the command of
Plistoanax, king of the Lacedaemonians, was menacing the frontier of
Attica. Pericles now in all haste withdrew his troops from Euboea, to
meet the invader. He did not venture on an engagement with the numerous
and warlike forces of the enemy, although repeatedly invited by them to
fight: but, observing that Plistoanax was a very young man, and entirely
under the influence of Cleandrides, whom the _ephors_ had sent to act as
his tutor and counsellor because of his tender years, he opened secret
negotiations with the latter, who at once, for a bribe, agreed to
withdraw the Peloponnesians from Attica. When their army returned and
dispersed, the Lacedaemonians were so incensed that they imposed a fine
on their king, and condemned Cleandrides, who fled the country, to be
put to death. This Cleandrides was the father of Gylippus, who caused
the ruin of the Athenian expedition in Sicily. Avarice seems to have
been hereditary