eding thither with a fleet of fifty sail, and five thousand heavy
armed troops, he reduced their cities to submission. He banished from
Chalkis the "equestrian order," as it was called, consisting of men of
wealth and station; and he drove all the inhabitants of Hestiaea out of
their country, replacing them by Athenian settlers.

He treated these people with this pitiless severity, because they had
captured an Athenian ship, and put its crew to the sword.

XXIV. After this, as the Athenians and Lacedaemonians made a truce for
thirty years, Perikles decreed the expedition against Samos, on the
pretext that they had disregarded the commands of the Athenians, to
cease from their war with the Milesians. It was thought that he began
this war with the Samians to please Aspasia, and this is, therefore, a
good opportunity to discuss that person's character, and how she
possessed so great influence and ability that the leading politicians of
the day were at her feet, while philosophers discussed and admired her
discourse. It is agreed that she was of Milesian origin, and that her
father's name was Axiochus; and she is said to have reserved her favours
for the most powerful personages in Greece, in imitation of Thargelia,
an Ionian lady of ancient times, of great beauty, ability, and
attractions, who had many lovers among the Greeks, and brought them all
over to the Persian interest, by which means the seeds of the Persian
faction were sown in many cities of Greece, as they were all men of
great influence and position.

Now some writers say that Perikles valued Aspasia only for her wisdom
and political ability. Indeed Sokrates and his friends used to frequent
her society; and those who listened to her discourse used to bring their
wives with them, that they too might profit by it, although her
profession was far from being honourable or decent, for she kept
courtesans in her house. Aeschines says that Lysikles, the sheep dealer,
a low-born and low-minded man, became one of the first men in Athens,
because he lived with Aspasia after Perikles's death. In Plato's
dialogue too, called 'Menexenus,' though the first part is written in a
humorous style, yet there is in it thus much of serious truth, that she
was thought to discuss questions of rhetoric with many Athenians. But
Perikles seems to have been more enamoured of Aspasia's person than her
intellect. He was married to a woman who was nearly related to him, who
had previously