Book II - Wilbourhall.org

IV.] POINTS IN THE fflSTORY. Ixxixthat they reached the Corinthian Gulf too late to beof any service.But, as a set-off to these gains, Athens had suffereda terrible loss. Worn out with sorrow and disease,Pericles sank gradually, and, in the autumn of thisyear, found the only relief left for him in death.His illness had gradually degenerated into the plague,which had now lost some of its strength ; so that hehad hngered for a time on the border-land between lifeand death.Two years before, the crafty Perdiccas of Macedonhad made an alliance with Athens. Sitalces, king ofthe Thracians, had acted as intermediary on thatoccasion. But Perdiccas had broken his word, andnow Sitalces arranged a great demonstration againsthim, which was to result in his deposition, and thesubstitution of a pretender named Amyntas.Sitalceshad good reason to expect help from Athens, as theexpedition would restore Athenian influence inChalcidice, and Perdiccas had supported the Peloponnesiansin their attack on Acarnania. But justnow the government of Athens was paralysed. Thefleet which Sitalces expected was never sent, andhe was not sorry to accept the overtures whichPerdiccas made for peace. Then his great processionof barbarians marched back again, and thus the year,after its strange alternations of tragedy and comedy,ended with a farce.