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The following translation not being calculated for general circulation, it is not likely that it should fall into the hands of any reader whose knowledge of antiquity would not enable him to dispense with the fatigue of perusing a prefatory history. Such prefaces are already before the public, accompanying the translations of Mr Mitchell and Mr Walsh, and will be found satisfactory to those, who may be desirous of preliminary information.
It may not however be altogether superfluous, to prefix a brief summary of preceding circumstances. We have already seen, that the Poet, in his comedy of the Babylonians, had made an attack upon the leading demagogues and peculators of his time. In return for this aggression, Cleon (as described in the Acharnians)
“And trodden him down and bellow'd over him,
“And maul'd him till he scarce escap'd alive.”
The Poet however recovered himself, and in the Parabasis of the same play, had defied
and insulted the demagogue in the most unsparing terms. In the course however
of the following summer, Cleon, by a singular concurrence of circumstances, had
been raised to the highest pitch of favor and popularity. A body of 400 Spartans
having been cut off, and blockaded in an island of the Bay of Pylos, now Navarino,
this disaster, in which many of the first families of Sparta were involved, induced
that republic to sue for peace; which Cleon, who considered his power and influence
as dependant on the continuance of the war, was determined to oppose. Insisting
therefore, that the blockaded troop could be considered in no other light
than as actual prisoners, he finally pledged himself, with a given additional force,
to reduce the Spartans to surrender within a limited time; this he had the good fortune
and dexterity to effect, and to secure the whole credit of the result for himself;
having in virtue of his appointment, superseded the blockading general,
Demosthenes; while at the same time, he secured the benefit of his experience and ability, by
retaining him as a colleague.—The reader, if he has the work at hand, will do
For those readers to whom any further introduction may be necessary, a list of the Dramatis Personæ, with some accompanying explanations, will perhaps be sufficient.
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