The  Platseans  were  upon  the  point  of  acceding  to  all  the  demands
made  upon  them,  when,  discovering  the  small  number  of  the  enemy,
they  attacked  and  overpowered  them  in  the  darkness,  and  took  a
hundred  and  eighty  of  them  prisoners.  These  captives  they  after-
wards murdered,  in  violation,  as  the  Thebans  always  maintained,  of
a  sacred  promise  that  their  lives  should  be  spared.  This  wretched
afiair  at  Flatsea  precipitated  the  war  (431  b.c.).
Invafion  of  Attiea:  Peetilenoe  at  Athens. — A  Spartan  army
was  soon  overrunning  Attica,  while  an  Athenian  fleet  was  ravaging
the  coasts  of  the  Peloponnesus.  Pericles  persuaded  the  country
people  of  Attica  to  abandon  their  villas  and  hamlets  and  gather


CRUEL   CHARACTER   OF  THE    WAR.  149

within  the  defences  of  the  city.  He  did  not  deem  it  pradent  to  risk
a  battle  in  the  open  fields.  From  the  walls  of  Athens  the  people
could  see  the  flames  of  their  burning  villages  and  farmhouses,  as
the  enemy  ravaged  the  plains  of  Attica  up  to  the  very  gates  of  the
city.  It  required  all  the  persuasion  of  Pericles  to  restrain  them
from  issuing  in  a  body  from  behind  the  ramparts  and  rushing  to
the  defence  of  their  homes.
