For this reason this
peace is to this day called the peace of Nikias.
X. The terms of the peace were that each party should restore the
cities and territory which it had taken, and that it should be
determined by lot which side should restore its conquests first. We
are told by Theophrastus that Nikias, by means of bribery, arranged
that the lot should fall upon the Lacedaemonians to make restitution
first. When, however, the Corinthians and Boeotians, dissatisfied with
the whole transaction, seemed likely by their complaints and menaces
to rekindle the war, Nikias induced Athens and Sparta to confirm the
peace by entering upon an alliance, which enabled them to deal with
the malcontents with more authority, and give them more confidence in
one another.
All these transactions greatly displeased Alkibiades, who was
naturally disinclined to peace, and who hated the Lacedaemonians
because they paid their court to Nikias and disregarded him. For this
reason, Alkibiades from the very outset opposed the peace, but
ineffectually at first. When, however, he observed that the
Lacedaemonians were no longer regarded with favour by the Athenians,
and were thought to have wronged them by forming an alliance with the
Boeotians, and not restoring to Athens up the cities of Panaktus and
Amphipolis, he seized the opportunity of exciting the people by
exaggerated accounts of the misdeeds of the Lacedaemonians.
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