218 HISTORICAL TALES.

miliating terms. But there could be only one end.
Where famine commands man must obey. Peace
must be had at any price, or death would end all,
and an envoy was sent out with power to make
peace on any terms he could obtain.

It was pitiable that glorious Athens should be
brought to this sad pass. She was so cordially
hated by many of the states of Greece that they
voted for her annihilation, demanding that the en-
tire population should be sold as slaves, and the city
and the very name of Athens be utterly swept from
the earth.

At this dread moment the greatest foe of Athens
became almost her only friend. Sparta declared that
she would never consent to such a fate for the city
which had been the savior of Greece in the Persian
war. In the end peace was offered on the following
terms: The Long Walls and the defences of Pireeus
should be destroyed; the Athenians should give up
all foreign possessions and confine themselves to
Attica; they should surrender all their ships-of-war ;
they should admit all their exiles; they should be-
come allies of Sparta, be friends of her friends and
foes of her foes, and follow her leadership on sea
and land.

When the envoy, bearing this ultimatum, returned
to Athens, a pitiable spectacle met his eyes. A de-
spairing crowd faced him with beseeching eyes, in
terror lest he brought only a message of death or
despair. Thousands there were who could not meet
him, victims of the increasing famine. Peace at any
price had become a valued boon. Nevertheless, when