In  none  of  the  geographical  departments  into  which  the
area  of  warfare  may  be  divided  did  the  strategy  of  the
Athenians  undergo  a  greater  change  than  round  the  coasts
of  Peloponnese.  In  the  design  of  Perikles  the  war  in  this
region  played  little  strategical  part.  Raids  on  the  Pelopon-
nesian  coast  could  do  little  permanent  harm,  and  were  not
in  the  least  likely  to  bring  the  conclusion  of  the  war
sensibly  nearer.  The  part  which  they  had  to  play  in  his
plan  was  psychological.  That  plan  included  an  element
which  it  was  difficult  to  induce  the  Athenian  people  to
accept  in  the  first  instance,^  and  still  more  difficult  to  get
them  to  adhere  to  for  a  prolonged  period — the  sacrifice  of
the  rural  districts  of  Attica  to  the  enemy  without  any
1  Thuc.  iv.  49.  2  Thuc.  iv.  ^^.  ^  Thuc.  ii.  21,  22.
PELOPONNESE  355

attempt  being  made  to  defend  them.  Perikles  was  well
aware  of  the  feeling  which  it  must  eventually  arouse ;  still
more  alive  to  the  danger  involved  in  case  such  feeling  found
expression  in  action  ;  and  he  seems  to  have  realised  that
the  only  means  of  keeping  it  within  bounds  was  to  provide
the  Athenians  with  some  moral  compensation  by  inflicting
similar  injury  on  the  territory  of  their  enemies.  Even  for
some  years  after  his  death  the  war  in  this  region  maintained
this  form,  and  presents  therefore  in  the  pages  of  Thucydides
the  appearance  of  being  composed  of  a  series  of  petty  and
more  or  less  futile  undertakings.  It  was  left  for  Demos-
thenes to  give  it  a  new  form  which  included  operations  of  a
far  more  serious  nature,  such  as  were  calculated  to  lead  to
more  permanent  and  more  decisive  results.
