make them feel capable of immense operations, passed a decree, inviting
all the Greeks, whether inhabiting Europe or Asia, whether living in
large cities or small ones, to send representatives to a meeting at
Athens to deliberate about the restoration of the Greek temples which
had been burned by the barbarians, about the sacrifices which were due
in consequence of the vows which they had made to the gods on behalf of
Greece before joining battle, and about the sea, that all men might be
able to sail upon it in peace and without fear. To carry out this decree
twenty men, selected from the citizens over fifty years of age, were
sent out, five of whom invited the Ionian and Dorian Greeks in Asia and
the islands as far as Lesbos and Rhodes, five went to the inhabitants of
the Hellespont and Thrace as far as Byzantium, and five more proceeded
to Boeotia, Phocis, and Peloponnesus, passing from thence through Locris
to the neighboring continent as far as Acarnania and Ambracia; while the
remainder journeyed through Euboea to the Oetaeans and the Malian Gulf,
and to the Achaeans of Phthia and the Thessalians, urging them to join
the assembly and take part in the deliberations concerning the peace and
well-being of Greece. However, nothing was effected, and the cities
never assembled, in consequence it is said of the covert hostility of
the Lacedaemonians, and because the attempt was first made in
Peloponnesus and failed there: yet I have inserted an account of it in
order to show the lofty spirit and the magnificent designs of Pericles.

In his campaigns he was chiefly remarkable for caution, for he would
not, if he could help it, begin a battle of which the issue was
doubtful; nor did he wish to emulate those generals who have won
themselves a great reputation by running risks and trusting to good
luck. But he ever used to say to his countrymen, that none of them
should come by their deaths through any act of his. Observing that
Tolmides, the son of Tolmaeus, elated by previous successes and by the