Book 8
For this Eetioneia is the pier of the Peiraeus, close unto which is the mouth of the haven. And therefore they built this wall so to another wall that was built before to the continent that a few men lying within it might command the entrance. For the end of each wall was brought to the tower upon the [very] mouth of the haven, as well of the old wall towards the continent as of the new which was built within it to the water.
They built also an open ground-gallery, an exceeding great one and close to their new wall within Peiraeus, and were masters of it, and constrained all men as well to bring thither their corn which they had already come in, as to unload there whatsoever should come in afterward, and to take and sell it from thence.
These things Theramenes murmured at long before; and when the ambassadors returned from Lacedaemon without compounding for them all in general, he gave out that this wall would endanger the undoing of the city.
For at this very instant there happened to be riding on the coast of Laconia fortytwo galleys, amongst which were some of Tarentum, some of Locri, some Italians, and some Sicilians, set out from Peloponnesus at the instance of the Euboeans, bound for Euboea and commanded by Hegesandridas, the son of Hegesander, a Spartan. And these Theramenes said were coming not so much towards Euboea as towards those that fortified in Eetioneia, and that if they were not looked to, they would surprise the city.
Now some matter might indeed be gathered also from those that were accused, so that it was not a mere slander. For their principal design was to retain the oligarchy with dominion over their confederates; but if they failed of that, yet being masters of the galleys and of the fortification, to have subsisted free themselves; if barred of that, then rather than to be the only men to suffer death under the restored democracy, to let in the enemy; and without either navy or fortification to have let what would have become of the city and to have compounded for the safety of their own persons.
Therefore they went diligently on with the fortification, wherein were wickets and entries and backways for the enemy, and desired to have it finished in time.
And though these things were spoken but amongst a few before and in secret, yet when Phrynichus, after his return from his Lacedaemonian ambassage, was by a certain watchman wounded treacherously in the market place when it was full, as he went from the councilhouse, and not far from it fell instantly dead, and the murtherer gone, and that one of his complices, an Argive, taken by The Four Hundred and put to the torture, would confess no man of those named to him nor anything else saving this, that many men used to assemble at the house of the captain of the watch and at other houses; then at length, because this accident bred no alteration, Theramenes and Aristocrates, and as many other either of The Four Hundred or out of that number as were of the same faction proceeded more boldly to assault the government. For now also the fleet, being come about from Laconia and lying upon the coast of Epidaurus, had made incursions upon Aegina.
And Theramenes thereupon alleged that it was improbable that those galleys holding their course for Euboea would have put in at Aegina and then have gone back again to lie at Epidaurus, unless they had been sent for by such men as he had ever accused of the same; and that therefore there was no reason any longer to sit still.
And in the end, after many seditious and suspicious speeches, they fell upon the state in good earnest. For the soldiers that were in Peiraeus employed in fortifying Eetioneia (amongst whom was also Aristocrates, captain of a band of men, and his band with him) seized on Alexicles, principal commander of the soldiers under The Four Hundred, an eminent man of the other side, and carrying him into a house, kept him in hold.
As soon as the news hereof was brought unto The Four Hundred, who chanced at the same time to be sitting in the council-house, they were ready all of them presently to have taken arms, threatening Theramenes and his faction.
He to purge himself was ready to go with them and to help to rescue Alexicles, and taking with him one of the commanders who was also of his faction, went down into Peiraeus. To help him went also Aristarchus and certain horsemen of the younger sort. Great and terrible was the tumult. For in the city they thought Peiraeus was already taken and him that was laid in hold slain; and in Peiraeus they expected every hour the power of the city to come upon them.
At last the ancient men, stopping them that ran up and down the city to arm themselves, and Thucydides of Pharsalus, the city's host, being then there, going boldly and close up to every one he met and crying out unto them not to destroy their country when the enemy lay so near waiting for an advantage, with much ado quieted them and held their hands from spilling their own blood.
Theramenes, coming into Peiraeus (for he also had command over the soldiers), made a shew by his exclaiming of being angry with them; but Aristarchus and those that were of the contrary side were extremely angry in good earnest.
Nevertheless the soldiers went on with their business and repented not a jot of what they had done. Then they asked Theramenes if he thought this fortification were made to any good end and whether it were not better to have it demolished.
And he answered that if they thought good to demolish it, he also thought the same. At which word they presently got up, both the soldiers and also many others of Peiraeus, and fell a digging down of the wall. Now the provocation that they used to the multitude was in these words, that whosoever desired that the sovereignty should be in The Five Thousand instead of The Four Hundred ought also to set himself to the work in hand.
For notwithstanding all this, they thought fit as yet to veil the democracy with the name of The Five Thousand and not to say plainly whosoever will have the sovereignty in the people, lest The Five Thousand should have been extant indeed, and so a man by speaking to some or other of them might do hurt to the business through ignorance. And for this cause it was that The Four Hundred would neither let The Five Thousand be extant nor yet let it be known that they were not. For to make so many participant of the affairs of state they thought was a direct democracy, but to have it doubtful would make them afraid of one another.
The next day, The Four Hundred, though out of order, yet met together in the council-house, and the soldiers in Peiraeus, having enlarged Alexicles whom they had before imprisoned, and quite razed the fortification, came into the theatre of Bacchus near to Munychia and there sat down with their arms; and presently, according as they had resolved in an assembly then holden, marched into the city and there sat down again in the temple of Castor and Pollux.
To this place came unto them certain men elected by The Four Hundred, and man to man reasoned and persuaded with such as they saw to be of the mildest temper both to be quiet themselves and to restrain the rest, saying that not only The Five Thousand should be made known who they were, but that out of these such should be chosen in turns to be of The Four Hundred as The Five Thousand should think good, and entreating them by all means that they would not in the meantime overthrow the city and force it into the hand of the enemy.
Hereupon the whole number of the men of arms, after many reasons alleged to many men, grew calmer and feared most the loss of the whole city. And it was agreed betwixt them that an assembly should be held for making of accord in the temple of Bacchus at a day assigned.
When they came to the temple of Bacchus and wanted but a little of a full assembly, came news that Hegesandridas with his forty-two galleys came from Megara along the coast towards Salamis. And now there was not a soldier but thought it the very same thing that Theramenes and his party had before told them, that those galleys were to come to the fortification, and that it was now demolished to good purpose.
But Hegesandridas, perhaps upon appointment, hovered upon the coast of Epidaurus and thereabouts; but it is likely that in respect of the sedition of the Athenians he stayed in those parts with hope to take hold of some good advantage.
Howsoever it was, the Athenians, as soon as it was told them, ran presently with all the power of the city down to Peiraeus, less esteeming their domestic war than that of the common enemy, which was not now far off but even in the haven. And some went aboard the galleys that were then ready, some launched the rest, and others ran to defend the walls and mouth of the haven.
But the Peloponnesian galleys, being now gone by and gotten about the promontory of Sunium, cast anchor between Thoricus and Prasiae and put in afterwards at Oropus.
The Athenians with all speed, constrained to make use of tumultuary forces, such as a city in time of sedition might afford, and desirous with all haste to make good their greatest stake (for Euboea, since they were shut out of Attica, was all they had), sent a fleet under the command of Timocharis to Eretria.
Which arriving, with those galleys that were in Euboea before, made up the number of six-and-thirty sail. And they were presently constrained to hazard battle; for Hegesandridas brought out his galleys from Oropus when he had first there dined. Now Oropus is from Eretria about threescore furlongs of sea.
Whereupon the Athenians also, as the enemy came towards them, began to embark, supposing that their soldiers had been somewhere near unto the galleys. But it fell out that they were gone abroad to get their dinner, not in the market (for by set purpose of the Eretrians, to the end that the enemy might fall upon the Athenians that embarked slowly before they were ready and force them to come out and fight, nothing was there to be sold), but in the utmost houses of the city.
There was besides a sign set up at Eretria to give them notice at Oropus at what time to set forward. The Athenians, drawn out by this device and fighting before the haven of Eretria, made resistance nevertheless for a while; but afterwards they turned their backs and were chased ashore.
Such as fled to the city of the Eretrians, taking it for their friend, were handled most cruelly and slaughtered by them of the town; but such as got to the fort in Eretria, holden by the Athenians, saved themselves; and so did so many of their galleys as got to Chalcis.
The Peloponnesians, after they had taken twenty-two Athenian galleys with the men, whereof some they slew and some they took prisoners, erected a trophy; and not long after, having caused all Euboea to revolt save only Oreus, which the Athenians held with their own forces, they settled the rest of their business there.
When the news of that which had happened in Euboea was brought to Athens, it put the Athenians into the greatest astonishment that ever they had been in before. For neither did their loss in Sicily, though then thought great, nor any other at any time so much affright them as this.
For now when the army at Samos was in rebellion, when they had no more galleys nor men to put aboard, when they were in sedition amongst themselves and in continual expectation of falling together by the ears, then in the neck of all arrived this great calamity, wherein they not only lost their galleys, but also, which was worst of all, Euboea, by which they [had] received more commodity than by Attica.
How then could they choose but be dejected? But most of all they were troubled, and that for the nearness, with a fear lest upon this victory the enemy should take courage and come immediately into Peiraeus, now empty of shipping, of which they thought nothing wanting, but that they were not there already.
And had they been anything adventurous, they might easily have done it; and then, had they stayed there and besieged them, they had not only increased the sedition but also compelled the fleet to come away from Ionia to the aid of their kindred and of the whole city, though enemies to the oligarchy, and in the meantime gotten the Hellespont, Ionia, the Islands, and all places even to Euboea, and, as one may say, the whole Athenian empire into their power.
But the Lacedaemonians, not only in this but in many other things, were most commodious enemies to the Athenians to war withal. For being of most different humours, the one swift, the other slow; the one adventurous, the other timorous; the Lacedaemonians gave them great advantage, especially when their greatness was by sea. This was evident in the Syracusians, who, being in condition like unto them, warred best against them.
The Athenians upon this news made ready, notwithstanding, twenty galleys, and called an assembly, one then presently in the place called Pnyx, where they were wont to assemble at other times, in which having deposed The Four Hundred, they decreed the sovereignty to The Five Thousand, of which number were all such to be as were charged with arms; and from that time forward to salariate no man for magistracy, with a penalty on the magistrate receiving the salary to be held for an execrable person.
There were also divers other assemblies held afterwards, wherein they elected law-makers, and enacted other things concerning the government. And now first (at least in my time) the Athenians seem to have ordered their state aright; which consisted now of a moderate temper, both of the few and of the many. And this was the first thing that after so many misfortunes past made the city again to raise her head.
They decreed also the recalling of Alcibiades and those that were in exile with him, and sending to him and to the army at Samos, willed them to fall in hand with their business.
In this change Pisander and Alexicles, and such as were with them, and they that had been principal in the oligarchy, immediately withdrew themselves to Deceleia. Only Aristarchus (for it chanced that he had charge of the soldiers) took with him certain archers of the most barbarous and went with all speed to Oenoe.
This was a fort of the Athenians in the confines of Boeotia; and (for the loss that the Corinthians had received by the garrison of Oenoe) was by voluntary Corinthians and by some Boeotians by them called in to aid them now besieged.
Aristarchus, therefore, having treated with these, deceived those in Oenoe and told them that the city of Athens had compounded with the Lacedaemonians and that they were to render up the place to the Boeotians, for that it was so conditioned in the agreement. Whereupon, believing him as one that had authority over the soldiery and knowing nothing because besieged, upon security for their pass they gave up the fort.