Kitap 8
It was being fortified therefore in such a manner, in connexion with the wall previously existing on the land side, that, with only a few men posted in it, it would command the entrance. For in the very tower standing on one of the two sides, at the mouth of the harbour, which was narrow, was the termination both of the original wall on the land side, and of the new and inner one which was being built on the side of the sea.
They also built a portico, which was very large and in immediate connexion with this wall in the Piraeus; of which they themselves had the command, and in which they compelled all to deposit both what corn they had before and what was now brought in, and to take it out thence when they sold it.
On these subjects, then, Theramenes had long been murmuring; and ever since the ambassadors had returned from Lacedaemon without effecting any general arrangement for them, he did so still more, saying that there would be danger of this fort's proving the ruin of the city.
For some ships from the Peloponnese, whose aid the Euboeans had invited, to the number of two and forty, including some Italian and Sicilian vessels from Tarentum and Locri, also happened to be now lying off Las, in Laconia, and preparing for their passage to Euboea, under the command of Agesandridas son of Agesander, a Spartan. These Theramenes declared to be sailing, not so much to the aid of Euboea, as of those who were fortifying Eetionia; and that if they were not on their guard now, they would be lost before they were aware of it.
And there really was some plan of this kind entertained by those who were charged with it, and it was not merely a verbal misrepresentation. For it was the wish of that party, if possible, to retain their dominion over the allies with an oligarchical government; if not, to retain their independence, with the possession of their ships and walls; but if excluded from that also, at any rate not to perish themselves under the restored democracy before and above all others, but even to call in the enemy, and without walls and ships to make peace with them, and retain the government of the city on any terms whatever, if they had only security for their persons.
For this reason they were also diligently raising this fortification, with both posterns and entrances, and facilities for introducing the enemy, and were desirous to have it completed in time.
Now what was said of them was previously advanced in small parties only, and with greater secrecy; but when Phrynichus, on his return from the embassy to Lacedaemon, had been designedly stabbed in the full market by a man who served in the τῶν περιπόλων.] See note, p. 266. peripoli, and after proceeding but a short distance from the council-chamber expired immediately, and the assassin escaped; while his accomplice, who was an Argive, though seized and tortured by the Four Hundred, mentioned no one's name as having instigated him to it, nor any thing else, but that he knew many men assembled in different houses, both that of the commander of the peripoli and others; then indeed, when no disturbance arose from this, Theramenes and Aristocrates and all the rest of the Four Hundred, as well as of those out of doors who held the same views, proceeded with greater confidence to the execution of their measures. For at this same time the ships had now sailed round from Las, and after coming to anchor at Epidaurus, had overrun Aegina;
and Theramenes remarked, that it was not probable that, while on their passage to Euboea, they should have run into the bay, and be lying again at Epidaurus, unless they had been invited, and come for the purposes with which he had all along been charging them; and therefore it was not possible any longer to remain quiet.
At length, after many more seditious speeches and suspicions had been uttered, they now proceeded to business in real earnest. For the heavy-armed who were in the Piraeus, building the wall in Eetionia, amongst whom also was Aristocrates a taxiarch, with his company, arrested Alexicles, who was a general on the side of the oligarchy, and very favourably inclined to the associates, and taking him into a house confined him there. There were others who assisted them in this, and particularly one Hermon, commander of the peripoli stationed in Munychia;
and, what was of most importance, the mass of the heavy-armed were in favour of these measures.
When this news reached the Four Hundred, (who happened to be sitting together in their council-chamber,) immediately, with the exception of such as did not approve of the present government, they were prepared forthwith ἐς τὰ ὅπλα ἰέναι.] To run to the spears and shields, (which in the present circumstances of the city were always kept piled in the open spaces in different parts of the town,) and so to arm themselves for battle. See ch. 69. 1, 2; VII. 28. 2. —Arnold. to arm themselves, and threatened Theramenes and those with him. He, however, said in his defence that he was ready to go at once and assist in rescuing Alexicles; and taking with him one of the generals who held the same views with himself, he proceeded to the Piraeus; while Aristarchus and some young men of the cavalry went to the rescue. The tumult, then, was great and alarming:
for those in the city thought that the Piraeus was already taken, and the general under arrest put to death; while those in the Piraeus believed that the men in the city were all but attacking them. But when the elder men stopped those in the city who were running about, and rushing to the stands of arms;
while Thucydides the Pharsalian, the Proxenus of the state, was also present, and earnestly opposed the several parties, calling upon them not to destroy their country while the enemy were still waiting to attack them; they were with difficulty quieted and forbore from attacking one another. Now when Theramenes came into the Piraeus, (for he too was one of the generals,) as far as shouting went, he was angry with the soldiers;
but Aristarchus and those who were opposed to the popular party were in a violent rage. Most of the soldiers however joined in the work, without changing their purpose, and asked Theramenes, whether he thought that the wall was being built for any good, or would be better demolished.
He said, that if they thought right to demolish it, he also agreed with them. Upon that both the soldiers and many of the men in the Piraeus immediately mounted, and began to pull down the fortification. And the cry for the encouragement of the multitude was this; that whoever wished the Five Thousand to rule instead of the Four Hundred, must go to help in the work.
For they continued, notwithstanding, to conceal their real views under the name of the Five Thousand, so that whoever wished the commons to hold the government did not expressly mention that word; fearing that the Five Thousand might really have been elected, and that so by saying something to one [who belonged to that body,] he might, through his ignorance of the fact, commit himself. And, indeed, for this reason the Four Hundred neither wished the Five Thousand to be elected, nor to have it known that they were not; thinking, on the one hand, that to instal so many partners with them would amount to a downright democracy; and, on the other hand, that uncertainty on the subject would strike them with fear of one another.
The next day the Four Hundred, although alarmed, assembled nevertheless in their council-chamber; while the soldiers in the Piraeus, after releasing Alexicles, whom they had arrested, and demolishing the fortification, came to the temple of Bacchus close to Munychia, and having piled their arms, ἐξεκκλησίασαν.] Or simply, held an assembly, according to Bekker's reading, ἐξεκλησίασαν. held an assembly there out of the usual place; and in accordance with a resolution made by them, proceeded straightway to the city, and piled their arms in the ἐν τῷ Ἀνακείῳ] i. e. the temple of Castor and Pollux, to whom too title of ἀνακοί, the princes, was given, according to Eustathius. Anaceum.
But when certain chosen deputies from the Four Hundred came to them, they conversed man with man, and such as they saw to be men of moderate views they persuaded both to remain quiet themselves, and to restrain the rest; telling them that they would publish the names of the Five Thousand, and that from these the Four Hundred should be elected in rotation, in such a manner as the Five Thousand might think fit: but, in the mean time, they begged them by no means to destroy the city, or drive it into the hands of the enemy.
So the whole body of the soldiers, when such addresses were made by many and to many, were more pacified than before, and most alarmed for the whole state; and they agreed to hold, on an appointed day, an assembly in the temple of Bacchus, with a view to restoring concord.
When the day for holding the assembly was come, and they had all but met, news were brought that the two and forty ships with Agesander were advancing from Megara along the coast of Salamis; and every one of the soldiers in general considered this to be the very thing which had so long been asserted by Theramenes and his party, namely, that it was to the fort that the ships were sailing; and it appeared to have been thrown down to good purpose.
And it might, perhaps, in some measure have been by appointment that Agesandridas lingered about Epidaurus and that neighbourhood; though it is also probable that he stayed there in consequence of the present sedition amongst the Athenians, in hope of coming up at the moment favourable for action.
But the Athenians, on the other hand, on receiving this intelligence, immediately ran down in full force to the Piraeus, considering that a war with the enemy, of greater importance than that amongst themselves, was threatening them at no great distance, but close to their harbour. Some of them therefore went on board the ships that were already afloat; others launched additional ones; and some others ran to the defence of the walls and the mouth of the harbour.
But the Peloponnesian ships, after sailing by and doubling Sunium, came to anchor between Thoricus and Prasiae, and subsequently went to Oropus.
So the Athenians were compelled to go to sea in a hurry and with ἀξυγκροτήτοις.] Literally, not hammered together; i. e. not blended into one body, like two pieces of metal welded together by the hammer. To the examples of this metaphorical use of the verbs quoted by Arnold may be added Demosth. 23. 3, (Reiske,) θαυμαστοὶ καὶ συγκεκροημένοι τὰ τοῦ πολέμου; 520. 12, συγκροτεῖν καὶ διδάσκειν τὸν χορόν. untrained crews, inasmuch as the city was in a state of sedition, and they were anxious with all speed to go to the rescue of what was their most important possession; (for since Attica had been closed against them, Euboea was every thing to them;) and accordingly they sent Thymochares in command of some ships to Eretria.
When they arrived there, they amounted, with those that were in Euboea before, to six and thirty; and they were immediately forced to an engagement. For Agesandridas, after his men had dined, put out from Oropus, which is distant from Eretria about sixty stades by sea.
When, then, he was advancing against them, the Athenians straightway prepared to man their ships, supposing that their men were near their vessels. They, however, were purchasing provisions for their dinner, not from the market-place, (for by an arrangement of the Eretrians there was nothing on sale there,) but from the houses in the outskirts of the town, in order that the enemy, while the Athenians were long in manning their ships, might attack them by surprise, and compel them to put out just as they might happen. Moreover, a signal had been raised at Eretria to give them notice at Oropus of the time when they should put to sea.
The Athenians then, having put out with such scanty preparations, and fought a battle off the harbour of Eretria, held out against them, notwithstanding, for some little time, and were then put to flight and pursued to the shore.
And now such of them as took refuge in the city of the Eretrians, as being friendly to them, fared worst of all, for they were butchered by them; but those who fled to the fort in the Eretrian territory, which the Athenians themselves occupied, were saved;
as also were all the ships that reached Chalcis. The Peloponnesians, having taken two and twenty of the Athenian vessels, and either killed or made prisoners of the men, erected a trophy. And not long after they effected the revolt of the whole of Euboea, excepting Oreus, (which was held by the Athenians themselves,) and arranged all other matters thereabout.
When the news of what had happened at Euboea reached the Athenians, a greater consternation was felt by them than had ever been before. For neither had the disaster in Sicily, though it appeared a great one at the time, nor any other event, ever yet alarmed them so much.
For when, after their army at Samos had revolted from them, and they had no more ships nor men to go on board them, while they were in a state of sedition, and did not know when they might break out into conflict with one another; [when, I say, under such circumstances] so great a calamity had befallen them—one in which they had lost their fleet, and, what was most of all, Euboea, from which they derived more advantages than from Attica—how could their dejection be unnatural?
But what especially and most immediately alarmed them, was the thought that the enemy would venture, on the strength of their victory, to sail straightway to the attack of their port Piraeus, while it had no ships for its protection;
and they supposed that they were already all but there. And indeed, if they had been more bold, they might easily have done that, and so have either divided the city still more than ever, by lying near it, or if they had remained and blockaded it, have compelled the fleet in Ionia, though opposed to the oligarchy, to come to the rescue of their own relatives and the whole city; and in the mean time the Hellespont would have been theirs, with Ionia, the islands, every thing as far as Euboea, in a word, the whole empire of Athens.
But it was not on this occasion, but on many others also, that the Lacedaemonians proved themselves most convenient people for the Athenians to be at war with. For by being very widely different in character—the one people being quick, and the other slow; the one enterprising, and the other unadventurous—they presented very many advantages, especially in the case of a naval empire. A proof of this was given by the Syracusans; for they, through being of a congenial disposition, were also most successful in carrying on war with them.
On receiving therefore this news, the Athenians, notwithstanding, manned twenty ships, and called an assembly; one immediately, which was summoned to meet on that occasion for the first time in what was called the Pnyx, (where they had been accustomed to meet in other days,) and in which they deposed the Four Hundred, and resolved that the government should be put into the hands of the Five Thousand; that εἶναι δὲ αὐτῶν, κ. τ. λ.] We must suppose that all who could furnish heavy arms were eligible into the number of the Five Thousand; whether the members were fixed on by lot, by election, or by rotation; as it had been proposed to appoint the Four Hundred by rotation out of the whole number of the Five Thousand. See ch. 93. 2. —Arnold. in that body should be included all who furnished themselves with heavy armour, and that no one should receive pay for the discharge of any office;
or if any one did, they declared him to be accursed. Many other assemblies were also held subsequently, in which they appointed persons to frame a code of laws, and every thing else requisite for the government. And during the first period of this constitution the Athenians appear to have enjoyed the best polity they ever did, at least my time; for the blend into together of the few and the many was effected with moderation; and this was what raised the state up again after the disastrous occurrences which had taken place.
They also passed a decree for the recall of Alcibiades, and some brothers with him; and sending to him and to the army at Samos, they urged them to attend diligently to their interests.
On this change being made, the party of Pisander and Alexicles, and all who were most devoted to the oligarchy, withdrew privily to Decelea; while Aristarchus alone of them, happening to be in office as general, took with all haste some of the most barbarous amongst the archers, and proceeded to Oenoe.
This was a fortress belonging to the Athenians on the borders of Boeotia, and in consequence of a blow that had been inflicted on them by the garrison, by cutting off a party of men on their return from Decelea, it was being besieged by the Corinthians, who had volunteered for the service, and had called the Boeotians also to their aid.
After communicating therefore with these, Aristarchus deceived those in Oenoe, by telling them that their countrymen in the city had made a general surrender to the Lacedmaeonians, and they must give up the place to the Boeotians; for that such were the terms of the capitulation. They therefore, believing him, inasmuch as he was one of the generals, and knowing nothing that had happened, in consequence of their being blockaded, evacuated the fort under truce.