Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/344

 g-22 HISTORY OF GREECE. inflicted upon Sparta so destructive or so mortifying, as the reno- vation of Athens and Peiraeus with their complete and connected fortifications. Sparta would thus be deprived of the most important harvest which she had reaped from the long struggle of the Pelo- ponnesian war. Indignant as he now was against the Lacedaemo- nians, Pharnabazus sympathized cordially with these plans, and on departing not only left the fleet under the command of Konon, but also furnished him with a considerable sum of money towards the expense of the fortifications. 1 Konon betook himself to the woi s energetically and without delay. He had quitted Athens in 407 B. c., as one of the joint admirals nominated after the disgrace of Alkibiades. He had parted with his countrymen finally at the catastrophe of JEgospo- tami in 405 B. c., preserving the miserable fraction of eight or nine ships out of that noble fleet which otherwise would have passed entire into the hands of Lysander. He now returned, in 393 B. c., as a second Themistokles, the deliverer of his country, and the restorer of her lost strength and independence. All hands were set to work ; carpenters and masons being hired with the funds furnished by Pharnabazus, to complete the fortifications as quickly as possible. The Boeotians and other neighbors lent their aid zealously as volunteers, 2 the same who eleven years before had danced to the sound of joyful music when the former walls were demolished; so completely had the feelings of Greece altered since that period. By such hearty cooperation the work was fin- ished during the course of the present summer and autumn with- out any opposition ; and Athens enjoyed again her fortified Peiraeus und harbor, with a pair of Long Walls, straight and parallel, join- ing it securely to the city. The third, or Phaleric Wall (a single wall stretching from Athens to Phalerum), which had existed down to the capture of the city by Lysander, was not restored ; nor was it indeed by any means necessary to the security either of the city or of the port. Having thus given renewed life and security 1 Xen. Hellen. iv, 8, 9. 10. Cornelius Nepos (Conon, c. 4) mentions fifty talents as a sum received by Konon from Pharnabazus as a present, and devoted by him to this pub- lic work. This is not improbable ; but the total sum contributed by the sa trap towards Ihe fortifications mast, probably, have been much greater.
 * Xen. Hellen. iv, 8, 10 ; Diodor. xiv, 85.