Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/360

 338 HISTORY OF GREECE. already completed the rebuilding of their own Long "VVaUs ; but they were so much alarmed by the new danger, that they marched with their full force, and with masons and carpenters accompany- ing, 1 to Corinth. Here, with that celerity of work for which they were distinguished, 2 they in a few days reestablished completely the western wall ; the more important of the two, since it formed the barrier against the incursions of the Lacedaemonians from Sikyon. They had then a secure position, and could finish the eastern wall at their leisure ; which they accordingly did, and then retired, leaving it to the confederate troops in Corinth to defend. This advantage, however, a very material one, was again overthrown by the expedition of the Lacedaemonian king, Agesi- laus, during the same summer. At the head of a full Lacedaemo- nian and Peloponnesian force, he first marched into the territory of Argos, and there spent some time in ravaging all the cultivated plain. From hence he passed over the mountain-road, by Tenea, 3 which barred ingress to, or egress from, Peloponnesus, Colonel Lcakc re- marks, '' The narrative of Xenophon shows the great importance of the Corinthian Long "Walls in time of war. They completed a line of fortifi- cation from the summit of the Acro-Corinthus to the sea, and thus inter- cepted the most direct and easy communication from the Isthmus into Peloponnesus. For the rugged mountain, which borders the southern side of the Isthmian plain, has only two passes, one, by the opening on the eastern side of Acro-Corinthus, which obliged an enemy to pass under the eastern side of Corinth, and was, moreover, defended by a particular kind of fortification, as some remains of walls still testify, the other, along the shore at Cenchreise, which was also a fortified place in the hands of the Corinthians. Hence the importance of the pass of Cenchreiee, in all ope- rations between the Pcloponnesians, and an enemy without the Isthmus " (Leake, Travels in Morea, vol. iii, ch. xxviii, p. 254). Compare Plutarch, Aratus, c. 1C ; and the operations of Epaminondas as described by Diodorus, xv, 68. 1 Xcn. Hellen. iv, 4, 18. Ai9oirff Ttavfirjfiel /J.ETU fadohoyuv teal Ten- rovuv, etc. The word iravfiTj/iEi shows how much they were alarmed. 1 Thucyd. vi, 98. 3 The words stand in the text of Xenophon, eMt>? tKEidev vireppahuv Kara T sy ea v elf Kopivdor. A straight march from the Argcian territory to Corinth could not possibly carry Agesilaus by Tegea ; Kceppcn proposes T e v e a v, which I accept, as geographically suitable. I am not certain, however, that it is right ; the Agesilaus of Xenophon has the words Kard ru crew. About the probabie situation of Tcnea, see Colonel Leakc, Trare? in Morca, vol. iii, p. 321 ; also his Peloponnesiaca, p. 400.