Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/365

 ATTACK UPON PEIR^UM. 343 Rnllias, and peltasts under Iphikrates, became much pressed by the hostile posts at Lechaeum as well as at Krommyon and Sidus, and by its own exiles as the most active of all enemies. Still, however, there remained the peninsula and the fortification of Peiraeum as an undisturbed shelter for the Corinthian servants and cattle, and a source of subsistence for the city. Peiraeum was an inland post north-east of Corinth, in the centre of that penin- sula which separates the two innermost recesses of the Krissaean Gulf, the bay of Lechaeum on its south-west, the bay called Al- kyonis, between Kreusis and Olmiae (now Psatho Bay), on its north-east. Across this latter bay Corinth communicated easily, through Peiraeum and the fortified port of CEnoe, with Kreusis the port of Thespias in Bceotia. 1 The Corinthian exiles now prevailed upon Agesilaus to repeat his invasion of the territory, partly in order that they might deprive the city of the benefits which it de- rived from Peiroeum, partly in order that they might also appropriate to themselves the honor of celebrating the Isthmian games, which were just approaching. The Spartan king accord- ingly marched forth, at the head of a force composed of Lacedae- monians and of the Peloponnesian allies, first to Lechaeum, and thence to the Isthmus, specially so called ; that is, the sacred pre- cinct of Poseidon near Schoenus on the Saronic Gulf, at the nar- rowest breadth of the Isthmus, where the biennial Isthmian festival was celebrated. It was the month of April, or beginning of May, and the festi- val had actually begun, under the presidency of the Corinthians from the city who were in alliance with Argos ; a body of Ar- geians being present as guards. 2 But on the approach of Agesi- the Andokidean oration. I have placed (though upon other grounds) the destruction of the mora in the spring of 390 B. c., which receives additional confirmation from this passage of Andokides. Both Valckenaer and Sluiter (Lect. Andocid. c. x,) consider the oration of Andokides de Pace as genuine ; Taylor and other critics hold the con trary opinion. 1 Xen. Agesil. ii, 18. a Xen. Hellen. iv, 5, 1 ; Plutarch, Agesil. c. 21. Xenophon, who writes his history in the style and language of a partisan, gays that " the Argeians celebrated the festival, Corinth having now become Argos. 1 ' But it seems plain that the truth was as I have stated in the text, and that the Argeians stood by (with others of the confederates probably