Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/348

 ;J24 fflSTOEY OF GREECE. SO much reproached by their own old citizens, for not having van- quished the refuse of the Athenian military force,i that they returned back at the end of twelve days and erected a trophy on their side, laying claim to a victory in the past battle. The Athenians, marching out of Megara, attacked them a second time, and gained on this occasion a decisive victory. The de- feated Corinthians were still more unfortunate in their retreat ; for a body of them, missing their road, became entangled in a space of private ground, inclosed on every side by a deep ditch, and having only one narrow entrance. Myronides, detecting this fatal mistake, planted his hoplites at tlie entrance to prevent their escape, and then surrounded the enclosure with his light- armed troops, who, with their missile weapons, slew aU the Cor- inthian hoplites, without possibility either of flight or resistance. The bulk of the Corinthian army effected their retreat, but the destruction of this detachment was a sad blow to the city.2 Splendid as the success of the Athenians had been during this year, both on land and at sea, it was easy for them to foresee that the power of their enemies would presently be augmented by the Lacedaemonians taking the field. Partly on this account, — partly also from the more energetic phase of democracy, and the long-sighted views of Perikles, which were now becoming ascendent in the city, — the Athenians began the stupendous undertaking of connecting Athens with the sea by means of long walls. The idea of this measure had doubtless been first sug- gested by the recent erection of long walls, though for so much smaller a distance, between Megara and Nisaea : for without such an intermediate stepping-stone, the idea of a wall forty stadia long (equal to four and a half miles) to join Athens with Peiraeus, and another wall of thirty-five stadia (equal to about four miles) to join it with Phalerum, would have appeared extravagant even EKELVUV TOlC 1/6?} UTVElpTjKoaC KOl TOIq OVTTO) dwUflEVOlC, CtC. The incident mentioned by Thucydides about the Corinthians, that the old men of their own city were so indignant against them on their return, is highly characteristic of Grecian manners, — Kam^u/nEvoi vnb tuv Iv r^ ■Kokzi TrpEaf^vripuv, etc. ^ Thucyd. i, 106. ■jtu^oc fisya tovto Kopiv&loic kyEVETo. Compare Diodor. xi, 78, 79, — whose chronology, however, is very misleading.
 * Lysias, Orat. Funebr. c. 10. evIkuv fiaxo/iEVOi unaaav rr/v diva/iLv rr/v