Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/149

 BEGINNING OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 12? with a solemnity but too accurately justified by the event: " This day will be the beginning of many calamities to the Greeks." Archidamus, as soon as the reception of his last envoy was made known to him, continued his march from the isthmus into Attica, which territory he entered by the road of CEnoe, the frontier Athenian fortress of Attica towards Bocotia. His march was slow, and he thought it necessary to make a regular attack on the fort of CEnoe, which had been put into so good a state of defence, that after all the various modes of assault, in which the Lacedaemonians were not skilful, had been tried in vain, 1 and after a delay of several days before the place, he was com- pelled to renounce the attempt. The want of enthusiasm on the part of the Spartan king, his multiplied delays, first at the isthmus, next in the march, and lastly before CEnoe, were all offensive to the fiery impatience of the army, who were loud in their murmurs against him. He acted upon the calculation already laid down in his discourse at Sparta, 2 that the highly cultivated soil of Attica was to be looked upon as a hostage for the pacific dispositions of the Athe- nians, who would be more likely to yield when devastation, though not yet inflicted, was nevertheless impending, and at their doors. In this point of view, a little delay at the border was no disadvantage ; and perhaps the partisans of peace at Athens may have encouraged him to hope that it would enable them to prevail. Nor can we doubt that it was a moment full of difficulty to Perikles at Athens. He had to proclaim to all the proprietors in Attica the painful truth, that they must pre- pare to see their lands and houses overrun and ruined ; and that their persons, families, and movable property, must be brought in for safety either to Athens, or to one of the forts in the terri- tory, or carried across to one of the neighboring islands. It 1 Thucyd. ii. 18. naaav itieav irsipuoavref ot'/c tdvvavro iTieiv. The sit' nation of CEnoe is not exactly agreed upon by topographical inquirers : it was near Eleutherae, and on one of the roads from Attica into Bceotia (ITaipokration, v, Olvor) ; Herodot. v, 74). Archidamus marched, proba- bly, from the isthmus over Geraneia, and fell into this road in order to receive the junction of the Boeotian contingent after it had crossed Kithajron. 8 Thucyd. i, 82 ; ii, 18.