Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/255

 FOURTH YEAR OF THE WAR -REVOLT OF MITYLENE. 235 at Myus, near the mouth of the Mseander, and marched up the country to levy contributions on the Karian villages in the plain of that river : but he was surprised by the Karians, perhaps aided by the active Samian exiles at Anoea in the neighborhood, and elain, with a considerable number of his men. 1 While the Athenians thus held Mitylene under siege, their faithful friends, the Plataeans, had remained closely blockaded by the Peloponnesians and Boeotians for more than a year, with- out any possibility of relief. At length, provisions began to fail, and the general, Eupompides, backed by the prophet Theaenetus, these prophets 2 were often among the bravest soldiers in the army, persuaded the garrison to adopt the daring but seemingly desperate resolution of breaking out over the blockading wall, and in spite of its guards. So desperate, indeed, did the project seem, that at the moment of execution, one half of the garrison shrank from it as equivalent to certain death : the other half, about two hundred and twelve in number, persisted and escaped. Happy would it have been for the remainder had they even per- ished in the attempt, and thus forestalled the more melancholy fate in store for them ! It has been already stated, that the circumvallation of Platsea was accomplished by a double wall and a double ditch, one ditch without the encircling walls, another between them and the town ; the two walls being sixteen feet apart, joined together, and roofsd all round, so as to look like one thick wall, and to afford covered quarters for the besiegers. Both the outer and inner circumference were furnished with battlements, and after every ten battlements came a roofed tower, covering the whole breadth of the double wall, allowing a free passage inside, but none outside. In general, the entire circuit of the roofed wall was kept under watch night and day : but on wet nights the besiegers had so far relaxed their vigilance as to retire under cover of the toners, and leave the intermediate spaces unguarded : and it waa Dpon this omission that the plan of escape was founded. The Plattxans prepared ladders of a proper height to scale the block- 1 Thucyd. iii, 19. 37 ; Plutarch, Aratus, o. 25.
 * Thucyd. iii, 20. Compare Xcnophon, Hellen. ii 4, 19; Herodot. ii