Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/388

 36G HISTORY OF GREECE. which remained each for the defence of its own separate post, without uniting to repel the Athenians, so that there was only one action, and that of little importance, which the Athenians deemed worthy of a trophy. In returning home from Kythera, Nikias first ravaged the small strip of cultivated land near Epidaurus Limera, on the rocky eastern coast of Laconia, and then attacked the JEginetan settlement at Thyrea, the frontier strip between Laconia and Argolis. This town and district had been made over by Sparta to the JEginetans, at the time when they were expelled from their own island by Athens, in the first year of the war. The new inhabitants, finding the town too distant from the sea l for their maritime habits, were now employed in constructing a forti- fication close on the shore ; in which work a Lacedaemonian detachment under Tantalus, on guard in that neighborhood, was assisting them. When the Athenians landed, both JEginetana and Lacedaemonians at once abandoned the new fortification. The former, with the commanding officer, Tantalus, occupied the upper town of Thyrea ; but the Lacedaemonian troops, not thinking it tenable, refused to take part in the defence, and retired to the neighboring mountains, in spite of urgent entreaty from the ^Eginetans. The Athenians, immediately after landing, marched up to the town of Thyrea, and carried it by storm, burning or destroying everything within it : all the ^Eginetans were either killed or made prisoners, and even Tantalus, disabled by his wounds, became prisoner also. From hence the arma- toent returned to Athens, where a vote was taken as to the disposal of the prisoners. The Kytherians brought home were distributed for safe custody among the dependent islands : Tan- talus was retained along with the prisoners from Sphakteria ; but a harder fate was reserved for the -ZEginetans ; they were 1 Thucyd. iv, 56. He states that Thyrea was ten stadia, or about a mile and one-fifth, distant from the sea. But Colonel Leake (Travels in the Morea, vol. ii, ch. xxii, p. 492), who has discovered quite sufficient ruins to identify the spot, affirms " that it is at least three times that distance from the sea." This explains to us the more clearly why the ^Eginetans thought it neces?arv to build their new fort.