Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/395

 THE ATHENIANS MARCH TO THE GATES OF MEGAEA. 373 interior space between the Long Walls. They immediately mounted the walls on each side, every man as he came in, with little thought of order, to drive off or destroy the Peloponnesian guards ; who, taken by surprise, and fancying that the Megari- ans generally were in concert with the enemy against them, confirmed, too, in such belief by hearing the Athenian herald proclaim aloud that every Megarian who chose might take his post in the line of Athenian hoplites, 1 made at first some re- sistance, but were soon discouraged, and fled into Nisaea. By a little after daybreak, the Athenians found themselves masters of all the line of the Long Walls, and under the very gates of Megara, reinforced by the larger force which, having marched by land through Eleusis, arrived at the concerted moment. Meanwhile, the Megarians within the city were in the greatest tumult and consternation. But the conspirators, prepared with their plan, had resolved to propose that the gates should be thrown open, and that the whole force of the city should be marched out to fight the Athenians : when once the gates should be open, they themselves intended to take part with the Athe- nians, and facilitate their entrance, and they had rubbed their bodies over with oil in order to be visibly distinguished in the eyes of the latter. Their plan was only frustrated the moment before it was about to be put in execution, by the divulgation of one of their own comrades. Their opponents in the city, apprized of what was in contemplation, hastened to the gate, and inter- cepted the men rubbed with oil as they were about to open it. Without betraying any knowledge of the momentous secret which they had just learned, these opponents loudly protested against opening the gate and going out to fight an enemy for whom they had never conceived themselves, even in moments of greater strength, to be a match in the open field. While insisting only 1 Thucyd. iv, 68. Evvsneae yap nal TOV TUV 'A$T]vaiav Ki/pVKa u<ff yju^tiq Kijpv^ai, rbv (JovAofievov iivai Meyapsuv fieru 'A.$ijvaiuv i?^<r r.1 b-rha. Here we have the phrase rldea-dai ru STT/IC employed in a case where Dr. Arnold's explanation of it would be eminently unsuitable. There could be no thought of piling arms at a critical moment of actual fight'ng, with result as yet doubtful.