Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/396

 374 HISTORY OF GREECE. on the public mischiefs of the measure, they at the stane tin. planted themselves in arms against the gate, and declared that they would perish before they would allow it to be opened. For this obstinate resistance the conspirators were not prepared, so that they were forced to abandon their design and leave the gate closed. The Athenian generals, who were waiting in expectation that it would be opened, soon perceived by the delay that their friends within had been baffled, and immediately resolved to make sure of Nisaea, which lay behind them ; an acquisition important not less in itself, than as a probable means for the mastery of Me- gara. They set about the work with the characteristic rapidity of Athenians. Masons and tools in abundance were forthwith sent for from Athens, and the army distributed among themselves the wall of circumvallation round Nisaea in distinct parts. First, the interior space between the Long Walls themselves was built across, so as to cut off the communication with Megara ; next, walls were carried out from the outside of both the Long "Walla down to the sea, so as completely to inclose Nisaea, with its forti- fications and ditch. The scattered houses which formed a sort of ornamented suburb to Nisaea, furnished bricks for this inclos- ing circle, or were sometimes even made to form a part of it as they stood, with the parapets on their roofs ; while the trees were cut down to supply material wherever palisades were suitable. In a day and a half the work of circumvallation was almost completed, so that the Pelopounesians in Nisaea saw before them nothing but a hopeless state of blockade. Deprived of all com- munication, they not only fancied that the whole city of Megara had joined the Athenians, but they were moreover without any supply of provisions, which had been always furnished to them in daily rations from the city. Despairing of any speedy relief from Peloponnesus, they accepted easy terms of capitulation offered to them by the Athenian generals. 1 After delivering up their arms, each man among them was to be ransomed for & stipulated price ; we are not told how much, but doubtless a moderate sum. The Lacedaemonian commander, and such other Lacedaemonians as might be in Nisaea, were, however, required 1 Thucyd. iv, 69.