Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/382

364 3G4 HISTORY OF GREECE. that the coming spring would see her captured. Earlier than the ensuing spring, the Lacedaemonians did not feel disposed to act ; but they sent round their instructions to the allies for opera- tions both by land and sea to be then commenced ; all these allies being prepared to do their best, in hopes that this effort would bo the last required from them, and the most richly rewarded. A fleet of one hundred triremes was directed to be prepared against (he spring ; fifty of these being imposed in equal proportion on the Lacedaemonians themselves and the Boeotians ; fifteen on Corinth ; fifteen on the Phocians and Lokrians ; ten on the Arcadians, with Pellene and Sikyon ; ten on Megara, Troezen, Epidaurus, and Hermione. It seems to have been considered that these ships might be built and launched during the interval between September and March. 1 The same large hopes, which had worked upon men's minds at the beginning of the war, were now again rife in the bosoms of the Peloponnesians ; 2 the rather as that powerful force from Sicily, which they had then been disappointed in obtaining, might now be anticipated with tolerable assurance as really forthcoming. 3 From the smaller allies, contributions in money were exacted for the intended fleet by Agis, who moved about during this autumn with a portion of the garrison of Dekeleia. In the course of his circuit, he visited the town of Herakleia, near the Maliac gulf, and levied large contributions on the neighboring CEtaeans, in reprisal for the plunder which they had taken from that town, as well as from the Phthiot Achaeans and other sub- jects of the Thessalians, though the latter vainly entered their protest against his proceedings. 4 It was during the march of Agis through Boeotia that the inhabitants of Euboea probably of Chalkis and Eretria ap- plied to him, entreating his aid to enable them to revolt from Athens ; which he readily promised, sending for Alkamenes at the head of three hundred Neodamode hoplites from Sparta, to 1 Thucyd. viii, 2, 3. Aaufdatfiovioi Se TTJV TrpoaraSiv raif Tro'^eciv IKCLTOV veCiv ri?c vavirqyiar eiroiovvro, etc. ; compare also c. 4 napsaKeva^ovTs fj/v v a vxT)-yia v, etc. iroAeuov : compare ii, 7. 3 Thucyd. viii, 2 : compare ii, 7 ; iii, 86. 4 Thucyd. viii, 3
 * Thncyd. viii, 5. OVTUV ovtiev uX7.o TI uaircp ap^o[tEvuv ti> /earaevcrj,? res