Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/249

 SIEGE OF ATHENS. 227 custody, and a general vote was passed, 1 on the proposition of Kleophon, forbidding any such motion in future. Such a vote demonstrates the courageous patience both of tht senate and the people ; but unhappily it supplied no improved prospects, while the suffering within the walls continued to become more and more aggravated. Under these circumstances, Theramenes offered himself to the people to go as envoy to Ly- sander and Sparta, affirming that he should be able to detect what the real intention of the ephors was in regard to Athens, whether they really intended to root out the population and sell them as slaves. He pretended, farther, to possess personal influence, founded on circumstances which he could not divulge, such as would very probably insure a mitigation of the doom. He was accordingly sent, in spite of strong protest from the senate of Areopagus and others, but with no express powers to conclude, simply to inquire and report. We hear with astonishment that he remained more than three months as companion of Lysander, who, he alleged, had detained him thus long, and had only acquainted him, after the fourth month had begun, that no one but the ephors had any power to grant peace. It seems to have been the object of Theramenes, by this long delay, to wear out the patience of the Athenians, and to bring them into such a state of intolerable suffering, that they would submit to any terms of peace which would only bring provisions into the town. In this scheme" he completely succeeded ; and considering how great were the privations of the people even at the moment of his departure, it is not easy to understand how they could have been able to sustain protracted and increasing famine for three months longer. 2 We make out little that is distinct respecting these last moments of imperial Athens. We find only an heroic endurance displayed, to such a point that numbers actually died of starvation, without 1 Xcnoph. Ilellcn. ii, 2, 12-15 ; Lysias cont. Agorat. sects. 10-12. Lysias, Orat. tf i, cont. Eratosthen. sects. 65-71. See an illustration of the great suffering during the siege, in Xenophon A.polog. Socrat. s. 18.
 * Xcnoph. IJ'ilcn. ii, 2,16; Lysias, Oral, xiii, cont. Agorat. sect. 12;