Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/85

 AXTIPHON AND PIIRYNICIIUS. 63 exerted themselves, ith demagogic assiduity, to caress and keep together the majority of the Four Hundred, as well as to uphold their power without abridgment. They were noway disposed to comply with this requisition that the fiction of the Five Thousand should be converted into a reality. They knew well that the enroll- ment of so many partners 1 would be tantamount to a democracy, and would be, in substance at least, if not in form, an annihilation of their own power. They had now gone too far to recede with safety ; while the menacing attitude of Samos, as well as the opposition growing up against them at home, both within arul without their own body, served only as instigation to them to accelerate their measures for peace with Sparta, and to secure the introduction of a Spartan garrison. With this view, immediately after the return of their envoys from Samos, the two most eminent leaders, Antiphon and Phry- nichus, went themselves with ten other colleagues in all haste to Sparta, prepared to purchase peace and the promise of Spartan aid almost at any price. At the same time, the construction of the fortress at Ectioneia was prosecuted with redoubled zeal ; under pretence of defending the entrance of Peiraus against the arma- ment from Saraos, if the threat of their coming should be execut- ed, but with the real purpose of bringing into it a Lacedaemonian fleet and army. For this latter object every facility was provid- ed. The northwestern corner of the fortification of Peiranis, to the north of the harbor and its mouth, was cut off by a cross wall reaching southward so as to join the harbor : from the southern end of this cross wall, and forming an angle with it, a new wall wa< built, fronting the harbor and running to the ex- tremity of the mole which narrowed the mouth of the harbor on the northern side, at which mole it met the termination of the northern wall of Peirajus. A separate citadel was thus inclosed, defensible against any attack either from Peiracus or from the harbor ; furnished, besides, with distinct broad gates and posterns of its own, as well as with facilities for admitting an enemy with- 1 Thucyd. viii, 92. rd fttv KaraiT'iaat. fisro^ovf roaovrovf, uvTiKpvf uv d'q uov 1Jryb6[uvoi, etc. Aristotle (1'olit. v, 5. 4) calls Plirvnichus the diHUgtytt of the Four Hun- dred ; that is, the person who most' strenuously served their interests anJ
 * t niggled for tlmr favor.