Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/96

 74 HISTORY OF GREECE. into the city. 1 And though the arrival of the Athenian fleet from Samos would have prevented this extremity, yet it could not have arrived in time, except on the supposition of a pro- longed blockade : moreover, its mere transfer from Samos to Athens would have left Ionia and the Hellespont defenceless against the Lacedaemonians and Persians, and would have caused the loss of all the Athenian empire. Nothing could have saved Athens, if the Lacedaemonians at this juncture had acted with reasonable vigor, instead of confining their efforts to Eubcea, now an easy and certain conquest. As on the former occasion, when Antiphon and Phrynichus went to Sparta prepared to make any sacrifice for the purpose of obtaining Lacedaemonian aid and accommodation, so now, in a still greater degree, Athens owed her salvation only to the fact that the enemies actually before her were indolent and dull Spartans, not enterprising Syracusans under the conduct of Gylippus. 2 And this is the second occasion, we may add, on which Athens was on the brink of ruin in con- sequence of the policy of Alkibiades in retaining tl*e armament at Samos. Fortunately for the Athenians, no Agesaudridas appeared off Peiraeus ; so that the twenty triremes, which they contrived to man as a remnant for defence, had no enemy to repel. 3 Accord- ingly, the Athenians were allowed to enjoy an interval of repose which enabled them to recover partially both from consternation and from intestine discord. It was their first proceeding, v/hen the hostile fleet did not appear, to convene a public assembly > and that too in the Pnyx itself, the habitual scene of the demo- cratical assemblies, well calculated to reinspire that patriotism which had now been dumb and smouldering for the four las! months. In this assembly, the tide of opinion ran vehemently against the Four Hundred : 4 even those, who, like the Board of 1 Thucyd. viii, 96. Ma/liara 6' avrovf Kai di y iyyv-arov. i$opv(3ei, d oi irote/itoi TokfjiTjaovoi vevmriKOTEf ev&iif afyuv ITTI rov Heipaia tpijfiov 6vra veuv irfalv not. oaov oi'K i]firi kvofii^ov aiirodf irapelvai. 'Oir ep a v, t i Tohfiripo repot rjaav, p$6iu{ av kiroiriaav nal 17 diiarrjoav a* tn finiKkav TTJV ir61.iv tyopftovvres, 17 el iirofaopKovv /ifvovrec, nal ruf drf uviaf vai'c ijvdynaaav av fiorrdriaai, etc. 4 It is 1 3 this assembly that I refer, with confidence, the remarkable dia-
 * Thucyd. viii. 96 ; vii, 21-55. 3 Thucyd. viii, 97.