Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/236

 120 command of Carcinus the son of Xenotimus, Proteas the son of Epicles, and Socrates the son of Antigenes. After the departure of the fleet the Peloponnesians remained in Attica as long as their provisions lasted, and then, taking a new route, retired through Boeotia. In passing by Oropus they wasted the country called Peiraikè inhabited by the Oropians, who are subjects of the Athenians. On their return to Peloponnesus the troops dispersed to their several cities.

When they had retreated, the Athenians posted guards

to keep watch both by land and sea. precaution which they maintamed and a hundred triremes throughout the War. They then passed a decree reserving of the treasure in the Acropolis a thousand talents : this sum was set apart and was not to be expended unless the enemy attacked the city with a fleet and they had to defend it. In any other case, he who brought forward or put to the vote a proposal to touch the money was to be punished with death. They also resolved to set apart yearly a hundred triremes, the finest of the year, and to appoint trierarchs for them ; these they were only to use at the same time with the money, and in the same emergency,

The Athenian forces, which had lately been dispatched

to Peloponnesus in the hundred vessels, and Were assisted by the Corcyraeans with fifty ships and by some of the allies from the same region, did considerable damage on the Peloponnesian coast. They also disembarked and attacked Methone, a fortress in Laconia, which was weak and had no regular garrison. Now Brasid as the son of Tellis, a Spartan, happened to be in those parts in command of a force, and, seeing the danger, he came to the aid of the inhabitants