Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/411

 89,90] THE LACEDAEMONIAN PARTY AT ATHENS 403 democrac}' ", sent envoys of their own number to Lacedae- mon, and were always anxious to make peace ; meanwhile they continued the fortification which p(,ry„ic,,us,Ansiar. they had begun to build at Eetionea. elms, Pdsandcr, ami They were confirmed in their purposes Aniiphon,thcthoroush- after the return of their own ambassa- ^o'^'^^ ^/Jf^^^^'';^ J,^ dors from Samos ; for they saw that not /o f},e enemy if they can only the people, but even those who had save their oivn power. appeared steadfast adherents of their They send, for the third » 1^, . time, an embassy to own party, were now changing their sparta, and cany on minds. So, fearing what might hap- i^'M increased vigour pen both at Athens and Samos, they '"^ Jmijicaton oj sent Antiphon, Phrynichus, and ten others, in great haste, authorising them to make peace with Lacedaemon upon anything like tolerable terms ; at the same time they proceeded more diligently than ever with the fortification of Eetionea. The design was (so Thera- menes and his party averred) not to bar the Piraeus against the fleet at Samos should they sail thither with hostile intentions, but rather to admit the enemy with his sea and land forces whenever they pleased. This Eetionea is the mole of the Piraeus and forms one side of the entrance ; the new fortification was to be so connected with the pre- viously existing wall, which looked towards the land, that a handful of men stationed between the two walls might command the approach from the sea. For the old wall looking towards the land, and the new inner wall in pro- cess of construction facing the water, ended at the same point in one of the two forts which protected the narrow mouth of the harbour. A cross-wall was added, taking in the largest storehouse in the Piraeus and the nearest to the new fortification, which it joined ; this the authorities held themselves, and commanded every one to deposit their corn there, not only what came in by sea but what they had on the spot, and to take from thence all that they wanted to sell.
 * Cp. viii. 86 fill.