Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/412

 404 THE FORT OF EETIONEIA [vill 91 For sonic time Theramcnes had been circulating whispers The envoys are wi- ^^ their designs, and when the envoys successful : but a Lace- returned from Lacedaenion without daemouian squadron having effected anything in the nature liovenug about the. r 1 a 1 • 11 coast seems to be acting: of a treaty for the Athenian people, he in concert ivith the declared that this fort was likely to ruling party. ^^^^^ ^^^ j.^,;^ ^j- Athens. NoW the Euboeans had requested the Peloponncsians to send them a fleet ', and just at this time two and forty ships, including Italian vessels from Tarentum and Locri and a few from Sicily, were stationed at Las in Laconia, and were making ready to sail to Euboea under the command of Agesandri- das the son of Agcsander, a Spartan. Theramenes insisted that these ships were intended, not for Euboea, but for the party who were fortifying Eetionea, and that, if the people were not on the alert, they would be undone before they knew where they were. The charge was not a mere calumny, but had some foundation in the disposition of the ruling party. For what would have best pleased them would have been, retaining the oligarchy in any case, to have preserved the Athenian empire over the allies ; fail- ing this, to keep merely their ships and walls, and to be independent ; if this too proved impracticable, at any rate they would not see democracy restored, and themselves fall the first victims, but would rather bring in the enemy and come to terms with them, not caring if thereby the city lost walls and ships and everything else, provided that they could save their own lives. 92 So they worked diligently at the fort, which had entrances and postern-gates and every facility for introducing the enemy, and did their best to finish the building in time. As yet the murmurs of discontent had been secret and con- fined to a few ; when suddenl}' Phrynichus, after his return from the embassy to Lacedaemon, in a full market-place, having just quitted the council-chamber, was struck by an assassin, one of the force employed in guarding the frontier, » Cp. viii. 60 mod.