Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/367

CAPTURE OF PEIR^EUM. 345 night, Agesilaus forthwith again turned his course and matched back to Peiraeum, which he himself approached by the ordinary road, coasting round along the bay of Lechaeum, near the Therma, or warm springs, which are still discernible : J while he sent a mora or division of troops to get round the place by a mountain- road more in the interior, ascending some woody heights command ing the town, and crowned by a temple of Poseidon. 2 The movement was quite effectual. The garrison and inhabitants of Peiraeum, seeing that the place had become indefensible, aban doned it the next day with all their cattle and property, to take refuge in the Heraeum, or sacred ground of Here Akraea near the western cape of the peninsula. While Agesilaus marched thithey towards the coast in pursuit of them, the troops descending from the heights attacked and captured CEnoe, 3 the Corinthian town of that name situated near the Alkyonian bay over against Kreu- sis in Bceotia. A large booty here fell into their hands, which was still farther augmented by the speedy surrender of all in the Heraeum to Agesilaus, without conditions. Called upon to de- termine the fate of the prisoners, among whom were included men, 1 See Ulrichs, Reisen und Forschungen in Griechenland, chap, i, p. 3. The modern village and port of Lutraki derives its name from these warm springs, which are quite close to it and close to the sea, at the foot of the mountain of Perachora or Peirseum ; on the side of the bay opposite to Lechaeum, but near the point where the level ground constituting the Isth- mus (properly so-called), ends, and where the rocky or mountainous region, forming the westernmost portion of Gerancia (or the peninsula of Peirseum), begins. The language of Xenophon, therefore, when he comes to describe the back-march of Agesilaus is perfectly accurate, r]dr) 6' tx irsirepaKOTOt; avroii TU, deppa ef rb n^ari) TOV Ae^awv, etc. (iv, 5. 8). 2 Xen. Hellen. iv, 5, 4. Xenophon here recounts how Agesilaus sent up ten men with fire in pans, to enable those on the heights to make fires and warm themselves ; the night being very cold and rainy, the situation very high, and the troops not having come out with blankets or warm covering to protect them. They kindled large fires, and the neighboring temple of Poseidon was accident- ally burnt. 3 Xen. Hellen. iv, 5, 5. This CEnoe must not be confounded with the Athenian town of that name, which lay on the frontiers of Attica towards Breotia. So also the town of Peiraeum here noticed must not be confounded with another Peirreum, which was also in the Corinthian territory, but on th Saronic Gulf, and OP the frontiers of Epidaurus (Thucyd. viii, 10). 15*