62 THEMIS TOCLES AT SPARTA [l excuses; and when any of them asked him 'why he did not appear before the assembly,' he said 'that he was waiting for his colleagues, who had been detained by some engagement ; he was daily expecting them, and wondered that they had not appeared.' 9j The friendship of the Lacedaemonian magistrates for ThcLacedaemomam Themistocles induced them to believe are outwitted by Themis- him ; but when everybody who came
- °'^^^^- from Athens declared positively that
the wall was building and had already reached a consider- able height, they knew not what to think. He, aware of their suspicions, desired them not to be misled by reports, but to send to Athens men whom they could trust out of their own number who would see for themselves and bring back word. They agreed ; and he at the same time pri- vately instructed the Athenians to detain the envoys as quietly as they could, and not let them go until he and his colleagues had got safely home. For by this time Habronichus the son of Lysicles, and Aristides the son of Lysimachus, who were joined with him in the embassy, had arrived, bringing the news that the wall was of suf- ficient height ; and he was afraid that the Lacedaemonians, when they heard the truth, might not allow them to return. So the Athenians detained the envoys, and Themistocles, coming before the Lacedaemonians, at length declared in so many words that Athens was now provided with walls and could protect her citizens ; henceforward, if the Lace- daemonians or their allies wished at any time to negotiate, they must deal with the Athenians as with men who knew quite well what was for their own and the common good. When they boldly resolved to leave their city and go on board ship, they did not first ask the advice of the Lacedae- monians, and, when the two states met in council, their own judgment had been as good as that of any one. And now they had arrived at an independent opinion that it was better far, and would be more advantageous both for them- selves and for the whole body of the allies, that their city
