Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/312

196 SIEGE OF PLATAEA [m tribute ; but as he was going up from Myus in Caria, through the plain of the Maeander, he was attacked at the hill of Sandius by the Carians and the Samians of Anaea% and, with a great part of his army, perished. During the same winter the Plataeans, who were still ^° ThePlataeans resolve besieged by the Peloponnesians and to break out of Piataca, Boeotians, began to suffer from the but only tivo hundred f^jj^^g ^f provisions. They had no and twenty persevere. , /. . They estimate the height hope of assistance from Athens and no of the enemy's wall by other chance of deliverance. So they the layers of bricks. ^^^ ^y^^ Athenians who Were shut up with them contrived a plan of forcing their way over the enemy's walls. The idea was suggested by Theaenetus the son of Tolmides, a diviner, and Eupompidas, the son of Daimachus, one of their generals. At first they were all desirous of joining, but afterwards half of them somehow lost heart, thinking the danger too great, and only two hundred and twenty agreed to persevere. They first made ladders equal in length to the height of the enemy's wall, which they calculated by the help of the layers of bricks on the side facing the town, at a place where the wall had accidentally not been plastered. A great many counted at once, and, although some might make mistakes, the calculation would be oftener right than wrong ; for they repeated the process again and again, and, the distance not being great, they could see the wall distinctly enough for their purpose. In this manner they ascertained the proper length of the ladders, taking as a measure the thickness of the bricks. 21 The Peloponnesian wall was double, and consisted of Plan of the Pelopon- an inner circle looking towards Plataea, nestan wall. ^^id an outer intended to guard against an attack from Athens ; they were at a distance of about six- teen feet from one another. This interval of sixteen feet was partitioned off into lodgings for the soldiers, by which the two walls were joined together, so that they appeared " Cp. iii. 32 init. ; iv. 75 med.