Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/174

1 66 PER Dice AS AGAIN [v defeated. They would proceed no further, but in spite of the entreaties of the fugitives returned home and resumed the celebration of the festival. Not long afterwards envoys came to them both from the party now established in Argos and from those who had been driven out, and in the presence of their allies, after hearing many pleas from both sides, they passed a vote condemning the victorious faction ; they then resolved to send an expedition to Argos, but delays occurred and time was lost. Mean- while the democracy at Argos, fearing the Lacedaemonians, and again courting the Athenian alliance in which their hopes were centred, began building Long Walls to the sea, in order that if they were blockaded by land they might have the advantage, with Athenian help, of intro- ducing provisions by water. Certain other states in Peloponnesus were privy to this project. The whole Argive people, the citizens themselves, their wives, and their slaves, set to work upon the wall, and the Athenians sent them carpenters and masons from Athens. So the summer ended. 83 In the ensuing winter the Lacedaemonians, hearing of The unfinished walls ^^^ Progress of the work, made an are captured and de- expedition to Argos with their allies, strayed by the Lace- ^ y^^t ^he Corinthians ; there was dacmonians. , . ..... also a party at Argos itseli acting in their interest. Agis the son of Archidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians, led the army. The support which they expected to find at Argos was not forthcoming ; the walls however, which were not yet finished, were captured by them and razed to the ground ; they also seized Hysiae, a place in the Argive territory, and put to death all the free men whom they caught ; they then withdrew, and returned to their several cities. Next the Argives in their turn made an expedition into the territory of Phlius, which they ravaged because the Phliasians had received the Argive refugees, most of whom had settled there ; they then returned home.