Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/191

6, 7] SMALL IVARS IN ARGOLIS AND MACEDONIA 183 and begged them to send ships to their relief. Their chief argument was that, if the Syracusans were not punished for the expulsion of the Leontines, but were allowed to destroy the remaining allies of the Athenians, and to get the whole of Sicily into their own hands, they would one day come with a great army, Dorians assisting Dorians, who were their kinsmen, and colonists assisting their Peloponnesian founders, and would unite in over- throwing Athens herself. Such being the danger, the Athenians would be wise in combining with the allies who were still left to them in Sicily against the Syracusans, especially since the Egestaeans would themselves provide money sufficient for the war. These arguments were constantly repeated in the ears of the Athenian assembly by the Egestaeans and their partisans ; at length the people passed a vote that they would at all events send envoys to ascertain on the spot whether the Egestaeans really had the money which they professed to have in their treasury and in their temples, and to report on the state of the war with Selinus. So the Athenian envoys were despatched to Sicily. During the same winter the Lacedaemonians and their 7 allies, all but the Corinthians, made an -r, r j ' _ _ ' 1 he Lacedacmomans expedition into the Argive territory, of invade Argolis; they which they devastated a small part, and, settle at Omcae the 1 • I I . •.! i.u Arcive exiles, ivho are havmg brought with them waggons, * , , ., ^ / ° ° °° ' treacherously attacked carried away a few loads of corn. They by the Argive people, settled the Argive exiles at Orneae, assisted by the Athen- where they left a small garrison, and '^"'^' " "'^"^^■ having made an agreement that the inhabitants of Orneae and the Argives should not injure one another's land for a given time, returned home with the rest of their army. Soon afterwards the Athenians arrived with thirty ships and six hundred hoplites. They and the people of Argos with their whole power went out and blockaded Orneae for a day, but at night the Argive exiles within the walls got away unobserved by the besiegers, who were VOL. II. o