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asked pardon for their former ingratitude. But he did not live long to enjoy his honours. He was seized with the plague, which like a malignant enemy, struck its severest blow at parting. Being extremely ill and ready to breathe his last, the principal citizens, and such of his friends that had not forsaken him, discoursing in his bed-chamber concerning the loss they were about to sustain, ran over his exploits, and computed the number of his victories. 72. They did not imagine that Pericles attended to what they said, as he seemed insensible; but it was far otherwise, for not a single word of their discourse had escaped him. At last cried he, "Why will you extol a series of actions, in which fortune had the greatest part? There is one circumstance which I would not have forgotten, yet which you have passed over; I could wish to have it remembered as the most glorious circumstance of my life-that I never yet caused a single citizen to put on mourning."

73. Thus died Pericles, in whom were united a number of excellent qualities without impairing each other. As well skilled in naval affairs as in the conduct of armies; as well skilled in the arts of raising money as of employing it; eloquent in public, and pleasing in private: he was a patron of artists, at once informing them by his taste and example.

74. The most memorable transaction of the following year was the siege of Platea by the Lacedæmonians.

This was one

of the most famous sieges in antiquity, on account of the vigorous efforts of both parties; but especially for the glorious resistance made by the besieged; and their stratagems to escape the fury of the assailants.

75. The Lacedæmonians besieged this place in the beginning of the third campaign. As soon as they had fixed their camp round the city, in order to lay waste the places adjacent, the Platæans sent deputies to the Lacedæmonian general declaring the injustice of injuring them, who had received their liberties on a former occasion from the Lacedæmonians themselves. The Lacedæmonians replied, that there was but one method to insure their safety, which was to renew that alliance by which they gained their freedom; to disclaim their Athenian supporters, and to unite with the Lacedæmonians, who had power and will to protect them.

76. The deputies replied, they could not possibly come to any agreement, without first sending to Athens, whither their wives and children were retired. The Lacedæmonians permitted them to send thither, but the Athenians solemnly promising to succour them to the utmost of their power, the Platæans resolved to suffer the last extremities rather than surrender; and prepared

for a vigorous defence, with a steady resolution to succeed or fall.

77. Archidamus, the Lacedæmonian general, after calling upon the gods to witness that he did not first infringe the alliance, prepared for the siege with equal perseverance. He surrounded the city with a circumvallation of trees, which were laid very close together, the branches turned towards the city. He then raised batteries upon them, and formed a terrace sufficient to support his warlike machines. His army worked day and night without intermission, for seventy days; one half of the soldiers reposing themselves while the others were at work.

78. The besieged, observing the works begin to rise around them, threw up a wooden wall upon the walls of the city, opposite the platform, in order that they might always out-top the besiegers. This wall was covered on the outside with hides both raw and dry, in order to shelter it from the besiegers' fires. Thus both walls seemed to vie with each other for superiority, till at last the besieged, without amusing themselves at this work any longer, built another within in the form of a half-moon, behind which they might retire in case their outer works were forced.

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79. In the mean time, the besiegers having mounted their engines of war, shook the city wall in a very terrible manner which, though it alarmed the citizens, did not, however, discourage them; they employed every art that fortification could suggest against the enemy's batteries. They catched with ropes the heads of the battering rams that were urged against them, and deadened their force with levers.

80. The besiegers, finding their attacks did not go on successfully, and that a new wall was raised against their platform, despaired of being able to storm the place; and, therefore, changed the siege into a blockade, after having vainly attempted to set fire to the city, which was suddenly quenched by a shower.

81. The city was now surrounded by a brick wall, suddenly erected, strengthened on each side by a deep ditch. The whole army was engaged successively upon this wall, and when it was finished, they left a guard over half of it; the Boeotians offering to guard the other half whilst the rest of the army returned to Sparta.

82. In this manner the wretched Platæans were cooped up by a strong wall without any hopes of redress, and only awaited the mercy of the conqueror. There were now in Platea but four hundred inhabitants, and four score Athenians, with a hundred and ten women to dress their victuals, and no other person, whether freeman or slave; all the rest having been sent to Athens before the siege.

83. At last the inhabitants of Platea having lost all hopes of succour, and being in the utmost want of provisions, formed a resolution to cut their way through the enemy. But half of them, struck with the greatness of the danger, and boldness of the enterprise, entirely lost courage when they came to the execution; but the rest, who were about two hundred and twenty soldiers, persisted in their resolution, and escaped in the following manner:

84. The besieged first took the heights of the wall, by counting the rows of bricks which composed it; and this they did at different times, and employed several men for that purpose, in order that they might not mistake in the calculation. This was the easier, because as the wall stood at a small distance, every part of it was very visible. They then made ladders of a proper length.

85. All things being now ready for executing the design, the besieged left the city, one night when there was no moon, in the midst of a storm of wind and rain. After crossing the first ditch, they drew near the wall undiscovered through the darkness of night, not to mention that the noise made by the rain and wind prevented their being heard.

86. They marched at some distance from one another, to prevent the clashing of their arms, which were light, in order that those who carried them might be the more active; and one of their legs was naked to keep them from sliding so easily in the mire. Those who carried the ladders laid them in the space between the towers, where they knew no guard was posted, because it rained. That instant twelve men mounted the ladder, armed with only a coat of mail and a dagger, and marched directly to the towers, six on each side. They were followed by soldiers, armed only with javelins that they might mount the easier; and their shields were carried after them to be used in the charge.

87. When most of these were got to the top of the wall they were discovered by the falling of a tile, which one of their comrades, in taking hold of the parapet, had thrown down. The alarm was immediately given from the towers, and the whole army approached the wall, without discovering the occasion of the outcry, from the gloom of the night and the violence of the storm. Besides which, those who had staid behind in the city, beat an alarm at the same time in another quarter, to make a diversion so that the enemy did not know which way to turn themselves, and were afraid to quit their posts.

88. But a corps, the reserve of three hundred men, who were kept for any unforeseen accident that might happen, quitted the contravallation, and ran to that part where they heard the noise:

and torches were held up towards Thebes, to show that they must run that way. But those in the city, to render the signal of no use, made others at the same time in different quarters, having prepared them on the walls for that purpose.

89. In the mean time, those who had niounted first, having possessed themselves of the two towers which flanked the interval where the ladders were set, and having killed those who guarded them, posted themselves there to defend the passage and keep off the besiegers. Then setting ladders on the top of the wall, betwixt the two towers, they caused a good number of their comrades to mount, in order to keep off, by a discharge of their arrows, as well those who were advancing to the foot of the wall, as the others who were hastening to the neighbouring towers.

90. Whilst this was doing they had time to set up several ladders; and to throw down the parapet, that the rest might come up with greater ease. As fast as they came up they went down on the other side; and drew up near the fosse, on the outside, to shoot at those who appeared. After they were passed over, the men who were in the towers came down at last, and made to the fosse to follow after the rest. That instant the guard, with three hundred torches, came up.

91. However, as the Plateans saw their enemies by this light better than they were seen by them, they therefore took a surer aim, by which means the last crossed the ditch without being attacked in their passage. However, this was not done without much difficulty, because the ditch was frozen over, and the ice would not bear on account of thaw and heavy rains. The violence of the storm was of great advantage to them. After all were passed, they took the road towards Thebes, the better to conceal their retreat, because it was not likely they had fled towards a city of the enemy.

92. Immediately they perceived the besiegers, with torche: in their hands, pursuing them in the road that led to Athens, After keeping that of Thebes about six or seven stadia, they turned short towards the mountain, and resumed the route to Athens, whither two hundred and twelve arrived out of two hundred and twenty, who had quitted the place: the rest having returned back to it through fear, one archer excepted, who was taken on the side of the fosse of contravallation.

93. The besiegers, after having pursued them to no purpose, returned to their camp. In the mean time, the Platæans, who remained in the city, supposing that all their companions had been killed, (because those who were returned, to justify themselves, affirmed they were) sent a herald to demand their dead bodies; but being told the true state of the affair, he withdrew.

94. At the end of the following campaign, the Platæans being in absolute want of provisions, and unable to make the least defence, surrendered upon condition that they should not be punished, till they had been tried and adjudged in form of justice. Five commissioners came for this purpose from Lacedæmon, and these, without charging them with any crime, barely asked them whether they had done any service to the Lacedæmonians and the allies in this war?

95. The Platæans were much surprised as well as puzzled at this question; and were sensible that it had been suggested by the Thebans, their professed enemies, who had vowed their destruction. They, therefore, put the Lacedæmonians in mind of the services they had done to Greece in general, both at the battle of Artemisium and that of Platæa, and particularly in Lacedæmonia at the time of the earthquake, which was followed by the revolt of their slaves.

96. The only reason they declared for their having joined the Athenians afterwards, was to defend themselves from the hostilities of the Thebans, against whom they had implored the assistance of the Lacedæmonians to no purpose. That if that was imputed to them as a crime, which was only their misfortune, it ought not, however, entirely to obliterate the remembrance of their former services. "Cast your eyes," said they, "on the monuments of your ancestors which you see here, to whom we annually pay all the honours which can be rendered to the manes of the dead. 97." You thought fit to entrust their bodies with us, as we were eye-witnesses of their bravery. And yet you will now give up their ashes to their murderers, in abandoning us to the Thebans who fought against them at the battle of Platea? will you enslave a province where Greece recovered its liberty? will you destroy the temples of those gods to whom you owed the victory? will you abolish the memory of their founders who contributed so greatly to your safety? on this occasion we may venture to say, our interest is inseparable from your glory; and you cannot deliver up your ancient friends and benefactors to the unjust hatred of the Thebans, without eternal infamy to yourselves."

98. One would conclude that these just remonstrances should have made some impression on the Lacedæmonians; but they were biassed more by the answer the Thebans made, and which was expressed in the most haughty and bitter terms against the Platæans: and besides, they had brought their instructions from! Lacedæmon.

99. They stood, therefore, to their first question-whether the Platæans had done them any service since the war? and making them pass one after another, as they severally answered "No,"

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