With the Athenians, the inhabitants of the little town of Platea had thrown in their portion. Faithfully had they clung to them, through weal and through woe, in the midst of a hostile country: and, too weak to hope to be able to defend themselves, they nevertheless dared every risk, rather than fail in their engagement, and desert their friends.

On this, the Lacedæmonians and Thebans marched against the city with an allied army. The Platæans sent away the women and children, laid in all sorts of provisions, strengthened their fortifications, and determined to hold out to the last. In vain the besiegers tried to take the place by storm the little garrison beat them back, and they saw that their only hope of taking the town would be by famine.

So they blockaded it in the manner which was usual in those days. They built a strong wall all round the town, sixteen feet in thickness. On the top of this wall were houses and tents for the soldiers, sheltered on both sides by battlements and ramparts; and at intervals of ten battlements, towers were raised on the wall, and of the same width with it; and here the stores were kept, and in bad weather, the sentries sheltered themselves.

By degrees, famine began to do its work; and at last the Platæans found that they must either surrender, or be starved to death. What they determined to do we shall perhaps learn, if we follow one of the many parties which, late as it is, are threading their way by torchlight through the narrow and splashing streets to the Prytaneum or Town Hall, where something of great importance is going on.

The Prytaneum was crowded with the principal men of the garrison, most of them completely armed. There you might see the Boeotian helmet, reckoned the best in Greece; the thorax with its two wings of metal, buttoned at the side with studs of silver or steel; the greaves of massy tin, and the iron gauntlets. Eupompidas, the commander of the forces, stood at the upper end of the hall by his side was Callias the son of Jason, governor of the city: and they both seemed to be listening with deep attention to Theænetus the augur.

"Platæans," said Callias at length, "why we are now met, ye one and all know, as well as those who summoned you. To-morrow night there will be no bread in the city, and even now there is but a meal of three ounces for each man. What we proposed long ago to do, time and the gods have

brought to perfection: the hour is come in which we must free ourselves; the omens are favourable, and the great risk must be run to-night. We propose to obtain possession of that part of the wall which faces the road to Thebes, and lies just opposite to the temple of Athene of the brazen buckler. If we can carry that, and take the two towers which flank it, then, with the help of the gods, we shall find ourselves in safety: if we fail, it will be better for us to fall by the swords of the enemy, than to pine away by famine in the city."

"Have scaling ladders and all other requisites been provided?" asked Philippides, a man of great influence in the town.

"They have," replied Callias; "and they are even now waiting us at the gate of Hercules the Preserver."

"And how was the right length known?" continued Philippides.

"That was easy," answered Eupompidas. "I counted the rows of bricks in the wall of circumvallation nine or ten times over: I made them each time forty-three or forty-four: that, at six inches each, gives a height of twenty-two feet; and I have caused the ladders therefore to be made twenty-five feet in length."

"I also," said Ammeas, the son of Corcbus, a

young officer of great promise, "have counted the bricks, and my tale of them is the same: nothing has been left undone that the time and our means allow."

"You said," continued Philippides, "that the omens had been consulted. I will pray you, worthy Theænetus, to say what they were."

"I will so," replied the soothsayer. "The ox, that was this morning sacrificed to Jupiter the Preserver, followed of his own accord the minister to the place of slaughter, and seemed almost to stretch out his neck for the stroke. By one blow he fell the heart was large and full; the liver sound; the blood poured out in a plentiful stream on the ground. The flame rose brightly from the altar the smoke ascended in a clear volume to heaven; never did I behold more certain signs of assured success."

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'Besides," said Ammeas, "grant they had been otherwise, who knows not how Homer sings, that there is one best omen,—the fighting for our country?"

"Aye, by the twin gods," returned Philippides, "but when Hector said that, he was fighting with some hope of success: for us, the attempt is absolutely hopeless. Grant that we cross the ditch. unperceived, and are fortunate enough to storm.

the wall;-what follows then? Why, the whole army will be alarmed; and it may be very possible that on that selfsame wall we may be blockaded ourselves to-night and taken prisoners to-morrow." "Well said, by Apollo !" cried three or four voices.

"And I say, O men, singularly ill said," cried Callias ; "what hope is there if we remain here? We shall each offer our vow, I suppose, to famine, that like the Cyclops, he may destroy us last." "Succour may come from Athens," said Philippides: "it is for that I would wait."

"Aye, by Athene, it may, when Cleon can find time to look this way; and that will be about this time next year. No, no! if we wait for that, it will be on the shores of Styx, Philippides."

"I," said Callias, "for one, shall make the attempt, though I make it alone. Who is for sharing it?"

The boldest officers came round him: conspicuous among whom were Ammeas, Theænetus, and Eupompidas. Inquiry was made of the hoplite (heavy-armed soldiers) without, and among the light-armed; and the muster roll numbered about two hundred and twenty. Nearly as many declared that they had not courage and strength for the attempt.