Classical literature; Greece -- History -- Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C.; Greece -- History -- Spartan and Theban Supremacies, 404-362 B.C.
It was in furtherance of this design that two men--Pasimelus and
Alcimenes--undertook to creep through a watercourse and effect a meeting
with Praxitas the polemarch of the Lacedaemonians, who was on garrison
duty with his own division in Sicyon. They told him they could give
him ingress at a point in the long walls leading to Lechaeum. Praxitas,
knowing from previous experience that the two men might be relied upon,
believed their statement; and having arranged for the further detention
in Sicyon of the division which was on the point of departure, he busied
himself with plans for the enterprise. When the two men, partly by
chance and partly by contrivance, came to be on guard at the gate where
the tophy now stands, without further ado Praxitas presented himself
with his division, taking with him also the men of Sicyon and the whole
of the Corinthian exiles. (7) Having reached the gate, he had a qualm of
misgiving, and hesitated to step inside until he had first sent in a
man on whom he could rely to take a look at things within. The two
Corinthians introduced him, and made so simple and straightforward
a representation (8) that the visitor was convinced, and reported
everything as free of pitfalls as the two had asserted. Then the
polemarch entered, but owing to the wide space between the double
walls, as soon as they came to form in line within, the intruders were
impressed by the paucity of their numbers. They therefore erected a
stockade, and dug as good a trench as they could in front of them,
pending the arrival of reinforcements from the allies. In their rear,
moreover, lay the guard of the Boeotians in the harbour. Thus they
passed the whole day which followed the night of ingress without
striking a blow.
(8) Or, "showed him the place in so straightforward a manner."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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