[239] See Schömann, De Comitiis, c. iv, p. 62. The prytanes (_i. e._ the fifty senators belonging to that tribe whose turn it was to preside at the time), as well as the stratêgi, had the right of convoking the ekklesia: see Thucyd. iv, 118, in which passage, however, they are represented as convoking it in conjunction with the stratêgi: probably a discretion on the point came gradually to be understood as vested in the latter. While Periklês thus decidedly forbade any general march out for battle, he sought to provide as much employment as possible for the compressed eagerness of the citizens. The cavalry were sent out, together with the Thessalian cavalry their allies, for the purpose of restraining the excursions of the enemy’s light troops, and protecting the lands near the city from plunder.[240] At the same time, he fitted out a powerful expedition, which sailed forth to ravage Peloponnesus, even while the invaders were yet in Attica.[241] Archidamus, after having remained engaged in the devastation of Acharnæ long enough to satisfy himself that the Athenians would not hazard a battle, turned away from Athens in a northwesterly direction towards the demes between Mount Brilêssus and Mount Parnês, on the road passing through Dekeleia. The army continued ravaging these districts until their provisions were exhausted, and then quitted Attica by the northwestern road near Orôpus, which brought them into Bœotia. The Oropians were not Athenians, but dependent upon Athens, and the district of Græa, a portion of their territory, was laid waste; after which, the army dispersed and retired back to their respective homes.[242] It would seem that they quitted Attica towards the end of July, having remained in the country between thirty and forty days. [240] Thucyd. ii, 22. The funeral monument of these slain Thessalians, was among those seen by Pausanias near Athens, on the side of the Academy (Pausan. i, 29, 5). [241] Diodorus (xii, 42) would have us believe, that the expedition sent out by Periklês, ravaging the Peloponnesian coast, induced the Lacedæmonians to hurry away their troops out of Attica. Thucydidês gives no countenance to this,—nor is it at all credible. [242] Thucyd. ii, 23. The reading Γραϊκὴν, belonging to Γραία, seems preferable to Πειραϊκὴν. Poppo and Göller adopt the former, Dr. Arnold the latter. Græa was a small maritime place in the vicinity of Orôpus (Aristotel. ap. Stephan. Byz. v. Τάναγρα),—known also now as an Attic deme belonging to the tribe Pandionis: this has been discovered for the first time by an inscription published in Professor Ross’s work (Ueber die Demen von Attika, pp. 3-5). Orôpus was not an Attic deme; the Athenian citizens residing in it were probably enrolled as Γραῆς.