Greece -- History -- Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C.
The bulk of her army continued its retreat
home.
About this time the Athenians began to build the long walls to the sea,
that towards Phalerum and that towards Piraeus. Meanwhile the Phocians
made an expedition against Doris, the old home of the Lacedaemonians,
containing the towns of Boeum, Kitinium, and Erineum. They had taken
one of these towns, when the Lacedaemonians under Nicomedes, son of
Cleombrotus, commanding for King Pleistoanax, son of Pausanias, who was
still a minor, came to the aid of the Dorians with fifteen hundred
heavy infantry of their own, and ten thousand of their allies. After
compelling the Phocians to restore the town on conditions, they began
their retreat. The route by sea, across the Crissaean Gulf, exposed
them to the risk of being stopped by the Athenian fleet; that across
Geraneia seemed scarcely safe, the Athenians holding Megara and Pegae.
For the pass was a difficult one, and was always guarded by the
Athenians; and, in the present instance, the Lacedaemonians had
information that they meant to dispute their passage. So they resolved
to remain in Boeotia, and to consider which would be the safest line of
march. They had also another reason for this resolve. Secret
encouragement had been given them by a party in Athens, who hoped to
put an end to the reign of democracy and the building of the Long
Walls. Meanwhile the Athenians marched against them with their whole
levy and a thousand Argives and the respective contingents of the rest
of their allies. Altogether they were fourteen thousand strong. The
march was prompted by the notion that the Lacedaemonians were at a loss
how to effect their passage, and also by suspicions of an attempt to
overthrow the democracy. Some cavalry also joined the Athenians from
their Thessalian allies; but these went over to the Lacedaemonians
during the battle.
The battle was fought at Tanagra in Boeotia. After heavy loss on both
sides, victory declared for the Lacedaemonians and their allies. After
entering the Megarid and cutting down the fruit trees, the
Lacedaemonians returned home across Geraneia and the isthmus. Sixty-two
days after the battle the Athenians marched into Boeotia under the
command of Myronides, defeated the Boeotians in battle at Oenophyta,
and became masters of Boeotia and Phocis. They dismantled the walls of
the Tanagraeans, took a hundred of the richest men of the Opuntian
Locrians as hostages, and finished their own long walls. This was
followed by the surrender of the Aeginetans to Athens on conditions;
they pulled down their walls, gave up their ships, and agreed to pay
tribute in future. The Athenians sailed round Peloponnese under
Tolmides, son of Tolmaeus, burnt the arsenal of Lacedaemon, took
Chalcis, a town of the Corinthians, and in a descent upon Sicyon
defeated the Sicyonians in battle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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