ercenary brigade to boot, threaded their way
through the islands to Melos. (11) This island was to serve as a base of
operations against Lacedaemon. And in the first instance he sailed down
to Pherae (12) and ravaged that district, after which he made successive
descents at various other points on the seaboard, and did what injury
he could. But in apprehension of the harbourless character of the coast,
coupled with the enemy's facility of reinforcement and his own scarcity
of supplies, he very soon turned back and sailed away, until finally he
came to moorings in the harbour of Phoenicus in Cythera. The occupants
of the city of the Cytherians, in terror of being taken by storm,
evacuated the walls. To dismiss these under a flag of truce across to
Laconia was his first step; his second was to repair the fortress
in question and to leave a garrison in the island under an Athenian
governor--Nicophemus. After this he set sail to the Isthmus of Corinth,
where he delivered an exhortation to the allies begging them to
prosecute the war vigorously, and to show themselves faithful to the
Great King; and so, having left them all the moneys he had with him, set
off on his voyage home.

(11) See Lys. xix. "de bon. Arist." 19 foll.; and Hicks, 71, "Honours
to Dionysios I. and his court"; Grote, "H. G." ix. 453.

(12) Mod. Kalamata.

But Conon had a proposal to make:--If Pharnabazus would allow him to
keep the fleet, he would undertake, in the first place, to support it
free of expense from the islands; besides which, he would sail to his
own country and help his fellow-citizens the Athenians to rebuild their
long walls and the fortifications round Piraeus. No heavier blow, he
insisted, could well be inflicted on Lacedaemon. "In this way, I can
assure you," he added, "you will win the eternal gratitude of the
Athenians and wreak consummate vengeance on the Lacedaemonians, since
at one stroke you will render null and void that on which they have
bestowed their utmost labour." These arguments so far weighed with
Pharnabazus that he despatched Conon to Athens with alacrity, and
further supplied him with funds for the restoration of the walls. Thus
it was that Conon, on his arrival at Athens, was able to rebuild a large
portion of the walls--partly by lending his own crews, and partly by
giving pay to carpenters and stone-masons, and meeting all the necessary
expenses. There were other portions of the walls which the Athenians an