intending to
attack the city that night, that they would themselves go out to meet
him in the morning.

One reason, however, for this determination doubtless was, that the
city was not shut in with substantial walls and defenses, like most of
the other cities of Greece, as it was a matter of pride with the
Spartans to rely on their own personal strength and courage for
protection, rather than on artificial bulwarks and towers. Still, such
artificial aids were not wholly despised, and they now determined to
do what was in their power in this respect, by throwing up a rampart
of earth, under cover of the darkness of the night, along the line
over which the enemy must march in attacking the city. This work was
accordingly begun. They would not, however, employ the soldiers in the
work, or any strong and able-bodied men capable of bearing arms. They
wished to reserve the strength of all these for the more urgent and
dreadful work of the following day. The ditch was accordingly dug, and
the ramparts raised by the boys, the old men, and especially by the
women. The women of all ranks in the city went out and toiled all
night at this labor, having laid aside half their clothes, that their
robes might not hinder them in the digging. The reader, however, must
not, in his imagination, invest these fair laborers with the delicate
forms, and gentle manners, and timid hearts which are generally deemed
characteristic of women, for the Spartan females were trained
expressly, from their earliest life, to the most rough and bold
exposures and toils. They were inured from infancy to hardihood, by
being taught to contend in public wrestlings and games, to endure
every species of fatigue and exposure, and to despise every thing like
gentleness and delicacy. In a word, they were little less masculine in
appearance and manners than the men; and accordingly, when Archidamia
went into the senate-chamber with a drawn sword in her hand, and
there, boldly facing the whole assembly, declared that the women would
on no account consent to leave the city, she acted in a manner not at
all inconsistent with what at Sparta was considered the proper
position and character of her sex. In a word, the Spartan women were
as bold and stern, and almost as formidable, as the men.

All night long the work of excavation went on. Those who were too
young or too feeble to work were employed in going to and fro,
carrying tools where they were required, or bringing