e alongside of the entrance of the harbour, and was now
fortified in connection with the wall already existing on the land side,
so that a few men placed in it might be able to command the entrance;
the old wall on the land side and the new one now being built within on
the side of the sea, both ending in one of the two towers standing at
the narrow mouth of the harbour. They also walled off the largest porch
in Piraeus which was in immediate connection with this wall, and kept
it in their own hands, compelling all to unload there the corn that came
into the harbour, and what they had in stock, and to take it out from
thence when they sold it.

These measures had long provoked the murmurs of Theramenes, and when
the envoys returned from Lacedaemon without having effected any general
pacification, he affirmed that this wall was like to prove the ruin of
the state. At this moment forty-two ships from Peloponnese, including
some Siceliot and Italiot vessels from Locri and Tarentum, had been
invited over by the Euboeans and were already riding off Las in Laconia
preparing for the voyage to Euboea, under the command of Agesandridas,
son of Agesander, a Spartan. Theramenes now affirmed that this squadron
was destined not so much to aid Euboea as the party fortifying Eetionia,
and that unless precautions were speedily taken the city would be
surprised and lost. This was no mere calumny, there being really some
such plan entertained by the accused. Their first wish was to have the
oligarchy without giving up the empire; failing this to keep their ships
and walls and be independent; while, if this also were denied them,
sooner than be the first victims of the restored democracy, they were
resolved to call in the enemy and make peace, give up their walls and
ships, and at all costs retain possession of the government, if their
lives were only assured to them.

For this reason they pushed forward the construction of their work with
posterns and entrances and means of introducing the enemy, being eager
to have it finished in time. Meanwhile the murmurs against them were at
first confined to a few persons and went on in secret, until Phrynichus,
after his return from the embassy to Lacedaemon, was laid wait for and
stabbed in full market by one of the Peripoli, falling down dead before
he had gone far from the council chamber. The assassin escaped; but
his accomplice, an Argive, was taken and put to the torture by the Four
Hundred,