lf one of the generals, and raged and stormed against the
heavy infantry, while Aristarchus and the adversaries of the people were
angry in right earnest. Most of the heavy infantry, however, went on
with the business without faltering, and asked Theramenes if he thought
the wall had been constructed for any good purpose, and whether it would
not be better that it should be pulled down. To this he answered that if
they thought it best to pull it down, he for his part agreed with them.
Upon this the heavy infantry and a number of the people in Piraeus
immediately got up on the fortification and began to demolish it. Now
their cry to the multitude was that all should join in the work who
wished the Five Thousand to govern instead of the Four Hundred. For
instead of saying in so many words "all who wished the commons to
govern," they still disguised themselves under the name of the Five
Thousand; being afraid that these might really exist, and that they
might be speaking to one of their number and get into trouble through
ignorance. Indeed this was why the Four Hundred neither wished the Five
Thousand to exist, nor to have it known that they did not exist; being
of opinion that to give themselves so many partners in empire would be
downright democracy, while the mystery in question would make the people
afraid of one another.

The next day the Four Hundred, although alarmed, nevertheless assembled
in the council chamber, while the heavy infantry in Piraeus,
after having released their prisoner Alexicles and pulled down the
fortification, went with their arms to the theatre of Dionysus, close to
Munychia, and there held an assembly in which they decided to march into
the city, and setting forth accordingly halted in the Anaceum. Here they
were joined by some delegates from the Four Hundred, who reasoned
with them one by one, and persuaded those whom they saw to be the most
moderate to remain quiet themselves, and to keep in the rest; saying
that they would make known the Five Thousand, and have the Four Hundred
chosen from them in rotation, as should be decided by the Five Thousand,
and meanwhile entreated them not to ruin the state or drive it into the
arms of the enemy. After a great many had spoken and had been spoken to,
the whole body of heavy infantry became calmer than before, absorbed
by their fears for the country at large, and now agreed to hold upon an
appointed day an assembly in the theatre of Dionysus for the r