the work was going on and already attaining some
elevation, they did not know how to disbelieve it. Aware of this, he
told them that rumours are deceptive, and should not be trusted; they
should send some reputable persons from Sparta to inspect, whose report
might be trusted. They dispatched them accordingly. Concerning these
Themistocles secretly sent word to the Athenians to detain them as far
as possible without putting them under open constraint, and not to let
them go until they had themselves returned. For his colleagues had
now joined him, Abronichus, son of Lysicles, and Aristides, son of
Lysimachus, with the news that the wall was sufficiently advanced;
and he feared that when the Lacedaemonians heard the facts, they might
refuse to let them go. So the Athenians detained the envoys according to
his message, and Themistocles had an audience with the Lacedaemonians,
and at last openly told them that Athens was now fortified sufficiently
to protect its inhabitants; that any embassy which the Lacedaemonians or
their allies might wish to send to them should in future proceed on
the assumption that the people to whom they were going was able to
distinguish both its own and the general interests. That when the
Athenians thought fit to abandon their city and to embark in their
ships, they ventured on that perilous step without consulting them;
and that on the other hand, wherever they had deliberated with the
Lacedaemonians, they had proved themselves to be in judgment second to
none. That they now thought it fit that their city should have a wall,
and that this would be more for the advantage of both the citizens of
Athens and the Hellenic confederacy; for without equal military strength
it was impossible to contribute equal or fair counsel to the common
interest. It followed, he observed, either that all the members of the
confederacy should be without walls, or that the present step should be
considered a right one.

The Lacedaemonians did not betray any open signs of anger against the
Athenians at what they heard. The embassy, it seems, was prompted not
by a desire to obstruct, but to guide the counsels of their government:
besides, Spartan feeling was at that time very friendly towards Athens
on account of the patriotism which she had displayed in the struggle
with the Mede. Still the defeat of their wishes could not but cause
them secret annoyance. The envoys of each state departed home without
complaint.

In