part of the temple buildings left
standing, as on the side where the gallery once existing had fallen in.
The work was begun on the third day after leaving home, and continued
during the fourth, and till dinnertime on the fifth, when most of it
being now finished the army removed from Delium about a mile and a
quarter on its way home. From this point most of the light troops went
straight on, while the heavy infantry halted and remained where they
were; Hippocrates having stayed behind at Delium to arrange the posts,
and to give directions for the completion of such part of the outworks
as had been left unfinished.

During the days thus employed the Boeotians were mustering at Tanagra,
and by the time that they had come in from all the towns, found the
Athenians already on their way home. The rest of the eleven Boeotarchs
were against giving battle, as the enemy was no longer in Boeotia, the
Athenians being just over the Oropian border, when they halted; but
Pagondas, son of Aeolidas, one of the Boeotarchs of Thebes (Arianthides,
son of Lysimachidas, being the other), and then commander-in-chief,
thought it best to hazard a battle. He accordingly called the men to
him, company after company, to prevent their all leaving their arms at
once, and urged them to attack the Athenians, and stand the issue of a
battle, speaking as follows:

"Boeotians, the idea that we ought not to give battle to the Athenians,
unless we came up with them in Boeotia, is one which should never have
entered into the head of any of us, your generals. It was to annoy
Boeotia that they crossed the frontier and built a fort in our country;
and they are therefore, I imagine, our enemies wherever we may come up
with them, and from wheresoever they may have come to act as enemies
do. And if any one has taken up with the idea in question for reasons of
safety, it is high time for him to change his mind. The party attacked,
whose own country is in danger, can scarcely discuss what is prudent
with the calmness of men who are in full enjoyment of what they have
got, and are thinking of attacking a neighbour in order to get more. It
is your national habit, in your country or out of it, to oppose the same
resistance to a foreign invader; and when that invader is Athenian, and
lives upon your frontier besides, it is doubly imperative to do so. As
between neighbours generally, freedom means simply a determination
to hold one's own; and with neighbours like the