The heat was so intense that a whole quarter of the
place was cleared of its defenders, and if a wind had arisen to drive
the flame inwards, nothing could have saved the whole town from
destruction. [Footnote: Thucydides seems to imply that there was a
wind, though a slight one.] But fortunately the breeze was but slight,
and it is said also that a heavy fall of rain came on, and quenched
the conflagration.
Having failed in their last attempt, the Peloponnesians sent away part
of their army, and employed those who remained in building a
blockading wall round Plataea. The work was completed towards the end
of September, and they then disbanded their army, leaving a force
sufficient to guard half the wall; for the Thebans, relentless in
their zeal against Plataea, took charge of the other half. The number
of the besieged was four hundred and eighty, of whom eighty were
Athenians, and a hundred and ten women to make bread for the garrison.
NAVAL VICTORIES OF PHORMIO
I
During the last half-century the art of naval warfare had made great
progress in Greece. The Greek war-galley, or trireme, a vessel
propelled by three banks of oars, had always been furnished with a
sharp-pointed prow, for the purpose of ramming an opponent's ship; but
many years elapsed before the Greeks attained genuine skill in the use
of this formidable weapon.
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