nd them groping
each in the ruins of his house, might have killed them one by one;
whereas, finding them up and armed, the slaves saw it was in vain, and
dispersed.

The Messenians, who had never forgotten Aristodemus, hoped to free
themselves again. A great many of the Helots joined them, and they made
their fortified hill of Ithome very strong. The Spartans called on the
Athenians to help them to put down the insurrection. The three greatest
men in Athens were Pericles, the son of that Xanthippus who had impeached
Miltiades; Kimon, the son of Miltiades himself; and Ephialtes, a great
orator, who was thought to be as upright as Aristides the Just. When the
request from Sparta came, Ephialtes was against helping the rival of
Athens; but Kimon, who had friends in Laconia, declared that it would be
unbecoming in Athens to let Greece be crippled in one of her two legs, or
to lose her own yoke-fellow. He prevailed, and was sent with an army to
help in the siege of Ithome; but it was such a tardy siege that the
Spartans fancied that the Athenians had an understanding with the
Messenians, and desired them to go home again, thus, of course,
affronting them exceedingly.

Two years after, Kimon was ostracised; but soon after the Spartans
affronted the Athenians, by placing a troop of men at Tanagra, on the
borders of Attica. The Athenians went out to attack them, and Kimon sent
to entreat permission to fight among his tribe, but he was not trusted,
and was forbidden. He sent his armour to his friends--a hundred in
number--and bade them maintain his honour. They were all killed,
fighting bravely, and the victory was with the Spartans. Soon after, the
virtuous Ephialtes was stabbed by some unknown person, and Pericles,
feeling that good men could not be spared, moved that Kimon should be
called home again. Kimon was much loved; he was tall and handsome, with
curly hair and beard; and he was open-handed, leaving his orchards and
gardens free to all, and keeping a table for every chance guest. Yet he
much admired the Spartans and their discipline, and he contrived to bring
about a five-years' truce between the two great powers. The greatest
benefit he gave his people was the building of the Long Walls, which
joined Athens and the Piraeus together, so that the city could never be
cut off from the harbour. Kimon began them at his own expense, and
Pericles persuaded the Athenians to go on with them, when their founder
ha