to rebuild their city and their walls. For only isolated
portions of the circumference had been left standing, and most of
the houses were in ruins; though a few remained, in which the Persian
grandees had taken up their quarters.

Perceiving what they were going to do, the Lacedaemonians sent an
embassy to Athens. They would have themselves preferred to see neither
her nor any other city in possession of a wall; though here they acted
principally at the instigation of their allies, who were alarmed at
the strength of her newly acquired navy and the valour which she had
displayed in the war with the Medes. They begged her not only to abstain
from building walls for herself, but also to join them in throwing down
the walls that still held together of the ultra-Peloponnesian cities.
The real meaning of their advice, the suspicion that it contained
against the Athenians, was not proclaimed; it was urged that so the
barbarian, in the event of a third invasion, would not have any strong
place, such as he now had in Thebes, for his base of operations; and
that Peloponnese would suffice for all as a base both for retreat and
offence. After the Lacedaemonians had thus spoken, they were, on the
advice of Themistocles, immediately dismissed by the Athenians, with
the answer that ambassadors should be sent to Sparta to discuss the
question. Themistocles told the Athenians to send him off with all speed
to Lacedaemon, but not to dispatch his colleagues as soon as they had
selected them, but to wait until they had raised their wall to the
height from which defence was possible. Meanwhile the whole population
in the city was to labour at the wall, the Athenians, their wives, and
their children, sparing no edifice, private or public, which might be
of any use to the work, but throwing all down. After giving these
instructions, and adding that he would be responsible for all other
matters there, he departed. Arrived at Lacedaemon he did not seek an
audience with the authorities, but tried to gain time and made excuses.
When any of the government asked him why he did not appear in the
assembly, he would say that he was waiting for his colleagues, who had
been detained in Athens by some engagement; however, that he expected
their speedy arrival, and wondered that they were not yet there. At
first the Lacedaemonians trusted the words of Themistocles, through
their friendship for him; but when others arrived, all distinctly
declaring that