this way the Athenians walled their city in a little while. To
this day the building shows signs of the haste of its execution; the
foundations are laid of stones of all kinds, and in some places not
wrought or fitted, but placed just in the order in which they were
brought by the different hands; and many columns, too, from tombs, and
sculptured stones were put in with the rest. For the bounds of the city
were extended at every point of the circumference; and so they laid
hands on everything without exception in their haste. Themistocles also
persuaded them to finish the walls of Piraeus, which had been begun
before, in his year of office as archon; being influenced alike by the
fineness of a locality that has three natural harbours, and by the great
start which the Athenians would gain in the acquisition of power by
becoming a naval people. For he first ventured to tell them to stick to
the sea and forthwith began to lay the foundations of the empire. It was
by his advice, too, that they built the walls of that thickness which
can still be discerned round Piraeus, the stones being brought up by
two wagons meeting each other. Between the walls thus formed there
was neither rubble nor mortar, but great stones hewn square and fitted
together, cramped to each other on the outside with iron and lead. About
half the height that he intended was finished. His idea was by their
size and thickness to keep off the attacks of an enemy; he thought that
they might be adequately defended by a small garrison of invalids, and
the rest be freed for service in the fleet. For the fleet claimed most
of his attention. He saw, as I think, that the approach by sea was
easier for the king's army than that by land: he also thought Piraeus
more valuable than the upper city; indeed, he was always advising the
Athenians, if a day should come when they were hard pressed by land,
to go down into Piraeus, and defy the world with their fleet. Thus,
therefore, the Athenians completed their wall, and commenced their other
buildings immediately after the retreat of the Mede.

Meanwhile Pausanias, son of Cleombrotus, was sent out from Lacedaemon as
commander-in-chief of the Hellenes, with twenty ships from Peloponnese.
With him sailed the Athenians with thirty ships, and a number of the
other allies. They made an expedition against Cyprus and subdued most of
the island, and afterwards against Byzantium, which was in the hands of
the Medes, and compelled i