reading abroad, and carried to it wood and stones and earth and
whatever other material might help to complete it. They continued to
work at the mound for seventy days and nights without intermission,
being divided into relief parties to allow of some being employed in
carrying while others took sleep and refreshment; the Lacedaemonian
officer attached to each contingent keeping the men to the work. But the
Plataeans, observing the progress of the mound, constructed a wall of
wood and fixed it upon that part of the city wall against which the
mound was being erected, and built up bricks inside it which they took
from the neighbouring houses. The timbers served to bind the building
together, and to prevent its becoming weak as it advanced in height;
it had also a covering of skins and hides, which protected the woodwork
against the attacks of burning missiles and allowed the men to work
in safety. Thus the wall was raised to a great height, and the mound
opposite made no less rapid progress. The Plataeans also thought of
another expedient; they pulled out part of the wall upon which the mound
abutted, and carried the earth into the city.

Discovering this the Peloponnesians twisted up clay in wattles of reed
and threw it into the breach formed in the mound, in order to give it
consistency and prevent its being carried away like the soil. Stopped
in this way the Plataeans changed their mode of operation, and digging
a mine from the town calculated their way under the mound, and began to
carry off its material as before. This went on for a long while without
the enemy outside finding it out, so that for all they threw on the
top their mound made no progress in proportion, being carried away from
beneath and constantly settling down in the vacuum. But the Plataeans,
fearing that even thus they might not be able to hold out against the
superior numbers of the enemy, had yet another invention. They stopped
working at the large building in front of the mound, and starting at
either end of it inside from the old low wall, built a new one in the
form of a crescent running in towards the town; in order that in the
event of the great wall being taken this might remain, and the enemy
have to throw up a fresh mound against it, and as they advanced within
might not only have their trouble over again, but also be exposed to
missiles on their flanks. While raising the mound the Peloponnesians
also brought up engines against the city, on