376 HISTORY OF GREECE. cringing to any one, but by their own swords at the cost of ene- mies. And he engaged to find them the means of doing this, provided they would now again manifest the excellent qualities which he knew them by experience to possess. 1 This address completely won over the seamen, who received it with shouts of applause ; desiring Teleutias to give his orders forth- with, and promising ready obedience. " Well, (said he), now go and get your suppers, as you were intecding to do ; and thi come immediately on shipboard, bringing with you provisions for one day. Advance me thus much out of your own means, that we may, by the will of the gods, make an opportune voyage." 3 In spite of the eminent popularity of Teleutias, the men would probably have refused to go on board, had he told them before- hand his intention of sailing with his twelve triremes straight into the harbor of Peiraeus. At first sight, the enterprise seemed in- sane, for there were triremes in it more than sufficient to over- whelm him. But he calculated on finding them all unprepared, with seamen as well as officers in their lodgings ashore, so that he could not only strike terror and do damage, but even realize half an hour's plunder before preparations could be made to resist him. Such was the security which now reigned there, especially since the death of Gorgopas, that no one dreamt of an attack. The har- bor was open, as it had been forty years before, when Brasidas (in the third year of the Peloponnesian war) attempted the like enter- prise from the port of Megara. 3 Even then, at the maximum of the Athenian naval power, it was an enterprise possible, simply because every one considered it to be impossible ; and it only failed because the assailants became terrified, and flinched in the exe- cution. 1 Xen. Hellen. v, 1, 14-17. 2 Xen. Hellen. v, 1, 18. "Ay ere, u uvSpef, deiirvr/aare JJ.EV, airep KOI uf fyieAAere* TrpoTrapaa^tre de pot [utif ripepaf alrov eTretra 6e rjKere ktfi riif vavf avriKa //uAa, oTruf irAevaufiev, ev&a &?><; l&efai, kv Kaipu a<j>i!;6[ievot Schneider doubts whether the words irpcmapucxETe 6e /j.ot are correct. But they seem to me to bear a very pertinent meaning. Teleutias had no money ; yet it was necessary for his purpose that the seamen shouli come furnished with one day's provision beforehand. Accordingly he is obliged to ask them to get provision for themselves, or to lend it, as it were, to him ? though they were already so dissatisfied from not having received theij pay. ? Thucyd. ii, 94.
