378 mSTOET OF GREECE. executed without the loss of a manj procured for him a plentiful booty, of which, probably not the least valuable portion consisted in the men seized as captives. When sold at .ZEgina, it yielded so large a return that he was enabled to pay down at once a month's pay to his seamen ; who became more attached to him than ever, and kept the triremes in animated and active service under his orders. 1 Admonished by painful experience, indeed, the Athenians were now, doubtless, careful both in guarding and in closing Pei- raeus ; as they had become forty years before after the unsuccess- ful attack of Brasidas. But in spite of the utmost vigilance, they suffered an extent of damage from the indefatigable Teleutias, and from the JEginetan privateers, quite sufficient to make them weary of the war. 2 "We cannot doubt, indeed, that the prosecution of the war must have been a heavy financial burthen upon the Athenians, from 395 B. c. downward to 387 B. c. How they made good the cost, without any contributory allies, or any foreign support, except what Konon obtained during one year from Pharnabazus, we are not informed. On the revival of the democracy in 403 B. c., the pov- erty of the city, both public and private, had been very great, owing to the long previous war, ending with the loss of all Athe- nian property abroad. At a period about three years afterwards, it seems that the Athenians were in arrears, not merely for the tribute-money which they then owed to Sparta as her subject allies, but also for debts due to the Boeotians on account of damage done ; that they were too poor to perform in full the religious sacrifices prescribed for the year, and were obliged to omit some even of the more ancient ; that the docks as well as the walls were in sad want of repair. 3 Even the pay to those citizens who attended the pub- 1 Xen Hellen. v, 1, 24. 8 Xen. Hellen. v, 1. 29. Even ten years after this, however, when the Lacedaemonian harmost Sphodrias marched from Thespiae by night to surprise Peiraeus, it was with- out gates on the landside aTrvAurof or at least without any such gates as would resist an assault (Xen. Hellen. v, 4, 20). 3 Lysias, Orat xxx, cont. Nikomachnm, 8. 21-30. I trust this Oration so far as the matter of fact, that in the preceding year, some ancient sacrifices had been omitted from state-poverty ; but the manner in which the speak r makes this fact tell against Nikomachus, may or may not be just.
