376 HISTORY OF GREECE. even Nisaea ; but on reaching Tripodiskus in the night, he learned that the latter place had already surrendered. Alarmed for the safety
- f Megara, he proceeded thither by a night-march without dela>.
Taking with him only a chosen band of three hundred men, b-? presented himself, without being expected, at the gates of the city ; entreating to be admitted, and offering to lend his imme- diate aid for the recovery of Nisaea. One of the two parties i. i Megara would have been glad to comply ; but the other, know - ing well that in that case the exiles in Pegae would be brought back upon them, was prepared for a strenuous resistance, in which case the Athenian force, still only one mile off, would have been introduced as auxiliaries. Under these circumstances the two parties came to a compromise, and mutually agreed to refuse admittance to Brasidas. They expected that a battle would take place between him and the Athenians, and each calculated that Megara would follow the fortunes of the victor. 1 Returning back without success to Tripodiskus, Brasidas was joined there early in the morning by two thousand Boeotian hop- lites and six hundred cavalry ; for the Boeotians had been put in motion by the same news as himself, and had even commenced their march, before his messenger arrived, with such celerity as to have already reached Plataea. 2 The total force under Brasidas was thus increased to six thousand hoplites and six hundred cavalry, with whom he marched straight to the neighborhood of Megara. The Athenian light troops, dispersed over the plain, were surprised and driven in by the Boeotian cavalry ; but the Athenian cavalry, coming to their aid, maintained a sharp action with the assailants, wherein, after some loss on both sides, a slight advantage remained on the side of the Athenians. They granted a truce for the burial of the Boeotian officer of cavalry, who was slain with some others. After this indecisive cavalry skirmish, Brasidas advanced with his main force into the plain, between Megara and the sea, taking up a position near to the Athenian hoplites, who were drawn up in battle array, hard by Nisaea and the Long Walls. He thus offered them battle if they chose it ; but each party expected that the other would attack and each was unwilling to begin the attack on his own side
1 Thncyd ir 71 * Thncyd. iv, 72.
