The Classical Review, Vol. 4

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Excerpt from The Classical Review, Vol. 4: February, 1890Another crux is found in the fact that when the Plataeans crossed the siege wall in their escape they found water in the outer ditch of the wall and none in the inner. This, it is thought, is an over sight on the part of Thucydides. Either there Was water in both ditches or in neither. Why so? The water streaming down Cithaeron would quickly fall into the outer ditch, but it could not penetrate into the inner ditch. On the other hand the area within the siege wall, between it and the city wall, would not be large enough to collect much water. Under such circum stances there would always be less water in the inner ditch than in the outer.Once more, Paley points out that the besiegers in their wall were really in more danger than the besieged. They were in a position where they could be attacked on the outside by the Athenians and on the inside by the Plataeans. No doubt: they might have been attacked in this manner, if (1) the Athenians had not made up their minds that they would not take the field with an army against the Peloponnesians (2) and if Thebes had not been much nearer Plataea than Athens was. As a fact they were not attacked. The protracted siege and final fall of Plataea made it clear to all the Grecian world that the Athenians dare not meet their old enemies in the field. From this point of view (though they had other reasons for desiring to take dire vengeance on the Plataeans) the Thebans were quite right, as a matter of policy, in urging the siege upon the Peloponnesians.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.