THE DEFENCE OF PLATA. 209

ful in the art of siege. The Platwans had proved
more than their match, and there only remained to
be tried the wearisome and costly process of block-
ade and famine.

‘etermined that Platea should not escape, this
plan was in the end adopted, and a wall built round
the entire city, to prevent escape or the entrance of
aid from without. In fact, two walls were built, six-
teen feet apart, and these were covered in on top, so
that they looked, like one very thick wall. There
were also two ditches, from which the bricks of the
wall had been dug, one on the inside, and one with-
out to prevent relief by a foreign force. The
covered space within the walls served as quarters for
the troops left on guard, its top as a convenient place
for sentry duty. This done the main army marched
away. It needed no great host to keep the few
Platesans within their walls until they should con-
sume all their food and yield to famine, a slower but
more irresistible foe than all the Lacedemonian
power.

Fortunately for the besieged, they were well pro-
visioned, and for more than a year remained in peace
within their city, not attacked by their foes and
receiving no aid from friends. Besides the eighty
Athenians within the walls no help came to the
Platwzans during the long siege. At length pro-
visions began to fail. It was evident that they must
die like rats in a cage, surrender to their foes, or
make a desperate break for freedom.

The last expedient was proposed by their general.
It was daring, and seemed desperate, to seek to

I.—o 18*