HOW THE LONG WALLS WENT DOWN. 219

the terms were read in the assembly, there were
those there who would have refused them, and who
preferred death by starvation to such disgrace. The
great majority, however, voted to accept them, and
word was sent to Lysander that Athens yielded to
the inevitable,

And now into the harbor of the Pireus sailed the
triumphant Lacedemonian fleet, just twenty-seven
years after the war had begun. With them came the
Athenian exiles, some of whom had served with their
city’s foes. The ships building in the dock-yards were
burned and the arsenals ruined, there being left to
Athens only twelve ships-of-war. And then, amid
the joyful shouts of the conquerors, to the music of
flutes played by women and the sportive movements
of dancers crowned with wreaths, the Long Walls of
Athens began to fall.

The conquerors themselves lent a hand to this
work at first, but its completion was left to the
Athenians, who with sore hearts and bowed heads
for many days worked at the demolition of what so
long had been their city’s strength and pride.

What followed may be briefly told. Athens had,
some time before, fallen under the power of a Com-
mittee of Four Hundred, aristocrats who overthrew
the constitution and reigned supreme until the people
rose in their might and brought their despotism to
an end. Now anew oligarchy, called “The Thirty,”
and mostly composed of the returned exiles, came
into despotic power, and the ancient constitution
was once more ignored.

The reign of The Thirty was one of blood, confis-