History of the Peloponnesian War

Accordingly in the present instance also it seemed to them best that their city should have a wall, and that this course would be of great advantage both to themselves in particular, and to the whole body of the allies;

for it was impossible for tlemn, he added, to have equal or similar weight in the general councils of the alliance except on the basis of a military strength that was a match for theirs. Therefore, he concluded, the members of the alliance should either dispense with their walls one and all, or regard this act of the Athenians as justified.

On hearing this, the Lacedaemonians did not openly show any resentment against the Athenians; for they had sent their embassy to Athens, not to stop the work, but to offer, as they professed, a suggestion in the common interest, and besides, they entertained at that time the most friendly feelings for the Athenians on account of their zeal in opposing the Persians; since, however, they liad failed in their purpose, they were secretly vexed. So the envoys on either side returned home without making any formal complaint.

It was in this manner that the Athenians got their wall built in so short a time, and even to-day the structure shows that it was put together in haste.[*](The remains of the walls now seen around the Peiraeus are not those of the Themistoclean walls, which were destroyed at the end of the Peloponnesian War, but of the walls built by Conon in 393. A small part of these remains, on the flat ground north of the Peiraeus toward the mainland, answers exactly to Thucydides' description--being of solid stone and over 25 feet thick--but most of the remains are of two outer faces of stone, the intermediate spaces filled in with rubble and earth. On Munychia there is no trace anywhere of a solid wall of the age of Themistocles.)

For the lower courses consist of all sorts of stones, in some cases not even hewn to fit but just as they were when the several workers brought them, and many columns from grave monuments and stones wrought for other purposes were built in. For the circuit-wall of the city was extended in every direction, and on this account they laid hands upon everything alike in their haste.