A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

The Battle in Peir^us 249
at first inclined to dispute their passage, but as the wide
circuit of the walls needed a defence beyond the reach of
their still scanty numbers, they fell back in a compact
body upon Munychia. Then the troops from the city
poured into the market-place of Hippodamus.
Here they
formed in line, stretching along and filling the street
which leads to the temple of Artemis and the Bendideum.
This line must have been at least fifty shields deep; and
in this formation they at once began to march up. As to
the men of Phyle, they too blocked the street at the opposite
end, and faced the foe. They presented only a
thin line not more than ten deep, though behind them
were ranged a body of targeteers and light-armed, javelin
throwers, who were again supported by an artillery of
stone-slingers—a tolerably numerous division drawn from
the population of the port and district itself. While his
antagonists were still advancing, Thrasybulus gave the
order to ground their heavy shields;
and having done so
himself, whilst retaining the rest of his arms, he stood in
the midst, and thus addressed them:
"Men and fellow-citizens, I wish to inform some of you,
and to remind others that of the force you see advancing
beneath us there, the right division are the very men we
routed and pursued only five days ago; while on the extreme
left there you see the Thirty. These are the men
who have not spared to rob us of our city, though we did
no wrong; who have hounded us from our homes; who
have set the seal of proscription on our dearest friends.
But to-day the wheel of fortune has revolved; that has
come about which least of all they looked for, which most
of all we prayed for. Here we stand with our good swords
in our hands, face to face with our foes; and the gods
themselves are with us, seeing that we are arrested in the
Munychia, a
hill, the citadel
of
Peirasus;
Hippodamus,
the civil engineer,
who
had planned
the city; Bendideum,
a
shrine to a
Thracian
goddess.
The battle in
Peirseus.
Address of
Thrasybulus.