Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

SIEGE LINES AT PLATJEA. 93may be found an occasional lesson. But many such must bepassed over unnoticed throughout all history. The Peloponnesianwas not a great war. There were but a half-dozen battlesin twenty-seven years, and only one decisive one, ^gospotami.It was a war of exhaustion.The siege of Platrea (b. c. 429-427) is interesting in that wehave in its story the first detailed account of any siege of antiquity,and can therefrom learn the methods practiced. InPylos, B. c. 425.this light it is more important to us than because a mere handfulof men held the Spartans at bay for nearly two years.Thucydides tells us that the besiegers began by surroundingthe toAvn with a line of palisades ; but that when the siegeoperations showed no signs of success, they resorted to a carefulblockade and built two waUs sixteen feet apart, one facingtoward the town, one outward. The detail on duty held thisdouble line ; the bulk of the forces camped outside. Thespace between the walls was roofed in to protect the troops