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[5] To begin with, we fortified Peiraeus in the course of this period1: secondly, we built the Long Wall to the north2: then the existing fleet of old, unseaworthy triremes with which we had won Greece her independence by defeating the king of Persia and his barbarians—these existing vessels were replaced by a hundred new ones3: and it was at this time that we first enrolled three hundred cavalry and purchased three hundred Scythian archers4. Such were the benefits which Athens derived from the peace with Sparta, such the strength which was added thereby to the Athenian democracy.

1 Again an error. Peiraeus was fortified by Themistocles immediately after the repulse of the Persians in 480.

2 The northern Long Wall, connecting Athens with Peiraeus, was in fact built in 457, over ten years before the negotiation of the peace which Andocides is discussing. Nothing is said of the wall to the south, running between Athens and Phalerum, which was constructed at the same time.

3 An obvious inaccuracy. The Athenian fleet had been growing steadily since the Persian Wars and the institution of the Delian League.

4 Cavalry had been in existence since at least the seventh century. Solon, at the beginning of the sixth, formed his second property class of Ἱππεῖς, citizens wealthy enough to provide themselves with a horse in time of war. Archers (τοξόται) were imported for the first time shortly after Salamis (480 B.C.)

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