This he might do, either from a personal wish to oblige him, or acting under instructions from Lacedaemon for the purpose of creating a prejudice against him, as had been before attempted in the demand for the expulsion of the accursed family.

He accordingly took the precaution of announcing to the Athenians in the assembly that, although Archidamus was his friend, yet this friendship should not extend to the detriment of the state, and that in case the enemy should make his houses and lands an exception to the rest and not pillage them, he at once gave them up to be public property, so that they should not bring him into suspicion.

He also gave the citizens some advice on their present affairs in the same strain as before.

They were to prepare for the war, and to carry in their property from the country.

They were not to go out to battle, but to come into the city and guard it, and get ready their fleet, in which their real strength lay.