After the return of Melesippus, Archidamus had no further pretext for lingering at the Isthmus, and he forthwith set forward on his march. But instead of striking at once into the heart of Attica, or advancing along the sea-coast into the plain of Eleusis, he turned aside to the north, and, crossing the territory of Megara, sat down before a little place called Œnoe, which had been fortified and garrisoned to secure one of the passes of Cithæron between Attica and Bœotia. The Spartans, and the Peloponnesians in general, had no skill in sieges, and did not value it. The fortress defied their attacks, though they exhausted all the resources of their military art. The army grew impatient of the delay, which frustrated its hopes of a rich booty, by giving the Attic husbandmen abundant leisure for placing all their movable property in safety. Archidamus seems to have thought, that his presence was more likely to work upon the fears of the Athenians, before it was felt, and while they might still hope to keep their territory undamaged. But finding at length that he was only losing his time, while he wearied and provoked his troops, he abandoned his attempt upon Œnoe, and, marching southward, entered the Thriasian plain, or the district of Eleusis, where the corn was just ripe, and now began in earnest to give the Athenians a sample of what they had to expect from a continuance of the war.