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The History of the Peloponnesian War
Book 8 - Chapter XXIV
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Nineteenth and Twentieth Years of the War - Revolt of Ionia -
Intervention of Persia - The War in Ionia
When the news was brought to Athens, for a long while they
disbelieved even the most respectable of the soldiers who had
themselves escaped from the scene of action and clearly reported the
matter, a destruction so complete not being thought credible. When the
conviction was forced upon them, they were angry with the orators
who had joined in promoting the expedition, just as if they had not
themselves voted it, and were enraged also with the reciters of
oracles and soothsayers, and all other omen-mongers of the time who
had encouraged them to hope that they should conquer Sicily. Already
distressed at all points and in all quarters, after what had now
happened, they were seized by a fear and consternation quite without
example. It was grievous enough for the state and for every man in his
proper person to lose so many heavy infantry, cavalry, and able-bodied
troops, and to see none left to replace them; but when they saw, also,
that they had not sufficient ships in their docks, or money in the
treasury, or crews for the ships, they began to despair of
salvation. They thought that their enemies in Sicily would immediately
sail with their fleet against Piraeus, inflamed by so signal a
victory; while their adversaries at home, redoubling all their
preparations, would vigorously attack them by sea and land at once,
aided by their own revolted confederates. Nevertheless, with such
means as they had, it was determined to resist to the last, and to
provide timber and money, and to equip a fleet as they best could,
to take steps to secure their confederates and above all Euboea, to
reform things in the city upon a more economical footing, and to elect
a board of elders to advise upon the state of affairs as occasion
should arise. In short, as is the way of a democracy, in the panic
of the moment they were ready to be as prudent as possible.
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These resolves were at once carried into effect. Summer was now
over. The winter ensuing saw all Hellas stirring under the
impression of the great Athenian disaster in Sicily. Neutrals now felt
that even if uninvited they ought no longer to stand aloof from the
war, but should volunteer to march against the Athenians, who, as they
severally reflected, would probably have come against them if the
Sicilian campaign had succeeded. Besides, they considered that the war
would now be short, and that it would be creditable for them to take
part in it. Meanwhile the allies of the Lacedaemonians felt all more
anxious than ever to see a speedy end to their heavy labours. But
above all, the subjects of the Athenians showed a readiness to
revolt even beyond their ability, judging the circumstances with
passion, and refusing even to hear of the Athenians being able to last
out the coming summer. Beyond all this, Lacedaemon was encouraged by
the near prospect of being joined in great force in the spring by
her allies in Sicily, lately forced by events to acquire their navy.
With these reasons for confidence in every quarter, the Lacedaemonians
now resolved to throw themselves without reserve into the war,
considering that, once it was happily terminated, they would be
finally delivered from such dangers as that which would have
threatened them from Athens, if she had become mistress of Sicily, and
that the overthrow of the Athenians would leave them in quiet
enjoyment of the supremacy over all Hellas.
Their king, Agis, accordingly set out at once during this winter
with some troops from Decelea, and levied from the allies
contributions for the fleet, and turning towards the Malian Gulf
exacted a sum of money from the Oetaeans by carrying off most of their
cattle in reprisal for their old hostility, and, in spite of the
protests and opposition of the Thessalians, forced the Achaeans of
Phthiotis and the other subjects of the Thessalians in those parts
to give him money and hostages, and deposited the hostages at Corinth,
and tried to bring their countrymen into the confederacy. The
Lacedaemonians now issued a requisition to the cities for building a
hundred ships, fixing their own quota and that of the Boeotians at
twenty-five each; that of the Phocians and Locrians together at
fifteen; that of the Corinthians at fifteen; that of the Arcadians,
Pellenians, and Sicyonians together at ten; and that of the Megarians,
Troezenians, Epidaurians, and Hermionians together at ten also; and
meanwhile made every other preparation for commencing hostilities by
the spring.
In the meantime the Athenians were not idle. During this same
winter, as they had determined, they contributed timber and pushed
on their ship-building, and fortified Sunium to enable their
corn-ships to round it in safety, and evacuated the fort in Laconia
which they had built on their way to Sicily; while they also, for
economy, cut down any other expenses that seemed unnecessary, and
above all kept a careful look-out against the revolt of their
confederates.
While both parties were thus engaged, and were as intent upon
preparing for the war as they had been at the outset, the Euboeans
first of all sent envoys during this winter to Agis to treat of
their revolting from Athens. Agis accepted their proposals, and sent
for Alcamenes, son of Sthenelaidas, and Melanthus from Lacedaemon,
to take the command in Euboea. These accordingly arrived with some
three hundred Neodamodes, and Agis began to arrange for their crossing
over. But in the meanwhile arrived some Lesbians, who also wished to
revolt; and these being supported by the Boeotians, Agis was persuaded
to defer acting in the matter of Euboea, and made arrangements for the
revolt of the Lesbians, giving them Alcamenes, who was to have
sailed to Euboea, as governor, and himself promising them ten ships,
and the Boeotians the same number. All this was done without
instructions from home, as Agis while at Decelea with the army that he
commanded had power to send troops to whatever quarter he pleased, and
to levy men and money. During this period, one might say, the allies
obeyed him much more than they did the Lacedaemonians in the city,
as the force he had with him made him feared at once wherever he went.
While Agis was engaged with the Lesbians, the Chians and
Erythraeans, who were also ready to revolt, applied, not to him but at
Lacedaemon; where they arrived accompanied by an ambassador from
Tissaphernes, the commander of King Darius, son of Artaxerxes, in
the maritime districts, who invited the Peloponnesians to come over,
and promised to maintain their army. The King had lately called upon
him for the tribute from his government, for which he was in
arrears, being unable to raise it from the Hellenic towns by reason of
the Athenians; and he therefore calculated that by weakening the
Athenians he should get the tribute better paid, and should also
draw the Lacedaemonians into alliance with the King; and by this
means, as the King had commanded him, take alive or dead Amorges,
the bastard son of Pissuthnes, who was in rebellion on the coast of
Caria.
While the Chians and Tissaphernes thus joined to effect the same
object, about the same time Calligeitus, son of Laophon, a Megarian,
and Timagoras, son of Athenagoras, a Cyzicene, both of them exiles
from their country and living at the court of Pharnabazus, son of
Pharnaces, arrived at Lacedaemon upon a mission from Pharnabazus, to
procure a fleet for the Hellespont; by means of which, if possible, he
might himself effect the object of Tissaphernes' ambition and cause
the cities in his government to revolt from the Athenians, and so
get the tribute, and by his own agency obtain for the King the
alliance of the Lacedaemonians.
The emissaries of Pharnabazus and Tissaphernes treating apart, a
keen competition now ensued at Lacedaemon as to whether a fleet and
army should be sent first to Ionia and Chios, or to the Hellespont.
The Lacedaemonians, however, decidedly favoured the Chians and
Tissaphernes, who were seconded by Alcibiades, the family friend of
Endius, one of the ephors for that year. Indeed, this is how their
house got its Laconic name, Alcibiades being the family name of
Endius. Nevertheless the Lacedaemonians first sent to Chios Phrynis,
one of the Perioeci, to see whether they had as many ships as they
said, and whether their city generally was as great as was reported;
and upon his bringing word that they had been told the truth,
immediately entered into alliance with the Chians and Erythraeans, and
voted to send them forty ships, there being already, according to
the statement of the Chians, not less than sixty in the island. At
first the Lacedaemonians meant to send ten of these forty
themselves, with Melanchridas their admiral; but afterwards, an
earthquake having occurred, they sent Chalcideus instead of
Melanchridas, and instead of the ten ships equipped only five in
Laconia. And the winter ended, and with it ended also the nineteenth
year of this war of which Thucydides is the historian.
At the beginning of the next summer the Chians were urging that
the fleet should be sent off, being afraid that the Athenians, from
whom all these embassies were kept a secret, might find out what was
going on, and the Lacedaemonians at once sent three Spartans to
Corinth to haul the ships as quickly as possible across the Isthmus
from the other sea to that on the side of Athens, and to order them
all to sail to Chios, those which Agis was equipping for Lesbos not
excepted. The number of ships from the allied states was thirty-nine
in all.
Meanwhile Calligeitus and Timagoras did not join on behalf of Pharnabazus
in the expedition to Chios or give the money--twenty-five talents--which
they had brought with them to help in dispatching a force, but
determined to sail afterwards with another force by themselves.
Agis, on the other hand, seeing the Lacedaemonians bent upon
going to Chios first, himself came in to their views; and
the allies assembled at Corinth and held a council, in which
they decided to sail first to Chios under the command of Chalcideus,
who was equipping the five vessels in Laconia, then to Lesbos,
under the command of Alcamenes, the same whom Agis had fixed
upon, and lastly to go to the Hellespont, where the command was
given to Clearchus, son of Ramphias. Meanwhile they would take only
half the ships across the Isthmus first, and let those sail off at
once, in order that the Athenians might attend less to the departing
squadron than to those to be taken across afterwards, as no care had
been taken to keep this voyage secret through contempt of the
impotence of the Athenians, who had as yet no fleet of any account
upon the sea. Agreeably to this determination, twenty-one vessels were
at once conveyed across the Isthmus.
They were now impatient to set sail, but the Corinthians were not
willing to accompany them until they had celebrated the Isthmian
festival, which fell at that time. Upon this Agis proposed to them
to save their scruples about breaking the Isthmian truce by taking the
expedition upon himself. The Corinthians not consenting to this, a
delay ensued, during which the Athenians conceived suspicions of
what was preparing at Chios, and sent Aristocrates, one of their
generals, and charged them with the fact, and, upon the denial of
the Chians, ordered them to send with them a contingent of ships, as
faithful confederates. Seven were sent accordingly. The reason of
the dispatch of the ships lay in the fact that the mass of the
Chians were not privy to the negotiations, while the few who were in
the secret did not wish to break with the multitude until they had
something positive to lean upon, and no longer expected the
Peloponnesians to arrive by reason of their delay.
In the meantime the Isthmian games took place, and the Athenians,
who had been also invited, went to attend them, and now seeing more
clearly into the designs of the Chians, as soon as they returned to
Athens took measures to prevent the fleet putting out from Cenchreae
without their knowledge. After the festival the Peloponnesians set
sail with twenty-one ships for Chios, under the command of
Alcamenes. The Athenians first sailed against them with an equal
number, drawing off towards the open sea. The enemy, however,
turning back before he had followed them far, the Athenians returned
also, not trusting the seven Chian ships which formed part of their
number, and afterwards manned thirty-seven vessels in all and chased
him on his passage alongshore into Spiraeum, a desert Corinthian
port on the edge of the Epidaurian frontier. After losing one ship out
at sea, the Peloponnesians got the rest together and brought them to
anchor. The Athenians now attacked not only from the sea with their
fleet, but also disembarked upon the coast; and a melee ensued of
the most confused and violent kind, in which the Athenians disabled
most of the enemy's vessels and killed Alcamenes their commander,
losing also a few of their own men.
After this they separated, and the Athenians, detaching a sufficient
number of ships to blockade those of the enemy, anchored with the rest
at the islet adjacent, upon which they proceeded to encamp, and sent to
Athens for reinforcements; the Peloponnesians having been joined on
the day after the battle by the Corinthians, who came to help the
ships, and by the other inhabitants in the vicinity not long
afterwards. These saw the difficulty of keeping guard in a desert
place, and in their perplexity at first thought of burning the
ships, but finally resolved to haul them up on shore and sit down
and guard them with their land forces until a convenient opportunity
for escaping should present itself. Agis also, on being informed of
the disaster, sent them a Spartan of the name of Thermon. The
Lacedaemonians first received the news of the fleet having put out
from the Isthmus, Alcamenes having been ordered by the ephors to
send off a horseman when this took place, and immediately resolved
to dispatch their own five vessels under Chalcideus, and Alcibiades
with him. But while they were full of this resolution came the
second news of the fleet having taken refuge in Spiraeum; and
disheartened at their first step in the Ionian war proving a
failure, they laid aside the idea of sending the ships from their
own country, and even wished to recall some that had already sailed.
Perceiving this, Alcibiades again persuaded Endius and the other
ephors to persevere in the expedition, saying that the voyage would be
made before the Chians heard of the fleet's misfortune, and that as
soon as he set foot in Ionia, he should, by assuring them of the
weakness of the Athenians and the zeal of Lacedaemon, have no
difficulty in persuading the cities to revolt, as they would readily
believe his testimony. He also represented to Endius himself in
private that it would be glorious for him to be the means of making
Ionia revolt and the King become the ally of Lacedaemon, instead of
that honour being left to Agis (Agis, it must be remembered, was the
enemy of Alcibiades); and Endius and his colleagues thus persuaded, he
put to sea with the five ships and the Lacedaemonian Chalcideus, and
made all haste upon the voyage.
About this time the sixteen Peloponnesian ships from Sicily, which
had served through the war with Gylippus, were caught on their
return off Leucadia and roughly handled by the twenty-seven Athenian
vessels under Hippocles, son of Menippus, on the lookout for the ships
from Sicily. After losing one of their number, the rest escaped from
the Athenians and sailed into Corinth.
Meanwhile Chalcideus and Alcibiades seized all they met with on
their voyage, to prevent news of their coming, and let them go at
Corycus, the first point which they touched at in the continent.
Here they were visited by some of their Chian correspondents and,
being urged by them to sail up to the town without announcing their
coming, arrived suddenly before Chios. The many were amazed and
confounded, while the few had so arranged that the council should be
sitting at the time; and after speeches from Chalcideus and Alcibiades
stating that many more ships were sailing up, but saying nothing of
the fleet being blockaded in Spiraeum, the Chians revolted from the
Athenians, and the Erythraeans immediately afterwards. After this
three vessels sailed over to Clazomenae, and made that city revolt
also; and the Clazomenians immediately crossed over to the mainland
and began to fortify Polichna, in order to retreat there, in case of
necessity, from the island where they dwelt.
While the revolted places were all engaged in fortifying and
preparing for the war, news of Chios speedily reached Athens. The
Athenians thought the danger by which they were now menaced great
and unmistakable, and that the rest of their allies would not
consent to keep quiet after the secession of the greatest of their
number. In the consternation of the moment they at once took off the
penalty attaching to whoever proposed or put to the vote a proposal
for using the thousand talents which they had jealously avoided
touching throughout the whole war, and voted to employ them to man a
large number of ships, and to send off at once under Strombichides,
son of Diotimus, the eight vessels, forming part of the blockading
fleet at Spiraeum, which had left the blockade and had returned
after pursuing and failing to overtake the vessels with Chalcideus.
These were to be followed shortly afterwards by twelve more under
Thrasycles, also taken from the blockade. They also recalled the seven
Chian vessels, forming part of their squadron blockading the fleet
in Spiraeum, and giving the slaves on board their liberty, put the
freemen in confinement, and speedily manned and sent out ten fresh
ships to blockade the Peloponnesians in the place of all those that
had departed, and decided to man thirty more. Zeal was not wanting,
and no effort was spared to send relief to Chios.
In the meantime Strombichides with his eight ships arrived at Samos,
and, taking one Samian vessel, sailed to Teos and required them to
remain quiet. Chalcideus also set sail with twenty-three ships for
Teos from Chios, the land forces of the Clazomenians and Erythraeans
moving alongshore to support him. Informed of this in time,
Strombichides put out from Teos before their arrival, and while out at
sea, seeing the number of the ships from Chios, fled towards Samos,
chased by the enemy. The Teians at first would not receive the land
forces, but upon the flight of the Athenians took them into the
town. There they waited for some time for Chalcideus to return from
the pursuit, and as time went on without his appearing, began
themselves to demolish the wall which the Athenians had built on the
land side of the city of the Teians, being assisted by a few of the
barbarians who had come up under the command of Stages, the lieutenant
of Tissaphernes.
Meanwhile Chalcideus and Alcibiades, after chasing Strombichides
into Samos, armed the crews of the ships from Peloponnese and left
them at Chios, and filling their places with substitutes from Chios
and manning twenty others, sailed off to effect the revolt of Miletus.
The wish of Alcibiades, who had friends among the leading men of the
Milesians, was to bring over the town before the arrival of the
ships from Peloponnese, and thus, by causing the revolt of as many
cities as possible with the help of the Chian power and of Chalcideus,
to secure the honour for the Chians and himself and Chalcideus, and,
as he had promised, for Endius who had sent them out. Not discovered
until their voyage was nearly completed, they arrived a little
before Strombichides and Thrasycles (who had just come with twelve
ships from Athens, and had joined Strombichides in pursuing them), and
occasioned the revolt of Miletus. The Athenians sailing up close on
their heels with nineteen ships found Miletus closed against them, and
took up their station at the adjacent island of Lade. The first
alliance between the King and the Lacedaemonians was now concluded
immediately upon the revolt of the Milesians, by Tissaphernes and
Chalcideus, and was as follows:
The Lacedaemonians and their allies made a treaty with the King
and Tissaphernes upon the terms following:
1. Whatever country or cities the King has, or the King's
ancestors had, shall be the king's: and whatever came in to the
Athenians from these cities, either money or any other thing, the King
and the Lacedaemonians and their allies shall jointly hinder the
Athenians from receiving either money or any other thing.
2. The war with the Athenians shall be carried on jointly by the
King and by the Lacedaemonians and their allies: and it shall not be
lawful to make peace with the Athenians except both agree, the King on
his side and the Lacedaemonians and their allies on theirs.
3. If any revolt from the King, they shall be the enemies of the
Lacedaemonians and their allies. And if any revolt from the
Lacedaemonians and their allies, they shall be the enemies of the King
in like manner.
This was the alliance. After this the Chians immediately manned
ten more vessels and sailed for Anaia, in order to gain intelligence
of those in Miletus, and also to make the cities revolt. A message,
however, reaching them from Chalcideus to tell them to go back
again, and that Amorges was at hand with an army by land, they
sailed to the temple of Zeus, and there sighting ten more ships
sailing up with which Diomedon had started from Athens after
Thrasycles, fled, one ship to Ephesus, the rest to Teos. The Athenians
took four of their ships empty, the men finding time to escape ashore;
the rest took refuge in the city of the Teians; after which the
Athenians sailed off to Samos, while the Chians put to sea with
their remaining vessels, accompanied by the land forces, and caused
Lebedos to revolt, and after it Erae. After this they both returned
home, the fleet and the army.
About the same time the twenty ships of the Peloponnesians in
Spiraeum, which we left chased to land and blockaded by an equal
number of Athenians, suddenly sallied out and defeated the
blockading squadron, took four of their ships, and, sailing back to
Cenchreae, prepared again for the voyage to Chios and Ionia. Here they
were joined by Astyochus as high admiral from Lacedaemon, henceforth
invested with the supreme command at sea. The land forces now
withdrawing from Teos, Tissaphernes repaired thither in person with an
army and completed the demolition of anything that was left of the
wall, and so departed. Not long after his departure Diomedon arrived
with ten Athenian ships, and, having made a convention by which the
Teians admitted him as they had the enemy, coasted along to Erae, and,
failing in an attempt upon the town, sailed back again.
About this time took place the rising of the commons at Samos
against the upper classes, in concert with some Athenians, who were
there in three vessels. The Samian commons put to death some two
hundred in all of the upper classes, and banished four hundred more,
and themselves took their land and houses; after which the Athenians
decreed their independence, being now sure of their fidelity, and
the commons henceforth governed the city, excluding the landholders
from all share in affairs, and forbidding any of the commons to give
his daughter in marriage to them or to take a wife from them in
future.
After this, during the same summer, the Chians, whose zeal continued
as active as ever, and who even without the Peloponnesians found
themselves in sufficient force to effect the revolt of the cities
and also wished to have as many companions in peril as possible,
made an expedition with thirteen ships of their own to Lesbos; the
instructions from Lacedaemon being to go to that island next, and from
thence to the Hellespont. Meanwhile the land forces of the
Peloponnesians who were with the Chians and of the allies on the spot,
moved alongshore for Clazomenae and Cuma, under the command of Eualas,
a Spartan; while the fleet under Diniadas, one of the Perioeci,
first sailed up to Methymna and caused it to revolt, and, leaving four
ships there, with the rest procured the revolt of Mitylene.
In the meantime Astyochus, the Lacedaemonian admiral, set sail
from Cenchreae with four ships, as he had intended, and arrived at
Chios. On the third day after his arrival, the Athenian ships,
twenty-five in number, sailed to Lesbos under Diomedon and Leon, who
had lately arrived with a reinforcement of ten ships from Athens. Late
in the same day Astyochus put to sea, and taking one Chian vessel with
him sailed to Lesbos to render what assistance he could. Arrived at
Pyrrha, and from thence the next day at Eresus, he there learned
that Mitylene had been taken, almost without a blow, by the Athenians,
who had sailed up and unexpectedly put into the harbour, had beaten
the Chian ships, and landing and defeating the troops opposed to
them had become masters of the city. Informed of this by the
Eresians and the Chian ships, which had been left with Eubulus at
Methymna, and had fled upon the capture of Mitylene, and three of
which he now fell in with, one having been taken by the Athenians,
Astyochus did not go on to Mitylene, but raised and armed Eresus, and,
sending the heavy infantry from his own ships by land under
Eteonicus to Antissa and Methymna, himself proceeded alongshore
thither with the ships which he had with him and with the three
Chians, in the hope that the Methymnians upon seeing them would be
encouraged to persevere in their revolt. As, however, everything
went against him in Lesbos, he took up his own force and sailed back
to Chios; the land forces on board, which were to have gone to the
Hellespont, being also conveyed back to their different cities.
After this six of the allied Peloponnesian ships at Cenchreae joined
the forces at Chios. The Athenians, after restoring matters to their
old state in Lesbos, set sail from thence and took Polichna, the place
that the Clazomenians were fortifying on the continent, and carried
the inhabitants back to their town upon the island, except the authors
of the revolt, who withdrew to Daphnus; and thus Clazomenae became
once more Athenian.
The same summer the Athenians in the twenty ships at Lade,
blockading Miletus, made a descent at Panormus in the Milesian
territory, and killed Chalcideus the Lacedaemonian commander, who
had come with a few men against them, and the third day after sailed
over and set up a trophy, which, as they were not masters of the
country, was however pulled down by the Milesians. Meanwhile Leon
and Diomedon with the Athenian fleet from Lesbos issuing from the
Oenussae, the isles off Chios, and from their forts of Sidussa and
Pteleum in the Erythraeid, and from Lesbos, carried on the war against
the Chians from the ships, having on board heavy infantry from the
rolls pressed to serve as marines. Landing in Cardamyle and in
Bolissus they defeated with heavy loss the Chians that took the
field against them and, laying desolate the places in that
neighbourhood, defeated the Chians again in another battle at
Phanae, and in a third at Leuconium. After this the Chians ceased to
meet them in the field, while the Athenians devastated the country,
which was beautifully stocked and had remained uninjured ever since
the Median wars. Indeed, after the Lacedaemonians, the Chians are
the only people that I have known who knew how to be wise in
prosperity, and who ordered their city the more securely the greater
it grew. Nor was this revolt, in which they might seem to have erred
on the side of rashness, ventured upon until they had numerous and
gallant allies to share the danger with them, and until they perceived
the Athenians after the Sicilian disaster themselves no longer denying
the thoroughly desperate state of their affairs. And if they were
thrown out by one of the surprises which upset human calculations,
they found out their mistake in company with many others who believed,
like them, in the speedy collapse of the Athenian power. While they
were thus blockaded from the sea and plundered by land, some of the
citizens undertook to bring the city over to the Athenians. Apprised
of this the authorities took no action themselves, but brought
Astyochus, the admiral, from Erythrae, with four ships that he had
with him, and considered how they could most quietly, either by taking
hostages or by some other means, put an end to the conspiracy.
While the Chians were thus engaged, a thousand Athenian heavy
infantry and fifteen hundred Argives (five hundred of whom were
light troops furnished with armour by the Athenians), and one thousand
of the allies, towards the close of the same summer sailed from Athens
in forty-eight ships, some of which were transports, under the command
of Phrynichus, Onomacles, and Scironides, and putting into Samos
crossed over and encamped at Miletus. Upon this the Milesians came out
to the number of eight hundred heavy infantry, with the Peloponnesians
who had come with Chalcideus, and some foreign mercenaries of
Tissaphernes, Tissaphernes himself and his cavalry, and engaged the
Athenians and their allies. While the Argives rushed forward on
their own wing with the careless disdain of men advancing against
Ionians who would never stand their charge, and were defeated by the
Milesians with a loss little short of three hundred men, the Athenians
first defeated the Peloponnesians, and driving before them the
barbarians and the ruck of the army, without engaging the Milesians,
who after the rout of the Argives retreated into the town upon
seeing their comrades worsted, crowned their victory by grounding
their arms under the very walls of Miletus. Thus, in this battle,
the Ionians on both sides overcame the Dorians, the Athenians
defeating the Peloponnesians opposed to them, and the Milesians the
Argives. After setting up a trophy, the Athenians prepared to draw a
wall round the place, which stood upon an isthmus; thinking that, if
they could gain Miletus, the other towns also would easily come over
to them.
Meanwhile about dusk tidings reached them that the fifty-five
ships from Peloponnese and Sicily might be instantly expected. Of
these the Siceliots, urged principally by the Syracusan Hermocrates to
join in giving the finishing blow to the power of Athens, furnished
twenty-two--twenty from Syracuse, and two from Silenus; and the
ships that we left preparing in Peloponnese being now ready, both
squadrons had been entrusted to Therimenes, a Lacedaemonian, to take
to Astyochus, the admiral. They now put in first at Leros the island
off Miletus, and from thence, discovering that the Athenians were
before the town, sailed into the Iasic Gulf, in order to learn how
matters stood at Miletus. Meanwhile Alcibiades came on horseback to
Teichiussa in the Milesian territory, the point of the gulf at which
they had put in for the night, and told them of the battle in which he
had fought in person by the side of the Milesians and Tissaphernes,
and advised them, if they did not wish to sacrifice Ionia and their
cause, to fly to the relief of Miletus and hinder its investment.
Accordingly they resolved to relieve it the next morning.
Meanwhile Phrynichus, the Athenian commander, had received precise
intelligence of the fleet from Leros, and when his colleagues
expressed a wish to keep the sea and fight it out, flatly refused
either to stay himself or to let them or any one else do so if he
could help it. Where they could hereafter contend, after full and
undisturbed preparation, with an exact knowledge of the number of
the enemy's fleet and of the force which they could oppose to him,
he would never allow the reproach of disgrace to drive him into a risk
that was unreasonable. It was no disgrace for an Athenian fleet to
retreat when it suited them: put it as they would, it would be more
disgraceful to be beaten, and to expose the city not only to disgrace,
but to the most serious danger. After its late misfortunes it could
hardly be justified in voluntarily taking the offensive even with
the strongest force, except in a case of absolute necessity: much less
then without compulsion could it rush upon peril of its own seeking.
He told them to take up their wounded as quickly as they could and the
troops and stores which they had brought with them, and leaving behind
what they had taken from the enemy's country, in order to lighten
the ships, to sail off to Samos, and there concentrating all their
ships to attack as opportunity served. As he spoke so he acted; and
thus not now more than afterwards, nor in this alone but in all that
he had to do with, did Phrynichus show himself a man of sense. In this
way that very evening the Athenians broke up from before Miletus,
leaving their victory unfinished, and the Argives, mortified at
their disaster, promptly sailed off home from Samos.
As soon as it was morning the Peloponnesians weighed from Teichiussa
and put into Miletus after the departure of the Athenians; they stayed
one day, and on the next took with them the Chian vessels originally
chased into port with Chalcideus, and resolved to sail back for the
tackle which they had put on shore at Teichiussa. Upon their arrival
Tissaphernes came to them with his land forces and induced them to
sail to Iasus, which was held by his enemy Amorges. Accordingly they
suddenly attacked and took Iasus, whose inhabitants never imagined
that the ships could be other than Athenian. The Syracusans
distinguished themselves most in the action. Amorges, a bastard of
Pissuthnes and a rebel from the King, was taken alive and handed
over to Tissaphernes, to carry to the King, if he chose, according
to his orders: Iasus was sacked by the army, who found a very great
booty there, the place being wealthy from ancient date. The
mercenaries serving with Amorges the Peloponnesians received and
enrolled in their army without doing them any harm, since most of them
came from Peloponnese, and handed over the town to Tissaphernes with
all the captives, bond or free, at the stipulated price of one Doric
stater a head; after which they returned to Miletus. Pedaritus, son of
Leon, who had been sent by the Lacedaemonians to take the command at
Chios, they dispatched by land as far as Erythrae with the mercenaries
taken from Amorges; appointing Philip to remain as governor of
Miletus.
Summer was now over. The winter following, Tissaphernes put Iasus in
a state of defence, and passing on to Miletus distributed a month's
pay to all the ships as he had promised at Lacedaemon, at the rate
of an Attic drachma a day for each man. In future, however, he was
resolved not to give more than three obols, until he had consulted the
King; when if the King should so order he would give, he said, the
full drachma. However, upon the protest of the Syracusan general
Hermocrates (for as Therimenes was not admiral, but only accompanied
them in order to hand over the ships to Astyochus, he made little
difficulty about the pay), it was agreed that the amount of five
ships' pay should be given over and above the three obols a day for
each man; Tissaphernes paying thirty talents a month for fifty-five
ships, and to the rest, for as many ships as they had beyond that
number, at the same rate.
The same winter the Athenians in Samos, having been joined by
thirty-five more vessels from home under Charminus, Strombichides, and
Euctemon, called in their squadron at Chios and all the rest,
intending to blockade Miletus with their navy, and to send a fleet and
an army against Chios; drawing lots for the respective services.
This intention they carried into effect; Strombichides, Onamacles, and
Euctemon sailing against Chios, which fell to their lot, with thirty
ships and a part of the thousand heavy infantry, who had been to
Miletus, in transports; while the rest remained masters of the sea
with seventy-four ships at Samos, and advanced upon Miletus.
Meanwhile Astyochus, whom we left at Chios collecting the hostages
required in consequence of the conspiracy, stopped upon learning
that the fleet with Therimenes had arrived, and that the affairs of
the league were in a more flourishing condition, and putting out to
sea with ten Peloponnesian and as many Chian vessels, after a futile
attack upon Pteleum, coasted on to Clazomenae, and ordered the
Athenian party to remove inland to Daphnus, and to join the
Peloponnesians, an order in which also joined Tamos the king's
lieutenant in Ionia. This order being disregarded, Astyochus made an
attack upon the town, which was unwalled, and having failed to take it
was himself carried off by a strong gale to Phocaea and Cuma, while
the rest of the ships put in at the islands adjacent to
Clazomenae--Marathussa, Pele, and Drymussa. Here they were detained
eight days by the winds, and, plundering and consuming all the
property of the Clazomenians there deposited, put the rest on
shipboard and sailed off to Phocaea and Cuma to join Astyochus.
While he was there, envoys arrived from the Lesbians who wished to
revolt again. With Astyochus they were successful; but the Corinthians
and the other allies being averse to it by reason of their former
failure, he weighed anchor and set sail for Chios, where they
eventually arrived from different quarters, the fleet having been
scattered by a storm. After this Pedaritus, whom we left marching
along the coast from Miletus, arrived at Erythrae, and thence
crossed over with his army to Chios, where he found also about five
hundred soldiers who had been left there by Chalcideus from the five
ships with their arms. Meanwhile some Lesbians making offers to
revolt, Astyochus urged upon Pedaritus and the Chians that they
ought to go with their ships and effect the revolt of Lesbos, and so
increase the number of their allies, or, if not successful, at all
events harm the Athenians. The Chians, however, turned a deaf ear to
this, and Pedaritus flatly refused to give up to him the Chian
vessels.
Upon this Astyochus took five Corinthian and one Megarian vessel,
with another from Hermione, and the ships which had come with him from
Laconia, and set sail for Miletus to assume his command as admiral;
after telling the Chians with many threats that he would certainly not
come and help them if they should be in need. At Corycus in the
Erythraeid he brought to for the night; the Athenian armament
sailing from Samos against Chios being only separated from him by a
hill, upon the other side of which it brought to; so that neither
perceived the other. But a letter arriving in the night from Pedaritus
to say that some liberated Erythraean prisoners had come from Samos to
betray Erythrae, Astyochus at once put back to Erythrae, and so just
escaped falling in with the Athenians. Here Pedaritus sailed over to
join him; and after inquiry into the pretended treachery, finding that
the whole story had been made up to procure the escape of the men from
Samos, they acquitted them of the charge, and sailed away, Pedaritus
to Chios and Astyochus to Miletus as he had intended.
Meanwhile the Athenian armament sailing round Corycus fell in with
three Chian men-of-war off Arginus, and gave immediate chase. A
great storm coming on, the Chians with difficulty took refuge in the
harbour; the three Athenian vessels most forward in the pursuit
being wrecked and thrown up near the city of Chios, and the crews
slain or taken prisoners. The rest of the Athenian fleet took refuge
in the harbour called Phoenicus, under Mount Mimas, and from thence
afterwards put into Lesbos and prepared for the work of fortification.
The same winter the Lacedaemonian Hippocrates sailed out from
Peloponnese with ten Thurian ships under the command of Dorieus, son
of Diagoras, and two colleagues, one Laconian and one Syracusan
vessel, and arrived at Cnidus, which had already revolted at the
instigation of Tissaphernes. When their arrival was known at
Miletus, orders came to them to leave half their squadron to guard
Cnidus, and with the rest to cruise round Triopium and seize all the
merchantmen arriving from Egypt. Triopium is a promontory of Cnidus
and sacred to Apollo. This coming to the knowledge of the Athenians,
they sailed from Samos and captured the six ships on the watch at
Triopium, the crews escaping out of them. After this the Athenians
sailed into Cnidus and made an assault upon the town, which was
unfortified, and all but took it; and the next day assaulted it again,
but with less effect, as the inhabitants had improved their defences
during the night, and had been reinforced by the crews escaped from
the ships at Triopium. The Athenians now withdrew, and after
plundering the Cnidian territory sailed back to Samos.
About the same time Astyochus came to the fleet at Miletus. The
Peloponnesian camp was still plentifully supplied, being in receipt of
sufficient pay, and the soldiers having still in hand the large
booty taken at Iasus. The Milesians also showed great ardour for the
war. Nevertheless the Peloponnesians thought the first convention with
Tissaphernes, made with Chalcideus, defective, and more advantageous
to him than to them, and consequently while Therimenes was still there
concluded another, which was as follows:
The convention of the Lacedaemonians and the allies with King
Darius and the sons of the King, and with Tissaphernes for a treaty
and friendship, as follows:
1. Neither the Lacedaemonians nor the allies of the Lacedaemonians
shall make war against or otherwise injure any country or cities
that belong to King Darius or did belong to his father or to his
ancestors; neither shall the Lacedaemonians nor the allies of the
Lacedaemonians exact tribute from such cities. Neither shall King
Darius nor any of the subjects of the King make war against or
otherwise injure the Lacedaemonians or their allies.
2. If the Lacedaemonians or their allies should require any
assistance from the King, or the King from the Lacedaemonians or their
allies, whatever they both agree upon they shall be right in doing.
3. Both shall carry on jointly the war against the Athenians and
their allies: and if they make peace, both shall do so jointly.
4. The expense of all troops in the King's country, sent for by
the King, shall be borne by the King.
5. If any of the states comprised in this convention with the King
attack the King's country, the rest shall stop them and aid the King
to the best of their power. And if any in the King's country or in the
countries under the King's rule attack the country of the
Lacedaemonians or their allies, the King shall stop it and help them
to the best of his power.
After this convention Therimenes handed over the fleet to Astyochus,
sailed off in a small boat, and was lost. The Athenian armament had
now crossed over from Lesbos to Chios, and being master by sea and
land began to fortify Delphinium, a place naturally strong on the land
side, provided with more than one harbour, and also not far from the
city of Chios. Meanwhile the Chians remained inactive. Already
defeated in so many battles, they were now also at discord among
themselves; the execution of the party of Tydeus, son of Ion, by
Pedaritus upon the charge of Atticism, followed by the forcible
imposition of an oligarchy upon the rest of the city, having made them
suspicious of one another; and they therefore thought neither
themselves not the mercenaries under Pedaritus a match for the
enemy. They sent, however, to Miletus to beg Astyochus to assist them,
which he refused to do, and was accordingly denounced at Lacedaemon by
Pedaritus as a traitor. Such was the state of the Athenian affairs
at Chios; while their fleet at Samos kept sailing out against the
enemy in Miletus, until they found that he would not accept their
challenge, and then retired again to Samos and remained quiet.
In the same winter the twenty-seven ships equipped by the
Lacedaemonians for Pharnabazus through the agency of the Megarian
Calligeitus, and the Cyzicene Timagoras, put out from Peloponnese
and sailed for Ionia about the time of the solstice, under the command
of Antisthenes, a Spartan. With them the Lacedaemonians also sent
eleven Spartans as advisers to Astyochus; Lichas, son of Arcesilaus,
being among the number. Arrived at Miletus, their orders were to aid
in generally superintending the good conduct of the war; to send off
the above ships or a greater or less number to the Hellespont to
Pharnabazus, if they thought proper, appointing Clearchus, son of
Ramphias, who sailed with them, to the command; and further, if they
thought proper, to make Antisthenes admiral, dismissing Astyochus,
whom the letters of Pedaritus had caused to be regarded with
suspicion. Sailing accordingly from Malea across the open sea, the
squadron touched at Melos and there fell in with ten Athenian ships,
three of which they took empty and burned. After this, being afraid
that the Athenian vessels escaped from Melos might, as they in fact
did, give information of their approach to the Athenians at Samos,
they sailed to Crete, and having lengthened their voyage by way of
precaution made land at Caunus in Asia, from whence considering
themselves in safety they sent a message to the fleet at Miletus for a
convoy along the coast.
Meanwhile the Chians and Pedaritus, undeterred by the backwardness
of Astyochus, went on sending messengers pressing him to come with all
the fleet to assist them against their besiegers, and not to leave the
greatest of the allied states in Ionia to be shut up by sea and
overrun and pillaged by land. There were more slaves at Chios than
in any one other city except Lacedaemon, and being also by reason of
their numbers punished more rigorously when they offended, most of
them, when they saw the Athenian armament firmly established in the
island with a fortified position, immediately deserted to the enemy,
and through their knowledge of the country did the greatest
mischief. The Chians therefore urged upon Astyochus that it was his
duty to assist them, while there was still a hope and a possibility of
stopping the enemy's progress, while Delphinium was still in process
of fortification and unfinished, and before the completion of a higher
rampart which was being added to protect the camp and fleet of their
besiegers. Astyochus now saw that the allies also wished it and
prepared to go, in spite of his intention to the contrary owing to the
threat already referred to.
In the meantime news came from Caunus of the arrival of the
twenty-seven ships with the Lacedaemonian commissioners; and
Astyochus, postponing everything to the duty of convoying a fleet of
that importance, in order to be more able to command the sea, and to
the safe conduct of the Lacedaemonians sent as spies over his
behaviour, at once gave up going to Chios and set sail for Caunus.
As he coasted along he landed at the Meropid Cos and sacked the
city, which was unfortified and had been lately laid in ruins by an
earthquake, by far the greatest in living memory, and, as the
inhabitants had fled to the mountains, overran the country and made
booty of all it contained, letting go, however, the free men. From Cos
arriving in the night at Cnidus he was constrained by the
representations of the Cnidians not to disembark the sailors, but to
sail as he was straight against the twenty Athenian vessels, which
with Charminus, one of the commanders at Samos, were on the watch
for the very twenty-seven ships from Peloponnese which Astyochus was
himself sailing to join; the Athenians in Samos having heard from
Melos of their approach, and Charminus being on the look-out off Syme,
Chalce, Rhodes, and Lycia, as he now heard that they were at Caunus.
Astyochus accordingly sailed as he was to Syme, before he was
heard of, in the hope of catching the enemy somewhere out at sea.
Rain, however, and foggy weather encountered him, and caused his ships
to straggle and get into disorder in the dark. In the morning his
fleet had parted company and was most of it still straggling round the
island, and the left wing only in sight of Charminus and the
Athenians, who took it for the squadron which they were watching for
from Caunus, and hastily put out against it with part only of their
twenty vessels, and attacking immediately sank three ships and
disabled others, and had the advantage in the action until the main
body of the fleet unexpectedly hove in sight, when they were
surrounded on every side. Upon this they took to flight, and after
losing six ships with the rest escaped to Teutlussa or Beet Island,
and from thence to Halicarnassus. After this the Peloponnesians put
into Cnidus and, being joined by the twenty-seven ships from Caunus,
sailed all together and set up a trophy in Syme, and then returned
to anchor at Cnidus.
As soon as the Athenians knew of the sea-fight, they sailed with all
the ships at Samos to Syme, and, without attacking or being attacked
by the fleet at Cnidus, took the ships' tackle left at Syme, and
touching at Lorymi on the mainland sailed back to Samos. Meanwhile the
Peloponnesian ships, being now all at Cnidus, underwent such repairs
as were needed; while the eleven Lacedaemonian commissioners conferred
with Tissaphernes, who had come to meet them, upon the points which
did not satisfy them in the past transactions, and upon the best and
mutually most advantageous manner of conducting the war in future. The
severest critic of the present proceedings was Lichas, who said that
neither of the treaties could stand, neither that of Chalcideus, nor
that of Therimenes; it being monstrous that the King should at this
date pretend to the possession of all the country formerly ruled by
himself or by his ancestors--a pretension which implicitly put back
under the yoke all the islands--Thessaly, Locris, and everything as
far as Boeotia--and made the Lacedaemonians give to the Hellenes
instead of liberty a Median master. He therefore invited Tissaphernes
to conclude another and a better treaty, as they certainly would not
recognize those existing and did not want any of his pay upon such
conditions. This offended Tissaphernes so much that he went away in
a rage without settling anything.
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