History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides (free ebooks for android .txt) 📕

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