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to lay waste Mygdonia, Crestonia, and

Anthemus.

 

The Macedonians never even thought of meeting him with infantry; but

the Thracian host was, as opportunity offered, attacked by handfuls of

their horse, which had been reinforced from their allies in the

interior. Armed with cuirasses, and excellent horsemen, wherever these

charged they overthrew all before them, but ran considerable risk in

entangling themselves in the masses of the enemy, and so finally

desisted from these efforts, deciding that they were not strong enough

to venture against numbers so superior.

 

Meanwhile Sitalces opened negotiations with Perdiccas on the objects

of his expedition; and finding that the Athenians, not believing

that he would come, did not appear with their fleet, though they

sent presents and envoys, dispatched a large part of his army

against the Chalcidians and Bottiaeans, and shutting them up inside

their walls laid waste their country. While he remained in these

parts, the people farther south, such as the Thessalians, Magnetes,

and the other tribes subject to the Thessalians, and the Hellenes as

far as Thermopylae, all feared that the army might advance against

them, and prepared accordingly. These fears were shared by the

Thracians beyond the Strymon to the north, who inhabited the plains,

such as the Panaeans, the Odomanti, the Droi, and the Dersaeans, all

of whom are independent. It was even matter of conversation among

the Hellenes who were enemies of Athens whether he might not be

invited by his ally to advance also against them. Meanwhile he held

Chalcidice and Bottice and Macedonia, and was ravaging them all; but

finding that he was not succeeding in any of the objects of his

invasion, and that his army was without provisions and was suffering

from the severity of the season, he listened to the advice of Seuthes,

son of Spardacus, his nephew and highest officer, and decided to

retreat without delay. This Seuthes had been secretly gained by

Perdiccas by the promise of his sister in marriage with a rich

dowry. In accordance with this advice, and after a stay of thirty days

in all, eight of which were spent in Chalcidice, he retired home as

quickly as he could; and Perdiccas afterwards gave his sister

Stratonice to Seuthes as he had promised. Such was the history of

the expedition of Sitalces.

 

In the course of this winter, after the dispersion of the

Peloponnesian fleet, the Athenians in Naupactus, under Phormio,

coasted along to Astacus and disembarked, and marched into the

interior of Acarnania with four hundred Athenian heavy infantry and

four hundred Messenians. After expelling some suspected persons from

Stratus, Coronta, and other places, and restoring Cynes, son of

Theolytus, to Coronta, they returned to their ships, deciding that

it was impossible in the winter season to march against Oeniadae, a

place which, unlike the rest of Acarnania, had been always hostile

to them; for the river Achelous flowing from Mount Pindus through

Dolopia and the country of the Agraeans and Amphilochians and the

plain of Acarnania, past the town of Stratus in the upper part of

its course, forms lakes where it falls into the sea round Oeniadae,

and thus makes it impracticable for an army in winter by reason of the

water. Opposite to Oeniadae lie most of the islands called

Echinades, so close to the mouths of the Achelous that that powerful

stream is constantly forming deposits against them, and has already

joined some of the islands to the continent, and seems likely in no

long while to do the same with the rest. For the current is strong,

deep, and turbid, and the islands are so thick together that they

serve to imprison the alluvial deposit and prevent its dispersing,

lying, as they do, not in one line, but irregularly, so as to leave no

direct passage for the water into the open sea. The islands in

question are uninhabited and of no great size. There is also a story

that Alcmaeon, son of Amphiraus, during his wanderings after the

murder of his mother was bidden by Apollo to inhabit this spot,

through an oracle which intimated that he would have no release from

his terrors until he should find a country to dwell in which had not

been seen by the sun, or existed as land at the time he slew his

mother; all else being to him polluted ground. Perplexed at this,

the story goes on to say, he at last observed this deposit of the

Achelous, and considered that a place sufficient to support life upon,

might have been thrown up during the long interval that had elapsed

since the death of his mother and the beginning of his wanderings.

Settling, therefore, in the district round Oeniadae, he founded a

dominion, and left the country its name from his son Acarnan. Such

is the story we have received concerning Alcmaeon.

 

The Athenians and Phormio putting back from Acarnania and arriving

at Naupactus, sailed home to Athens in the spring, taking with them

the ships that they had captured, and such of the prisoners made in

the late actions as were freemen; who were exchanged, man for man. And

so ended this winter, and the third year of this war, of which

Thucydides was the historian.

BOOK III CHAPTER IX

Fourth and Fifth Years of the War - Revolt of Mitylene

 

The next summer, just as the corn was getting ripe, the

Peloponnesians and their allies invaded Attica under the command of

Archidamus, son of Zeuxidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians, and sat

down and ravaged the land; the Athenian horse as usual attacking them,

wherever it was practicable, and preventing the mass of the light

troops from advancing from their camp and wasting the parts near the

city. After staying the time for which they had taken provisions,

the invaders retired and dispersed to their several cities.

 

Immediately after the invasion of the Peloponnesians all Lesbos,

except Methymna, revolted from the Athenians. The Lesbians had

wished to revolt even before the war, but the Lacedaemonians would not

receive them; and yet now when they did revolt, they were compelled to

do so sooner than they had intended. While they were waiting until the

moles for their harbours and the ships and walls that they had in

building should be finished, and for the arrival of archers and corn

and other things that they were engaged in fetching from the Pontus,

the Tenedians, with whom they were at enmity, and the Methymnians, and

some factious persons in Mitylene itself, who were proxeni of

Athens, informed the Athenians that the Mitylenians were forcibly

uniting the island under their sovereignty, and that the

preparations about which they were so active, were all concerted

with the Boeotians their kindred and the Lacedaemonians with a view to

a revolt, and that, unless they were immediately prevented, Athens

would lose Lesbos.

 

However, the Athenians, distressed by the plague, and by the war

that had recently broken out and was now raging, thought it a

serious matter to add Lesbos with its fleet and untouched resources to

the list of their enemies; and at first would not believe the

charge, giving too much weight to their wish that it might not be

true. But when an embassy which they sent had failed to persuade the

Mitylenians to give up the union and preparations complained of,

they became alarmed, and resolved to strike the first blow. They

accordingly suddenly sent off forty ships that had been got ready to

sail round Peloponnese, under the command of Cleippides, son of

Deinias, and two others; word having been brought them of a festival

in honour of the Malean Apollo outside the town, which is kept by

the whole people of Mitylene, and at which, if haste were made, they

might hope to take them by surprise. If this plan succeeded, well

and good; if not, they were to order the Mitylenians to deliver up

their ships and to pull down their walls, and if they did not obey, to

declare war. The ships accordingly set out; the ten galleys, forming

the contingent of the Mitylenians present with the fleet according

to the terms of the alliance, being detained by the Athenians, and

their crews placed in custody. However, the Mitylenians were

informed of the expedition by a man who crossed from Athens to Euboea,

and going overland to Geraestus, sailed from thence by a merchantman

which he found on the point of putting to sea, and so arrived at

Mitylene the third day after leaving Athens. The Mitylenians

accordingly refrained from going out to the temple at Malea, and

moreover barricaded and kept guard round the half-finished parts of

their walls and harbours.

 

When the Athenians sailed in not long after and saw how things

stood, the generals delivered their orders, and upon the Mitylenians

refusing to obey, commenced hostilities. The Mitylenians, thus

compelled to go to war without notice and unprepared, at first

sailed out with their fleet and made some show of fighting, a little

in front of the harbour; but being driven back by the Athenian

ships, immediately offered to treat with the commanders, wishing, if

possible, to get the ships away for the present upon any tolerable

terms. The Athenian commanders accepted their offers, being themselves

fearful that they might not be able to cope with the whole of

Lesbos; and an armistice having been concluded, the Mitylenians sent

to Athens one of the informers, already repentant of his conduct,

and others with him, to try to persuade the Athenians of the innocence

of their intentions and to get the fleet recalled. In the meantime,

having no great hope of a favourable answer from Athens, they also

sent off a galley with envoys to Lacedaemon, unobserved by the

Athenian fleet which was anchored at Malea to the north of the town.

 

While these envoys, reaching Lacedaemon after a difficult journey

across the open sea, were negotiating for succours being sent them,

the ambassadors from Athens returned without having effected anything;

and hostilities were at once begun by the Mitylenians and the rest

of Lesbos, with the exception of the Methymnians, who came to the

aid of the Athenians with the Imbrians and Lemnians and some few of

the other allies. The Mitylenians made a sortie with all their

forces against the Athenian camp; and a battle ensued, in which they

gained some slight advantage, but retired notwithstanding, not feeling

sufficient confidence in themselves to spend the night upon the field.

After this they kept quiet, wishing to wait for the chance of

reinforcements arriving from Peloponnese before making a second

venture, being encouraged by the arrival of Meleas, a Laconian, and

Hermaeondas, a Theban, who had been sent off before the insurrection

but had been unable to reach Lesbos before the Athenian expedition,

and who now stole in in a galley after the battle, and advised them to

send another galley and envoys back with them, which the Mitylenians

accordingly did.

 

Meanwhile the Athenians, greatly encouraged by the inaction of the

Mitylenians, summoned allies to their aid, who came in all the quicker

from seeing so little vigour displayed by the Lesbians, and bringing

round their ships to a new station to the south of the town, fortified

two camps, one on each side of the city, and instituted a blockade

of both the harbours. The sea was thus closed against the Mitylenians,

who, however, commanded the whole country, with the rest of the

Lesbians who had now joined them; the Athenians only holding a limited

area round their camps, and using Malea more as the station for

their ships and their market.

 

While the war went on in this way at Mitylene, the Athenians,

about the same time in this summer, also sent thirty ships to

Peloponnese under Asopius, son of Phormio; the Acarnanians insisting

that the commander sent should

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