History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides [best free ebook reader TXT] 📗

BOOK VIII CHAPTER XXIV

_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.

 

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 shipbuilding, 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 lookout 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