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

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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 whkh 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.