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