Book 4
Upon that Cleon fell violently upon them, saying that he knew beforehand that they had no sound purpose; and it was evident now; since they were unwilling to say any thing before the people, but wished to meet in council with a few individuals; if, however, they had any honest intentions, he told them to declare it before all.
But the Lacedaemonians seeing that they could not speak before the multitude, (even though they did think it best, in consequence of their misfortune, to make some concessions,) lest they should lose favour with their allies by speaking and not succeeding; and being convinced that the Athenians would not grant their proposals on moderate terms, returned from Athens without effecting their purpose.
On their arrival, the truce concluded at Pylus was immediately at an end, and the Lacedaemonians asked back their ships, according to agreement. But the Athenians, alleging as grounds of complaint an attack on the fort in contravention of the truce, and other particulars which appear not worth mentioning, refused to return them; laying stress on its having been said, that if there were any violation of it whatever, the truce was at an end. The Lacedaemonians denied it, and charging them with injustice in their conduct respecting the ships, went away, and set themselves to the war.
And now hostilities were carried on at Pylus with the greatest vigour on both sides; the Athenians cruising round the island continually with two ships in opposite directions during the day, while by night they were all moored round it, except on the side of the open sea, whenever there was a wind blowing; (twenty ships too had joined them from Athens to assist in the blockade, so that in all they amounted to seventy; and the Peloponnesians being encamped on the continent, and making attacks on the fort, on the look-out for an opportunity, should any offer, of rescuing their men.
In the mean time the Syracusans and their allies in Sicily, having taken to join the ships on guard at Messana the other squadron which they were preparing, carried on the war from that place.
They were especially urged on to this by the Locrians, out of hatred for the people of Rhegium, whose territory they had themselves also invaded with all their forces.
And they wished to try the result of a sea-fight, seeing that the Athenian ships stationed at Messana were but few; while by the greater part of them, including those that were to come thither, they heard that the island was being blockaded.
For if they gained the advantage by sea, they hoped that by blockading Rhegium both with their land-forces and their ships they would easily reduce it, and then their success would be secured; for as the promontory of Rhegium in Italy, and that of Messana in Sicily, lay close together, the Athenians would not be able to cruise against them, and command the strait.
This strait is formed by the sea between Rhegium and Messana, where Sicily is at the least distance from the continent; and is the Charybdis, so called, through which Ulysses is said to have sailed. And as the sea falls into it through a narrow passage from two great mains, the Tuscan and Sicilian, flowing at the same time with a strong current, it has naturally been considered dangerous.
In this strait then the Syracusans and their allies, with rather more than thirty ships, were compelled to engage, late in the day, about the passage of a boat, and put out to meet sixteen vessels from Athens and eight from Rhegium.
Being defeated by the Athenians, they sailed off with all speed, as they severally happened, to their own camps, the one at Rhegium, the other at Messana, after the loss of one ship, night having overtaken them in the action. After this, the Locrians withdrew from the Rhegian territory;
and the fleet of the Syracusans and their allies united and came to anchor at Cape Pelorus in the Messanian territory, their land-forces having also joined them.
The Athenians and Rhegians sailed up to them, and seeing their ships unmanned, attacked them, and now on their side lost a ship, through an iron grapple having been thrown on it, but the men swam out of it.
Afterwards, when the Syracusans had gone on board their ships, and were being towed along shore to Messana, the Athenians again advanced against them, and lost another vessel, the enemy having For the different explanations of ἀποσιμωσάντων, see Arnold's note. got their ships out into the open sea, and charged them first.
Thus the Syracusans had the advantage in the passage along shore and in the engagement, which was such as has been described, and passed on to the port of Messana.
The Athenians, on receiving tidings that Camarina was going to be betrayed to the Syracusans by Archias and his party, sailed thither; while the Messanians, in the mean time, with all their forces made an expedition, at once by land and by sea, against Naxos, a Chalcidian town near their borders.
The first day, having driven the Naxians within their walls, they ravaged the land, and the next day sailed round with their fleet, and did the same in the direction of the river Acesines, while with their land-forces they made their incursion towards the city.
Meanwhile the Sicels came down from the highlands in great numbers to assist against the Messanians; and when the Naxians saw them, they took courage, and cheering themselves with the belief that the Leontines and other Grecian allies were coming to their aid, made a sudden sally from the town, and fell upon the Messanians, and having routed them, slew more than a thousand, the rest having a miserable return homeward; for the barbarians fell upon them on the road, and cut off most of them.
The ships, having put in at Messana, subsequently dispersed for their several homes. Immediately after this, the Leontines and their allies, in conjunction with the Athenians, turned their arms against Messana, in the belief of its having been weakened; and attempted it by an attack, the Athenians with their ships on the side of the harbour, the land-forces on the side of the town.
But the Messanians, and some Locrians with Demoteles, who after its disaster had been left in it as a garrison, suddenly fell upon them, and routed the greater part of the Leontine troops, and slew many of them. The Athenians, on seeing it, landing from their ships, went to their assistance, and drove the Messanians back again into the town, having come upon them while in confusion; they then erected a trophy and returned to Rhegium.
After this, the Greeks in Sicily continued to make war on each other by land without the co-operation of the Athenians.
At Pylus, in the mean time, the Athenians were still blockading the Lacedaemonians in the island, and the Peloponnesian forces on the continent remained where they were. But the watch was kept by the Athenians with great trouble, through want of both victuals and water;
for there was no spring but one in the citadel of Pylus itself, and that not a copious one; but most of them were drinking such water as they would be likely to find by digging through the shingle near the sea. They suffered too from want of room, being encamped in a narrow space;
and as the ships had no roadstead, some of them took their meals on shore in their turn, while others lay off at anchor. But their greatest discouragement was caused by the time being prolonged beyond their expectation;
for they imagined that they should reduce them to surrender in a few days, shut up in a desert island as they were, and having only brackish water to drink.
The cause of this delay was the Lacedaemonians having proclaimed, that any one who wished should carry into the island ground corn, wine, cheese, and any other food that might be serviceable in the siege; rating it at a high price, and promising freedom to any of the Helots who should carry it in. Many others therefore carried it in, at all risks, and especially the Helots, putting out from any part of the Peloponnesians, as might happen, and landing by night on the side of the island towards the open sea.
But what they particularly watched for was a chance of being carried to shore by a wind;
for they more easily escaped the look-out of the triremes, when there was a breeze from sea-ward; as it was then impossible for the cruisers to anchor round it, while their own landing was effected in a reckless manner; for their boats being rated at their value in money, they drove them up on the beach, while the soldiers were watching for them at the landing-places in the island. But all that ran the risk in calm weather were taken prisoners.
Divers also swam in under water on the side of the harbour, dragging by a cord in skins poppy-seed mixed with honey, and bruised linseed; but though these escaped unobserved at first, precautions were afterwards taken against them.
Indeed each party contrived in every possible manner, the one to throw in provisions, the other to prevent its being done without their observation.
When they heard at Athens the circumstances of the army, that it was thus being harassed, and that corn was thus taken in for the men in the island, they were perplexed, and afraid that winter might surprise them in the blockade. For they saw that both carrying provisions round the Peloponnese would then be impossible—at the same time they were in an uninhabited country, [where they could get none themselves,] and even in summer they were not able to send round sufficient supplies for them—and that the blockade by sea of so harbourless a country could not be continued; but that the men would either escape through their giving up their guard, or would watch for a storm, and sail out in the boats that carried the corn in for them.
Above all, they were alarmed by the conduct of the Lacedaemonians; for they imagined that it was from their having some strong point on their side that they made no more overtures to them;
and they regretted not having assented to the treaty. Cleon observing their suspicions of him, with regard to the obstacles thrown in the way of the convention, said that their informants did not speak the truth. When those who had come with the tidings advised them, if they did not believe them, to send some commissioners to see, he himself, with Theogenes, was chosen by the Athenians for that purpose.
Aware therefore that he would be compelled either to give the same account as those whom he was slandering, or to be proved a liar if he gave a different one, he advised the Athenians—seeing that they were really more inclined in their minds for a fresh expedition—that they should not send commissioners, nor delay and waste their opportunity, but sail against the men, if they thought the report was true.
And he pointedly alluded to Nicias the son of Niceratus, who was general at the time; hating him, and tauntingly observing, that it was easy, if their generals were men, to sail with a force and take those in the island; and that if he had himself been in office, he would have done it.
Nicias, observing that the Athenians began to murmur at Cleon for not sailing as it was, if he thought it so easy, and at the same time seeing that he aimed his taunts at him, desired him to take whatever force he chose, as far as the generals were concerned, and make the attempt.
Cleon, thinking at first that he only pretended to give up the command to him, was prepared to accept it; but when he found that he really wished to transfer it to him, he drew back, and said that he was not general, but they; being afraid now, and not supposing that Nicias would have brought himself to retire in his favour.
He, however, again urged him to undertake it, and resigned the command against Pylus, and called on the Athenians to attest it. They, as the multitude is ever wont to do, the more Cleon shrank from the expedition, and tried to escape from what he had said, pressed Nicias the more to give up the command to him, and called loudly on Cleon to set sail.
So that not knowing how to evade his words any longer, he undertook the voyage, and, coming forward, said, that he was not afraid of the Lacedaemonians, but would set sail, taking with him no one out of the city, but only the Lemnians and Imbrians that were there, with some targeteers that had come to their aid from Oenus, and four hundred bowmen from other quarters. With these, in addition to the soldiers at Pylus, he said that within twenty days he would either bring the Lacedaemonians alive, or kill them on the spot.
The Athenians were seized with laughter at his vain talking, but nevertheless the sensible part of them were pleased with the business, reckoning that they should gain one of two good things; either to be rid of Cleon, which they rather hoped, or, if deceived in their opinion, to get the Lacedaemonians into their hands.