Book 8
Meanwhile Chalcideus and Alcibiades as they sailed for Chios seized all whom they encountered, that their coming might not be reported. The first point on the mainland at which they touched was Corycus,There were several places called Corycus. This one was the southernmost point of the Erythraean peninsula, about forty miles from Chios. Cf. Livy xxxvii. 12, Corycum Teiorum promonturium. where they released their captives; then after a conference with some Chians who were co-operating with them and who urged them to sail to Chios without giving any notice, they arrived at Chios suddenly.
Now the people at large were in a state of wonderment and consternation, but the oligarchs had arranged that the council should chance to have just assembled; speeches were accordingly made by Chalcideus and Alcibiades, who announced that many additional ships were on the way, but did not disclose the fact of the blockade of their fleet at Peiraeum, and then the Chians revolted from Athens, and so later on did the Erythraeans.
After this three ships were detached from the fleet and brought about the revolt of Clazomenae. And the Clazomenians immediately crossed over to the mainland and fortified Polichne, on the chance that they themselves might have need of it in case they should withdraw from the islandAccording to Pausanias (7.3.9), the Clazomenians had removed to the island through fear of the Persians. on which they lived. These peoples, then, being in revolt, were all engaged in fortifying and preparing for war.
News of the revolt of Chios came quickly to Athens, and they felt that the danger which encompassed them was by now great and manifest, and that the rest of their allies would not be inclined to keep quiet when the greatest state of all had seceded. And so they took up the question of the fund of a thousand talents,cf. ii. 24. Pericles had set this fund aside in the first year of the war, to be touched only in case a hostile fleet threatened the Peiraeus. which during the whole war they had jealously refrained from touching, and under the influence of their consternation immediately rescinded the penalties which had been imposed upon any speaker who should propose to touch this money, or any presiding officer who should put such a proposal to a vote, and then voted to use this fund and man a considerable number of ships. They also voted that of the ships which were employed in the blockade at Peiraeum there should be sent at once the eight that, leaving guard-duty, had gone in pursuit of the fleet under Chalcideus, but after failing to overtake it had returned to their post—the commander of these eight being Strombichides son of Diotimus—and that soon afterwards twelve others under Thrasycles should leave the blockade and go to the rescue.
As for the seven Chian ships that were assisting them in the blockade of the vessels at Peiraeum, they withdrew them, freeing the slaves aboard them and putting the freemen in fetters. And in place of all the ships that had gone away they speedily manned others and sent them to continue the blockade of the Peloponnesians, and it was their intention to man thirty more. Great indeed was their ardour, and there was nothing trivial in their efforts to send out reinforcements against Chios.
Meanwhile Strombichides with his eight ships arrived at Samos; then after taking on an additional Samian ship he sailed to Teos, whose inhabitants he begged to keep quiet. But at this moment Chalcideus bore down upon him, sailing from Chios to Teos with twenty-three ships, and at the same time the land-force of the Clazomenians and Erythraeans was moving along the shore.
Strombichides, however, observed the enemy in time and promptly put out to sea, and when he was in the open sea and saw how numerous were the ships from Chios, he made flight toward Samos; and the enemy pursued him.
As for the land-force, the Teïans would not at first admit them, but when the Athenians fled they brought them into the city. These troops waited for a while, expecting Chalcideus to join them after the pursuit; but when he tarried, they proceeded on their own account to demolish the fort which the Athenians had built on the mainland side of the city of Teos; and in this work they were assisted by a few of the Barbarian troops that had come up, their commander being Stages, a lieutenant of Tissaphernes.
Chalcideus and Alcibiades, after pursuing Strombichides to Samos, armed the sailors from the Peloponnesian ships and left them at Chios, and replacing the crews of these ships with substitutes from Chios and manning twenty additional ships, they sailed to Miletus, with the intention of causing it to revolt.
For Alcibiades wished, since he was a friend of the leading men of Miletus, to win the Milesians over before the arrival of the Peloponnesian ships, and to fulfil his promisecf. 8.12.2. to secure for the Chians and himself and Chalcideus and for Endius the author of the expedition the credit of having, in concert with the Chian forces and Chalcideus, brought to revolt the largest possible number of cities.
Accordingly they made most of the voyage without being detected, barely anticipated the arrival of Strombichides and Thrasycles—who by chance had just come from Athens with twelve ships and joined in the pursuit—and induced Miletus to revolt. The Athenians followed at their heels with nineteen ships, and, when the Milesians would not admit them, took up their station at Lade, the island that lies off Miletus.
And now, immediately after the revolt of Miletus, the first alliance between the Lacedaemonians and the King was concluded through Tissaphernes and Chalcideus, on the following conditions:
The Lacedaemonians and their allies have concluded an alliance with the King and Tissaphernes on the following terms: "1. Whatsoever territory and cities the King holds or the forefathers of the King held, shall belong to the King; and from these cities whatsoever money or anything else came in for the Athenians shall be stopped by the King and the Lacedaemonians and their allies acting in common, to the end that the Athenians shall receive neither money nor anything else. "2.
And the war against the Athenians shall be waged in common by the King and the Lacedaemonians and their allies; and an end of the war against the Athenians is not to be made except with the consent of both parties, the King as well as the Lacedaemonians and their allies. “3.
If any revolt from the King, they shall be enemies to both the Lacedaemonians and their allies, and if any revolt from the Lacedaemonians and their allies, they shall be enemies to the King in like manner.”
Such was the alliance. And immediately after this the Chians manned ten more ships and sailed to Anaea,On the mainland opposite. wishing to learn about the situation in Miletus and at the same time to induce the cities to revolt.
But a message came from Chalcideus ordering them to sail back again, since Amorges would soon arrive by land with an army, and so they sailed to the temple of Zeus; there they described sixteen ships approaching with which Diomedon had left Athens even after the departure of Thrasycles.
When they saw these ships, they fled to Ephesus with one ship, while the rest made for Teos. Four empty ships were captured by the Athenians, their crews having escaped to the land; the other five took refuge at the city of Teos.
The Athenians then sailed for Samos; and the Chians, putting out to sea with the rest of their ships and acting in concert with the army on land, induced Lebedos to revolt and then Haerae.A small town of the Teians (Strabo, p. 644). After this each contingent returned home, both the army on land and the fleet.
About the same time the twenty Peloponnesian ships at Peiraeum, which had been chased to shore at the time above mentioned8.10.3. and were being blockaded by an equal number of Athenian ships, made a sudden sally, and winning the victory in an engagement captured four of the Athenian ships; they then sailed back to Cenchreiae, where they proceeded again to prepare for the voyage to Chios and Ionia.
And Astyochus came to them from Lacedaemon and on him now devolved, as admiral, the command of the entire fleet. Now when the land-forces withdrew from Teos, Tissaphernes came there in person with an army, demolished whatever was left of the fortification at Teos, and then withdrew. After his departure Diomedon, who arrived a little later with ten Athenian ships, made an agreement with the Teians to receive them also. He then sailed along the coast to Haerae, and after making an assault upon the city without success sailed away.
There also occurred at this time the uprising at Samos which was made against the nobles by the common people in conjunction with some Athenians, who happened to be present on board three ships. And the common people of Samos slew some two hundred in all of the nobles, and having condemned to exile four hundred others, distributed among themselves their land and houses; and when the Athenians, after these events, granted them autonomy on the ground that they were now assured of their fidelity, they administered the affairs of the city thenceforth; and they neither gave to the landowners any other privilege nor permitted any one of the common people from that time on either to give his daughter in marriage to them or to take a wife from them.
After this, during the same summer, the Chians showed no abatement of the zeal which they had displayed from the beginning,cf. 8.19.1. in approaching the various cities in force, even without the Peloponnesians, and inducing them to revolt; and wishing at the same time that as many as possible should share the danger with them, they made an expedition on their own account with thirteen ships against Lesbos. For they had been ordered by the Lacedaemonians to go against it next, and afterwards to proceed to the Hellespont.cf. 8.8.2. At the same time the land-force, consisting both of the Peloponnesians who were present and of the allies from that region, moved along the shore toward Clazomenae and Cyme, being under the command of Eualas, a Spartan, while the fleet was in charge of Deiniadas, one of the Perioeci.
The fleet put in at Methymna and induced it to revolt first, and four ships were left there; the rest then effected the revolt of Mytilene.
Meanwhile Astyochus, the Lacedaemonian admiral, sailed with four ships from Cenchreiae, as he had purposed, and arrived at Chios. And on the third day after his coming the twenty-five Athenian ships sailed to Lesbos, being under the command of Leon and Diomedon; for Leon had arrived afterwards with a reinforcement of ten ships from Athens.
On the same day, but at a later hour, Astyochus put to sea, and taking besides his own one Chian ship sailed to Lesbos, in order to give what aid he could. On that day he reached Pyrrha, and thence on the next day Eresus, where he learned that Mytilene had been taken by the Athenians at the first assault.
For the Athenians, arriving unexpectedly, had immediately sailed into the harbour and got the better of the Chian slips; they then landed and after defeating in battle those that resisted them took possession of the city.
Now when Astyochus learned of this from the inhabitants of Eresus and from the Chian ships that came from Methymna with Eubulus—the ships which had been left behind on the occasion above mentioned,cf. 8.22.2. and now fell in with him in their flight after the capture of Mytilene, being three in number, for one had been captured by the Athenians—he no longer advanced against Mytilene, but instead induced Eresus to revolt, supplied it with arms, and then sent the hoplites on his own ships by land along the coast to Antissa and Methymna, placing Eteonicus in command of them. He himself, meanwhile, took his own and the three Chian ships and sailed along the coast, hoping that the Methymnaeans would be encouraged by the sight of his fleet and would persevere in their revolt.
But since everything at Lesbos was going against him, he took his hoplites aboard and sailed back to Chios. And the forces which had been landed from the shipsThe text is most probably corrupt. These facts practically all commentators agree upon: Astyochus leaves first, taking with him his own force (τὸν ἑαυτοῦ στρατόν), ie. the hoplites whom he had sent against Antissa and Methymna (§ 4). The force here designated must be ὁ πεζὸς πελοποννησίων τε τῶν παρόντων καὶ τῶν αὐτόθεν συμμάχων(8.22.1). But no satisfactory explanation has been given of ἀπὸ τῶν νεῶν in this connection. and were intending to proceed to the Hellespont were conveyed again to their several cities. After this, six of the allied ships from the Peloponnesus that were at Cenchreia joined them at Chios.
As for the Athenians, they restored conditions at Lesbos, and sailing from there captured Polichne,cf. 8.14.3. the Clazomenian settlement on the mainland which was being fortified, and carried all the inhabitants back to the city on the island, except the authors of the revolt; for these had got away to Daphnus. And so Clazomenae again came back to the Athenian alliance.
During the same summer the Athenians, who were at Lade with their twenty ships keeping watch upon Miletus, made a descent at Panormus in Milesian territory and slew Chalcideus, the Lacedaemonian commander, who had come to the rescue with a few men; and two days later they sailed across and set up a trophy, which, however, the Milesians tore down on the ground that the Athenians did not have control of the country when they set it up.
And now Leon and Diomedon, with the Athenian ships from Lesbos, began to make war upon the Chians by sea from the Oenussae islands, which lie off Chios, and from Sidussa and Pteleum, fortresses which they held in Erythraean territory, as well as from Lesbos; and they had on board as marines some hoplites from the muster-rollA register kept by the taxiarch of each tribe in which the name of every Athenian was entered at the age of eighteen. The liability for service extended from 18 to 60. who had been pressed into the service.
And landing at Cardamyle and Boliscus, they defeated in battle those of the Chians who came out to oppose them and slew many, and devastated the settlements in that region; and again at Phanae in another battle they were victorious, and also in a third battle at Leuconium. After this the Chians no longer came out against them, but the Athenians ravaged their country, which was well stocked and had been unharmed from the Persian wars down to that time.
For next to the Lacedaemonians the Chians alone, of all the peoples that I have known, have been at once prosperous and prudent, and the greater their city grew the more securely they ordered their government.
And even as regards this revolt, if men think that they did not consult their safety in undertaking it, they did not venture to make it until they were sure of incurring the danger in concert with many brave allies and perceived that not even the Athenians themselves, after the Sicilian disaster, could any longer deny that their circumstances were beyond a doubt exceedingly bad. And if in the unexpected turns that belong to human life they were somewhat deceived, they made their misjudgment in common with many others who were of the same opinion—that the power of the Athenians would speedily be utterly overthrown.
Now, however, that they were shut off from the sea and were being despoiled by land, some of them attempted to bring the city over to the Athenians. Their rulers perceived this, but themselves kept quiet; however, they fetched from Erythrae the Lacedaemonian admiral Astyochus with the four ships which were with him there, and considered what were the mildest measures, either the seizing of hostages or some other plan, by which they could put an end to the plot. They, then, were thus occupied.
At the end of the same summer there sailed from Athens to Samos one thousand Athenian and fifteen hundred Argive hoplites—for the five hundred of the Argives that were light—armed the Athenians had provided with heavy arms—together with one thousand from the allies. These troops were carried by forty-eight ships, some of which were transports, and were under the command of Phrynichus, Onomacles, and Scironides. From Samos they crossed over to Miletus and encamped there.
But the enemy marched out against them—the Milesians themselves, to the number of eight hundred hoplites, the Peloponnesians who had come with Chalcideus, and a body of mercenaries belonging to Tissaphernes, together with Tissaphernes himself, who was present with his cavalry—and attacked the Athenians and their allies.
Now the Argives with their wing rushed out ahead of the rest and advanced in some disorder, feeling contempt of the enemy as being Ionians and men who would not await their attack, and so were defeated by the Milesians and not fewer than three hundred of them destroyed.
But the Athenians, after defeating the Peloponnesians first and then driving back the barbarians and the miscellaneous crowd—yet without engaging the Milesians, who after their rout of the Argives had withdrawn into the city, when they saw that the rest of their army was being worsted—finally halted, as being already victorious, close to the city itself.