Book 8
And it so happened in this battle that on both sides the Ionians were victorious over the Dorians; for the Athenians defeated the Peloponnesians opposed to themselves, and the Milesians the Argives. But the Athenians, after setting up a trophy, made preparations for shutting off the place, which had the shape of an isthmus, with a wall, thinking that, if they should bring Miletus over to their side, the other places would readily come over also.
In the meantime, when it was already approaching dusk, word was brought to them that the fifty-five ships from the Peloponnesus and from Sicily were all but there. For from Sicily, where Hermocrates the Syracusan took the lead in urging the Siceliots to take part in what remained to be done for the complete destruction of the Athenians, there had come twenty Syracusan and two Selinuntian ships, besides those from the Peloponnesus, which they had been equipping and which were at last ready; and both squadrons were put in charge of Therimenes the Lacedaemonian with orders to take them to Astyochus the admiral. They first put in to harbour at Leros, the island off Miletus;
and from there, on finding that the Athenians were at Miletus, they sailed into the Iasic Gulf, wishing to know the state of affairs at Miletus.
And when Alcibiades came by horse to Teichiussa, a town in Milesian territory on that part of the gulf to which they had sailed and where they had bivouacked, they learned the story of the battle; for Alcibiades had been present and had fought with the Milesians and with Tissaphernes. And he urged them, if they did not wish to ruin matters in Ionia and their whole cause, to aid Miletus as quickly as possible, and not to suffer it to be invested.
Accordingly they were proposing to go to its aid at daybreak; but Phrynichus, the Athenian general, when he received from Leros accurate information about the enemy's fleet, though his colleagues wished to wait and fight a decisive battle, refused either to do this himself or to permit them or anybody else to do it, so far as he had power to prevent it.
For in a case where it would be possible to fight at a later time, after leisurely and adequate preparation and possessing full information as to the number of the enemy's ships they must meet and how many of their own they would have, he would never, he declared, yielding to the consideration of disgrace, hazard a decisive battle unreasonably.
It was not disgraceful, he said, for Athenians to give way before a hostile navy upon occasion, but it would be more disgraceful if under any circumstances whatever they should be defeated and have to make terms. The state would incur, not only disgrace, but also the greatest danger; for, after their past misfortunes, it was scarcely permissible for it when securely prepared of free will, orie. when not fully prepared. through absolute necessity, to take the offensive in any direction, much less was it permissible, when there was no pressure, to rush into self-chosen dangers.
He urged them, therefore, as speedily as possible to take up their wounded and their forces on land and whatever stores they had brought with them, leaving behind, however, the spoils they had taken from the enemy's country, in order that the ships might be light, and sail back to Samos;
then, making that their base, after bringing all their ships together, they might sally forth for attacks if opportunity should offer anywhere. As he advised, so he also acted;
and consequently, though not on the present occasion more than afterwards, nor as regards this decision only, but in general in whatever circumstances he found himself, Phrynichus won the reputation of being a man of sagacity. Thus the Athenians, their victory incomplete, retired from Miletus immediately after nightfall; and the Argives, in all haste and indignant at what had happened, sailed home from Samos.
At daybreak the Peloponnesians weighed anchor from Teichiussa and put to shore, and then, after waiting one day, took into their fleet on the next day the Chian ships that under the command of Chalcideus had been pursued to port.cf. 8.17.3. They now wished to sail back to Teichiussa after the stores which they had put ashore there.
On their arrival Tissaphernes, who had come up with his land-forces, persuaded them to sail against Iasus, where Amorges, an enemy, was in occupation. So they made a sudden attack upon Iasus and took it, as the inhabitants had no thought but that the ships were Athenian;
and in the action the Syracusans won most praise. Amorges was taken alive by the Peloponnesians and delivered over to Tissaphernes to lead home to the King, if he so wished, according to his orderscf. 8.5.5.; and they sacked Iasus, the army taking very much treasure, for the place was one of ancient wealth.
As for the mercenaries who served with Amorges, they took them into their own camp, and without doing them any harm put them into their ranks, because most of them were from the Peloponnesus. The town they delivered to Tissaphernes, together with all the captives, both bond and free, agreeing to accept from him a Daric staterEquivalent to twenty Attic drachmae, about 13s. 4d. $3 25. It was named after Darius the Great who first coined it. for each one of them. They then withdrew to Miletus.
Pedaritus son of Leon, who had been sent by the Lacedaemonians to be governor at Chios, they dispatched by land as far as Erythrae in command of the mercenary force of Amorges, and there in Miletus they appointed Philippus governor. So the summer ended.
During the following winter, after he had placed Iasus in charge of a garrison, Tissaphernes came to Miletus, where he distributed to all the ships a month's pay, as he had promised at Lacedaemon to do, to the amount of an Attic drachma a day for each man; for the future, however, he proposed to give only three obolsi.e., one half of a drachma. until he should ask the King;
if the King should so order, he would give the full drachma. But when Hermocrates the Syracusan general remonstrated-for Therimenes, not being admiral, but sailing with the fleet only to turn it over to Astyochus, was complaisant about the pay-a sum was agreed upon notwithstanding that was larger by five ships than three obols for each man.cf. 8.5.5. For he gave for fifty-five ships thirty talents a monthie. fifty-five ships got the pay of sixty. Thirty talents (1,080,000 obols) would be the pay of sixty ships a month at the rate of three obols a man a day (3 obols×200 men×60 ships). This sum being given to fifty-five ships instead of sixty, Thucydides calls it παρὰ πέντε ναῦς πλέον, more by five ships than the ordinary rate. The payment of three obols per man was calculated on sixty ships instead of fifty-five and the whole divided between the fifty-five crews.; and to the others, according as there were more ships than this number, pay was given in the same proportion.Fifty ships is the original number which came over (ch. xxvi. I), and for these a definite sum (30 talents) is agreed upon. The “others” were ships that came later, or possibly the Chian ships (ch. xxviii. I).
The same winter, when the Athenians in Samos had received from home a reinforcement of thirty-five ships under the command of Charminus, Strombichides and Euctemon, after bringing together their ships which were at Chios and all their other ships, they proposed to blockade Miletus with the fleet and to send a force of ships and infantry against Chios, assigning the commands by lot.
And this they did. Strombichides, Onomacles and Euctemon, with thirty ships and a portion of the thousand hoplites that had come to Miletus, whom they took on transports, sailed against Chios according to their lot, while the others, remaining at Samos with seventy-four ships, controlled the sea and made descents upon Miletus.
But Astyochus, who chanced to be at Chios at this time, engaged in collecting hostages as a precaution against the treachery above mentioned,cf. 8.24.6. desisted from this work, when he observed that the ships under the command of Therimenes had come and that the affairs of the Peloponnesian alliance were improved, and taking the ten Peloponnesian shipsie. the four under himself from Erythrae (8.24.6) and the six which had come from Cenchreiae to Chios (8.28.5). and ten Chian he put to sea, and after attacking Pteleum without success proceeded along the coast to Clazomenae.
There he ordered those who favoured the Athenian cause to remove inland to Daphnus and come over to the Peloponnesian side. In this order Tamos, who was lieutenant-governor of Ionia, also concurred.
When the inhabitants of Clazomenae would not obey, he made an assault upon the city, which was unwalled, but being unable to capture it, he took advantage of a strong wind to sail away, he himself going to Phocaea and Cyme, while the rest of the fleet made harbour among the islands which lie off Clazomenae—Marathussa, Pele, and Drymussa.
There they remained eight days on account of the winds, and meanwhile either plundered and consumed the property of the Clazomenians that had secretly been stored on the islands or else put it aboard their ships; they then sailed to Phocaea and Cyme to join Astyochus.
While Astyochus was still at Phocaea and Cyme, envoys of the Lesbians arrived, proposing to renew their revolt.cf. ch. xxii. And in fact Astyochus was persuaded, but as the Corinthians and the other allies were without zeal, in consequence of their former failure, he weighed anchor and sailed for Chios. There his ships, which had been scattered by a storm, arrived at length, some coming from one quarter and some from another.
After this Pedaritus, who at the time mentioned abovecf. 8.28.5. was moving along the shore from Miletus with a body of infantry, arrived at Erythrae and then crossed over with his army to Chios; and Astyochus also had ready to his hand soldiers from the five ships, to the number of five hundred, who had been left, together with their arms, by Chalcideus.cf. 8.17.1.
Since, now, certain Lesbians were renewing their proposals to revolt, Astyochus suggested to Pedaritus and the Chians that they ought to take their fleet to Lesbos and bring about the revolt of the island; for thus, he urged, they would either increase the number of their allies or, if they met with failure, would injure the Athenians. But they would not listen to the suggestion, and, furthermore, Pedaritus refused to deliver to him the ships of the Chians.
Astyochus therefore took the five Corinthian ships, a sixth from Megara, one from Hermione, and those which he himself had brought with him from Laconia,Four in number; cf. 8.23.1. and sailed for Miletus in order to take over the office of admiral, with many threats against the Chians, and pledging himself not to aid them if they should have any need of him.
Touching at Corycus in the territory of Erythrae, he spent the night there. And the Athenian fleet from Samos, which was on its way to Chios with the troops, also came to anchor there at the other side of the town, a hill intervening, so that neither fleet had seen the other.
But Astyochus received during the night a letter from Pedaritus saying that some Erythraean prisoners that had been set at liberty had arrived at Erythrae from Samos for the purpose of betraying it; he therefore immediately set sail again for Erythrae, and thus narrowly escaped falling in with the Athenians.
Pedaritus also crossed over and joined him at Erythrae; and they, having investigated the charges against those who were supposed to be intending to betray the town, when they found that the whole story had been given out only to effect the men's escape from Samos, acquitted them and sailed away, Pedaritus to Chios, and Astyochus to Miletus, as he had originally intended.
In the meantime the Athenian armament also left Corycus, and as it was rounding the point of Arginum met with three Chian ships of war; and no sooner did they see them than they made pursuit. Now a great storm came on, and the Chian ships with great difficulty escaped to the harbour; but of the Athenian ships the three that had pursued most hotly were wrecked and cast ashore at the city of Chios, where the men aboard were either taken captive or put to death; the rest of the fleet escaped to the harbour called Phoenicus that lies at the foot of Mt. Mimas. Sailing thence they afterwards came to anchor at Lesbos and began preparing to build their fortifications.At Delphinium (8.88.2).
During the same winter Hippocrates the Lacedaemonian sailed from the Peloponnesus with ten Thurian ships, under the command of Dorieus son of Diagoras and two colleagues, and one Laconian and one Syracusan ship, and put in at Cnidos, which had at length revolted at the instigation of Tissaphernes.
And when those in authority at Miletus heard of their coming, they gave orders that one half of the newly arrived ships should guard Cnidos and that the other half should cruise around Triopium and seize the merchantmen that touched there on the way from Egypt. Now this Triopium is a headland projecting from the territory of Cnidos and sacred to Apollo.
The Athenians, being informed of their intentions, also sailed from Samos and captured the six ships that were on guard at Triopium, though their crews escaped. After this they sailed to Cnidos, and attacking the city, which was without walls, almost captured it.
The next day they made a second assault, but as the inhabitants had strengthened their defences during the night and had been reinforced by the men who had escaped from the ships at Triopium, the Athenians could not do so much damage as before, and so they withdrew and, after ravaging the territory of the Cnidians, sailed back to Samos.
At about the same time Astyochus arrived at Miletus to take command of the fleet. The Peloponnesians were still well provided with all that their camp required, for sufficient pay was being given, the large amount of property plundered from Iasus was in the possession of the soldiers, and the Milesians were zealously prosecuting the war.
Nevertheless, the Peloponnesians felt that the first compact with Tissaphernes, which had been concluded between him and Chalcideus, was defective and not so much to their interest as to his, and so they drew up another while Therimenes was there. And its terms were as follows:
"Compact of the Lacedaemonians and their allies with King Darius and the King's sons and Tissaphernes. There shall be a treaty and friendship on the following terms: "1.
Whatsoever territory and cities belong to King Darius or belonged to his father or their ancestors, against these shall neither the Lacedaemonians nor their allies go either for war or to do any harm; nor shall either the Lacedaemonians or their allies exact tribute from these cities. Nor shall King Darius or those over whom the King rules go against the Lacedaemonians or their allies for war or to do any harm. "2. If the Lacedaemonians or their allies have need of anything from the King or the King from the Lacedaemonians or their allies, whatever they shall persuade one another to do, this shall be right for them to do. "3.
The war against the Athenians and their allies both parties shall wage in common;