Kitap 33
38
At the beginning of spring he set sail from Ephesus for the Hellespont and ordered his land army to proceed from Abydos to the Chersonese. He united his naval and military powers at Madytos, a city in the Chersonese, and as they had shut their gates against him he completely invested the place, and was on the point of bringing up his siege engines when the city surrendered. The fear which Antiochus thus inspired led the inhabitants of Sestos and the other cities in the Chersonese to make a voluntary surrender. His next objective was Lysimachia. When he arrived here with the whole of his land and sea forces he found the place deserted and little more than a heap of ruins, for some years previously the Thracians had captured and plundered the city and then burnt it. Finding it in this condition, Antiochus was seized by a desire to restore a city of such celebrity and so favourably situated, and he at once set about the various tasks which this involved. The houses and walls were rebuilt, some of the former inhabitants who had been made slaves were ransomed, others who were scattered as refugees throughout the Chersonese and the shores of the Hellespont were discovered and brought together, and new colonists were attracted by the prospect of the advantages they would receive. In fact every method was adopted of repopulating the city. To remove at the same time all apprehensions of trouble from the Thracians he proceeded with one half of his army to devastate the neighbouring districts of Thrace, the other half and all the ships' crews he left to go on with the work of restoration.
