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1.
Such were the events in Sicily.
When the news was brought to Athens, for a long while they disbelieved even
the most respectable of the soldiers who had themselves escaped from the
scene of action and clearly reported the matter, a destruction so complete
not being thought credible.
When the conviction was forced upon them, they were angry with the orators
who had joined in promoting the expedition, just as if they had not
themselves voted it, and were enraged also with the reciters of oracles and
soothsayers, and all other omenmongers of the time who had encouraged them
to hope that they should conquer Sicily.
[2]
Already distressed at all points and in all quarters, after what had now
happened, they were seized by a fear and consternation quite without
example.
It was grievous enough for the state and for every man in his proper person
to lose so many heavy infantry, cavalry, and able-bodied troops, and to see
none left to replace them; but when they saw, also, that they had not sufficient ships in their docks,
or money in the treasury, or crews for the ships, they began to despair of
salvation.
They thought that their enemies in Sicily would immediately sail with their
fleet against Piraeus, inflamed by so signal a victory; while their adversaries at home, redoubling all their preparations, would
vigorously attack them by sea and land at once, aided by their own revolted
confederates.
[3]
Nevertheless, with such means as they had, it was determined to resist to
the last, and to provide timber and money, and to equip a fleet as they best
could, to take steps to secure their confederates and above all Euboea, to
reform things in the city upon a more economical footing, and to elect a
board of elders to advise upon the state of affairs as occasion should
arise.
[4]
In short, as is the way of a democracy, in the panic of the moment they
were ready to be as prudent as possible.These
resolves were at once carried into effect.
2.
Summer was now over.
The winter ensuing saw all Hellas stirring under the impression of the
great Athenian disaster in Sicily.
Neutrals now felt that even if uninvited they ought no longer to stand
aloof from the war, but should volunteer to march against the Athenians,
who, as they severally reflected, would probably have come against them if
the Sicilian campaign had succeeded.
Besides, they considered that the war would now be short, and that it would
be creditable for them to take part in it.
Meanwhile the allies of the Lacedaemonians felt all more anxious than ever
to see a speedy end to their heavy labours.
[2]
But above all, the subjects of the Athenians showed a readiness to revolt
even beyond their ability, judging the circumstances with passion, and
refusing even to hear of the Athenians being able to last out the coming
summer.
[3]
Beyond all this, Lacedaemon was encouraged by the near prospect of being
joined in great force in the spring by her allies in Sicily, lately forced
by events to acquire their navy.
[4]
With these reasons for confidence in every quarter, the Lacedaemonians now
resolved to throw themselves without reserve into the war considering that,
once it was happily terminated, they would be finally delivered from such
dangers as that which would have threatened them from Athens, if she had
become mistress of Sicily, and that the overthrow of the Athenians would
leave them in quiet enjoyment of the supremacy over all Hellas.
3.
Their king, Agis, accordingly set out at once
during this winter with some troops from Decelea, and levied from the allies
contributions for the fleet, and turning towards the Malian gulf exacted a
sum of money from the Oetaeans by carrying off most of their cattle in
reprisal for their old hostility, and, in spite of the protests and
opposition of the Thessalians, forced the Achaeans of Phthiotis and the
other subjects of the Thessalians in those parts to give him money and
hostages, and deposited the hostages at Corinth, and tried to bring their
countrymen into the confederacy.
[2]
The Lacedaemonians now issued a requisition to the cities for building a
hundred ships, fixing their own quota and that of the Boeotians at
twenty-five each; that of the Phocians and Locrians together at fifteen; that of the Corinthians at fifteen; that of the Arcadians, Pellenians, and Sicyonians together at ten; and that of the Megarians, Troezenians, Epidaurians, and Hermionians
together at ten also; and meanwhile made every other preparation for commencing hostilities by
the spring.
4.
In the meantime the Athenians were not idle.
During this same winter, as they had determined, they contributed timber
and pushed on their ship-building, and fortified Sunium to enable their
corn-ships to round it in safety, and evacuated the fort in Laconia which
they had built on their way to Sicily; while they also, for economy, cut down any other expenses that seemed
unnecessary, and above all kept a careful look-out against the revolt of
their confederates.
5.
While both parties were thus engaged, and
were as intent upon preparing for the war as they had been at the outset,
the Euboeans first of all sent envoys during this winter to Agis to treat of
their revolting from Athens.
Agis accepted their proposals, and sent for Alcamenes, son of Sthenelaidas,
and Melanthus from Lacedaemon, to take the command in Euboea.
These accordingly arrived with some three hundred Neodamodes, and Agis
began to arrange for their crossing over.
[2]
But in the meanwhile arrived some Lesbians, who also wished to revolt; and these being supported by the Boeotians, Agis was persuaded to defer
acting in the matter of Euboea, and made arrangements for the revolt of the
Lesbians, giving them Alcamenes, who was to have sailed to Euboea, as
governor, and himself promising them ten ships, and the Boeotians the same
number.
[3]
All this was done without instructions from home, as Agis while at Decelea
with the army that he commanded had power to send troops to whatever quarter
he pleased, and to levy men and money.
During this period, one might say, the allies obeyed him much more than
they did the Lacedaemonians in the city, as the force he had with him made
him feared at once wherever he went.
[4]
While Agis was engaged with the Lesbians, the Chians and Erythraeans, who
were also ready to revolt, applied, not to him but at Lacedaemon; where they arrived accompanied by an ambassador from Tissaphernes, the
commander of King Darius, son of Artaxerxes,
[5]
in the maritime districts, who invited the Peloponnesians to come over, and
promised to maintain their army.
The king had lately called upon him for the tribute from his government,
for which he was in arrears, being unable to raise it from the Hellenic
towns by reason of the Athenians; and he therefore calculated that by weakening the Athenians he should get
the tribute better paid, and should also draw the Lacedaemonians into
alliance with the king; and by this means, as the king had commanded him, take alive or dead
Amorges, the bastard son of Pissuthnes, who was in rebellion on the coast of
Caria.
6.
While the Chians and Tissaphernes thus joined
to effect the same object, about the same time Calligeitus, son of Laophon,
a Megarian, and Timagoras, son of Athenagoras, a Cyzicene, both of them
exiles from their country and living at the court of Pharnabazus, son of
Pharnaces, arrived at Lacedaemon upon a mission from Pharnabazus, to procure
a fleet for the Hellespont; by means of which, if possible, he might himself effect the object of
Tissaphernes' ambition, and cause the cities in his government to revolt
from the Athenians, and so get the tribute, and by his own agency obtain for
the king the alliance of the Lacedaemonians.
[2]
The emissaries of Pharnabazus and
Tissaphernes treating apart, a keen competition now ensued at Lacedaemon as
to whether a fleet and army should be sent first to Ionia and Chios, or to
the Hellespont.
[3]
The Lacedaemonians, however, decidedly favoured the Chians and
Tissaphernes, who were seconded by Alcibiades, the family friend of Endius,
one of the Ephors for that year.
Indeed, this is how their house got its Laconic name, Alcibiades being the
family name of Endius.
[4]
Nevertheless the Lacedaemonians first sent to Chios Phrynis, one of the
Perioeci, to see whether they had as many ships as they said, and whether
their city generally was as great as was reported; and upon his bringing word that they had been told the truth, immediately
entered into alliance with the Chians and Erythraeans, and voted to send
them forty ships, there being already, according to the statement of the
Chians, not less than sixty in the island.
[5]
At first the Lacedaemonians meant to send ten of these forty themselves,
with Melanchridas their admiral; but afterwards, an earthquake having occurred, they sent Chalcideus instead
of Melanchridas, and instead of the ten ships equipped only five in Laconia.
And the winter ended, and with it ended also the nineteenth year of this
war of which Thucydides is the historian.
7.
At the beginning of the next summer the
Chians were urging that the fleet should be sent off, being afraid that the
Athenians, from whom all these embassies were kept a secret, might find out
what was going on, and the Lacedaemonians at once sent three Spartans to
Corinth to haul the ships as quickly as possible across the Isthmus from the
other sea to that on the side of Athens, and to order them all to sail to
Chios, those which Agis was equipping for Lesbos not excepted.
The number of ships from the allied states was thirty-nine in all.
8.
Meanwhile Calligeitus and Timagoras did not
join on behalf of Pharnabazus in the expedition to Chios or give the
money—twenty-five talents—which they had brought with
them to help in despatching a force, but determined to sail afterwards with
another force by themselves.
[2]
Agis, on the other hand, seeing the Lacedaemonians bent upon going to Chios
first, himself came in to their views; and the allies assembled at Corinth and held a council, in which they
decided to sail first to Chios under the command of Chalcideus, who was
equipping the five vessels in Laconia, then to Lesbos, under the command of
Alcamenes, the same whom Agis had fixed upon, and lastly to go to the
Hellespont, where the command was given to Clearchus, son of Ramphias.
[3]
Meanwhile they would take only half the ships across the Isthmus first, and
let those sail off at once, in order that the Athenians might attend less to
the departing squadron than to those to be taken across afterwards,
[4]
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