89.
How the Athenians attained the position in which they rose to greatness I will now
proceed1 to describe.
[2]
When the Persians, defeated by the Hellenes on sea and land,2 had retreated from Europe, and the remnant of the fleet, which had taken refuge
at Mycale, had there perished, Leotychides, the Lacedaemonian king, who had commanded
the Hellenes in the battle, returned home with the allies from Peloponnesus. But the Athenians and their allies from Ionia and the Hellespont, who had now revolted
from the king, persevered and besieged Sestos, at that time still in the hands of the
Persians. Remaining there through the winter they took the place, which the Barbarians deserted.
The allies then sailed back from the Hellespont to their respective homes.
[3]
Meanwhile the Athenian people, now quit of the Barbarians, fetched their wives, their
children, and the remains of their property from the places in which they had been
deposited, and set to work, rebuilding the city and the walls.
Of the old line of wall but a small part was left standing. Most of the houses were in ruins
a few only remaining in which the chief men of the
Persians had lodged.
Thucydides translated into English; with introduction, marginal analysis, notes, and indices. Volume 1. Thucydides. Benjamin Jowett. translator. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1881.
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