3.
The Athenians, who were suffering severely from the plague and from the war, of which
they1 had begun to feel the full effects, refleeted that it was a serious matter to
bring upon themselves a second war with a naval power like Lesbos, whose resources were
unimpaired; and so, mainly because they wished that the charges might not be true, they
at first refused to listen to them.
But, when they had sent envoys to Mytilenè and found that the Mytilenaeans,
in spite of remonstrances,, continued their preparations and persisted in the attempt to
concentrate the government in Mytilenè, they took alarm and determined to be
beforehand with them.
[2]
Without losing a moment, they sent to Lesbos, under the command of Cleïppides
the son of Deinias, and two others, forty ships which had been intended to cruise about
Peloponnesus.
[3]
They had heard that there was a festival of Apollo Maloeis held outside the walls in
which the whole population took part, and that if they made haste they might hope to
surprise them.
The attempt would very likely succeed; but, if not, they might bid the Mytilenaeans
give up their fleet and dismantle their walls, and in case they refused they might go to
war with them.
[4]
So the ships sailed; and as there happened to be at Athens ten Mytilenaean triremes,
serving in accordance with the terms of the alliance, the Athenians seized them and
threw their crews into prison.
[5]
But the Mytilenaeans were warned by a messenger from Athens, who crossed to Euboea and
went on foot to Geraestus; there he found a merchant vessel just about to
sail; he took ship, and arriving at Mytilenè on the third day after he left
Athens, announced the coming of the Athenian fleet.
Whereupon the Mytilenaeans abstained from going out to the temple of Apollo Maloeis.
They also kept good watch about their walls and harbours, and barricaded the unfinished
works.
1 The Athenians determine to surprise Mytilenè at a festival, and send Cleïppides thither with forty ships. The inhabitants are forewarned
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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