4.
Soon afterwards the Athenians arrived.
The commanders of the fleet, seeing that they1 were foiled, delivered the message entrusted to them; the city refused to yield
and they commenced hostilities.
[2]
Taken by surprise, and unprepared for the war which was forced upon them, the
Mytilenaeans came out once and made a show of fighting a little in front of the harbour;
but they were soon driven back by the Athenian ships, and then they began to parley with
the generals, in the hope of obtaining tolerable terms of some kind, and getting rid of
the fleet for the time.
[3]
The Athenian generals accepted their proposals, they too fearing that they were not
strong enough to make war against the whole island.
[4]
Having got the armistice, the Mytilenaeans sent envoys to Athens; one of them was a
person who had given information against his fellow-citizens, but was now repentant.
[5]
They had a faint hope that the Athenians would be induced to withdraw their ships and
believe in their good intentions.
But as they did not really expect to succeed in their Athenian mission, they also sent
an embassy to Lacedaemon, unperceived by the Athenian fleet, which was stationed at
Malea2 to the north of the
city3.
[6]
After a troublesome voyage through the open sea, the envoys arrived at Lacedaemon and
solicited aid for their countrymen.
1 The Mytilenaeans, after a slight resistance at sea, negotiate an armistice. They send envoys openly to Athens, secretly to Sparta.
2 Or, to avoid the geographical contradiction (see notes), we may take the words with ἀποστέλλουσιν: 'they also sent an embassy... northward from the city.'
3 Or, to avoid the geographical contradiction (see notes), we may take the words with ἀποστέλλουσιν: 'they also sent an embassy... northward from the city.'
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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