Xenophon, Hellenica
Carleton L. Brownson, Ed.

After this,¹ not many days later, Thymochares² came from Athens with a few ships; and thereupon the Lacedaemonians and the Athenians fought another naval battle, and the Lacedaemonians were victorious, under the leadership of Agesandridas. [2]

Shortly after this, at the beginning of the winter, Dorieus, the son of Diagoras, sailed into the Hellespont from Rhodes with fourteen ships, arriving at daybreak. And when the Athenian day-watcher described him, he signalled to the generals, and they put out against him with twenty ships; and Dorieus, fleeing from them towards the shore, beached his triremes, as fast as he got them clear of the enemy, in the neighbourhood of Rhoeteum. [3] And when the Athenians came near, the men under Dorieus fought, from their ships and from the shore, until the Athenians sailed away to Madytus, to the rest of their fleet, without having accomplished anything. [4]

Now Mindarus caught sight of the battle as he was sacrificing to Athena at Ilium, and hurrying to the sea he launched his triremes and set out, in order to pick up the ships under Dorieus. [5] And the Athenians set out against him and did battle,³ along the strand near Abydus, from morning till late afternoon. They were at some points victorious and at others defeated, when Alcibiades sailed into the Hellespont to their support, with eighteen ships. [6] Thereupon the Peloponnesians took to flight in the direction of Abydus; and Pharnabazus came along the shore to their aid, and riding his horse into the sea as far as possible, bore a share in the fighting and cheered on his followers, cavalry and infantry. [7] Meanwhile the Peloponnesians made a barrier of their ships and marshalled themselves on the shore and fought. At length the Athenians sailed away to Sestus after capturing thirty of the enemy's ships, though without their crews, and recovering those which they had previously lost themselves. [8] From Sestus all but forty of their ships went off in different directions, outside the Hellespont, to collect money; and Thrasyllus, who was one of the generals, set sail for Athens to report these events and to ask for troops and ships. [9]

After this Tissaphernes came to the Hellespont; and when Alcibiades with a single trireme went to visit him, bearing friendly offerings and gifts, Tissaphernes seized him and imprisoned him in Sardis, saying that the King ordered him to make war upon the Athenians. [10] Thirty days later, however, Alcibiades, together with Mantitheus, who had been taken prisoner in Caria, provided themselves with horses and made their escape from Sardis by night to Clazomenae. [11]

Meanwhile the Athenians at Sestus, learning that⁴ Mindarus was planning to sail against them with sixty ships, withdrew by night to Cardia. There⁵ Alcibiades joined them, coming from Clazomenae with five triremes and a dispatch boat. But upon learning that the Peloponnesian ships had set out from Abydus to Cyzicus, he proceeded overland to Sestus and gave orders that the ships should sail around to that place. [12] When they had arrived there and he was on the point of putting out to sea for battle, Theramenes sailed in from Macedonia with a reinforcement of twenty ships, and at the same time Thrasybulus arrived from Thasos with twenty more, both of them having been engaged in collecting money. [13] And after bidding them also to follow after him when they had removed their cruising sails,⁶ Alcibiades set off with his own ships to Parium; and when all the ships had come together at Parium, to the number of eighty-six, they set sail during the ensuing night, and on the next day at breakfast time arrived at Proconnesus. [14] There they learned that Mindarus was at Cyzicus, and also Pharnabazus with his army. Accordingly they remained that day at Proconnesus, but on the following day Alcibiades called an assembly of his men and told them that they must needs fight at sea, fight on land, and fight against fortresses. “For we,” he said, “have no money, but the enemy have an abundance of it from the King.” [15] Now on the preceding day, when they had come to anchor, Alcibiades had taken into his custody all the vessels in the harbour, even the small ones, in order that no one should report to the enemy the size of his fleet, and he made proclamation that death would be the punishment of any one who was caught sailing across to the other side of the strait. [16] And after the assembly he made preparations for battle and, in the midst of a heavy rain, set out for Cyzicus. When he⁷ was near Cyzicus, the weather cleared and the sun came out, and he sighted the ships under Mindarus, sixty in number, engaged in practice at some distance from the harbour and already cut off from it by his own fleet. [17] But the Peloponnesians, when they saw that the Athenian triremes were far more numerous than before and were near the harbour, fled to the shore; and mooring their ships together, they fought with their adversaries as they sailed down upon them. [18] Alcibiades, however, with twenty of his ships sailed round the fleets and landed on the shore. When Mindarus saw this, he also landed, and fell fighting on the shore; and those who were with him fled. And the Athenians took away with them to Proconnesus all the Peloponnesian ships, except those of the Syracusans; for these were burned by their own crews.

From Proconnesus the Athenians sailed on the next day against Cyzicus; [19] and the Cyzicenes admitted them, inasmuch as the Peloponnesians and Pharnabazus had evacuated the city. [20] There Alcibiades remained for twenty days, and after obtaining a great deal of money from the Cyzicenes, but without doing any further harm in the city, sailed back to Proconnesus. From there he sailed to Perinthus and Selymbria. [21] And the Perinthians admitted the Athenian forces to their city, and the Selymbrians, while not admitting them, gave them money. [22] From there they proceeded to Chrysopolis, in Calchedonia, and fortified it, established a custom house in the city, and proceeded to collect the tithe-duty from vessels sailing out of the Pontus⁸; they also left there as a garrison thirty ships and two of the generals,⁹ Theramenes and Eumachus, to have charge of the fort, to attend to the outgoing ships, and to harm the enemy in any other way they could. The other generals returned to the Hellespont. [23]

Meanwhile a letter dispatched to Lacedaemon by Hippocrates, vice-admiral under Mindarus, was intercepted and taken to Athens; it ran as follows: “The ships are gone. Mindarus is dead. The men are starving. We know not what to do.” [24] Pharnabazus, however, urged the whole Peloponnesian army and their allies not to be discouraged over a matter of ship-timber—for he said there was plenty of that in the King's land—so long as their bodies were safe; and he not only gave to each man a cloak and subsistence for two months, but he also armed the sailors and set them as guards over his own coastline. [25] Furthermore, calling together the generals and ship-captains from the various states, he bade them build triremes at Antandrus to equal the number which they had severally lost, giving them money for the purpose and telling them to get timber from Mount Ida. [26] And while the ship-building was going on, the Syracusans helped the Antandrians to finish a portion of their wall, and in the garrison-duty made themselves most popular. For this reason the Syracusans now enjoy at Antandrus the privileges of benefactors and citizens. As for Pharnabazus, after making these arrangements he went at once to the relief of Calchedon. [27]

At this time word came from home to the Syracusan generals that they had been banished by the democratic party.¹⁰ Accordingly they called together their soldiers and, through Hermocrates as spokesman,¹¹ lamented their misfortune in being unjustly and illegally banished, all without exception. They urged their soldiers to continue zealous in the future, as they had been in the past, and to be true men in obeying every order; and they directed them to choose new commanders, to hold office until those who had been chosen to fill their places should arrive from Syracuse. [28] The men, however, and particularly the captains and marines and steersmen, set up a shout at this and bade the generals remain in command. They replied that they ought not to indulge in partizan opposition to their own government. “But if anyone,” they said, “has any charge to bring against us, you should give us a hearing, remembering how many naval battles you have won and how many ships you have captured when fighting by yourselves, and how often when associated with others you have proved yourselves invincible under our leadership, occupying the most honourable post in the line of battle on account of our skill and your own zealous spirit, exhibited both on land and sea.” [29] But when no one brought any charge against them, at the request of the troops they remained until their successors arrived,—Demarchus, the son of Epicydes, Myskon, the son of Menecrates, and Potamis, the son of Gnosis. Then, after most of the captains had taken oath that, when they returned to Syracuse, they would bring their generals back from exile, they sped them on their ways, commending them all; [30] but in particular those who had associated with Hermocrates felt exceedingly the loss of his care and enthusiasm and democratic spirit. For the best of those whose acquaintance he made, both captains and steersmen and marines, he¹² used to gather every day in the morning and at evening to his own tent, where he communicated to them whatever he was planning to say or to do; he instructed them also, sometimes directing them to speak ex tempore and sometimes after deliberation. [31] As a result of this Hermocrates enjoyed the greatest reputation in the general council, and was thought superior to all others as speaker and adviser. He now went to visit Pharnabazus; and since he had once brought an accusation against Tissaphernes at Lacedaemon, in which Astyochus supported him as witness, and had been adjudged to speak the truth, he received money from Pharnabazus before he asked for it, and busied himself with collecting mercenaries and triremes with a view to his restoration to Syracuse. Meanwhile the Syracusans who succeeded the banished generals arrived at Miletus and took over the ships and the troops. [32]

At about this time a revolution took place in Thasos, and the partisans of Lacedaemon and the Laconian governor Eteonicus were driven out of the island. And Pasippidas the Laconian, who was accused of having managed this intrigue, in collusion with Tissaphernes, was banished from Sparta, while Cratesippidas was sent out to the fleet which Pasippidas had collected from the allies, and assumed command of it at Chios. [33]

During these days also, and while Thrasyllus was in Athens, Agis made a raid from Decelea up to the very walls of the city; and Thrasyllus led forth the Athenians and all others who were in the city and marshalled them beside the Lyceum,¹³ with the intention of engaging the enemy if they approached. [34] When Agis saw this, he withdrew in haste, and some¹⁴ few of his rear line were killed by the Athenian light troops. In consequence of this occurrence the Athenians were still more ready to give Thrasyllus the help for which he had come, and they voted that he might choose out for service a thousand hoplites, a hundred horsemen, and fifty triremes. [35]

Meanwhile Agis, who could see from Decelea great numbers of grain-ships sailing in to Piraeus, said that it was useless for his troops to be trying all this long time to shut off the Athenians from access to their land, unless one should occupy also the country from which the grain was coming in by sea; and that it was best to send to Calchedon and Byzantium Clearchus, the son of Rhamphias, who was diplomatic agent for the Byzantines at Sparta. [36] When this was resolved upon, fifteen ships were manned by the Megarians and the other allies, more properly transports than warships, and Clearchus set out with them. Three of his ships were destroyed in the Hellespont by the nine Attic ships which were continually on duty there to protect the Athenian merchantmen, but the rest escaped to Sestus and from there made their way safely to Byzantium. [37]

So the year ended, being the year in which the Carthaginians, under the leadership of Hannibal, made an expedition against Sicily, with an army of one hundred thousand men, and in the course of three months captured two Greek cities, Selinus and Himera.