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Archelaus, the king of the Macedonians,1 since the people of Pydna would not obey his orders, laid siege to the city with a great army. He received reinforcement also from Theramenes, who brought a fleet; but he, as the siege dragged on, sailed to Thrace, where he joined Thrasybulus who was commander of the entire fleet. [2] Archelaus now pressed the siege of Pydna more vigorously, and after reducing it he removed the city some twenty stades distant from the sea.

Mindarus, when the winter had come to an end, collected his triremes from all quarters, for many had come to him from the Peloponnesus as well as from the other allies. But the Athenian generals in Sestus, when they learned of the great size of the fleet that was being assembled by the enemy, were greatly alarmed lest the enemy, attacking with all their triremes, should capture their ships. [3] Consequently the generals on their side hauled down the ships they had at Sestus, sailed around the Chersonesus, and moored them at Cardia2; and they sent triremes to Thrasybulus and Theramenes in Thrace, urging them to come with their fleet as soon as possible, and they summoned Alcibiades also from Lesbos with what ships he had. And the whole fleet was gathered into one place, the generals being eager for a decisive battle. [4] Mindarus, the Lacedaemonian admiral, sailing to Cyzicus, disembarked his whole force and invested the city. Pharnabazus was also there with a large army and with his aid Mindarus laid siege to Cyzicus and took it by storm. [5]

The Athenian generals, having decided to sail to Cyzicus, put out to sea with all their ships and sailed around the Chersonesus. They arrived first at Eleus; and after that they made a special point of sailing past the city of Abydus at night, in order that the great number of their vessels might not be known to the enemy. [6] And when they had arrived at Proconnesus,3 they spent the night there and the next day they disembarked the soldiers who had shipped with them on the territory of the Cyzicenes and gave orders to Chaereas, their commander, to lead the army against the city.

1 413-399 B.C. He was a great admirer of Greek culture and Euripides was but one of many distinguished Greeks whom he invited to his kingdom.

2 On the north side of the Chersonesus on the Gulf of Melas.

3 The island of Marmora.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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