Expedition Lesbos. Before he reached that island, however, the Chians, ans against zealous in the new part which they had taken up, and interested for their own safety in multiplying defections from Athens, had themselves undertaken the prosecution of the plans concerted by Agis and the Lacedæmonians at Corinth. They originated an expedition of their own, with thirteen triremes under a Lacedæmonian Periokus named Deiniadas, to procure the revolt of Lesbos; with the view, if successful, of proceeding afterwards to do the same among the Hellespontine dependencies of Athens. A land-force under the Spartan Eualas, partly Peloponnesian, partly Asiatic, marched along the coast of the mainland northward towards Kymê, to cooperate in both these objects. Lesbos was at this time divided into at least five separate city-governments-Methymna at the north of the island, Mitylênê towards the south-east, Antissa, Eresus and Pyrrha on the west. Whether these governments were oligarchical or democratical, we do not know; but the Athenian kleruchs who had been sent to Mitylênê after its revolt sixteen years before, must have long ago disappeared'. The Chian fleet first went to Methymna and procured the revolt of that place, where four triremes were left in guard, while the remaining nine sailed forward to Mitylênê, and succeeded in obtaining that important town also2. Their proceedings however were not unwatched by the Athenian fleet at Samos. Unable to recover possession of Teos, Diomedon had been obliged to 1 See the earlier part of this History, vol. vi. ch. 1. p. 350. of the Lesbos is Athenians. content himself with procuring neutrality from that Ill-success town, and admission for the vessels of Athens as Chianswell as of her enemies: he had moreover failed in maintained an attack upon Eræ'. But he had since been by the strengthened partly by the democratical revolution at Samos, partly by the arrival of Leon with ten additional triremes from Athens: so that these two commanders were now enabled to sail, with twentyfive triremes, to the relief of Lesbos. Reaching Mitylênê (the largest town in that island) very shortly after its revolt, they sailed straight into the harbour when no one expected them, seized the nine Chian ships with little resistance, and after a successful battle on shore, regained possession of the city. The Lacedæmonian admiral Astyochus-who had only been three days arrived at Chios from Kenchreæ with his four triremessaw the Athenian fleet pass through the channel between Chios and the mainland, on its way to Lesbos; and immediately on the same evening followed it to that island, to lend what aid he could, with one Chian trireme added to his own four, and some hoplites on board. He sailed first to Pyrrha, and on the next day to Eresus, on the west side of the island, where he first learnt the recapture of Mitylênê by the Athenians. He was here also joined by three out of the four Chian triremes which had been left to defend that place, and which had been driven away, with the loss of one of their number, by a portion of the Athenian fleet pushing on thither from Mitylênê. Astyochus prevailed on Eresus to revolt from Athens, and having armed Thucyd. viii. 20. Harassing operations nians against Chios. the population, sent them by land together with his own hoplites under Eteonikus to Methymna, in hopes of preserving that place-whither he also proceeded with his fleet along the coast. But in spite of all his endeavours, Methymna as well as Eresus and all Lesbos was recovered by the Athenians, while he himself was obliged to return with his force to Chios. The land troops which had marched along the mainland, with a view to farther operations at the Hellespont, were carried back to Chios and to their respective homes'. The recovery of Lesbos, which the Athenians now of the Athe- placed in a better posture of defence, was of great importance in itself, and arrested for the moment all operations against them at the Hellespont. Their fleet from Lesbos was first employed in the recovery of Klazomena, which they again carried back to its original islet near the shore-the new town on the mainland, called Polichna, though in course of being built, being not yet sufficiently fortified to defend itself. The leading anti-Athenians in the town made their escape, and went farther up the country to Daphnûs. Animated by such additional success— as well as by a victory which the Athenians, who were blockading Milêtus, gained over Chalkideus, 1 Thucyd. viii. 23. ἀπεκομίσθη δὲ πάλιν κατὰ πόλεις καὶ ὁ ἀπὸ τῶν νεῶν πεζὺς, ὃς ἐπὶ τὸν Ἑλλήσποντον ἐμέλλησεν ἰέναι. Dr. Arnold and Göller suppose that these soldiers had been carried over to Lesbos to cooperate in detaching the island from the Athenians. But this is not implied in the narrative. The land-force marched along by land towards Klazomena and Kyme (ὁ πεζὸς ἅμα Πελοποννησίων τε τῶν παρόντων καὶ τῶν αὐτόθεν ξυμμάχων παρῄει ἐπὶ Κλαζομένων τε καὶ Kúuns). Thucydidês does not say that they ever crossed to Lesbos: they remained near Kymê prepared to march forward, after that island should have been conquered, to the Hellespont. wherein that officer was slain-Leon and Diomedon thought themselves in a condition to begin aggressive measures against Chios, now their most active enemy in Ionia. Their fleet of twenty-five sail was well-equipped with Epibata; who, though under ordinary circumstances they were Thêtes armed at the public cost, yet in the present stress of affairs were impressed from the superior hoplites in the city muster-roll'. They occupied the little islets called Enussæ, near Chios on the north-east-as well as the forts of Sidussa and Pteleus in the territory of Erythræ; from which positions they began a series of harassing operations against Chios itself. Disembarking on the island at Kardamylê and Bolissus, they not only ravaged the neighbourhood, but inflicted upon the Chian forces a bloody defeat. After two farther defeats, at Phanæ and at Leukonium, the Chians no longer dared to quit their fortifications; so that the invaders were left to ravage at pleasure the whole territory, being at the same time masters of the sea around, and blocking up the port. suffered by -prospe island up The Athenians now retaliated upon Chios the Hardships hardships under which Attica itself was suffering; the Chians hardships the more painfully felt, inasmuch as this rity of the was the first time that an enemy had ever been seen to this in the island, since the repulse of Xerxês from time. Greece, and the organization of the confederacy of Delos, more than sixty years before. The territory of Chios was highly cultivated, its commerce Thucyd. viii. 24, with Dr. Arnold's note. 2 Aristotel. Politic. iv. 4, 1; Athenæus, vi. p. 265. VOL. VII. 2 M extensive, and its wealth among the greatest in all Greece. In fact, under the Athenian empire, its prosperity had been so marked and so uninterrupted, that Thucydidês expresses his astonishment at the undeviating prudence and circumspection of the government, in spite of circumstances well-calculated to tempt them into extravagance. Except Sparta (he says1), Chios is the only state that I know, which maintained its sober judgment throughout a career of prosperity, and became even more watchful in regard to security, in proportion as it advanced in power." He adds, that the step of revolting from Athens, though the Chian government now discovered it to have been an error, was at any rate a pardonable error; for it was undertaken under the impression, universal throughout Greece and prevalent even in Athens herself after the disaster at Syracuse, that Athenian power, if not Athenian independence, was at an end-and undertaken in conjunction with allies seemingly more than sufficient to sustain it. This remarkable observation of Thucydidês doubtless includes an indirect censure upon his own city, as abusing her prosperity for purposes of unmeasured aggrandisement; a censure not undeserved in reference to the enterprise against Sicily. But it counts at the same 1 Thucyd. viii. 24. Καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο οἱ μὲν Χῖοι ἤδη οὐκέτι ἐπεξῄεσαν, οἱ δὲ (Αθηναῖοι) τὴν χώραν, καλῶς κατεσκευασμένην καὶ ἀπαθὴ οὖσαν ἀπὸ τῶν Μηδικῶν μέχρι τότε, διεπόρθησαν. Χῖοι γὰρ μόνοι μετὰ Λακεδαιμονίους, ὧν ἐγὼ ᾐσθόμην, εὐδαιμονήσαντες ἅμα καὶ ἐσωφρόνησαν, καὶ ὅσῳ ἐπεδίδου ἡ πόλις αὐτοῖς ἐπὶ τὸ μεῖζον, τόσῳ καὶ ἐκοσμοῦντο ἐχυρώτε pov, &c. viii. 45. Οἱ Χίοι...πλουσιώτατοι ὄντες τῶν Ἑλλήνων, &c. |