The same summer the Athenians sent thirty galleys about Peloponnesus under the command of Demosthenes the son of Alkisthenes and Proclus the son of Theodorus and sixty galleys more with two thousand men of arms, commanded by Nicias the son of Niceratus, into Melos.

For the Athenians, in respect that the Melians were islanders and yet would neither be their subjects nor of their league, intended to subdue them.