History of the Peloponnesian War

But as for Demosthenes,[*](Resuming the narrative at 7.20.3.) when the army was collected with which he was to bring aid to Sicily, he set out from Aegina, and sailing to the Peloponnesus effected a junction with Charicles and the Athenian fleet of thirty ships. Then taking on board some Argive hoplites, they sailed against Laconia, ravaging first a part of Epidaurus Limera;

then landing on the coast of Laconia opposite Cythera, where the sanctuary of Apollo is, they ravaged portions of the land and fortified a place shaped like an isthmus, in order that the Helots of the Lacedaemonians might desert thither and that at the same time marauders might make it, as they had made Pylos, a base for their operations.

Immediately afterwards, when he had taken part in occupying this place, Demosthenes sailed on toward Corcyra, in order that he might first take aboard some allied troops there, and then make the voyage to Sicily as quickly as possible. As for Charicles, he waited until he had completed the fortification of the place, and then, leaving a garrison there, sailed back home with his thirty ships, as did the Argives also at the same time.