History of the Peloponnesian War

At the end of the same summer there sailed from Athens to Samos one thousand Athenian and fifteen hundred Argive hoplites—for the five hundred of the Argives that were light—armed the Athenians had provided with heavy arms—together with one thousand from the allies. These troops were carried by forty-eight ships, some of which were transports, and were under the command of Phrynichus, Onomacles, and Scironides. From Samos they crossed over to Miletus and encamped there.

But the enemy marched out against them—the Milesians themselves, to the number of eight hundred hoplites, the Peloponnesians who had come with Chalcideus, and a body of mercenaries belonging to Tissaphernes, together with Tissaphernes himself, who was present with his cavalry—and attacked the Athenians and their allies.

Now the Argives with their wing rushed out ahead of the rest and advanced in some disorder, feeling contempt of the enemy as being Ionians and men who would not await their attack, and so were defeated by the Milesians and not fewer than three hundred of them destroyed.

But the Athenians, after defeating the Peloponnesians first and then driving back the barbarians and the miscellaneous crowd—yet without engaging the Milesians, who after their rout of the Argives had withdrawn into the city, when they saw that the rest of their army was being worsted—finally halted, as being already victorious, close to the city itself.

And it so happened in this battle that on both sides the Ionians were victorious over the Dorians; for the Athenians defeated the Peloponnesians opposed to themselves, and the Milesians the Argives. But the Athenians, after setting up a trophy, made preparations for shutting off the place, which had the shape of an isthmus, with a wall, thinking that, if they should bring Miletus over to their side, the other places would readily come over also.