History of the Peloponnesian War

After this they marched against Antandrus, and took the town through the treachery of the inhabitants. And their design was to liberate both the other [*]( i. e. situated on the ἀκτὴ, or coast, of Asia opposite to Lesbos.) Actaean towns, as they were called—which the Athenians held, though formerly the Mytilenaeans owned them—and, above all, Antandrus; having fortified which, (for there were great facilities for building ships there, as there was a supply of timber, with Ida close at hand,) and sallying from it, as they easily might, with resources of every other kind, they purposed to ravage Lesbos, which lay near, and to subdue the Aeolian towns on the mainland. Such were the preparations which they meant to make.

The Athenians in the same summer made an expedition against Cythera, with sixty ships, two thousand heavy-armed, and a few cavalry, taking with them also from amongst the allies the Milesians and some others; under the command of Nicias son of Niceratus, Nicostratus son of Diotreplles, and Autocles son of Tolmaeus.

This Cythera is an island lying off Laconia, opposite to Malea. The inhabitants are Laconians, of the class of the perioeci, and an officer called the Judge of Cythera went over to the place annually. They also sent over regularly a garrison of heavy-armed, and paid great attention to it.

For it was their landing-place for the merchantmen from Egypt and Libya; and at the same time privateers were less able to annoy Laconia from the sea, the only side on which it could be injured; for the whole of it runs out toward the Sicilian and Cretan seas.