History of the Peloponnesian War

About this time also the soldiers in the Peloponnesian fleet at Miletus were raising a clamour amongst themselves, about their cause being ruined by Astyochus and Tissaphernes. For Astyochus, they said, would neither fight before, while they themselves were still the stronger, and the Athenian fleet was small, nor would he now, when the enemy were said to be in a state of sedition, and their ships were not yet brought together; but they would run the risk of being worn out by delay, while waiting for the Phoenician fleet—an idle pretence, and not a reality. And Tissaphernes, on the other hand, did not bring up this fleet, and at the same time injured their own navy by not giving them supplies regularly, or to the full amount. They ought therefore to wait no longer, but to come to a decisive engagement at sea. It was the Syracusans that most especially urged this.