And so ended this winter, and the third year of this war of which Thucydides wrote the history.

THE following summer, as soon as the corn was ripe, the Peloponnesians and their allies invaded Attica, under the command of Archidamus, son of Zeuxidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians. There they encamped, and laid waste the land;

while charges were made upon them, as usual, by the Athenian cavalry, wherever opportunity offered; and they prevented the main host of the light-armed from advancing far from Literally, from their arms, i. e. the place in which the spears and shields of the heavy-armed soldiers were piled; and so, in a more general sense, the camp where they were quartered. their camp, and damaging the property near the city.

After remaining in the country the time for which they had taken provisions, they returned and dispersed to their respective cities.

Immediately after the invasion of the Peloponnesians, all Lesbos, with the exception of Methymna, revolted from the Athenians; having wished indeed to do so before the commencement of the war, (the Lacedaemonians, however, did not accept their offers,) and yet compelled even now to execute their purpose sooner than they intended.

For they were inclined to wait the completion of the moles for the security of their harbours, and of the building of their walls and ships, and the arrival of all that was to come from the Pontus, namely, bowmen and corn, and whatever they had sent for.