Upon this the Athenians weighed anchor, and coasted along; and landing at Pheia in Elis, they ravaged the territory for two days, and conquered in battle three hundred picked men, who had come to the rescue from the inhabitants of
Or the valley of the Peneus, in which Elis itself was situated. This, as the richest of the whole territory, was naturally occupied by the conquering Aetolians, when they came in with the Dorians at what is called the return of the Heraclidae. The neighbourhood of Pheia, on the other hand, was inhabited by the descendants of the older people, who were conquered by the Aetolians, and now formed, as in so many Peloponnesian states, the subordinate class called
—Arnold.
But a violent wind coming down upon them, being exposed to the storm in a harbourless place, the greater part of them went on board their ships, and sailed round the promontory called Ichthys, into the port at Pheia; but the Messenians, and some others who would not go on board, went in the mean time by land, and took Pheia.
Afterwards the fleet sailed round and picked them up, and they evacuated the place and put out to sea; the main army of the Eleans having by this time come to its rescue. The Athenians then coasted along to other places and ravaged them.
About the same time they sent out thirty ships to cruise about Locris, and also to serve as a guard for Euboea.
Their commander was Cleopompus, son of Clinias, who, making descents, ravaged certain places on the sea-coast, and captured Thronium, and took hostages from them; defeating also, in a battle at Alope, those of the Locrians who had come to the rescue.
This summer the Athenians also expelled the Aeginetans from their island, themselves, their children, and wives, charging them with being the chief authors of the war they were engaged in; besides Which, it appeared safer to send settlers of their own to hold Aegina, lying so near as it does to the Peloponnese. No long time after therefore they sent the colonists to it;
while to the Aeginetans who were expelled the Lacedaemonians gave Thyrea to live in, and the territory to occupy, as well on the ground of their quarrel with the Athenians, as because they had been benefactors to themselves at the time of the earthquake and the insurrection of the Helots. The territory of Thyrea is on the frontier of Argolis and Laconia, stretching down to the sea. So some of them dwelt there, while others were scattered through the rest of Greece.
The same summer, at the beginning of a new lunar month, (the only time at which it appears possible,) the sun was eclipsed after mid-day, and became full again after it had assumed a crescent form, and after some of the stars had shone out.
It was also in the course of the same summer that Nymphodorus son of Pythes, a man of Abdera, whose sister was the wife of Sitalces, and who had great influence with that monarch, was made their
proxenus by the Athenians, who had before considered him hostile to them, and was sent for by them, because they wished Sitalces, son of Teres, king of the Thracians, to become their ally.