Accordingly they despatched with all haste forty ships that happened to have been equipped for cruising round the Peloponnese, under the command of Cleïppides son of Dinias, and two colleagues.

For information had been brought them that there was a festival in honour of the Malean Apollo outside the city, at which all the people of the Mytilenaeans kept holyday; and there was reason to hope that by coming with all speed they would thus fall upon them by surprise. If then the attempt should succeed, [all would be well]; if not, they i. e. the commanders. The infinitive seems to depend upon ἐκέλευον or some such word, understood should charge the Mytilenaeans to deliver up their fleet and dismantle their walls;

and if they did not obey, should make war upon them. So the ships set sail; but the ten triremes of the Mytilenaeans, which had come to them as a reinforcement, according to the terms of their alliance, were detained by the Athenians, and the crews of them were put in prison.

The Mytilenaeans, however, were informed of the expedition against them by a man who crossed over from Athens to Euboea, and having gone by land to Geraestus, there found a merchant-vessel getting under weigh, and so proceeded by sea, and arrived at Mytilene the third day after leaving Athens. Accordingly they both abstained from going out to the temple at Malea, and, for the rest, barricaded and kept guard around their half-finished walls.

When the Athenians sailed up soon after and saw this, the commanders delivered their orders; and as the Mytilenaeans did not obey them, they commenced hostilities.

Being thus compelled to go to war while unprepared, and without any notice, the Mytilenaeans sailed out with their fleet to battle, a short distance from their harbour; but when driven to shore by the Athenian ships, they then proposed terms to the commanders, wishing, if they could, to get the squadron sent back for the present on any reasonable conditions.