History of the Peloponnesian War

Having returned from Euboea, not long after they made a truce with the Lacedaemonians and their allies for thirty years, giving back Nisaea, Pegae, Troezen, Achaia; for of these places in the Peloponnese the Athenians were in possession. Now in the sixth year a war broke out between the Samians and Milesians about Priene;

and the Milesians being worsted in the war went to the Athenians, and raised an outcry against the Samians; some private individuals from Samos itself taking part with them, from a wish to effect a revolution in the government.

The Athenians therefore sailed to Samos with forty ships, and established a democracy; and taking as hostages from the Samians fifty boys and as many men, deposited them in Lemnos, and after leaving a garrison in the island, withdrew.

But the exiles of the Samians (for there were some who did not remain in the island, but fled to the continent) having made arrangements with the most powerful of those in the city, and an alliance with Pisuthnes, the son of Hystaspes, who had the satrapy of Sardis at that time, and having collected auxiliaries to the number of seven hundred, crossed over to Samos towards night, and in the first place rose up against the commons, and secured most of them;

then, having secretly removed their hostages from Lemnos, they revolted, and gave up to Pisuthnes the garrison and its commanders that were with them, and immediately prepared to go against Miletus. The Byzantines also revolted with them.

The Athenians, when they were aware of it, sailed with sixty ships for Samos, but did not use sixteen of them (for some were gone towards Caria to look out for the Phoenician fleet; others towards Chios and Lesbos, carrying about orders to bring reinforcements); with forty-four, however, under the command of Pericles and nine others, they fought a battle near the island of Tragia with seventy ships of the Samians, twenty of which were transports, (they all happened to be sailing from Miletus,) and the Athenians were victorious.

Afterwards there came to them a reinforcement of forty ships from Athens, and five and twenty from Chios and Lesbos; and when they had disembarked, and had the superiority in land forces, they invested the city with three walls, and blockaded it by sea at the same time.