Hellenica

Since no one dared to propose anything else than that he should obey the authorities at home and do the work for which he had come, he went to Cyrus and asked for pay for the sailors; Cyrus, however, told him to wait for two days.

But Callicratidas, indignant at being thus put off and driven to anger by having to dance attendance at his gates, declaring that the Greeks were in a sorry plight, toadying to barbarians for the sake of money, and saying that if he reached home in safety he would do his best to reconcile the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians, sailed away to Miletus;

and after despatching triremes from there to Lacedaemon to get money, he gathered the Milesians in assembly and spoke as follows:Upon me, men of Miletus, lies the necessity of obeying the authorities at home; and as for you, I claim that you should show the utmost zeal in this war, because you dwell among barbarians and in the past have suffered very many ills at their hands.

And you should as leaders[*](406 B.C.) show the other allies how we may inflict the utmost harm upon the enemy in the shortest time, until the people return from Lacedaemon whom I have sent thither to get money;

for the money which Lysander had on hand he gave back to Cyrus, as though it were unneeded surplus, and went his way; and as for Cyrus, whenever I visited him he invariably put off giving me an audience, and I could not bring myself to dance attendance at his gates.

But I promise you that for whatever good results we achieve while we are waiting for the funds from Sparta I will make you an adequate return. Let us then, with the help of the gods, show the barbarians that even without paying court to them we can punish our enemies.

When he had said this, many arose, particularly those who were accused of opposing him, and in alarm proposed a grant of money, offering private contributions as well. And taking this money and supplying from Chios a payment of five drachmae apiece for his seamen, he sailed against Methymna, in Lesbos, which was hostile.

And when the Methymnaeans refused to surrender,—for there was an Athenian garrison in the place and those who had control of the government were partisans of Athens, —Callicratidas attacked the city and captured it by storm.

All the property which it contained the soldiers seized as booty, but all the captives Callicratidas assembled in the market-place; and when his allies urged him to sell into slavery the Methymnaeans as well as the Athenians, he said that while he was commander no Greek should be enslaved if[*](406 B.C.) he could help it.

Accordingly on the next day he let the Methymnaeans go free, but sold the members of the Athenian garrison[*](I.e., Callicratidas agrees with his allies in regarding the sale of the Athenians as a matter of course. What he objected to was the enslaving of the inhabitants of captured towns which had chanced to be in possession of the Athenians.) and such of the captives as were slaves; then he sent word to Conon that he would put a stop to his playing the wanton with his bride, the sea. And when he caught sight of Conon putting out to sea at daybreak, he pursued him, aiming to cut off his course to Samos, so that he could not direct his flight thither.

Conon’s ships, however, made good speed as he fled, because the best oarsmen had been picked out of a great many crews and assembled in a few; in the end he sought refuge in the harbour of Mytilene, in Lesbos, and with him two more of the ten generals, Leon and Erasinides. But Callicratidas, pursuing with one hundred and seventy ships, sailed into the harbour simultaneously.

And Conon, thwarted in his plan by the enemy’s swiftness, was forced to give battle at the mouth of the harbour and lost thirty ships; their crews, however, escaped to the land; and the remainder of his ships, forty in number, he drew up on shore under the wall of the city.

Thereupon Callicratidas anchored in the harbour and blockaded him on that side, holding the outlet to the sea. As for the land side, he summoned the Methymnaeans to come to his aid with their entire force and brought over his army from Chios; and money came to him from Cyrus.

When Conon found himself blockaded both by land and by sea, and was unable to procure provisions from anywhere,—and the people in the city were[*](406 B.C.) many, and the Athenians could not come to his aid because they had not learned of these events,—he launched two of his fastest ships and manned them before daybreak, picking out the best oarsmen from his whole fleet, shifting the marines to the hold of the ships, and setting up the side screens.[*](Temporary screens set up along the bulwarks, ordinarily serving for protection against missiles, here for concealment.)

They continued in this way through the day, but each evening he had them disembark when darkness came on, so that the enemy might not perceive that they were so doing. On the fifth day they put on board a moderate quantity of provisions, and when it came to be midday and the blockaders were careless and some of them asleep, they rowed out of the harbour, and one of the ships set out for the Hellespont and the other to the open sea.

And the blockaders, as they severally got their ships clear of one another, cutting away their anchors and rousing themselves from sleep, hastened to the pursuit in confusion, for it chanced that they had been breakfasting on the shore; and when they had embarked, they pursued the vessel which had made for the open sea, and at sunset they overhauled her and, after capturing her in battle, took her in tow and brought her back, men and all, to their fleet.

But the ship which fled toward the Hellespont escaped, and on its arrival at Athens reported the blockade. Meanwhile Diomedon, seeking to aid Conon, blockaded as he was, anchored with twelve ships in the strait of Mytilene.

Callicratidas, however, sailed down upon him suddenly and captured ten of his ships, Diomedon escaping with his own ship and one other.

When the Athenians heard of what had happened[*](406 B.C.) and of the blockade, they voted to go to the rescue with one hundred and ten ships, putting aboard all who were of military age, whether slave[*](It was only in rare cases that the Athenians employed slaves for military service.) or free; and within thirty days they manned the one hundred and ten ships and set forth. Even the knights[*](Who were ordinarily exempt from service at sea.) went aboard in considerable numbers.

After this they sailed to Samos and from there got ten Samian ships; they collected also more than thirty others from the rest of the allies, forcing everybody to embark, and in like manner whatever Athenian ships happened to be abroad. And the total number of the ships came to more than one hundred and fifty.