Hellenica

As for the war by land, it was being waged in the manner described. I will now recount what happened by sea and in the cities on the coast while all these things were going on, and will describe such of the events as are worthy of record, while those which do not deserve mention I will pass over. In the first place, then, Pharnabazus and Conon, after defeating the Lacedaemonians in the naval battle,[*](Cp. iii. 10 f.) made[*](394 B.C.) a tour of the islands and the cities on the sea coast, drove out the Laconian governors, and encouraged the cities by saying that they would not establish fortified citadels within their walls and would leave them independent.

And the people of the cities received this announcement with joy and approval, and enthusiastically sent gifts of friendship to Pharnabazus. Conon, it seems, was advising Pharnabazus that if he acted in this way, all the cities would be friendly to him, but if it should be evident that he wanted to enslave them, he said that each single city was capable of making a great deal of trouble and that there was danger that the people of Greece also, if they learned of this, would become united.

Pharnabazus was accordingly accepting this counsel. Then, disembarking at Ephesus, he gave Conon forty triremes and told him to meet him at Sestus, while he himself proceeded by land along the coast to his own province. For Dercylidas, who had long been an enemy of his,[*](Cp. III. i. 9.) chanced to be in Abydus at the[*](394 B.C.) time when the naval battle took place, and he did not, like the other Lacedaemonian governors, quit the city, but took possession of Abydus and was keeping it friendly to the Lacedaemonians. For he called together the people of the town and spoke as follows:

Gentlemen, at this moment it is possible for you, who even in former days have been friends of our state, to show yourselves benefactors of the Lacedaemonians. For showing loyalty in the midst of prosperity calls for no particular admiration, but always, if men show themselves steadfast when friends have fallen upon misfortunes, this is remembered for all time. Do not suppose that just because we have been defeated in the naval battle, we are therefore ever afterward to be counted for naught. Nay, even in former times, you recall, when the Athenians were rulers of the sea, our state was able both to confer benefit upon friends and to inflict harm upon enemies. And the greater the extent to which the other cities have, along with fortune, turned away from us, by so much the greater in reality would your fidelity be made manifest. But if anyone is afraid that we may be besieged here both by land and by sea, let him reflect that there is not yet a Greek fleet on the sea, and if the barbarians shall undertake to rule the sea, Greece will not tolerate this; so that in helping herself she will also become your ally.

Upon hearing these words, the Abydenes yielded compliance, not unwillingly, but with enthusiasm, and they received kindly the Lacedaemonian governors who came to Abydus[*](i.e., in flight from their several towns.) and sent for those who were elsewhere. Then, after many good men had been[*](394 B.C.) collected in the city, Dercylidas crossed over to Sestus, which is opposite Abydus and distant not more than eight stadia, gathered together all who had obtained land in the Chersonese[*](Cp. III. ii. 10.) through the Lacedaemonians, and received also all those governors who had been driven out in like fashion from the cities on the European side, saying to them that they ought not to be discouraged, either, when they reflected that even in Asia, which had belonged from all time to the King, there was Temnus—not a large city—and Aegae and other places in which people were able to dwell without being subject to the King. In any event, he said, what stronger place could you find than Sestus, what place harder to capture by siege? For it is a place which requires both ships and troops if it is to be besieged. By such words he kept these men also from being panic-stricken.

Now when Pharnabazus found both Abydus and Sestus in this condition, he made proclamation to their inhabitants that if they did not expel the Lacedaemonians he would make war upon them. And upon their refusing to obey, he directed Conon to prevent them from sailing the sea, while he himself proceeded to lay waste the territory of the Abydenes. But failing to make any progress toward subduing them, he himself went back home, ordering Conon to try to win over the cities along the Hellespont, to the end that as large a fleet as possible might be gathered together by the coming of the spring. For he was angry with the Lacedaemonians on account of what he had suffered at their hands, and therefore desired above all things to go to their country and take what vengeance upon them[*](394 B.C.) he could.

In such occupations, accordingly, they passed the winter; but at the opening of spring,[*](393 B.C.) having fully manned a large number of ships and hired a force of mercenaries besides, Pharnabazus, and Conon with him, sailed through the islands to Melos, and making that their base, went on to Lacedaemon. And first Pharnabazus put in at Pherae and laid waste this region; then he made descents at one point and another of the coast and did whatever harm he could. But being fearful because the country was destitute of harbours, because the Lacedaemonians might send relief forces, and because provisions were scarce in the land, he quickly turned about, and sailing away, came to anchor at Phoenicus in the island of Cythera.