Hellenica | Page 4

and received a visit
from Alcibiades, who presented him with a single ship, bringing with
him tokens of friendship and gifts, whereupon Tissaphernes seized him
and shut him up in Sardis, giving out that the king's orders were to go
to war with the Athenians. Thirty days later Alcibiades, accompanied
by Mantitheus, who had been captured in Caria, managed to procure
horses and escaped by night to Clazomenae.
[3] The original has a somewhat more poetical ring. The author uses the
old Attic or Ionic word {eona}. This is a mark of style, of which we
shall have many instances. One might perhap produce something of the
effect here by translating: "the battle hugged the strand."

[4] Or, "came to their aid along the shore."
B.C. 410. And now the Athenians at Sestos, hearing that Mindarus was
meditating an attack upon them with a squadron of sixty sail, gave him
the slip, and under cover of night escaped to Cardia. Hither also
Alcibiades repaired from Clazomenae, having with him five triremes
and a light skiff; but on learning that the Peloponnesian fleet had left
Abydos and was in full sail for Cyzicus, he set off himself by land to
Sestos, giving orders to the fleet to sail round and join him there.
Presently the vessels arrived, and he was on the point of putting out to
sea with everything ready for action, when Theramenes, with a fleet of
twenty ships from Macedonia, entered the port, and at the same instant
Thrasybulus, with a second fleet of twenty sail from Thasos, both
squadrons having been engaged in collecting money. Bidding these
officers also follow him with all speed, as soon as they had taken out
their large sails and cleared for action, Alcibiades set sail himself for
Parium. During the following night the united squadron, consisting
now of eighty-six vessels, stood out to sea from Parium, and reached
Proconnesus next morning, about the hour of breakfast. Here they
learnt that Mindarus was in Cyzicus, and that Pharnabazus, with a body
of infantry, was with him. Accordingly they waited the whole of this
day at Proconnesus. On the following day Alcibiades summoned an
assembly, and addressing the men in terms of encouragement, warned
them that a threefold service was expected of them; that they must be
ready for a sea fight, a land fight, and a wall fight all at once, "for look
you," said he, "we have no money, but the enemy has unlimited
supplies from the king."
Now, on the previous day, as soon as they were come to moorings, he
had collected all the sea-going craft of the island, big and little alike,
under his own control, that no one might report the number of his
squadron to the enemy, and he had further caused a proclamation to be
made, that any one caught sailing across to the opposite coast would be
punished with death. When the meeting was over, he got his ships
ready for action, and stood out to sea towards Cyzicus in torrents of
rain. Off Cyzicus the sky cleared, and the sun shone out and revealed to
him the spectacle of Mindarus's vessels, sixty in number, exercising at
some distance from the harbour, and, in fact, intercepted by himself.
The Peloponnesians, perceiving at a glance the greatly increased

number of the Athenian galleys, and noting their proximity to the port,
made haste to reach the land, where they brought their vessels to anchor
in a body, and prepared to engage the enemy as he sailed to the attack.
But Alcibiades, sailing round with twenty of his vessels, came to land
and disembarked. Seeing this, Mindarus also landed, and in the
engagement which ensued he fell fighting, whilst those who were with
him took to flight. As for the enemy's ships, the Athenians succeeded in
capturing the whole of them (with the exception of the Syracusan
vessels, which were burnt by their crews), and made off with their
prizes to Proconnesus. From thence on the following day they sailed to
attack Cyzicus. The men of that place, seeing that the Peloponnesians
and Pharnabazus had evacuated the town, admitted the Athenians. Here
Alcibiades remained twenty days, obtaining large sums of money from
the Cyzicenes, but otherwise inflicting no sort of mischief on the
community. He then sailed back to Proconnesus, and from there to
Perinthus and Selybria. The inhabitants of the former place welcomed
his troops into their city, but the Selybrians preferred to give money,
and so escape the admission of the troops. Continuing the voyage the
squadron reached Chrysopolis in Chalcedonia,[5] where they built a
fort, and established a custom-house to collect the tithe dues which they
levied on all merchantmen passing through the Straights from the Black
Sea. Besides this, a detachment of thirty ships was