As soon as spring arrived, the Spartans, true to their promise, sent
off forty triremes, commanded by Alcidas, to raise the siege of
Mytilene, and marched in full force into Attica, thinking thus to
divert the attention of the Athenians, and prevent them from
interfering with the voyage of Alcidas. They remained a long time in
Attica, waiting for news from their fleet, and employing the time in a
systematic ravage of the whole territory. But time passed, and no
message arrived from Alcidas, who seemed to have disappeared with all
his ships; so that at last, as their expectations were disappointed,
and their supplies exhausted, they broke up their army and returned
home.
The position of Mytilene was now growing desperate. Nothing more was
heard of the relieving squadron, and the scanty store of provisions was
rapidly failing; for, owing to the betrayal of their design, the
Mytilenaeans had been hurried into revolt before their preparations
were completed, and had had no time to lay up a sufficient stock of
food. Salaethus, therefore, determined to make a sudden sally, and
break out of the town; and the better to effect this purpose, he
furnished the common people, who had hitherto served as light-armed
soldiers, with the full equipment of heavy infantry. But this
proceeding brought on a catastrophe, for the commons no sooner found
themselves in possession of better weapons than they turned upon their
masters, and accused them of secreting supplies of corn for their own
use. "Bring out your corn," they cried, "and divide it equally, or we
will go out and make terms with the Athenians for ourselves." Alarmed
at this threat, which if carried out would leave them exposed as the
sole objects of Athenian vengeance, the nobles sent a message to
Paches, on behalf of the whole city, offering to surrender, on
condition that their case should be tried by the tribunals at Athens,
and stipulating that, while the decision was pending, no violence
should be offered to any of the inhabitants. The proposal was accepted,
and Paches marched his forces into the town. In spite of the
convention, the leaders of the revolt took sanctuary in the temples,
being in dread of summary execution. Paches reassured them, and sent
them in safe custody to Tenedos.
We must now turn back a little, and follow the movements of Alcidas.
The Spartan admiral, it would seem, had small stomach for the bold
adventure on which he was bound--no less than to rob the Athenians of
one of their most important possessions, and defy the redoubtable
captains of Athens on their own element. After loitering for some time
off the coast of Peloponnesus, he sailed on slowly as far as Delos, and
then, touching at Icarus, he heard that Mytilene was already taken.
Wishing, however, to inform himself with certainty, he pushed on as far
as Erythrae, on the mainland of Asia, which he reached seven days after
the fall of Mytilene. Being now assured that the report was true, he
called a council of war to decide what was to be done. Then a certain
Greek of Elis, named Teutiaplus, made a bold suggestion: "Let us," he
said, "sail straight to Mytilene, and make an attempt to recapture the
town by surprise. Most likely the Athenians, flushed with success, will
be taken unawares, and we shall find the harbour open, and the land
forces dispersed, and if we make a sudden onfall, under cover of
darkness, we shall probably succeed."
The prudent Alcidas found this proposal little to his taste; nor was he
better pleased by another plan, put forward by the Lesbian envoys who
were returning on board the Peloponnesian fleet, and seconded by a
party of exiles from the cities of Ionia. These men tried to persuade
Alcidas to establish himself in some city of Asia Minor, and raise a
revolt among the allies of Athens in these parts. He had, they said,
every prospect of success, for his arrival was welcomed on all sides.
Let him seize the opportunity of attacking the Athenians in their most
mortal part, first by withdrawing the tribute of Ionia, and secondly by
putting them to the expense of a blockade.
This daring scheme might have led to something important, if the fleet
had been commanded by Brasidas. But Alcidas was a man of very different
temper, and having arrived too late to save Mytilene, he had now but
one thought,--to return to Peloponnesus as fast as he could, and get
out of the reach of the terrible Athenian triremes. So he set his fleet
in motion, and sailing along the coast in a southerly direction put in
at Ephesus. On the voyage he showed himself to be as cruel as he was
cowardly, by capturing and putting to death the crews of the vessels
which came in his way. These were not a few, for the ships which
crossed his path approached fearlessly, under the impression that his
fleet was from Athens; for no one dreamed that a Peloponnesian squadron
would dare to enter these waters. For this senseless barbarity he was
severely rebuked by a deputation of Samian exiles, now living on the
mainland, who met him at Ephesus. His was a strange method, they
remarked with bitter irony, of helping the Ionians to recover their
liberty--to butcher defenceless men, who had done him no harm, but
looked to him for rescue from their bondage to Athens! If he continued
to behave thus, he would make the name of Sparta detested throughout
Ionia. Dull as he was, Alcidas could not but feel the justice of this
reprimand, and he let the rest of his prisoners go.
The presence of a Peloponnesian fleet had caused great alarm among the
inhabitants of Ionia, and urgent messages came in daily to Paches at
Mytilene, summoning him to their aid. For even though Alcidas had
declined to take up a permanent station on the coast, as the exiles had
suggested, it was apprehended that he would pillage the sea-side towns,
which were unfortified, on his homeward voyage. At last two state
triremes, the _Paralus_ and _Salaminia,_ which had been sent on public
business from Athens, came into Mytilene with the news that they had
sighted the fleet of Alcidas lying at anchor off Clarus. [Footnote: A
little town, north-west of Ephesus.] Thereupon Paches put to sea at
once, and gave chase. But Alcidas had got wind of his danger, and was
already on the high seas, making all speed for Peloponnesus. Paches
pursued him as far as Patmos, and then turned back. He would gladly
have caught the Peloponnesians in blue water, where he could have sent
all their ships to the bottom; but as it was he thought himself
fortunate to have escaped the necessity of forming a blockade, as he
must have done if he had come up with them near land, and driven them
ashore. As for Alcidas, he fled in wild haste, keeping the open sea,
being resolved not to touch land, if he could help it, until he reached
the shelter of a Peloponnesian harbour.