History of the Peloponnesian War

​During the same summer, the Athenians at Miletus, who with their twenty ships were lying at anchor off Lade, made a landing at Panormus in the Milesian territory, killed Chalcideus, the Lacedaemonian commander, who had come to the rescue with a few men, and crossing over three days later, erected a trophy, which the Milesians demolished on the ground that it had been set up without control of the country.

​And Leon and Diomedon, having the Athenian ships from Lesbos, carried on the war against the Chians from their ships, starting from the Oenussae, the islands in front of Chios, and from Sidussa and Pteleum, the fortresses they held in the Erythraean territory, and from Lesbos; and they had on board as marines hoplites drafted by compulsion from the muster-roll.

​And landing both at Cardamyle and at Boliscus, they defeated in battle those of the Chians who came to the rescue and, having killed many of them, laid waste the places in those quarters; and they won another victory in a battle at Phanae, and a third at Leuconium. After this, the Chians no longer came out to fight, while the Athenians ravaged their land, which was beautifully cultivated and had been untouched by war from the time of the Persian Wars until then.

​For the Chians are the only people I know of, besides the Lacedaemonians, who have been both prosperous and prudent at the same time, and the more their city grew in greatness, the more securely they ordered their government.

​And even as to the revolt itself—if they are thought to have acted in this contrary to what was safer—they did not venture to make it until they were to share the danger with many brave allies, and when they perceived that even the Athenians themselves, after the Sicilian disaster, no longer denied that their own affairs were in a thoroughly desperate state. And if they made some miscalculation through the unforeseen accidents of human life, they made this mistake in common with many others who shared the same opinion, namely, that the power of the Athenians would be quickly destroyed.

​When, therefore, they were excluded from the sea and were being ravaged by land, some attempted to bring the city over to the Athenians. The magistrates, becoming aware of this, remained quiet themselves, but fetched Astyochus, the admiral, from Erythrae with the four ships which were with him, and considered how they might put an end to the conspiracy in the mildest way, either by taking hostages or in some other manner. And they were occupied with these matters.