Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/411

393 ATHENIAN POST NEAR CHIOS. 392 invading Chios and establishing in it a permanent fortified post. Having transported their land-force across from Lesbos, they occupied a strong maritime site called Delphinium, seemingly a projecting cape having a sheltered harbor on each side, not far from the city of Chios. 1 They bestowed great labor and time in fortifying this post, both on the land and the sea-side, dur- ing which process they were scarcely interrupted at all either by the Chians, or by Pedaritus and his garrison ; whose inaction arose not merely from the discouragement of the previous defeats, hut from the political dissension which now reigned in the city. A stroog philo- Athenian party had pronounced itself ; and though Tydeus its leader was seized by Pedaritus and put to death, still, his remaining partisans were so numerous, that the government was brought to an oligarchy narrower than ever, and to the extreme of jealous precaution, not knowing whom to trust. In spite of numerous messages sent to Miletus, intreating succor, and representing the urgent peril to which this .greatest among all the Ionian allies of Sparta was exposed, Astyochus adhered to his parting menaces, and refused compliance. The indignant Pedaritus sent to prefer complaint against him at Sparta as a traitor. Meanwhile the fortress at Delphinium ad- vanced so near towards completion, that Chios began to suffer from it as much as Athens suffered from Dekeleia, with the farther misfortune of being blocked up by sea. The slaves in this wealthy island chiefly foreigners acquired by purchase, but more numerous than in any other Grecian state except La- conia were emboldened by the manifest superiority and assured position of the invaders to desert in crowds ; and the loss arising, not merely from their flight, but from the valuable information and aid which they gave to the enemy was immense. 2 The dis- 1 Thucyd. viii, 34-38. AeXipiviov lipevaf f%ov, etc. That the Athenians should select Lesbos on this occasion as the base of their operations, and as the immediate scene of last preparations, against Chios, was only repeating what they had once done before (c. 24), and what they again did afterwards (c. 100). I do not feel the difficulty which strikes Dobree and Dr. Thirlwall. Doubtless Delphinium was to the north of ths city of Chios. Theopompus and Nymphodorus in Athcnseus, vi, p. 265. 17*
 * Thucyd. viii, 3840. About the slaves in Chios, see the extracts from