Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/191

 111-114] INCREASING DIFFICULTIES OF ATHENS 75 died, and a famine arose in the country ; so the fleet B.C. 449. quitted Citium. Arriving off Salamis in Cyprus they ^'- ^^' ^• fought at sea and also on land with Phoenician and Cilician forces. Gaining a victory in both engagements, they returned home, accompanied by the ships which had gone out with them and had now come back from Egypt. After this the Lacedaemonians engaged in the so-called Sacred War and gained possession of the temple of Delphi, which they handed over to the Delphians. But no sooner had they retired than the Athenians sent an expedition and recovered the temple, which they handed over to the Phocians. Some time afterwards the Athenians, under the com- 113 mand of Tolmides the son of Tolmaeus, Defeat of the Athe- oi^g'*'^^' with a thousand hopliteS of their own nians at Coronea. Re- and contingents of their allies, made '"'^"°" '« ^'''^"'• an expedition against Orchomenus, Chaeronea, and cer- tain other places in Boeotia which were in the hands of oligarchical exiles from different Boeotian towns, and so were hostile to them. They took Chaeronea, and leaving a garrison there, departed. But while they were on their march, the exiles who had occupied Orchomenus, some Locrians, some Euboean exiles and others of the same party, set upon them at Coronea and defeated them, killing many and taking many prisoners. The Athenians then agreed to evacuate the whole of Boeotia upon condition that the prisoners should be restored. And so the Boeo- tian exiles returned to their homes, and all the Boeotians regained their independence. Not long afterwards Euboea revolted from Athens. 114 Pericles had just arrived in the island 7?^^// of Euboea. oi. 83,4. with an Athenian army when the news Slaughter of the Athe- came that Megara had likewise re- ;™:/™;^*: volted, that the Peloponncsians were t^^a. Retirement of the on the point of invading Attica, and Peloponnesians,andre- that the Megarians had slaughtered the "^^■^ of Euboea. Athenian garrison, of whom a few only had escaped to