Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/309

 14-16] LESBOS RECEIVED INTO ALLIANCE 193 If you come forward as their liberators your final triumph will be assured. 'Do not then for very shame frustrate the hopes which 14 the Hellenes rest on you, or dishonour n, „ ,. •^ ' uo uot then betray the name of Olympian Zeus in whose us, foy our cause is the temple we are in a manner suppliants, '"* °f ^^c^^ns. but be our allies and helpers. Do not betray us ; we, the people of Mytilene, risk our lives alone in the common cause of Hellas : universal will be the benefit which we confer if we succeed, and still more universal the ruin if you are inflexible and we fall. Wherefore prove your- selves worthy of your reputation in Hellas, and be such as we in our fear would have you.' These were the words of the Mytilenaeans. The Lacedaemonians and the allies immediately ac- 15 cepted their proposals and took the TheMytilcneausare Lesbians into alliance. The con- *"^^ *'° (tlliamc, and federates, who were present at Olym- 'j" /^-f ^^'«'« y" ' ^ -J due tea to meet at the pia, were told to make ready quickly isthmus, but come in for another expedition into Attica, and shzvly. to assemble at the isthmus, bringing the usual contingent of two-thirds. The Lacedaemonians arrived first, and at once set to work making machines for hauling ships over the isthmus, from Corinth to the Saronic Gulf. For they intended to attack the Athenians both by sea and land. But although they were energetic themselves, the other allies assembled slowly ; they were gathering in their fruits and in no mood for war. The Athenians, perceiving that the activity of the Lace- 16 daemonians was due to a conviction of The Lacedaemonians their weakness, determined to show for the first time prepare ^, ,1 • • 1 t 1 to attack Attica by sea, them their mistake, and to prove that, i,,a the Athenians man without moving the fleet from Lesbos, a hundred ships, and they were fully able to repel this new the attempt is given up. force which threatened them. They manned a hundred ships, in which they embarked, both metics and citizens", VOL. I. O
 * Cp. i. 143 init.