Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/317

 25 -28] SURRENDER OF MYTILEIst 20I of his nephew, the king Pausanias, son of Pleistoanax, who was still a minor. All the country which they had previously overrun, wherever anything had grown up again, they ravaged afresh, and devastated even those districts which they had hitherto spared. This invasion caused greater distress to the Athenians than any, except the second. For the Peloponnesians, who were daily expecting to hear from Lesbos of some action on the part of the fleet, which they supposed by this time to have crossed the sea, pursued their ravages far and wide. But when none of their expectations were realised, and their food was exhausted, they retired and dispersed to their several cities. Meanwhile the Mytilenaeans, finding as time went on 27 that the ships from Peloponnesus never Salaethus, despainn^r came, and that their provisions had of hdp,a>ins the people, run short, were obliged to make terms -^i'^ *"""' "/"« '''"' with the Athenians. The immediate ''"'"• cause was as follows :— Salaethus himself began to despair of the arrival of the ships, and therefore he put into the hands of the common people (who had hitherto been light-armed) shields and spears, intending to lead them out against the Athenians. But, having once received arms, they would no longer obey their leaders ; they gathered into knots and insisted that the nobles should bring out the corn and let all share alike ; if not, they would themselves negotiate with the Athenians and sur- render the city. The magistrates, knowing that they were helpless, and 28 that they would be in peril of their Tliegovcr,nw,it,fcei- lives if they were left out of the con- i„g their helplessness, vention, concluded a general agreement --/' ^^f "^ jj;,^: with Paches and his army, stipulatnig ^^^^^^ ^^^^ Athenians at that the fate of the Mytilenaeans should home should decide on be left in the hands of the Athenians ti-' M' ^f '>>e ud.abi- 1 . IcDlts. at home. They were to receive him and his forces into the city ; but might send an embassy