Greece -- History -- Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C.
After this the Acarnanians allotted a third of the spoils to the
Athenians, and divided the rest among their own different towns. The
share of the Athenians was captured on the voyage home; the arms now
deposited in the Attic temples are three hundred panoplies, which the
Acarnanians set apart for Demosthenes, and which he brought to Athens
in person, his return to his country after the Aetolian disaster being
rendered less hazardous by this exploit. The Athenians in the twenty
ships also went off to Naupactus. The Acarnanians and Amphilochians,
after the departure of Demosthenes and the Athenians, granted the
Ambraciots and Peloponnesians who had taken refuge with Salynthius and
the Agraeans a free retreat from Oeniadae, to which place they had
removed from the country of Salynthius, and for the future concluded
with the Ambraciots a treaty and alliance for one hundred years, upon
the terms following. It was to be a defensive, not an offensive
alliance; the Ambraciots could not be required to march with the
Acarnanians against the Peloponnesians, nor the Acarnanians with the
Ambraciots against the Athenians; for the rest the Ambraciots were to
give up the places and hostages that they held of the Amphilochians,
and not to give help to Anactorium, which was at enmity with the
Acarnanians. With this arrangement they put an end to the war. After
this the Corinthians sent a garrison of their own citizens to Ambracia,
composed of three hundred heavy infantry, under the command of
Xenocleides, son of Euthycles, who reached their destination after a
difficult journey across the continent. Such was the history of the
affair of Ambracia.
The same winter the Athenians in Sicily made a descent from their ships
upon the territory of Himera, in concert with the Sicels, who had
invaded its borders from the interior, and also sailed to the islands
of Aeolus. Upon their return to Rhegium they found the Athenian
general, Pythodorus, son of Isolochus, come to supersede Laches in the
command of the fleet. The allies in Sicily had sailed to Athens and
induced the Athenians to send out more vessels to their assistance,
pointing out that the Syracusans who already commanded their land were
making efforts to get together a navy, to avoid being any longer
excluded from the sea by a few vessels. The Athenians proceeded to man
forty ships to send to them, thinking that the war in Sicily would thus
be the sooner ended, and also wishing to exercise their navy. One of
the generals, Pythodorus, was accordingly sent out with a few ships;
Sophocles, son of Sostratides, and Eurymedon, son of Thucles, being
destined to follow with the main body. Meanwhile Pythodorus had taken
the command of Laches’ ships, and towards the end of winter sailed
against the Locrian fort, which Laches had formerly taken, and returned
after being defeated in battle by the Locrians.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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