from the severity of the season, he listened to the advice of Seuthes,
son of Spardacus, his nephew and highest officer, and decided to retreat
without delay. This Seuthes had been secretly gained by Perdiccas by the
promise of his sister in marriage with a rich dowry. In accordance with
this advice, and after a stay of thirty days in all, eight of which
were spent in Chalcidice, he retired home as quickly as he could; and
Perdiccas afterwards gave his sister Stratonice to Seuthes as he had
promised. Such was the history of the expedition of Sitalces.

In the course of this winter, after the dispersion of the Peloponnesian
fleet, the Athenians in Naupactus, under Phormio, coasted along to
Astacus and disembarked, and marched into the interior of Acarnania with
four hundred Athenian heavy infantry and four hundred Messenians.
After expelling some suspected persons from Stratus, Coronta, and other
places, and restoring Cynes, son of Theolytus, to Coronta, they returned
to their ships, deciding that it was impossible in the winter season to
march against Oeniadae, a place which, unlike the rest of Acarnania, had
been always hostile to them; for the river Achelous flowing from Mount
Pindus through Dolopia and the country of the Agraeans and Amphilochians
and the plain of Acarnania, past the town of Stratus in the upper part
of its course, forms lakes where it falls into the sea round Oeniadae,
and thus makes it impracticable for an army in winter by reason of the
water. Opposite to Oeniadae lie most of the islands called Echinades,
so close to the mouths of the Achelous that that powerful stream is
constantly forming deposits against them, and has already joined some
of the islands to the continent, and seems likely in no long while to do
the same with the rest. For the current is strong, deep, and turbid,
and the islands are so thick together that they serve to imprison the
alluvial deposit and prevent its dispersing, lying, as they do, not
in one line, but irregularly, so as to leave no direct passage for the
water into the open sea. The islands in question are uninhabited and of
no great size. There is also a story that Alcmaeon, son of Amphiraus,
during his wanderings after the murder of his mother was bidden by
Apollo to inhabit this spot, through an oracle which intimated that he
would have no release from his terrors until he should find a country to
dwell in which had not been seen by the sun, or existed as land at