ght not be able to cope
with the whole of Lesbos; and an armistice having been concluded, the
Mitylenians sent to Athens one of the informers, already repentant of
his conduct, and others with him, to try to persuade the Athenians of
the innocence of their intentions and to get the fleet recalled. In the
meantime, having no great hope of a favourable answer from Athens, they
also sent off a galley with envoys to Lacedaemon, unobserved by the
Athenian fleet which was anchored at Malea to the north of the town.

While these envoys, reaching Lacedaemon after a difficult journey
across the open sea, were negotiating for succours being sent them, the
ambassadors from Athens returned without having effected anything;
and hostilities were at once begun by the Mitylenians and the rest of
Lesbos, with the exception of the Methymnians, who came to the aid of
the Athenians with the Imbrians and Lemnians and some few of the other
allies. The Mitylenians made a sortie with all their forces against the
Athenian camp; and a battle ensued, in which they gained some slight
advantage, but retired notwithstanding, not feeling sufficient
confidence in themselves to spend the night upon the field. After
this they kept quiet, wishing to wait for the chance of reinforcements
arriving from Peloponnese before making a second venture, being
encouraged by the arrival of Meleas, a Laconian, and Hermaeondas, a
Theban, who had been sent off before the insurrection but had been
unable to reach Lesbos before the Athenian expedition, and who now stole
in in a galley after the battle, and advised them to send another galley
and envoys back with them, which the Mitylenians accordingly did.

Meanwhile the Athenians, greatly encouraged by the inaction of the
Mitylenians, summoned allies to their aid, who came in all the quicker
from seeing so little vigour displayed by the Lesbians, and bringing
round their ships to a new station to the south of the town, fortified
two camps, one on each side of the city, and instituted a blockade of
both the harbours. The sea was thus closed against the Mitylenians, who,
however, commanded the whole country, with the rest of the Lesbians who
had now joined them; the Athenians only holding a limited area round
their camps, and using Malea more as the station for their ships and
their market.

While the war went on in this way at Mitylene, the Athenians, about the
same time in this summer, also sent thirty ships to Pelopo