History of the Peloponnesian War

but when Pericles came they were again blockaded by sea. And afterwards a reinforcement came from Athens of forty ships under the command of Thucydides,[*](Possibly the historian, as some have thought; others explain as the son of Melesias and opponent of Pericles; still others as the poet from the deme of Acherdus.) Hagnon and Phormio, twenty under Tlepolemus and Anticles, and thirty from Chios and Lesbos.

Now the Samians did indeed put up a sea-fight for a short time, but they were unable to hold out, and in the ninth month[*](439 B.C.) were reduced by siege and agreed to a capitulation, pulling down their walls, giving hostages, delivering over their ships, and consenting to pay back by instalments the money spent upon the siege. The Byzantines too came to terms, agreeing to be subjects as before.

It was not many years[*](Hardly four years, since the naval battle between the Corcyraeans and Corinthians seems to have occurred 435 B.C.) after this that the events already narrated occurred, namely the Corcyraean affair,[*](1.24-1.40.) the Potidaean,[*](1.54-1.66.) and all the other incidents[*](The transactions in the Spartan assembly, 1.67-1.88. lxxxviii.) that furnished an occasion for this war.