History of the Peloponnesian War

the Hellenes.[*](ie. , since the eighth century; see the account at the beginning of Book vi.) Such was the course of events in this winter, and therewith ended the sixth year of this war of which Thucydides composed the history.

The next summer, about the time of the earing[*](425 B.C.) of the grain, ten Syracusan and as many Locrian ships sailed to Messene in Sicily and occupied it, going thither on the invitation of the inhabitants; and Messene revolted

from Athens. The chief reason for this act, on the part of the Syracusans, was that they saw that the place offered a point of attack upon Sicily and were afraid that the Athenians might some time make it a base from which to move against Syracuse with a larger force; the motive of the Locrians was their hostility to the Rhegians, whom they desired to subdue by both land