History of the Peloponnesian War

Toward the close of the same winter, Salae-[*](428 B.C.) thus the Lacedaemonian was sent in a trireme from Lacedaemon to Mytilene. Landing at Pyrrha and proceeding thence on foot, he followed the bed of a ravine, where the circuit-wall could be crossed, and came undetected into Mytilene. He told the magistrates that there would be an invasion of Attica and that simultaneously the forty ships[*](cf. 3.16.3.) which were to come to their aid would arrive, adding that he himself had been sent ahead to make these announcements and also to take charge of matters

in general. Accordingly the Mytilenaeans were encouraged and were less inclined than ever to make terms with the Athenians. So this winter ended, and with it the fourth year of this war of which Thucydides wrote the history.

During the following summer the Peloponnesians [*](427 B. C.) first despatched the forty ships which they had promised to Mytilene, appointing in command of them Alcidas, who was the Lacedaemonian admiral, and then invaded Attica, themselves and their allies, in order that the Athenians, threatened on both sea and land, might be deterred from sending a force to attack the fleet that was on its