History of the Peloponnesian War

For about the same time as the events in Lyncus the Athenians had sailed against Mende and Scione, as they had been preparing to do,[*](cf. ch. cxxii 6; cxxiii. 3.) with fifty ships, of which ten were Chian, and with one thousand hoplites of their own, six hundred bowmen, a thousand Thracian mercenaries, and in addition targeteers from their allies in that neighbourhood. They were under the command of Nicias son of Niceratus and Nicostratus son of Diitrephes.

Setting out with the fleet from Potidaea and putting in at the temple of Poseidon, they advanced into the country of the Mendaeans. Now these and three hundred Scionaeans who had come to their support, and the Peloponnesian auxiliaries, seven hundred hoplites in all, with Polydamidas as their commander, had just encamped outside the city in a strong position on a hill.