ail to Sestos to join the main body of the army,
after which the united forces crossed to Lampsacus. And now winter was
approaching. It was the winter in which the Syracusan prisoners who had
been immured in the stone quarries of Piraeus dug through the rock and
escaped one night, some to Decelia and others to Megara. At Lampsacus
Alcibiades was anxious to marshal the whole military force there
collected in one body, but the old troops refused to be incorporated
with those of Thrasylus. "They, who had never yet been beaten, with
these newcomers who had just suffered a defeat." So they devoted the
winter to fortifying Lampsacus. They also made an expedition against
Abydos, where Pharnabazus, coming to the rescue of the place,
encountered them with numerous cavalry, but was defeated and forced
to flee, Alcibiades pursuing hard with his cavalry and one hundred and
twenty infantry under the command of Menander, till darkness intervened.
After this battle the soldiers came together of their own accord, and
freely fraternised with the troops of Thrasylus. This expedition was
followed by other incursions during the winter into the interior, where
they found plenty to do ravaging the king's territory.

(3) Reading {apelusen}. Wolf's conjecture for the MSS. {katelousen} =
stoned. See Thirlwall, "Hist. Gr." IV. xxix. 93 note.

It was at this period also that the Lacedaemonians allowed their
revolted helots from Malea, who had found an asylum at Coryphasium, to
depart under a flag of truce. It was also about the same period that the
Achaeans betrayed the colonists of Heracleia Trachinia, when they were
all drawn up in battle to meet the hostile Oetaeans, whereby as many
as seven hundred of them were lost, together with the governor (4) from
Lacedaemon, Labotas. Thus the year came to its close--a year marked
further by a revolt of the Medes from Darius, the king of Persia,
followed by renewed submission to his authority.

(4) Technically {armostes} (harmost), i.e. administrator.

III

B.C. 408. The year following is the year in which the temple of Athena,
in Phocaea, was struck by lightning and set on fire. (1) With the
cessation of winter, in early spring, the Athenians set sail with the
whole of their force to Proconnesus, and thence advanced upon Chalcedon
and Byzantium, encamping near the former town. The men of Chalcedon,
aware of their approach, had taken the precaution to deposit all their
pillageable property