fifteen; that of the
Arcadians, Pellenians, and Sicyonians together at ten; and that of the
Megarians, Troezenians, Epidaurians, and Hermionians together at
ten also; and meanwhile made every other preparation for commencing
hostilities by the spring.

In the meantime the Athenians were not idle. During this same winter,
as they had determined, they contributed timber and pushed on their
ship-building, and fortified Sunium to enable their corn-ships to round
it in safety, and evacuated the fort in Laconia which they had built on
their way to Sicily; while they also, for economy, cut down any other
expenses that seemed unnecessary, and above all kept a careful look-out
against the revolt of their confederates.

While both parties were thus engaged, and were as intent upon preparing
for the war as they had been at the outset, the Euboeans first of all
sent envoys during this winter to Agis to treat of their revolting from
Athens. Agis accepted their proposals, and sent for Alcamenes, son of
Sthenelaidas, and Melanthus from Lacedaemon, to take the command in
Euboea. These accordingly arrived with some three hundred Neodamodes,
and Agis began to arrange for their crossing over. But in the meanwhile
arrived some Lesbians, who also wished to revolt; and these being
supported by the Boeotians, Agis was persuaded to defer acting in the
matter of Euboea, and made arrangements for the revolt of the Lesbians,
giving them Alcamenes, who was to have sailed to Euboea, as governor,
and himself promising them ten ships, and the Boeotians the same number.
All this was done without instructions from home, as Agis while at
Decelea with the army that he commanded had power to send troops to
whatever quarter he pleased, and to levy men and money. During this
period, one might say, the allies obeyed him much more than they did the
Lacedaemonians in the city, as the force he had with him made him feared
at once wherever he went. While Agis was engaged with the Lesbians, the
Chians and Erythraeans, who were also ready to revolt, applied, not to
him but at Lacedaemon; where they arrived accompanied by an ambassador
from Tissaphernes, the commander of King Darius, son of Artaxerxes, in
the maritime districts, who invited the Peloponnesians to come over, and
promised to maintain their army. The King had lately called upon him
for the tribute from his government, for which he was in arrears, being
unable to raise it from the Hellenic towns by rea