nnese under
Asopius, son of Phormio; the Acarnanians insisting that the commander
sent should be some son or relative of Phormio. As the ships coasted
along shore they ravaged the seaboard of Laconia; after which Asopius
sent most of the fleet home, and himself went on with twelve vessels to
Naupactus, and afterwards raising the whole Acarnanian population made
an expedition against Oeniadae, the fleet sailing along the Achelous,
while the army laid waste the country. The inhabitants, however, showing
no signs of submitting, he dismissed the land forces and himself sailed
to Leucas, and making a descent upon Nericus was cut off during his
retreat, and most of his troops with him, by the people in those parts
aided by some coastguards; after which the Athenians sailed away,
recovering their dead from the Leucadians under truce.

Meanwhile the envoys of the Mitylenians sent out in the first ship were
told by the Lacedaemonians to come to Olympia, in order that the rest
of the allies might hear them and decide upon their matter, and so they
journeyed thither. It was the Olympiad in which the Rhodian Dorieus
gained his second victory, and the envoys having been introduced to make
their speech after the festival, spoke as follows:

"Lacedaemonians and allies, the rule established among the Hellenes
is not unknown to us. Those who revolt in war and forsake their former
confederacy are favourably regarded by those who receive them, in so
far as they are of use to them, but otherwise are thought less well of,
through being considered traitors to their former friends. Nor is this
an unfair way of judging, where the rebels and the power from whom they
secede are at one in policy and sympathy, and a match for each other
in resources and power, and where no reasonable ground exists for the
rebellion. But with us and the Athenians this was not the case; and no
one need think the worse of us for revolting from them in danger, after
having been honoured by them in time of peace.

"Justice and honesty will be the first topics of our speech, especially
as we are asking for alliance; because we know that there can never be
any solid friendship between individuals, or union between communities
that is worth the name, unless the parties be persuaded of each other's
honesty, and be generally congenial the one to the other; since from
difference in feeling springs also difference in conduct. Between
ourselves and the Athenians alliance beg