t having been seen by the Athenians at Athens, and from
thence arriving at Icarus and Myconus, there first heard of the fall
of Mitylene. Wishing to know the truth, they put into Embatum, in the
Erythraeid, about seven days after the capture of the town. Here they
learned the truth, and began to consider what they were to do; and
Teutiaplus, an Elean, addressed them as follows:

"Alcidas and Peloponnesians who share with me the command of this
armament, my advice is to sail just as we are to Mitylene, before we
have been heard of. We may expect to find the Athenians as much off
their guard as men generally are who have just taken a city: this will
certainly be so by sea, where they have no idea of any enemy attacking
them, and where our strength, as it happens, mainly lies; while even
their land forces are probably scattered about the houses in the
carelessness of victory. If therefore we were to fall upon them suddenly
and in the night, I have hopes, with the help of the well-wishers that
we may have left inside the town, that we shall become masters of the
place. Let us not shrink from the risk, but let us remember that this is
just the occasion for one of the baseless panics common in war: and that
to be able to guard against these in one's own case, and to detect the
moment when an attack will find an enemy at this disadvantage, is what
makes a successful general."

These words of Teutiaplus failing to move Alcidas, some of the Ionian
exiles and the Lesbians with the expedition began to urge him, since
this seemed too dangerous, to seize one of the Ionian cities or the
Aeolic town of Cyme, to use as a base for effecting the revolt of Ionia.
This was by no means a hopeless enterprise, as their coming was welcome
everywhere; their object would be by this move to deprive Athens of
her chief source of revenue, and at the same time to saddle her with
expense, if she chose to blockade them; and they would probably induce
Pissuthnes to join them in the war. However, Alcidas gave this proposal
as bad a reception as the other, being eager, since he had come too late
for Mitylene, to find himself back in Peloponnese as soon as possible.

Accordingly he put out from Embatum and proceeded along shore; and
touching at the Teian town, Myonnesus, there butchered most of the
prisoners that he had taken on his passage. Upon his coming to anchor at
Ephesus, envoys came to him from the Samians at Anaia, and told him that
he was not