son, his return to his country after the Aetolian disaster being
rendered less hazardous by this exploit. The Athenians in the twenty
ships also went off to Naupactus. The Acarnanians and Amphilochians,
after the departure of Demosthenes and the Athenians, granted the
Ambraciots and Peloponnesians who had taken refuge with Salynthius
and the Agraeans a free retreat from Oeniadae, to which place they had
removed from the country of Salynthius, and for the future concluded
with the Ambraciots a treaty and alliance for one hundred years,
upon the terms following. It was to be a defensive, not an offensive
alliance; the Ambraciots could not be required to march with the
Acarnanians against the Peloponnesians, nor the Acarnanians with the
Ambraciots against the Athenians; for the rest the Ambraciots were to
give up the places and hostages that they held of the Amphilochians,
and not to give help to Anactorium, which was at enmity with the
Acarnanians. With this arrangement they put an end to the war. After
this the Corinthians sent a garrison of their own citizens to Ambracia,
composed of three hundred heavy infantry, under the command of
Xenocleides, son of Euthycles, who reached their destination after a
difficult journey across the continent. Such was the history of the
affair of Ambracia.

The same winter the Athenians in Sicily made a descent from their
ships upon the territory of Himera, in concert with the Sicels, who had
invaded its borders from the interior, and also sailed to the islands
of Aeolus. Upon their return to Rhegium they found the Athenian general,
Pythodorus, son of Isolochus, come to supersede Laches in the command
of the fleet. The allies in Sicily had sailed to Athens and induced the
Athenians to send out more vessels to their assistance, pointing out
that the Syracusans who already commanded their land were making efforts
to get together a navy, to avoid being any longer excluded from the sea
by a few vessels. The Athenians proceeded to man forty ships to send to
them, thinking that the war in Sicily would thus be the sooner
ended, and also wishing to exercise their navy. One of the generals,
Pythodorus, was accordingly sent out with a few ships; Sophocles, son
of Sostratides, and Eurymedon, son of Thucles, being destined to follow
with the main body. Meanwhile Pythodorus had taken the command of
Laches' ships, and towards the end of winter sailed against the Locrian
fort, which Laches had formerly