440 HISTORY OF GREECE. five hundred Peloponnesian hoplites with three huudred Clu die peltasts ; the commander of which force, Polydamidas, tool pos- session of the acropolis with his own troops separately. 1 Brsoidas then withdrew himself with the greater part of his army, to accompany Perdikkas on an expedition into the interior against Arrhibaeus and the Lynkestoe. On what ground, after having before entered into terms with Arrhiboeus, he now became his active enemy, we are left to conjecture: probably his relations with Perdikkas, whose alliance was of essential importance, were such that this step was forced upon him against his will, or he may really have thought that the force under Polydamidas was adequate to the defence of Mende and Skione ; an idea which the unaccountable backwardness of Athens for the last six or eight months might well foster. Had he even remained, indeed, he could hardly have saved them, considering the situation of Pallene and the superiority of Athens at sea ; but his absence made their ruin certain. 9 While Brasidas was thus engaged far in the interior, the Athe- nian armament under Nikias and Nikostratus reached Potidoea : fifty triremes, ten of them Chian ; one thousand hoplites and six hundred bowmen from Athens ; one thousand mercenary Thra- cians, with some peltasts from Methone and other towns in the neighborhood. From Potidsea, they proceeded by sea to Cape Poseidonium, near which they landed for the purpose of attacking Mende. Polydamidas, the Peloponnesian commander in tho town, took post with his force of seven hundred hoplites, including three hundred Skionaeans, upon an eminence near the city, strong and difficult of approach : upon which the Athenian generals divided their forces ; Nikias, with sixty Athenian chosen hoplites, one hundred and twenty Methonean peltasts, and all the bowmen, tried to march up the hill by a side path and thus turn the posi- tion ; while Nikostratus with the main army attacked it in front. But such were the extreme difficulties of the ground that both were repulsed : Nikias was himself wounded, and the division of Isikostratus was thrown into great disorder, narrowly escaping n destructive defeat. The Mendaeans, however, evacuated the position in the night and retired into tho city ; while the Athe-
1 Thucyd. iv, 130. s T.V'uoyJ iv, 123. 12^
