442 HISTORY OF GREECE. ing the town ; and they had even some difficulty in aaving the lives of the citizens. 1 Mende being thus taken, the Athenian generals desired the body of the citizens to resume their former government, leaving it to them to single out and punish the authors of the late revolt. What use was made of this permission, we are not told ; but probably most of the authors had already escaped into the acrop- olis along with Polydamidas. Having erected a wall of circum- vallation round the acropolis, joining the sea at both ends, and left a force to guard it, the Athenians moved away to begin the siege of Skione, where they found both the citizens and the Peloponnesian garrison posted on a strong hill, not far from the walls. As it was impossible to surround the town without being masters of this hill, the Athenians attacked it at once, and were more fortunate than they had been before Mende ; for they car- ried it by assault, compelling the defenders to take refuge in the town. After erecting their trophy, they commenced the wall of circumvallation. Before it was finished, the garrison who had been shut up in the acropolis of Mende, got into Skione at night, having broken out by a sudden sally where the blockading wall around them joined the sea. But this did not hinder Nikias from prosecuting his operations, so that Skione was in no long time completely inclosed, and a division placed to guard the wall of circumvallation. 2 Such was the state of affairs which Brasidas found on return- ing from the inland Macedonia. Unable either to recover Mende or to relieve Skione, he was forced to confine himself to the pro- tection of Torone. Nikias, however, without attacking Torone, returned soon afterwards with his armament to Athens, leaving Skione under blockade. The march of Brasidas into Macedonia had been unfortunate in every way, and nothing but his extraordinary gallantry rescued him from utter ruin. The joint force of himself and Perdikkas consisted of three thousand Grecian hoplites, Peloponnesian, Akanthian, and Chalkidian, with one thousand Macedonian and Chalkidian horse, and a considerable number of non-Hellenic auxiliaries. As soon as they had got beyond the mountain-pass
1 Thucy.l. iv, 130; Diodor. xii, 72. 2 Tliucyd. iv, 131
