l86 ENVOYS GO TO SPARTA [ill he found a merchant vessel just about to sail ; he took ship, and arriving at Mytilene on the third day after he left Athens, announced the coming of the Athenian fleet. Whereupon the Mytilenaeans abstained from going out to the temple of Apollo Maloeis. They also kept good watch about their walls and harbours, and barricaded the unfinished works. 4 Soon afterwards the Athenians arrived. The com- The Mytilenaeans, manders of the fleet, seeing that they after a slight resistance were foiled, delivered the message at sea, negotiate an ^j^tj-usted to them ; the city refused to amiisttce. 1 hey send ": , .... envoys openly toAthens, yield and they commenced hostilities. secretly to Sparta. Taken by surprise, and unprepared for the war which was forced upon them, the Mytilenaeans came out once and made a show of fighting a little in front of the harbour ; but they were soon driven back by the Athenian ships, and then they began to parley with the generals, in the hope of obtaining tolerable terms of some kind, and getting rid of the fleet for the time. The Athe- nian generals accepted their proposals, they too fearing that they were not strong enough to make war against the whole island. Having got the armistice, the Mytilenaeans sent envoys to Athens ; one of them was a person who had given information against his fellow-citizens, but was now repentant. They had a faint hope that the Athenians would be induced to withdraw their ships and believe in their good intentions. But as they did not really expect to succeed in their Athenian mission, they also sent an embassy to Lacedaemon, unperceived by the Athenian fleet, which was stationed at Malea-'^ to the north of the city ^. After a troublesome voyage through the open sea, the envoys arrived at Lacedaemon and solicited aid for their countrymen.
- Or, to avoid the geographical contradiction (see notes), we may take
the words with anoaTiWovaiv : ' they also ;;ent an embassj' . . . north- ward from the city.'
