200 FOURTH INVASION OF ATTICA [ill two hundred and twelve*^, though they had been originally more, for some of them went back to the city and never got over the wall ; one who was an archer was taken at the outer ditch. The Peloponnesians at length gave up the pursuit and returned to their lines. But the Plataeans in the city, knowing nothing of what had happened, for those who had turned back had informed them that not one was left alive, sent out a herald at daybreak, wanting to make a truce for the burial of the dead ; they then dis- covered the truth and returned. Thus the Plataeans scaled the wall and escaped. 25 At the end of the same winter Salaethus the Lace- c , „ ■ .. daemonian was despatched in a trireme Salaethus is sent from "■ Lacedaemon to Myti- ^om Lacedaemon to Mytilene. He leni^ ivith the news that sailed to Pyrrha, and thence, pro- teptson leivay. ceeding on foot, made his way, by the channel of a torrent at a place where the line of the Athenian wall could be crossed, undiscovered into Myti- lene. He told the government that there was to be an invasion of Attica, and that simultaneously the forty ships which were coming to their assistance would arrive at Lesbos ; he himself had been sent in advance to bring the news and take charge of affairs. Whereupon the Myti- lenaeans recovered their spirits, and were less disposed to make terms with the Athenians. So the winter ended, and with it the fourth year in the Peloponnesian War of which Thucydides wrote the history. 26 With the return of summer the Peloponnesians des- p.; ■ ^^'" patched the two and forty ships which ui. BO, 2. After despatching' a , . ,1/-■llT•1^• 1 fleet under Alcidas to they intended for Mytilene in charge Lesbos, the Pelopon- of Alcidas, the Lacedaemonian admiral. nesians invade Attica, -pj^gy ^nd their allies then invaded Attica, in order that the Athenians, embarrassed both by sea and land, might have their attention distracted from the ships sailing to Mytilene. Cleomenes led the invasion. He was acting in the place " Cp. iii. 20 ined.
