83,84] ATHENIAN EXPEDITION TO ME LOS 167 During the same winter the Athenians blockaded Perdiccas in Macedonia, complaining TheAthema^sblock- of the league which he had made with ade Perdiccas. the Argives and Lacedaemonians; and also that he had been false to their alliance when they had prepared to send an army against the Chalcidians and against Am- phipolis under the command of Nicias the son of Niceratus. The army was in fact disbanded chiefly owing to his with- drawal. So he became their enemy. Thus the winter ended, and with it the fifteenth year of the war. In the ensuing summer, Alcibiades sailed to Argos 84 with twenty ships, and seized any of Mcib.ades sazcs the of gj.'^' the Argives who were still suspected suspected Argives. The to be of the Lacedaemonian faction, ^'^thcnians, enraged at , , , r . 1 1 . .the independence of the to the number of three hundred ; and •,;,,„^ ^y Mdos, send the Athenians deposited them in the thither an expedition. subject islands near at hand. The ^"{ J'/'^ ""y ^'^ "^■ Athenians next made an expedition ' against the island of Melos with thirty ships of their own, six Chian, and two Lesbian, twelve hundred hoplites and three hundred archers besides twenty mounted archers of their own, and about fifteen hundred hoplites furnished by their allies in the islands. The Melians are colonists of the Lacedaemonians who would not submit to Athens like the other islanders. At first they were neutral and took no part. But when the Athenians tried to coerce them by ravaging their lands, they were driven into open hostilities. The generals, Cleomedes the son of Lycomedes and Tisias the son of Tisimachus, encamped with the Athenian forces on the island. But before they did the country any harm they sent envoys to negotiate with the Melians. Instead of bringing these envoys before the people, the Melians desired them to explain their errand to the magistrates and to the dominant class. They spoke as follows : — » Cp. iii. 91 init. VOL. II. N
