59-6 1 ] OROPUS AND EUBOEA 379 than a serious annoyance, both to Eretria and to the whole of Euboea. Havmg now possession of o,o/,,5, by the help Oropus the Eretrians came to Rhodes, of certain Eretiians, is and invited the Peloponnesians to *^'"l>"^^ '" "'^ ^^^eoi- taus. Instead of going Euboea. They were however more dis- ^^ ^,,^^^„^ ,/,^ P^/^^„. posed to reHeve the distress of Chios, nesians detemiine to and thither tlicy sailed from Rhodes "' ^"^^ *"' "'" .... , y r, -NT rr^ . . hindered by the appear- with then- whole fleet. Near Tnopium ^,,^^ ^^ ^/,^ Athe^dan they descried the Athenian ships in the fleet. Bothflietsretumio open sea sailing from Chalce : neither their original stations at
- , , , 1 .11 Sanios and at Mihtiis,
fleet attacked the other, but both arrived safely, the one at Samos, and the other at Miletus. The Lacedaemonians now saw that they could no longer relieve Chios without a battle at sea. So the winter ended, and with it the twentieth year in the Peloponnesian War of which Thucydides wrote the history. At the beginning of the following spring, Dercyllidas, 61 a Spartan, was sent at the head of a ti m ■ ■ * 1 ^ ' The ChtanSj assisted small army along the coast to the by their new governor, Hellespont. He was to effect the re- Leon the Spartan, zvith volt of Abydos, a Milesian colony. ';^';^' ^^' ^^^l^^ The Chians, while AstyochuS was ships and gain an ad- doubting whether he could assist them, vantage over thniy- two ,,,,,, r . Athenian ships. were compelled by the pressure 01 the blockade to fight at sea. While he was still at Rhodes they had obtained from Miletus, after the death of Peda- ritus, a new governor, Leon, a Spartan, who had come out as a marine with Antisthenes"^ ; he brought with him twelve ships, five Thurian, four Syracusan, one from Anaea, one Milesian, and one which was Leon's own ; they had been employed in guarding Miletus. The Chians made a sally with their whole force, and seized a strong position ; their ships at the same time, to the number of thirty-six, sailed out and fought with the thirty-two of the Athenians. The engagement was severe ; the Chians and " Cp. viii. 39 init
