388 HISTORY OF GREECE. town of Teichiussa on that gulf. Alkibiades strenuously urged him io lend immediate aid to the Milesians, so as to prevent the construction of the intended wall of blockade ; representing that if that city were captured, all the hopes of the Peloponnesians in Ionia would be extinguished. Accordingly, he prepared to sail thither the next morning : but, during the night, the Athenians thought it wise to abandon their position near Miletus and return to Samos with their wounded and their baggage. Having heard of the arrival of Theramenes with his fleet, they preferred leaving their victory unimproved, to the hazard of a general battle. Two out of the three commanders, indeed, were at first inclined to take the latter course, insisting that the maritime honor of Athens would be tarnished by retiring before the enemy. But the third, Phry- nichus, opposed with so much emphasis the proposition of fighting, that he at length induced his colleagues to retire. The fleet, he said, had not come prepared for fighting a naval battle, but full of hopb'tes for land-operations against Miletus : the numbers of the newly-arrived Peloponnesians were not accurately known ; and a defeat at sea, under existing circumstances, would be utter ruin to Athens. Thucydides bestows much praise on Phrynichus for the wisdom of this advice, which was forthwith acted upon. The Athenian fleet sailed back to Samos ; from which place the Argeian hoplites, sulky with their recent defeat, demanded to be conveyed home. 1 On the ensuing morning, the Peloponnesian fleet sailed from the gulf of lasus to Miletus, expecting to find and fight the Athe- nians, and leaving their masts, sails, and rigging as was usual when going into action at Teichiussa. Finding Miletus already relieved of the enemy, they stayed there only one day, in order to reinforce themselves with the twenty-five triremes which Chalkid- eus had originally brought thither, and which had been since blocked up by the Athenian fleet at Lade, and then sailed back to Teichiussa to pick up the tackle there deposited. Being now not far from lasus, the residence of Amorges, Tissaphernes per- suaded them to attack it by sea, in cooperation Avith his forces by land. No one at lasus was aware of the arrival of the Pelo- ponnesian fleet : the triremes approaching were supposed to b?
1 Tluicyd. viii,2f,27.
