224 HISTORY OF GREECE land-force having been again taken aboard, the Athenians forth with sailed away from Chios. 1 This repulse at Chios was a serious misfortune to Athens. SucL was the dearth of military men and the decline of the military spirit, in that city, that the loss of a warlike citizen, daring as a soldier and tried as a commander, like Chabrias, was never after- wards repaired. To the Chians and their allies, on the other hand, the event was highly encouraging. They were enabled, not merely to maintain their revolt, but even to obtain fresh sup- port, and to draw into the like defection other allies of Athens, among them, seemingly, Sestos, and other cities on the Hellespont. For some months they appear to have remained masters of the sea, with a fleet of one hundred triremes, disembarking and in- flicting devastation on the Athenian islands of Lemnos, Imbros, Samos, and elsewhere, so as to collect a sum for defraying their expenses. They were even strong enough to press the town of Samos, by close siege, until at length the Athenians, not without delay and dfficulty, got together a fleet of one hundred and twenty triremes, under the joint command of Chares, Iphikrates with his son Menestheus, and Timotheus. Notwithstanding that Samos was under siege, the Athenian admirals thought it prudent to direct their first efforts to the reduction of Byzantium ; probably from the paramount importance of keeping open the two straits between the Euxine and the JEgean, in order that the corn-ships, out of the former, might come through in safety. 2 To protect Byzantium, the Chians and their allies raised the siege of Samos, 1 The account of this event comes to us in a meagre and defective man- ner, Diodorus xvi. 7 ; Cornelius Nepos, Chabrias, c. 4 ; Plutarch, Phokion, c. 6. Demosthenes, in an harangue delivered three years afterwards, mentions the death of Chabrias, and eulogizes his conduct at Chios among his other glorious deeds ; but gives no particulars (Demosth. cont. Leptin. p. 481, 482). Cornelius Nepos says that Chabrias was not commander, but only serving as a private soldier on shipboard. I think this less probable than the state- ment of Diodorus, that he was joint-commander with Chares.
- It appears that there was a great and genera, scarcity of corn during
this year 357 B. c. Demosthenes adv. Leptinera, p. 467. s. 38. irpoKepvai oiTodeiaf trapit nuaiv uv&pu7roi$ yevofieviic, etc. That oration wf.s delivcTWl in 355 B. c.
