Year Fifteen (417/6 BC): Hysiae
Control of Athens’ foreign policy remained divided between a ‘peace party’ (pro-Spartan) led by Nicias, and a ‘war party’ led by Alcibiades. In the spring Hyperbolus (d.411 BC), an Athenian politician who came to prominence after the death of Cleon, suggested to the people that to end the deadlock arising from their rivalry one of them should be ostracized. But the two joined forces and succeeded in having Hyperbolus ostracized instead. In exile Hyperbolus went to the island of Samos where political revolutionaries killed him.
In the summer the Argive democrats recovered their city and set about killing some of their opponents and banishing others. On learning of the counter-revolution and of Argos renewing its ties with Athens, the Spartans sent an army under Agis. He failed to take the city of Argos, but destroyed the long walls that the Argives were building to secure their supply line from the sea and took the Argive town of Hysiae, killing all the captured citizens. In the winter the Athenians responded to Perdiccas joining the Sparta/Argos coalition by blockading the coast of Macedonia.
Year Sixteen (416/5 BC): Melos
In the spring Argos renewed its alliance with Athens. Alcibiades went to Argos with twenty triremes and with the help of the democratic party seized three hundred oligarchical sympathisers. Nevertheless, the peace between Sparta and Athens continued to be observed, although the garrison of Pylos were committing ravages in Laconia.
In the summer the Athenians laid siege to the island of Melos, a colony of Sparta that preferred to remain neutral in war between the two states. In a famous passage (the Melian Dialogue) in his history, Thucydides relates an imaginary discussion between the Athenians and the Melians in which he reflects on the nature of power. When the Melians refused to submit, the Athenians set up a blockade and withdrew most of their forces. In the winter another force was sent and Melos was betrayed to them. They killed the men and enslaved the women and children, and sent Athenian settlers.
During this time Sparta attacked Argos and established exiled oligarchs and a garrison in Orneae, northwest of the city. But afterwards, when Argos and Athens attacked Orneae, the men escaped under cover of night leaving the town to be demolished by the Argives. Athens continued operations against Macedonia, making her headquarters at Methone, north of Pydna. Athenian cavalry and Macedonian exiles who had taken refuge in Athens were sent to attack Perdiccas’ territories. Sparta was unable to devise any means to help her ally.
In the summer in western Sicily, Elymian Segesta lost a battle against Selinus over land on their common border on the upper reaches of the Mazaros River. Dorian Selinus gained the support of Syracuse; the Segestans appealed in vain for help from Acragas, Syracuse and Carthage, but then found common cause with Leontini which Syracuse had taken and driven many of its citizens from the city. In winter the Segestans sent an embassy to Athens to appeal for aid. Trading on their shared Ionian heritage they asked the Athenians to lead a crusade against Syracuse on behalf of all the Ionians in Sicily, claiming to be able to pay the full costs. Athens sent men to investigate, but Segesta deceived them about its wealth.
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