In the spring Thrasyllus, having completed his preparations, sailed out from Athens to campaign in Ionia. After capturing Colophon he raided the Ionian countryside, but was defeated outside Ephesus by a combined Ephesian, Persian, and Syracusan force, and withdrew his troops first to Notium and later to Lesbos. He then sailed northwards and joined Alcibiades’ squadron at Sestus. The whole fleet then crossed over to Lampsacus, which they fortified. At first the troops that had served with uninterrupted success under Alcibiades refused to mingle with those of Thrasyllus, whom they looked upon as dishonoured by their defeat at Ephesus. Eventually, however, the tension between the two groups eventually dissolved after an expedition against Abydos in which Thrasyllus commanded thirty ships; the Athenians defeated a Persian army in battle, but could not take the city.
During the winter the garrison of Pylos, besieged by a great land force and blockaded by a squadron of eleven galleys, had to capitulate, but were permitted to withdraw. The Athenians sent thirty galleys under the command of Anytus to relieve it, but he met contrary winds at Cape Malea and had to return to Athens. He was accused of treachery and brought to trial; his acquittal became notorious as an instance of bribery. The success of the Spartans at Pylos was offset by a disaster they experienced in their colony of Heraclea Trachinia where the Spartan harmost Labotas and seven hundred Heracleans were slain in a battle with the Oetaeans.
Around this time the Megarians recaptured their port of Nisaea. The Athenians sent Leotrophides and Timarchus with a thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry. They were met near some hills called the cerata, or ‘horns’, close to the border between Attica and Megara by the entire force of Megara supported by Syracusans and Spartans. The Athenians won the battle but failed to regain Nisaea.
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