In the summer the Peloponnesians under the command of Archidamus invaded Attica for the third time and ravaged the land. The Athenian cavalry attacked them, wherever it was practicable, and prevented the mass of light troops from advancing to waste the parts near the city. After staying for the time for which they had taken provisions, the Peloponnesians retired and dispersed to their cities.
In June on Lesbos, the largest and richest island in the east Aegean, all the cities (except for Methymna) revolted from Athens. Mytilene had been quietly planning the unification of the Lesbian cities under her control and was building more ships, improving her fortifications and bringing in supplies in preparation for a prolonged war. But these preparations were betrayed to the Athenian fleet, which proceeded to promptly and cautiously secure Methymna and to block the two harbours of Mytilene by establishing fortified naval bases on each side of the city.
The Mytilenians sent envoys to Sparta, asking for an alliance. At the Olympic festival in August they addressed the representatives of the Spartan Alliance saying that if the Peloponnesians sent aid to Mytilene and at the same time attacked Athens by land and sea, they would raise a general revolt in the Aegean to take advantage of Athens’ weakness after the years of plague and heavy financial outlay. Sparta agreed to send support but the Athenians reacted more quickly. They sent hundred ships to ravage the eastern coast of the Peloponnese and a thousand hoplites to Mytilene to invest the island by land. The Spartans thereupon abandoned their plan for invading Attica and issued orders to their allies to equip forty ships for the sailing season of 427 BC.
During the winter at Plataea the defenders devised a plan to escape through the Spartan defences. Originally, all the men were to join the attempt, but it was decided that this was too risky and only 220 ultimately agreed to go. They used ladders to climb over the inner wall, captured two of the towers, and managed to get across the second wall before reinforcements could arrive. Eventually, 212 of the escapees reached Athens.
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