CHAPTER LII - Seventh Year of the War.—Capture of Sphakteria

Summary

Seventh year of the war—invasion of Attica. b.c. 425

The invasion of Attica by the Lacedæmonians had now become an ordinary enterprise, undertaken in every year of the war except the third and sixth, and then omitted only from accidental causes; though the same hopes were no longer entertained from it as at the commencement of the war. During the present spring, Agis king of Sparta conducted the Peloponnesian army into the territory, seemingly about the end of April, and repeated the usual ravages.

Distress in Korkyra from the attack of the oligarchical exiles. A Peloponnesian fleet, and an Athenian fleet, are both sent thither

It seemed however as if Korkyra were about to become the principal scene of the year's military operations: for the exiles of the oligarchical party, having come back to the island and fortified themselves on Mount Istônê, carried on war with so much activity against the Korkyræans in the city that distress and even famine regined there; while sixty Peloponnesian triremes were sent thither to assist the aggressors. As soon as it became known at Athens how hardly the Korkyræans in the city were pressed, orders were given to an Athenian fleet of forty triremes, about to sail for Sicily under Eurymedon and Sophoklês, to halt in their voyage at Korkyra, and to lend whatever aid might be needed. But during the course of this voyage, an incident occurred elsewhere, neither foreseen nor imagined by any one, which gave a new character and promise to the whole war—illustrating forcibly the observations of Pediclês and Archidamus before its commencement, on the impossibility of calculating what turn events might take.