Some years before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War the Lesbian
malcontents had solicited the Spartans to help them in throwing off
the yoke of Athens. This application, which was probably made at the
time of the revolt of Samos, found no favour with Sparta, and nothing
further was attempted on that occasion. But in the fourth year of the
war alarming rumours were brought to Athens from Tenedos, a small
island included in the Athenian alliance, whose inhabitants were
jealous of the threatened ascendancy of Lesbos in the eastern
districts of the Aegaean. There was a design, it was said, among the
leading citizens of Mytilene, the principal city of Lesbos, to unite
the inhabitants of the island by force under their rule, and renounce
their allegiance to Athens. Help was expected from Sparta, and the
Boeotians, who were of the same race as the Lesbians, were also in the
plot. This statement was confirmed by envoys from Methymna, the second
city of Lesbos, which stood apart from the conspiracy, and by certain
citizens of Mytilene, who had turned informers from motives of private
revenge.
Among the Athenians at this time there was a general feeling of
despondency and exhaustion. The full hardship of the war pressed
heavily upon them, and their population was thinned by the ravages of
the plague.
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