These were not a few, for the
ships which crossed his path approached fearlessly, under the
impression that his fleet was from Athens; for no one dreamed that a
Peloponnesian squadron would dare to enter these waters. For this
senseless barbarity he was severely rebuked by a deputation of Samian
exiles, now living on the mainland, who met him at Ephesus. His was a
strange method, they remarked with bitter irony, of helping the
Ionians to recover their liberty--to butcher defenceless men, who had
done him no harm, but looked to him for rescue from their bondage to
Athens! If he continued to behave thus, he would make the name of
Sparta detested throughout Ionia. Dull as he was, Alcidas could not
but feel the justice of this reprimand, and he let the rest of his
prisoners go.
The presence of a Peloponnesian fleet had caused great alarm among
the inhabitants of Ionia, and urgent messages came in daily to Paches
at Mytilene, summoning him to their aid. For even though Alcidas
had declined to take up a permanent station on the coast, as the
exiles had suggested, it was apprehended that he would pillage the
sea-side towns, which were unfortified, on his homeward voyage. At
last two state triremes, the _Paralus_ and _Salaminia,_ which had
been sent on public business from Athens, came into Mytilene with the
news that they had sighted the fleet of Alcidas lying at anchor off
Clarus.
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