Summer [IV 1–49]

The following summer, at about the time the first ears of corn were showing, ten Syracusan and the same number of Locrian ships sailed to Messina in Sicily, where they had been invited in by the inhabitants, and took control of it. Messina now revolted from the Athenians. The chief motive the Syracusans had for doing this was that the place offered an entry point into Sicily and they were afraid that the Athenians might establish a base there for some later attack with a larger force. The Locrians for their part were motivated by their enmity with the Rhegians, whom they wanted to engage in war on two fronts, both by land and by sea. Indeed, the Locrians had at the same time mounted a full-scale invasion of Rhegian territory to stop the Rhegians going to help the Messinians; they were also responding to some Rhegian exiles who lived among the Locrians and had added their encouragement. The Rhegians had for a long while been in a state of internal conflict and it was not possible for them at that time to hold off the Locrians, who were consequently all the more eager to attack them. The Locrians wasted their land and then withdrew their infantry, while their ships continued to guard Messina. Meanwhile they were also manning other ships to be stationed at Messina and to continue the war from there.

At about the same time that spring, before the corn was fully ripe, the Peloponnesians and their allies invaded Attica, led by Agis, son of Archidamus and king of the Spartans. They encamped there and set about wasting the land.