History of The Peloponnesian War - Book III   

against the Athenians. A fleet might be got ready there against
Euboea, with the advantage of a short passage to the island; and the
town would also be useful as a station on the road to Thrace. In
short, everything made the Lacedaemonians eager to found the place.
After first consulting the god at Delphi and receiving a favourable
answer, they sent off the colonists, Spartans, and Perioeci,
inviting also any of the rest of the Hellenes who might wish to
accompany them, except Ionians, Achaeans, and certain other
nationalities; three Lacedaemonians leading as founders of the colony,
Leon, Alcidas, and Damagon. The settlement effected, they fortified
anew the city, now called Heraclea, distant about four miles and a
half from Thermopylae and two miles and a quarter from the sea, and
commenced building docks, closing the side towards Thermopylae just by
the pass itself, in order that they might be easily defended.
The foundation of this town, evidently meant to annoy Euboea (the
passage across to Cenaeum in that island being a short one), at
first caused some alarm at Athens, which the event however did nothing
to justify, the town never giving them any trouble. The reason of this
was as follows. The Thessalians, who were sovereign in those parts,
and whose territory was menaced by its foundation, were afraid that it
might prove a very powerful neighbour, and accordingly continually
harassed and made war upon the new settlers, until they at last wore
them out in spite of their originally considerable numbers, people
flocking from all quarters to a place founded by the Lacedaemonians,
and thus thought secure of prosperity. On the other hand the
Lacedaemonians themselves, in the persons of their governors, did
their full share towards ruining its prosperity and reducing its
population, as they frightened away the greater part of the
inhabitants by governing harshly and in some cases not fairly, and
thus made it easier for their neighbours to prevail against them.
The same summer, about the same time that the Athenians were
detained at Melos, their fellow citizens in the thirty ships
cruising round Peloponnese, after cutting off some guards in an ambush
at Ellomenus in Leucadia, subsequently went against Leucas itself with
a large armament, having been reinforced by the whole levy of the
Acarnanians except Oeniadae, and by the Zacynthians and
Cephallenians and fifteen ships from Corcyra. While the Leucadians
witnessed the devastation of their land, without and within the
isthmus upon which the town of Leucas and the temple of Apollo
stand, without making any movement on account of the overwhelming
numbers of the enemy, the Acarnanians urged Demosthenes, the
Athenian general, to build a wall so as to cut off the town from the
continent, a measure which they were convinced would secure its
capture and rid them once and for all of a most troublesome enemy.
Demosthenes however had in the meanwhile been persuaded by the
Messenians that it was a fine opportunity for him, having so large
an army assembled, to attack the Aetolians, who were not only the
enemies of Naupactus, but whose reduction would further make it easy
to gain the rest of that part of the continent for the Athenians.
The Aetolian nation, although numerous and warlike, yet dwelt in
unwalled villages scattered far apart, and had nothing but light
armour, and might, according to the Messenians, be subdued without
much difficulty before succours could arrive. The plan which they
recommended was to attack first the Apodotians, next the Ophionians,
and after these the Eurytanians, who are the largest tribe in Aetolia,
and speak, as is said, a language exceedingly difficult to understand,
and eat their flesh raw. These once subdued, the rest would easily
come in.
To this plan Demosthenes consented, not only to please the
Messenians, but also in the belief that by adding the Aetolians to his
other continental allies he would be able, without aid from home, to
march against the Boeotians by way of Ozolian Locris to Kytinium in
Doris, keeping Parnassus on his right until he descended to the
Phocians, whom he could force to join him if their ancient