Summer [VIII 7–28]

The Chians were pressing the Spartans to send the ships, afraid that the Athenians might become aware of the negotiations (since all the discussions with envoys had been kept secret from them). So right at the beginning of spring the following summer the Spartans sent three Spartiates to Corinth to arrange as soon as possible for the ships to be dragged across from the sea the other side of the Isthmus to the side facing Athens; they were then to order the whole fleet to sail for Chios – both the ships Agis was getting ready for Lesbos and the others. The overall total of the allied ships was nineteen.

Calligeitus and Timagoras, who were acting on behalf of Pharnabazus, did not join this expedition to Chios; nor did they contribute the money (amounting to twenty-five talents) which they had brought with them to fund the dispatch of ships, but they planned to sail later with a separate expeditionary force of their own. As for Agis, he saw that the Spartans were intent on going to Chios first and had no objection to this himself. But the allies gathered at Corinth to deliberate on the matter and decided the following: they would first sail to Chios under the command of Chalcideus, who was preparing the five ships in Laconia; then they would proceed to Lesbos under Alcamenes, the man Agis had also had in mind; and finally they would go on to the Hellespont, where Clearchus son of Ramphias had already been assigned the command. They would transport half of the ships across the Isthmus in the first instance, and these would set off straightaway, the idea being to divert Athenian attention from those setting out towards those crossing the Isthmus later. They went about making their voyage from here quite openly, dismissive of what they saw as Athenian impotence – since no fleet of theirs of any size had yet appeared. And in line with these decisions they immediately transported twenty-one ships across.