Summer [VIII 61–109, unfinished]

Right at the beginning of spring the following summer the Spartiate Dercylidas was sent with a small force along the coast to the Hellespont to try and bring about a revolt at Abydos, a Milesian colony; and the Chians, while Astyochus was still at a loss how to get help to them, were compelled by the pressures of the siege to undertake a battle at sea. As it happened, while Astyochus was still at Rhodes the Chians had received a new commander from Miletus after the death of Pedaritus, a Spartiate called Leon, who had come out as an officer under Antisthenes; with him they also received twelve ships that had been on guard duty at Miletus (five of them Thurian, four Syracusan, one Anaean, one Milesian and one Leon's own ship). The entire Chian land forces now came out as a body and occupied a strong position; and at the same time their thirty-six ships went to take on the thirty-two ships of the Athenians and the sea battle took place. This was fiercely contested and the Chians and their allies by no means got the worst of the action, but since it was now getting late they returned to the city.

Immediately after this, when Dercylides had completed his march along the coast from Miletus, Abydos in the Hellespont did revolt and went over to Dercylides and Pharnabazus, as did Lampsacus two days later. On learning this, Strombichides hastened in support from Chios, arriving with twenty-four Athenian ships, some of which were troop-transports carrying hoplites. He defeated the Lampsacenes who came out against him and took the city of Lampsacus, which was unwalled, at the first attempt. The property and slaves he seized as booty, but he restored the free population to their homes and then moved against Abydos. That did not surrender, however, and he was unable to take it by assault, so he sailed back to the coast opposite Abydos and established a guard-post at Sestos, a city on the Chersonese which the Persians had once held, to keep watch over the whole of the Hellespont.