8.125.2
This he kept saying until Themistocles replied, “This is the truth of the matter: if I had been a man of Belbina I would not have been honored in this way by the Spartans, nor would you, sir, for all you are a man of Athens.” Such was the end of that business.
ch. 126
8.126.1
Artabazus son of Pharnaces, who was already a notable man among the Persians and grew to be yet more so through the Plataean business, escorted the king as far as the passage with sixty thousand men of the army that Mardonius had chosen.
8.126.2
Xerxes, then, was now in Asia, and when Artabazus came near Pallene in his return (for Mardonius was wintering in Thessaly and Macedonia and making no haste to come to the rest of his army), he thought it right that he should enslave the people of Potidaea, whom he found in revolt.
8.126.3
When the king had marched away past the town and the Persian fleet had taken flight from Salamis, Potidaea had openly revolted from the barbarians and so too had the rest of the people of Pallene.
ch. 127
8.127.1
Thereupon Artabazus laid siege to Potidaea, and suspecting that Olynthus too was plotting revolt from the king, he laid siege to it also. This town was held by Bottiaeans who had been driven from the Thermaic gulf by the Macedonians. Having besieged and taken Olynthus, he brought these men to a lake and there cut their throats and delivered their city over to the charge of Critobulus of Torone and the Chalcidian people. It was in this way that the Chalcidians gained possession of Olynthus.
ch. 128
8.128.1
Having taken Olynthus, Artabazus dealt immediately with Potidaea, and his zeal was aided by Timoxenus the general of the Scionaeans, who agreed to betray the place to him. I do not know how the agreement was first made, since there is no information available about it. The result, however, was as I will now show. Whenever Timoxenus wrote a letter to be sent to Artabazus, or Artabazus to Timoxenus, they would wrap it around the shaft of an arrow at the notches, attach feathers to the letter, and shoot it to a place upon which they had agreed.
8.128.2
Timoxenus' plot to betray Potidaea was, however, discovered, for Artabazus in shooting an arrow to the place agreed upon, missed it and hit the shoulder of a man of Potidaea. A throng gathered quickly around the man when he was struck (which is a thing that always happens in war), and they straightway took the arrow, found the letter, and carried it to their generals; the rest of their allies of Pallene were also there present.
8.128.3
The generals read the letter and perceived who was the traitor, but they resolved for Scione's sake that they would not condemn Timoxenus with a charge of treason, for fear that the people of Scione should hereafter be called traitors.
