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In fact, the armament became incompetent for all serious effort, from the aggravated character which the distemper here assumed, communicated by the soldiers fresh from Athens even to those who had before been free from it at Potidaea. So frightful was the mortality that out of the four thousand hoplites under Agnon no fewer than one thousand and fifty died in the short space of forty days.
On returning to Athens, the same armament was immediately conducted under Agnon and Cleopompus, to press the siege of Potidaea, the blockade of which still continued without any visible progress. On arriving there an attack was made on the walls by battering engines and by the other aggressive methods then practised; but nothing whatever was achieved.
He hastened back and renewed the blockade fresh forces were sent to his aid from Athens, forty-eight ships, under three generals, Thucydides , Agnon, and Phormio; followed by twenty more under Tlepolemus and Anticles, while Chios and Lesbos supplied an additional squadron of thirty.
To settle as one of the richest proprietors and chiefs, perhaps even the recognized founder, like Agnon at Amphipolis, of a new Hellenic city such as could hardly fail to become rich, powerful, and important was a tempting prospect for one who had now acquired the habits of command.
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