This, then is how they fared in their fighting. Presently, however, the Athenians wholly separated themselves from the Ionians and refused to aid them, although Aristagoras sent messages of earnest entreaty. Despite the fact that they had been deprived of their Athenian allies, the Ionians fervently continued their war against the king (for they remained committed by what they had done to Darius). They sailed to the Hellespont and made Byzantium and all the other cities of that region subject to themselves. Then sailing out from the Hellespont they gained to their cause the greater part of Caria, for even Caunus, which till then had not wanted to be their ally, now joined itself to them after the burning of Sardis.