VI. their way. There was a very large school, in SECT. which the boys were just assembled, when the Thracians broke in, and put every one to death. Destruction so unexpected and so complete, continues the cotemporary historian, scarcely ever fell upon any town. Those bar News of this scene of bloodshed being quickly Thucyd. carried to Thebes, a body of forces instantly march- 1.7. c. 30. ed: too late to give any relief to the Mycalessians, but in time to overtake the Thracians. barians, who in courage were inferior to none, and in discipline not despicable, frequently turning in their retreat, repulsed the Theban cavalry; and Skirphondas, one of the Bootarcs, was killed. They were however, compelled to abandon all their booty; and when they arrived on the beach, in the confusion of imbarkation, they suffered greatly; those unpractised in swimming being indeed without resource; for the Athenian seamen, little solicitous about such allies, took care to keep themselves and their vessels out of the reach of the justly inraged enemy. About two hundred and fifty Thracians were killed: the rest were conducted by Diïtrephes to their own country. Meanwhile Demosthenes, having joined Chari- c. 26. cles, was meditating measures for revenging against Lacedæmon the evils suffered by Athens from the garrison of Deceleia. At Nauplia, he took aboard a body of Argian infantry. Turning back then upon the Epidaurian coast, he made a descent and collected some booty. Having thus ingaged the enemy's attention toward the northern parts of Peloponnesus, he reïmbarked his forces, and proceeding to the Laconian coast, debarked again overagainst Cythera, as the historian marks the place, where the temple of Apollo stands. The XVIII. CHAP. first business was still plunder, as far as it could be conveniently extended. A neck of land was then occupied on which to erect a fort. It was proposed that this should be, on the eastern side of the country, like Pylus on the western, a place of refuge for runaway Helots, or any others who might be disposed to live by rapine on the Laconian lands. Matters being so far settled, Demosthenes proceeded on his voyage. Charicles remained till works were raised adequate to the protection of a garrison, and then, with the Argian auxiliaries, returned home. Demosthenes, arriving at Corcyra, added his personal influence to the public authority with which he was vested, for collecting reïnforcements among the allies of Athens in Western Greece. Naupactus, Cephallenia, Zacynthus, Alyzia, Anactorium, contributed to strengthen the armament. At Anactorium he found Eurymedon collecting provisions for Sicily, and from him he learnt the unwelcome news that Plemmyrium was in the hands of the enemy. Nearly at the same time arrived Conon, now for the first time mentioned in history, who had the command at Naupactus, and came to request a reïnforcement to his squadron of eighteen triremes, to inable him 'to oppose the Corinthian squadron of twenty-five. The service was thought so important that ten of the swiftest triremes of the fleet were selected for it, to make his superiority decisive. Such a request, made by such an officer as Conon, and granted by such a commander as 17 Τα χρήματα ἄγων τῇ τρατιᾶ. Thucyd. Ἤτοι τὰ πρὸς τροφὴν χρήσιμα, καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ συντείνοντα αὐτοῖς. Schol. This is not the only occasion on which Thucydides uses the term xguara for necessaries in general. Smith has translated accordingly; but the Latin has pecuniam, which does not express the sense intended here. VI. Demosthenes, shows that the Athenians had already SECT. continued the war too long. Both those officers were certainly aware that the enemy had improved their naval practice, and that the superiority of the Athenians, experienced in the actions under Phormion, in the same seas, would be experienced no more. 1. 7. c. 33. Demosthenes and Eurymedon, having prepared Thucyd. everything for the prosecution of their voyage, crossed the Ionian gulph to the Iapygian promontory. There they stopped to renew the antient alliance of Athens with Artas, a powerful chief of the Iapygian barbarians, through whom they obtained a small reinforcement of dartmen of the Messapian tribe. From Metapontium, a Grecian town in the neighborhood, three hundred dartmen and two triremes joined them. Proceeding then to Thurium, they found a revolution had taken place there, favorable to their cause: the party friendly to Athens were in possession of the government, and those of their opponents, who had escaped with life, were in banishment. After making such arrangements as they judged most advantageous for the Athenian interest, and obtaining a reinforcement of seven hundred heavy-armed and three hundred dartmen, they proceeded to the Rhegian port of Petra. As soon as the Athenian fleet under Demos- c. 34. thenes had clearly quitted the Grecian coast, the Corinthian admiral, Polyanthes, resolved upon the bold measure of offering battle, tho with inferior numbers, to the Athenian squadron at Naupactus. He chose his station for the purpose judiciously. It was opposite to Naupactus, in a small bay, on each point of which a body of Peloponnesian infantry was incamped. Thus, in case of being overpowered, his retreat would be short, and protection ready. Nor was XVIII. CHAP. this all experience had led the Corinthians to improve the construction of their galleys, by strengthening the bows with an addition of timber and metal, which might inable them to resist the destructive shock of the enemy's beak. In the accidental absence, apparently, of Conon, Diphilus commanded the Athenian squadron; and, confident in superior numbers, accepted, perhaps imprudently, the offer of battle thus made by the enemy, on their own coast. After a sharp contest, three Corinthian ships were sunk, but seven Athenian were disabled, through the superior strength of the Corinthian bows. The Corinthians retired, but the Athenians were not in condition for effectual pursuit. The Corinthians therefore erected a trophy; thinking it much, says the historian, not to have been more decisively defeated. The Athenians, on the contrary, tho they remained masters of the wreck, the common criterion of victory, would erect no trophy; dejected, as by a defeat, not to have been, with superior numbers, more completely victorious. The enemy's fleet, however, retiring soon after into the harbor of Erineum, and the army also withdrawing, the Athenians then landed on the Peloponnesian shore, near the place of action, and erected their trophy. SECTION VII. Affairs in Sicily. Second Naval Action in the Harbor of Syracuse : Third Naval Action. Arrival of Reinforcement under Demosthenes and Eurymedon: Attack of Epipola: Retreat proposed by Demosthenes, opposed by Nicias: Secret Negotiation in Syracuse. Retreat resolved: Consequences of an Eclipse of the Moon: Fourth Naval Action: Distress of the Athenians: Fifth Naval Action. VII. 1. 7. c. 32, DURING these transactions in Greece and on the SECT. Grecian shores, the natural consequences of recovered prosperity attended the negotiations, which Gylippus and Hermocrates were prosecuting in Sicily. Of the Grecian cities none remained at- Thucyd. tached to Athens: Agrigentum alone persevered 33. in neutrality even Camarina sent a considerable auxiliary force to the Syracusans, five hundred heavy-armed, three hundred dartmen, and three hundred bowmen: Gela at the same time furnished two hundred horse, four hundred dartmen, and two triremes. Nothing impeded the march of troops from Camarina and Gela to Syracuse: but, from the other friendly cities, either the Agrigentine territory must be traversed, or that of the hostile Sicels; sufferers, or likely to suffer, on all hands, but readiest in enmity to those with whose disposi tion to tyrannize they were most acquainted. The Agrigentines resisted all solicitation to allow the passage through their territory: it was thought unadvisable to exasperate so powerful a people by any attempt to force the way, and the road through the Sicel country was therefore taken. Nicias, informed of what was going forward, and roused by misfortune and danger, took, upon this occasion, the measures which policy would dictate. At his instance the Sicels, forming an ambuscade, attacked the auxiliaries on their march, and killed eight |