History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides [best free ebook reader TXT] 📗

and children and oldest men and the mass of the

non-combatants to Athens; so that the number of the besieged left in

the place comprised four hundred of their own citizens, eighty

Athenians, and a hundred and ten women to bake their bread. This was

the sum total at the commencement of the siege, and there was no one

else within the walls, bond or free. Such were the arrangements made

for the blockade of Plataea.

 

The same summer and simultaneously with the expedition against

Plataea, the Athenians marched with two thousand heavy infantry and

two hundred horse against the Chalcidians in the direction of Thrace

and the Bottiaeans, just as the corn was getting ripe, under the

command of Xenophon, son of Euripides, with two colleagues. Arriving

before Spartolus in Bottiaea, they destroyed the corn and had some

hopes of the city coming over through the intrigues of a faction

within. But those of a different way of thinking had sent to Olynthus;

and a garrison of heavy infantry and other troops arrived accordingly.

These issuing from Spartolus were engaged by the Athenians in front of

the town: the Chalcidian heavy infantry, and some auxiliaries with

them, were beaten and retreated into Spartolus; but the Chalcidian

horse and light troops defeated the horse and light troops of the

Athenians. The Chalcidians had already a few targeteers from Crusis,

and presently after the battle were joined by some others from

Olynthus; upon seeing whom the light troops from Spartolus, emboldened

by this accession and by their previous success, with the help of

the Chalcidian horse and the reinforcement just arrived again attacked

the Athenians, who retired upon the two divisions which they had

left with their baggage. Whenever the Athenians advanced, their

adversary gave way, pressing them with missiles the instant they began

to retire. The Chalcidian horse also, riding up and charging them just

as they pleased, at last caused a panic amongst them and routed and

pursued them to a great distance. The Athenians took refuge in

Potidaea, and afterwards recovered their dead under truce, and

returned to Athens with the remnant of their army; four hundred and

thirty men and all the generals having fallen. The Chalcidians and

Bottiaeans set up a trophy, took up their dead, and dispersed to their

several cities.

 

The same summer, not long after this, the Ambraciots and

Chaonians, being desirous of reducing the whole of Acarnania and

detaching it from Athens, persuaded the Lacedaemonians to equip a

fleet from their confederacy and send a thousand heavy infantry to

Acarnania, representing that, if a combined movement were made by land

and sea, the coast Acarnanians would be unable to march, and the

conquest of Zacynthus and Cephallenia easily following on the

possession of Acarnania, the cruise round Peloponnese would be no

longer so convenient for the Athenians. Besides which there was a hope

of taking Naupactus. The Lacedaemonians accordingly at once sent off a

few vessels with Cnemus, who was still high admiral, and the heavy

infantry on board; and sent round orders for the fleet to equip as

quickly as possible and sail to Leucas. The Corinthians were the

most forward in the business; the Ambraciots being a colony of theirs.

While the ships from Corinth, Sicyon, and the neighbourhood were

getting ready, and those from Leucas, Anactorium, and Ambracia,

which had arrived before, were walting for them at Leucas, Cnemus

and his thousand heavy infantry had run into the gulf, giving the slip

to Phormio, the commander of the Athenian squadron stationed off

Naupactus, and began at once to prepare for the land expedition. The

Hellenic troops with him consisted of the Ambraciots, Leucadians,

and Anactorians, and the thousand Peloponnesians with whom he came;

the barbarian of a thousand Chaonians, who, belonging to a nation that

has no king, were led by Photys and Nicanor, the two members of the

royal family to whom the chieftainship for that year had been

confided. With the Chaonians came also some Thesprotians, like them

without a king, some Molossians and Atintanians led by Sabylinthus,

the guardian of King Tharyps who was still a minor, and some

Paravaeans, under their king Oroedus, accompanied by a thousand

Orestians, subjects of King Antichus and placed by him under the

command of Oroedus. There were also a thousand Macedonians sent by

Perdiccas without the knowledge of the Athenians, but they arrived too

late. With this force Cnemus set out, without waiting for the fleet

from Corinth. Passing through the territory of Amphilochian Argos, and

sacking the open village of Limnaea, they advanced to Stratus the

Acarnanian capital; this once taken, the rest of the country, they

felt convinced, would speedily follow.

 

The Acarnanians, finding themselves invaded by a large army by land,

and from the sea threatened by a hostile fleet, made no combined

attempt at resistance, but remained to defend their homes, and sent

for help to Phormio, who replied that, when a fleet was on the point

of sailing from Corinth, it was impossible for him to leave

Naupactus unprotected. The Peloponnesians meanwhile and their allies

advanced upon Stratus in three divisions, with the intention of

encamping near it and attempting the wall by force if they failed to

succeed by negotiation. The order of march was as follows: the

centre was occupied by the Chaonians and the rest of the barbarians,

with the Leucadians and Anactorians and their followers on the

right, and Cnemus with the Peloponnesians and Ambraciots on the

left; each division being a long way off from, and sometimes even

out of sight of, the others. The Hellenes advanced in good order,

keeping a lookout till they encamped in a good position; but the

Chaonians, filled with self-confidence, and having the highest

character for courage among the tribes of that part of the

continent, without waiting to occupy their camp, rushed on with the

rest of the barbarians, in the idea that they should take the town

by assault and obtain the sole glory of the enterprise. While they

were coming on, the Stratians, becoming aware how things stood, and

thinking that the defeat of this division would considerably

dishearten the Hellenes behind it, occupied the environs of the town

with ambuscades, and as soon as they approached engaged them at

close quarters from the city and the ambuscades. A panic seizing the

Chaonians, great numbers of them were slain; and as soon as they

were seen to give way the rest of the barbarians turned and fled.

Owing to the distance by which their allies had preceded them, neither

of the Hellenic divisions knew anything of the battle, but fancied

they were hastening on to encamp. However, when the flying

barbarians broke in upon them, they opened their ranks to receive

them, brought their divisions together, and stopped quiet where they

were for the day; the Stratians not offering to engage them, as the

rest of the Acarnanians had not yet arrived, but contenting themselves

with slinging at them from a distance, which distressed them

greatly, as there was no stirring without their armour. The

Acarnanians would seem to excel in this mode of warfare.

 

As soon as night fell, Cnemus hastily drew off his army to the river

Anapus, about nine miles from Stratus, recovering his dead next day

under truce, and being there joined by the friendly Oeniadae, fell

back upon their city before the enemy’s reinforcements came up. From

hence each returned home; and the Stratians set up a trophy for the

battle with the barbarians.

 

Meanwhile the fleet from Corinth and the rest of the confederates in

the Crissaean Gulf, which was to have co-operated with Cnemus and

prevented the coast Acarnanians from joining their countrymen in the

interior, was disabled from doing so by being compelled about the same

time as the battle at Stratus to fight with Phormio and the twenty

Athenian vessels stationed at Naupactus. For they were watched, as

they coasted along out of the gulf, by Phormio, who wished to attack

in the open sea. But the Corinthians and allies had started for

Acarnania without any idea of fighting at sea, and with vessels more

like transports for carrying soldiers; besides which, they never

dreamed of the twenty Athenian ships venturing to engage their

forty-seven. However, while they were coasting along their own

shore, there were the Athenians sailing along in line with them; and

when they tried to cross over from Patrae in Achaea to the mainland on

the other side, on their way to Acarnania, they saw them again

coming out from Chalcis and the river Evenus to meet them. They

slipped from their moorings in the night, but were observed, and

were at length compelled to fight in mid passage. Each state that

contributed to the armament had its own general; the Corinthian

commanders were Machaon, Isocrates, and Agatharchidas. The

Peloponnesians ranged their vessels in as large a circle as possible

without leaving an opening, with the prows outside and the sterns

in; and placed within all the small craft in company, and their five

best sailers to issue out at a moment’s notice and strengthen any

point threatened by the enemy.

 

The Athenians, formed in line, sailed round and round them, and

forced them to contract their circle, by continually brushing past and

making as though they would attack at once, having been previously

cautioned by Phormio not to do so till he gave the signal. His hope

was that the Peloponnesians would not retain their order like a

force on shore, but that the ships would fall foul of one another

and the small craft cause confusion; and if the wind should blow

from the gulf (in expectation of which he kept sailing round them, and

which usually rose towards morning), they would not, he felt sure,

remain steady an instant. He also thought that it rested with him to

attack when he pleased, as his ships were better sailers, and that

an attack timed by the coming of the wind would tell best. When the

wind came down, the enemy’s ships were now in a narrow space, and what

with the wind and the small craft dashing against them, at once fell

into confusion: ship fell foul of ship, while the crews were pushing

them off with poles, and by their shouting, swearing, and struggling

with one another, made captains’ orders and boatswains’ cries alike

inaudible, and through being unable for want of practice to clear

their oars in the rough water, prevented the vessels from obeying

their helmsmen properly. At this moment Phormio gave the signal, and

the Athenians attacked. Sinking first one of the admirals, they then

disabled all they came across, so that no one thought of resistance

for the confusion, but fled for Patrae and Dyme in Achaea. The

Athenians gave chase and captured twelve ships, and taking most of the

men out of them sailed to Molycrium, and after setting up a trophy

on the promontory of Rhium and dedicating a ship to Poseidon, returned

to Naupactus. As for the Peloponnesians, they at once sailed with

their remaining ships along the coast from Dyme and Patrae to Cyllene,

the Eleian arsenal; where Cnemus, and the ships from Leucas that

were to have joined them, also arrived after the battle at Stratus.

 

The Lacedaemonians now sent to the fleet to Cnemus three

commissioners—Timocrates, Bradidas, and Lycophron—with orders to

prepare to engage again with better fortune, and not to be driven from

the sea by a few vessels; for they could not at all account for

their discomfiture, the less so as it was their first attempt at

sea; and they fancied that it was not that their marine was so

inferior, but that there had been misconduct somewhere, not

considering the long experience of the Athenians as compared with

the little practice which they had had themselves. The commissioners

were accordingly sent in anger.