In this place is a 〈◊〉 and aboue it further from the Sea the Cittie of Ephyre in that part of Thesprotis which is called Eleatis and neere vnto it disbogueth into the Sea the Lake Acherusia and into that hauing first passed through Thesprotis the Riuer Acheron from which it taketh the Name Also the Riuer Thyanis runneth heere which divideth Thesprotis from Cestrine betwixt which two Riuers ariseth this Promontory of Cheimerium To this part of the Continent came the Corinthians and encamped The Corcyraeans vnderstanding that they made against them hauing ready 110. Gallies vnder the conduct of Miciades Aesimides and Eurybatus came and incamped in one of the Ilands called Sybota And the tenne Gallies of Athens were also with them But their Land-forces stayed in the Promontory of Leucimna and with them 1000. men of Armes of the Zacynthians that came to ayde them The Corinthians also had in the Continent the aydes of many Barbarians which in those quarters haue beene euermore their friends The Corinthians after they were ready and had taken aboard three dayes prouision of victuall put off by night from Cheimerium with purpose to fight and about breake of day as they were sayling descryed the Gallies of the Corcyraeans which were also put off from Sybota and comming on to fight with the Corinthians Assoone as they had sight one of another they put themselues into order of Battaile In the right wing of the Corcyraeans were placed the Gallies of Athens and the rest being their owne were diuided into three Commands vnder the three Commanders one vnder one This was the order of the Corcyraeans The Corinthians had in their right wing the Gallies of Megara and of Ambracia in the middle other their Confederates in order and opposite to the Athenians and right wing of the Corcyraeans they were themselues placed with such Gallies as were best of Sayle in the left The Standard being on either side lift vp they ioyned Battell hauing on both parts both many men of Armes and many Archers and Slingers but after the old fashion as yet somewhat vnskilfully appointed The Battell was not so artificially as cruelly fought neere vnto the maner of a fight at Land For after they had once runne their Gallies vp close aboard one of another they could not for the number and throng be easily gotten asunder againe but relyed for the victory especially vpon their men of Armes who fought where they stood whilst the Gallies remained altogether without motion Passages through each other they made none but fought it out with courage and strength rather then with skill insomuch as the Battell was in euery part not without much tumult and disorder In which the Athenian Gallies being alwaies where the Corcyraeans were oppressed at hand kept the enemies in feare but yet began no assault because their Commanders stood in awe of the prohibition of the Athenian people The right wing of the Corinthians was in the greatest distresse for the Corcyraeans with twenty Gallies had made them turne their backes and chased them dispersed to the Continent and sayling to their very Campe went aland burnt their abandoned Tents and tooke away their Baggage so that in this part the Corinthians and their Confederates were vanquished and the Corcyraeans had the victory But in the left wing where the Corinthians were themselues they were farre superiour because the Corcyraeans had twenty Gallies of their number which was at first lesse then that of the Corinthians absent in the chase of the Enemie And the Athenians when they saw the Corcyraeans were in distresse now ayded them manifestly whereas before they had abstained from making assault vpon any But when once they fled out right and that the Corinthians lay sore vpon them then euery one fell to the businesse without making difference any longer and it came at last to this necessity that they vndertooke one another Corinthians and Athenians The Corinthians when their enemies fled staid not to fasten the Hulles of the Gallies they had sunke vnto their owne Gallies that so they might tow them after but made after the men rowing vp and downe to kill rather then to take aliue and through ignorance not knowing that their right wing had beene discomfited slew also some of their owne friends For the Gallies of eyther side being many and taking vp a large space of Sea after they were once in the medly they could not easily discerne who were of the Victors and who of the vanquished party For this was the greatest Nauall Battell for number of Ships that euer had beene before of Grecians against Grecians When the Corinthians had chased the Corcyraeans to the shore they returned to take vp the broken Gallies and bodies of their dead which for the greatest part they recouered and brought to Sybota where also lay the Land-forces of the Barbarians that were come to ayde them This Sybota is a desart Hauen of Thesprotis When they had done they re-vnited themselues and made againe to the Corcyraeans and they likewise with such Gallies as they had fit for the Sea remaining of the former Battell together with those of Athens put foorth to meete them fearing lest they should attempt to land vpon their Territory By this time the day was farre spent and the Song which they vsed to sing when they came to charge was ended when suddenly the Corinthians beganne to row a Sterne for they had descried twenty Athenian Gallies sent from Athens to second the former tenne for feare lest the Corcyraeans as it also fell out should bee ouercome and those tenne Gallies of theirs bee too few to defend them When the Corinthians therefore had sight of these Gallies suspecting that they were of Athens and more in number then they were by little and little they fell off But the Corcyraeans because the course of these Gallies was vnto them more out of sight descryed them not but wondred why the Corinthians rowed a Sterne till at last some that saw them said they were Enemies and then retired also the Corcyraeans For by this time it was darke and the Corinthians had turned about the heads of their Gallies and dissolued themselues And thus were they parted and the Battell ended in night The Corcyraeans lying at Leucimna these twenty Athenian Gallies vnder the command of Glaucon the sonne of Leagrus and Androcides the sonne of Leogorus passing through the middest of the floating Carkasses and wrecke soone after they were descryed arriued at the Campe of the Corcyraeans in Leucimna The Corcyraeans at first being night were afraid they had beene Enemies but knew them afterwards so they anchored there The next day both the thirty Gallies of Athens and as many of Corcyra as were fit for seruice went to the Hauen in Sybota where the Corinthians lay at Anchor to see if they would fight But the Corinthians when they had put off from the Land
Lacedaemonians appeared to be the greater But what the number was either of the particulars of either side or in generall I could not exactly write For the number of the Lacedaemonians agreeable to the secrecy of that State was vnknowne and of the other side for the ostentation vsuall with all men touching the number of themselues was vnbeleeued Neuerthelesse the number of the Lacedaemonians may be attained by computing thus Besides the Sciritae which were 600. there fought in all seuen Regiments in euery Regiment were foure Companies in each Company were foure Enomatiae and of euery Enomatia there stood in Front foure but they were not ranged all alike in File but as the Captaines of Bands thought it necessary But the Army in generall was so ordered as to be eight men in depth and the first Ranke of the whole besides the Sciritae consisted of 448 Souldiers Now when they were ready to ioyne the Commanders made their hortatines euery one to those that were vnder his owne command To the Mantineans it was said That they were to fight for their Territory and concerning their liberty and seruitude that the former might not be taken from them and that they might not againe taste of the later The Argiues were admonished That whereas anciently they had the leading of Peloponnesus and in it an equall share they should not now suffer themselues to be depriued of it for euer and that withall they should now reuenge the many iniuries of a City their neighbour and enemy To the Athenians it was remembred how honourable a thing it would be for them in company of so many and good Confederates to be inferior to none of them and that if they had once vanquished the Lacedaemonians in Peloponnesus their owne Dominion would become both the more assured and the larger by it and that no other would inuade their Territory hereafter Thus much was said to the Argiues and their Confederates But the Lacedaemonians encouraged one another both of themselues and also by the manner of their Discipline in the Warres taking encouragement being valiant men by the commemoration of what they already knew as being well acquainted that a long actuall experience conferred more to their safety then any short verball exhortation though neuer so well deliuered After this followed the battell The Argiues and their Confederates marched to the charge with great violence and fury But the Lacedaemonians slowly and with many Flutes according to their Military Discipline not as a point of Religion but that marching euenly and by measure their Rankes might not be distracted as the greatest Armies when they march in the face of the Enemy vse to be Whilest they were yet marching vp Agis the King thought of this course All Armies doe thus In the Conflict they extend their right Wing so as it commeth in vpon the Flanke of the left Wing of the enemy and this happeneth for that that euery one through feare seeketh all he can to couer his vnarmed side with the Shield of him that standeth next him on his right hand conceiuing that to be so locked together is their best defence The beginning hereof is in the leader of the first File on the right hand who euer striuing to shift his vnarmed side from the enemy the rest vpon like feare follow after And at this time the Mantineans in the right Wing had farre encompassed the Sciritae and the Lacedaemonians on the other side and the Tegeates were come in yet farther vpon the Flanke of the Athenians by as much as they had the greater Army Wherfore Agis fearing lest his left Wing should be encompassed supposing the Mantineans to be come in farre signified vnto the Sciritae and Brasidians to draw out part of their Bands and therewith to equalize their left Wing to the right Wing of the Mantineans and into the void space he commanded to come vp Hipponoidas and Aristocles two Colonels with their Bands out of the right Wing and to fall in there and make vp the breach Conceiuing that more then enough would be still remaining in their right Wing and that the left Wing opposed to the Mantineans would be the stronger But it happened for he commanded it in the very onset and on the sodaine both that Aristocles and Hipponoidas refused to go to the place commanded for which they were afterwards banished Sparta as thought to haue disobeyed out of cowardise and that the enemy had in the meane time also charged And when those which he commanded to goe to the place of the Sciritae went not they could no more reunite themselues nor cloze againe the empty space But the Lacedaemonians though they had the worst at this time in euery point for skill yet in valour they manifestly shewed themselues superior For after the fight was once begun notwithstanding that the right Wing of the Mantineans did put to flight the Sciritae Brasidians and that the Mantineans together with their Confederates and those 1000 chosen men of Argos falling vpon them in Flanke by the breach not yet clozed vp killed many of the Lacedaemonians and put to flight and chased them to their Carriages slaying also certaine of the elder sort left there for a guard so as in this part the Lacedaemonians were ouercome But with the rest of the Army and especially the middle battell where Agis was himselfe and those which are called the 300 horsemen about him they charged vpon the eldest of the Argiues and vpon those which are named the fiue Cohorts and vpon the Cleonaeans and Orneates and certaine Athenians aranged amongst them and put them all to flight In such sort as many of them neuer strooke stroake but as soone as the Lacedaemonians charged gaue ground presently and some for feare to be ouertaken were trodden vnder foot As soone as the Army of the Argiues and their Confederates had in this part giuen ground they began also to breake on either side The right Wing of the Lacedaemonians and Tegeates had now with their surplusage of number hemmed the Athenians in so as they had the danger on all hands being within the circle pend vp and without it already vanquished And they had been the most distressed part of all the Army had not their horsemen come in to helpe them Withall it fell out that Agis when he perceiued the left Wing of his owne Army to labour namely that which was opposed to the Mantineans and to those thousand Argiues commanded the whole Army to goe and relieue the part ouercome By which meanes the Athenians and such of the Argiues as together with them were ouerlaid whilst the Army passed by and declined them saued themselues at leasure And the Mantineans with their Confederates and those chosen Argiues had no more mind now of pressing vpon their enemies but seeing their side was ouercome and the Lacedaemonians approaching them presently turned their backs Of the Mantineans the greatest part
who being arriued with Cnemus intimated to the Cities about to prouide their Gallies and caused those they had before to be repayred Phormio likewise sent to Athens to make knowne both the Enemies preparation and his owne former victory and withall to will them to send speedily vnto him as many Gallies as they could make ready because they were euery day in expectation of a new fight Heereupon they sent him twenty Gallies but commanded him that had the charge of them to goe first into Crete For Nicias a Cretan of Gortys the publike Host of the Athenians had perswaded them to a voyage against Cydonia telling them they might take it in being now their Enemie Which he did to gratifie the Polichnitae that bordered vpon the Cydonians Therefore with these Gallies hee sayled into Crete and together with the Polichnitae wasted the Territory of the Cydonians where also by reason of the Winds and weather vnfit to take Sea in hee wasted not a little of his time In the meane time whilest these Athenians were Wind-bound in Crete the Peloponnesians that were in Cyllene in order of Battell sayled along the Coast to Panormus of Achaia to which also were their Land-forces come to ayde them Phormio likewise sayled by the shore to Rhium Molychricum and anchored without it with twenty Gallies the same hee had vsed in the former Battell Now this Rhium was of the Athenians side and the other Rhium in Peloponnesus lyes on the opposite shore distant from it at the most but seuen furlongs of Sea and these two make the mouth of the Crissaean Gulfe The Peloponnesians therefore came to an anchor at Rhium of Achaia with 77. Gallies not farre from Panormus where they left their Land Forces After they saw the Athenians and had lyen sixe or seuen daies one against the other meditating and prouiding for the Battell the Peloponnesians not intending to put off without Rhium into the wide Sea for feare of what they had sufferd by it before nor the other to enter the Streight because to fight within they thought to be the Enemies aduantage At last Cnemus Brasidas and the other Commanders of the Peloponnesians desiring to fight speedily before a new supply should arriue from Athens called the Soldiers together and seeing the most of them to be fearefull through their former defeat and not forward to fight againe encouraged them first with words to this effect THE ORATION OF CNEMVS MEn of Peloponnesus If any of you be afraid of the Battell at hand for the successe of the Battell past his feare is without ground For you know wee were inferiour to them then in preparation and set not forth as to a fight at Sea but rather to an expedition by Land Fortune likewise crossed vs in many things and somewhat wee miscarried by vnskilfulnesse so as the losse can no way be ascribed to cowardise Nor is it iust so long as we were not ouercome by meere force but haue somewhat to alledge in our excuse that the mind should bee deiected for the calamity of the euent But we must thinke that though Fortune may faile men yet the courage of a valiant man can neuer faile and not that we may iustifie cowardise in any thing by pretending want of skill and yet bee truely valiant And yet you are not so much short of their skill as you exceede them in valour And though this knowledge of theirs which you so much feare ioyned with courage will not bee without a memory also to put what they know in execution yet without courage no act in the world is of any force in the time of danger For feare confoundeth the memory and skill without courage auaileth nothing To their oddes therefore of skill oppose your oddes of valour and to the feare caused by your ouerthrow oppose your being then vnprouided You haue further now a greater Fleet and to fight on your owne shore with your aydes at hand of men of Armes and for the most part the greatest number and best prouided get the victory So that wee can neither see any one cause in particular why wee should miscarry and whatsoeuer were our wants in the former Battell supplyed in this will now turne to our instruction With courage therefore both Masters and Mariners follow euery man in his order not forsaking the place assigned him And for vs wee shall order the battaile as well as the former Commanders and leaue no excuse to any man of his cowardize And if any will needes be a coward hee shall receiue condigne punishment and the valiant shall be rewarded according to their merit Thus did the Commanders encourage the Peloponnesians And Phormio he likewise doubting that his Souldiers were but faint-hearted and obseruing they had consultations apart and were afraid of the multitude of the enemies Gallies thought good hauing called them together to encourage and admonish them vpon the present occasion For though he had alwayes before told them and predisposed their mindes to an opinion that there was no number of Gallies so great which setting vpon them they ought not to vndertake and also most of the Souldiers had of long time assumed a conceit of themselues that being Athenians they ought not to decline any number of Gallies whatsoeuer of the Peloponnesians yet when he saw that the sight of the enemy present had deiected them he thought fit to reuiue their courage and hauing assembled the Athenians said thus THE ORATION OF PHORMIO SOuldiers hauing obserued your feare of the enemies number I haue called you together not enduring to see you terrified with things that are not terrible For first they haue prepared this great number and oddes of Gallies for that they were ouercome before and because they are euen in their owne opinions too weake for vs. And next their present boldnesse proceeds onely from their knowledge in Land-seruice in confidence whereof as if to be valiant were peculiar vnto them they are now come vp wherin hauing for the most part prospered they thinke to doe the same in seruice by Sea But in reason the oddes must be ours in this as well as it is theirs in the other kinde For in courage they exceed vs not and as touching the aduantage of either side we may better be bold now then they And the Lacedaemonians who are the leaders of the Confederates bring them to fight for the greatest part in respect of the opinion they haue of vs against their wills For else they would neuer haue vndertaken a new battaile after they were once so cleerely ouerthrowne Feare not therefore any great boldnesse on their part But the feare which they haue of you is farre both greater and more certaine not onely for that you haue ouercome them before but also for this that they would neuer beleeue you would goe about to resist vnlesse you had some notable thing to put in practice vpon them For when the enemy is the greater number as
Rhaetium this now is in Hellespont But some of his Gallies put in at Sigeum and other places thereabouts The Athenians that lay with eighteene Gallies at Sestus knew that the Peloponnesians were entring into the Hellespont by the Fires both those which their owne Watchmen put vp by the many which appeared on the Enemies shore and therefore the same night in all haste as they were kept the shore of Chersonnesus towards Elaeus desiring to get out into the wide Sea and to decline the Fleete of the Enemie and went out vnseene of those sixteene Gallies that lay at Abydus though these had warning before from the Fleete of their friends that came on to watch them narrowly that they went not out but in the morning beeing in sight of the Fleete with Mindarus and chased by him they could not all escape but the most of them got to the Continent and into Lemnos onely foure of the hindmost were taken neere Elaeus whereof the Peloponnesians tooke one with the men in her that had run her selfe a-ground at the Temple of Protesilaus and two other without the men and set fire on a fourth abandoned vpon the shoare of Imbrus After this they besieged Elaeus the same day with those Gallies of Abydus which were with them and with the rest being now all together fourescore and sixe Sayle But seeing it would not yeeld they went away to Abydus The Athenians who had beene deceiued by their Spyes and not imagining that the Enemies Fleete could haue gone by without their knowledge and attended at leasure the assault of Eressus when now they knew they were gone immediately left Eressus and hasted to the defence of Hellespont By the way they tooke two Gallies of the Peloponnesians that hauing ventured into the Maine more boldly in following the Enemy then the rest had done chanced to light vpon the Flett of the Athenians The next day they came to Elaeus and stayed and thither from Imbrus came vnto them those other Gallies that had escaped from the Enemy Heere they spent fiue dayes in preparation for a Battell After this they fought in this manner The Athenians went by the shore ordering their Gallies one by one towards Sestus The Peloponnesians also when they saw this brought out their Fleet against them from Abydus Beeing sure to fight they drew out their Fleetâ— in length the Athenians along the shoare of Chersonnesus beginning at Idacus and reaching as farre as Arrhianae threescore and sixe Gallies And the Peloponnesians from Abydus to Dardanus fourescore and sixe Gallies In the right Wing of the Peloponnesians were the Syracusians in the other Mindarus himselfe and those Gallies that were nimblest Amongst the Athenians Thrasyllus had the left Wing and Thrasybulus the right and the rest of the Commanders euery one the place assigned him Now the Peloponnesians laboured to giue the first onset and with their left Wing to ouer-reach the right Wing of the Athenians and keepe them from going out and to driue those in the middle to the shore which was neere The Athenians who perceiued it where the Enemy went about to cut off their way out put foorth the same way that they did and out-went them The left Wing of the Athenians was also gone forward by this time beyond the point called Cynos-sema by meanes whereof that part of the Fleet which was in the middest became both weake and diuided especially when theirs was the lesse Fleet and the sharpe and angular figure of the place about Cymos-sema tooke away the sight of what passed there from those that were on the other side The Peloponnesians therefore charging this middle part both draue their Gallies to the dry Land and beeing farre superiour in fight went out after them and assaulted them vpon the shore And to helpe them neither was Thrasibulus able who was in the right Wing for the multitude of the Enemies that pressed him nor Thrasyllus in the left Wing both because hee could not see what was done for the Promontory of Cynos-sema and because also hee was kept from it by the Syracusians and others lying vpon his hands no fewer in number then themselues Till at last the Peloponnesians bold vpon their victory chasing some one Gally some another fell into some disorder in a part of their Armie And then those about Thrasybulus hauing obserued that the opposite Gallies sought now no more to go beyond them turned vpon them and fighting put them presently to flight And hauing also cut off from the rest of the Fleet such Gallies of the Peloponnesians of that part that had the victory as were scattered abroad some they assaulted but the greatest number they put into affright vnfoughten The Syracusians also whom those about Thrasyllus had already caused to shrinke when they saw the rest fly fled out-right This defeat being giuen and the Peloponnesians hauing for the most part escaped first to the Riuer Pydius and afterwards to Abydus though the Athenians tooke but few of their Gallies for the narrownesse of the Hellespont afforded to the Enemy a short retreat yet the Victory was the most seasonable to them that could be For hauing till this day stood in feare of the Peloponnesian Nauie both for the losse which they had receiued by little and little and also for their great losse in Sicily they now ceased eyther to accuse themselues or to thinke highly any longer of the Nauall power of their Enemies The Gallies they tooke were these eight of Chios fiue of Corinth of Ambracia two of Leucas Laconia Syracuse and Pellene one apiece Of their owne they lost fifteene When they had set vp a Trophie in the Promontory of Cynos-sema and taken vp the wreckes and giuen truce to the Enemies to fecth away the bodies of their dead they presently sent away a Gally with a Messenger to carry newes of the Victory to Athens The Athenians vpon the comming in of this Gally hearing of their vnexpected good fortune were encouraged much after their losse in Euboea and after their sedition and conceiued that their estate might yet keepe vp if they plyed the businesse couragiously The fourth day after this Battell the Athenians that were in Sestus hauing hastily prepared their Fleet went to Cyzicus which was reuolted and espying as they past by the eight Gallies come from Byzantium riding vnder Harpagium and Priapus set vpon them and hauing also ouercome those that came to their ayde from the Land tooke them Then comming to Cyzicus being an open Towne they brought it againe into their owne power and leauied a summe of Money amongst them The Peloponnesians in the meane time going from Abydus to Elaeus recouered as many of their Gallies formerly taken as remained whole The rest the Eleusians had burnt They also sent Hippocrates and Epicles into Euboea to fetch away the Fleet that was there About the same time also returned Alcibiades to Samos with his thirteene Gallies