Classical literature; Greece -- History -- Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C.; Greece -- History -- Spartan and Theban Supremacies, 404-362 B.C.
Another short interval brings us to a morning in early winter, when
Dorieus, the son of Diagoras, was entering the Hellespont with fourteen
ships from Rhodes at break of day. The Athenian day-watch descrying him,
signalled to the generals, and they, with twenty sail, put out to sea to
attack him. Dorieus made good his escape, and, as he shook himself free
of the narrows, (2) ran his triremes aground off Rhoeteum. When the
Athenians had come to close quarters, the fighting commenced, and was
sustained at once from ships and shore, until at length the Athenians
retired to their main camp at Madytus, having achieved nothing.
(2) Lit. "as he opened" {os enoige}. This is still a mariner's phrase
in modern Greek, if I am rightly informed.
Meanwhile Mindarus, while sacrificing to Athena at Ilium, had observed
the battle. He at once hastened to the sea, and getting his own triremes
afloat, sailed out to pick up the ships with Dorieus. The Athenians on
their side put out to meet him, and engaged him off Abydos. From early
morning till the afternoon the fight was kept up close to the shore.
(3) Victory and defeat hung still in even balance, when Alcibiades
came sailing up with eighteen ships. Thereupon the Peloponnesians
fled towards Abydos, where, however, Pharnabazus brought them timely
assistance. (4) Mounted on horseback, he pushed forward into the sea as
far as his horse would let him, doing battle himself, and encouraging
his troopers and the infantry alike to play their parts. Then the
Peloponnesians, ranging their ships in close-packed order, and drawing
up their battle line in proximity to the land, kept up the fight. At
length the Athenians, having captured thirty of the enemy's vessels
without their crews, and having recovered those of their own which
they had previously lost, set sail for Sestos. Here the fleet, with the
exception of forty vessels, dispersed in different directions outside
the Hellespont, to collect money; while Thrasylus, one of the generals,
sailed to Athens to report what had happened, and to beg for a
reinforcement of troops and ships. After the above incidents,
Tissaphernes arrived in the Hellespont, and received a visit from
Alcibiades, who presented him with a single ship, bringing with him
tokens of friendship and gifts, whereupon Tissaphernes seized him and
shut him up in Sardis, giving out that the king's orders were to go to
war with the Athenians. Thirty days later Alcibiades, accompanied by
Mantitheus, who had been captured in Caria, managed to procure horses
and escaped by night to Clazomenae.
(3) The original has a somewhat more poetical ring. The author uses
the old Attic or Ionic word {eona}. This is a mark of style, of
which we shall have many instances. One might perhaps produce
something of the effect here by translating: "the battle hugged
the strand."
(4) Or, "came to their aid along the shore."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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