+3.+ The fight having been begun on the ship on which King Attalus was
sailing, all the others near began charging each other without waiting
for orders. Attalus ran into an eight-banked ship, and having struck it
a well-directed blow below the water-line, after a prolonged struggle
between the combatants on the decks, at length succeeded in sinking
it. Philip’s ten-banked ship, which, moreover, was the admiral’s,
was captured by the enemy in an extraordinary manner. For one of the
_triemioliae_, having run close under her, she struck against her
violently amidships, just beneath the thole of the topmost bank of
oars, and got fast jammed on to her, the steersman being unable to
check the way of his ship. The result was that, by this craft hanging
suspended to her, she became unmanageable and unable to turn one way
or another. While in this plight, two quinqueremes charged her on both
sides at once, and destroyed the vessel itself and the fighting men on
her deck, among whom fell Democrates, Philip’s admiral. At the same
time Dionysodorus and Deinocrates, who were brothers and joint-admirals
of the fleet of Attalus, charged, the one upon a seven-banked,
the other upon an eight-banked ship of the enemy, and had a most
extraordinary adventure in the battle. Deinocrates, in the first place,
came into collision with an eight-banked ship, and had his ship struck
above the water-line; for the enemy’s ship had its prow built high; but
he struck the enemy’s ship below the water-line,[67] and at first could
not get himself clear, though he tried again and again to back water;
and, accordingly, when the Macedonian boarded him and fought with great
gallantry, he was brought into the most imminent danger. Presently,
upon Attalus coming to his aid, and by a vigorous charge separating
the two ships, Deinocrates unexpectedly found himself free, and the
enemy’s boarders were all killed after a gallant resistance, while
their own vessel being left without men was captured by Attalus. In the
next place, Dionysodorus, making a furious charge, missed his blow; but
running up alongside of the enemy lost all the oars on his right side,
and had the timbers supporting his towers smashed to pieces, and was
thereupon immediately surrounded by the enemy. In the midst of loud
shouts and great confusion, all the rest of his marines perished along
with the ship, but he himself with two others managed to escape by
swimming to the _triemiolia_ which was coming up to the rescue.
[Sidenote: The skill of the Rhodian sailors.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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