Kitap 1
remembering that now is that occasion wherein he that aideth us is our greatest friend, and he that opposeth us our greatest enemy; and that you will not receive these Corcyraeans into league against our wills nor defend them in their injuries.
These things if you grant us, you shall both do as is fit and also advise the best for the good of your own affairs.
This was the effect of what was spoken by the Corinthians.
Both sides having been heard and the Athenian people twice assembled, in the former assembly they approved no less of the reasons of the Corinthians than of the Corcyraeans. But in the latter they changed their minds, not so as to make a league with the Corcyraeans both offensive and defensive, that the friends and enemies of the one should be so of the other (for then, if the Corcyraeans should have required them to go against Corinth, the peace had been broken with the Peloponnesians), but made it only defensive, that if anyone should invade Corcyra or Athens, or any of their confederates, they were then mutually to assist one another.
For they expected that even thus they should grow to war with the Peloponnesians and were therefore unwilling to let Corcyra, that had so great a navy, to fall into the hands of the Corinthians, but rather, as much as in them lay, desired to break them one against another; that if need required, they might have to do with the Corinthians, and others that had shipping, when they should be weakened to their hands.
And the island seemed also to lie conveniently for passing into Italy and Sicily.
With this mind the people of Athens received the Corcyraeans into league, and when the Corinthians were gone, sent ten galleys not long after to their aid.
The commanders of them were Lacedaemonius the son of Cimon, Diotimus the son of Strombichus, and Proteas the son of Epicles,
and had order not to fight with the Corinthians unless they invaded Corcyra or offered to land there or in some other place of theirs, which, if they did, then with all their might to oppose them. This they forbad, because they would not break the peace concluded with the Peloponnesians. So these galleys arrived at Corcyra.
The Corinthians, when they were ready, made towards Corcyra with one hundred and fifty sail; of the Eleans ten, of the Megareans twelve, of the Leucadians ten, of the Ambraciots twenty-seven, of the Anactorians one, and ninety of their own.
The commanders of these were men chosen out of the said several cities for the several parts of the fleet which they sent in, and over those of Corinth was Xenocleides the son of Euthicles with four others.
After they were all come together upon the coast of the continent over against Corcyra, they sailed from Leucas and came to Chimerium in the country of Thesprotis.
In this place is a haven, and above it, farther from the sea, the city of Ephyra in that part of Thesprotis which is called Elaeatis; and near into it disbogueth into the sea the lake Acherusia, and into that (having first passed through Thesprotis) the river Acheron from which it taketh the name. Also the river Thyamis runneth here, which divideth Thesprotis from Cestrine, betwixt which two rivers ariseth this promontory of Chimerium.
To this part of the continent came the Corinthians and encamped.
The Corcyraeans understanding that they made against them, having ready one hundred and ten galleys under the conduct of Miciades, Aesimides, and Eurybatus, came and encamped in one of the islands called Sybota; and the ten galleys of Athens were also with them.
But their land forces stayed in the promontory of Leucimna, and with them one thousand men of arms of the Zacynthians that came to aid them.
The Corinthians also had in the continent the aids of many barbarians, which in those quarters have been evermore their friends.
The Corinthians, after they were ready and had taken aboard three days' provision of victual, put off by night from Chimerium with purpose to fight,
and about break of day, as they were sailing, described the galleys of the Corcyraeans, which were also put off from Sybota and coming on to fight with the Corinthians.
As soon as they had sight one of another, they put themselves into order of battle. In the right wing of the Corcyraeans were placed the galleys of Athens, and the rest being their own were divided into three commands under the three commanders, one under one.
This was the order of the Corcyraeans. The Corinthians had in their right wing the galleys 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 themselves placed, with such galleys as were best of sail, in the left.
The standard being on either side lift up, they joined battle, having on both parts both many men of arms and many archers and slingers, but after the old fashion as yet somewhat unskilfully appointed.
The battle was not so artificially as cruelly fought, near unto the manner of a fight at land.
For after they had once run their galleys up close aboard one of another, they could not for the number and throng be easily gotten asunder again, but relied for the victory especially upon their men of arms who fought where they stood whilst the galleys remained altogether without motion. Passages through each other they made none but fought it out with courage and strength rather than with skill.
Insomuch as the battle was in every part not without much tumult and disorder, in which the Athenian galleys being always, where the Corcyraeans were oppressed, at hand, kept the enemies in fear, 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 distress, for the Corcyraeans with twenty galleys had made them turn their backs and chased them dispersed to the continent; and sailing to their very camp, went aland, burnt their abandoned tents, and took 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 themselves they were far superior because the Corcyraeans had twenty galleys of their number, which was at first less than that of the Corinthians, absent in the chase of the enemy.
And the Athenians, when they saw the Corcyraeans were in distress, now aided them manifestly, whereas before, they had abstained from making assault upon any. But when once they fled outright and that the Corinthians lay sore upon them, then everyone fell to the business without making difference any longer; and it came at last to this necessity, that they undertook one another, Corinthians and Athenians.
The Corinthians, when their enemies fled, stayed not to fasten the hulls of the galleys they had sunk unto their own galleys that so they might tow them after, but made after the men, rowing up and down, to kill rather than to take alive, and through ignorance (not knowing that their right wing had been discomfited) slew also some of their own friends.
For the galleys of either side being many and taking up a large space at sea, after they were once in the medley they could not easily discern who were of the victors and who of the vanquished party. For this was the greatest naval battle for number of ships that ever had been before of Grecians against Grecians.
When the Corinthians had chased the Corcyraeans to the shore, they returned to take up the broken galleys and bodies of their dead, which for the greatest part they recovered and brought to Sybota where also lay the land forces of the barbarians that were come to aid them. This Sybota is a desert haven of Thesprotis. When they had done, they reunited themselves and made again to the Corcyraeans.
And they likewise, with such galleys as they had fit for the sea remaining of the former battle together with those of Athens, put forth to meet them, fearing lest they should attempt to land upon their territory.
By this time the day was far spent, and the song which they used to sing when they came to charge was ended, when suddenly the Corinthians began to row astern, for they had descried twenty Athenian galleys sent from Athens to second the former ten for fear lest the Corcyraeans (as it also fell out) should be overcome and those ten galleys of theirs be too few to defend them.
When the Corinthians therefore had sight of these galleys, suspecting that they were of Athens and more in number than they were, by little and little they fell off.
But the Corcyraeans (because the course of these galleys was unto them more out of sight) described them not but wondered why the Corinthians rowed astern, till at last some that saw them said they were enemies, and then retired also the Corcyraeans.
For by this time it was dark, and the Corinthians had turned about the heads of their galleys and dissolved themselves.
And thus were they parted, and the battle ended in night. The Corcyraeans lying at Leucimna, these twenty Athenian galleys under the command of Glaucon the son of Leagrus and Andocides the son of Leogorus, passing through the midst of the floating carcasses and wrecks, soon after they were described arrived at the camp of the Corcyraeans in Leucimna.
The Corcyraeans at first (being night) were afraid they had been enemies, but knew them afterwards; so they anchored there.
The next day both the thirty galleys of Athens and as many of Corcyra as were fit for service went to the haven 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 and arranged themselves in the wide sea, stood quiet, not meaning of their own accord to begin the battle, both for that they saw the supply of fresh galleys from Athens and for many difficulties that happened to them, both about the safe custody of their prisoners aboard and also for that being in a desert place their galleys were not yet repaired, but took thought rather how to go home for fear lest the Athenians, having the peace already broken in that they had fought against each other, should not suffer them to depart.