Kitap 3
Those amongst the Locrians who most forwarded his views were the Amphissians, who were alarmed in consequence of the enmity of the Phocians. These first gave hostages themselves, and persuaded the rest to do so, in their fear of the invading army; first the Myoneans, who were their neighbours, (for on this side Locris is most difficult to enter,) then the Ipneans, Messapians, Tritaens, Chalaeans, Tolophonians, Hessians, and Oeantheans. All these joined the expedition also. The Olpnaean gave hostages, but did not accompany them; while the Hyaeans refused to give hostages, till they took a village belonging to them, called Polis.
When every thing was prepared, and he had placed the hostages at Cytinium in Doris, he advanced with his army against Naupactus, through the territory of the Locrians; and on his march took Oeneon, one of their towns, and Eupalium; for they refused to surrender.
When they had reached the Naupactian territory, and the Aetolians also had now come to their aid, they ravaged the country, and took the We have no term exactly answering to the Greek προαστεῖον or, approach to the city; for, as Arnold observes on IV. 69. 5, it was not what we call a suburb, but rather an open space like the parks in London, partly planted with trees, and containing public walks, colonnades, temples, and the houses of some of the principal citizens. It was used as a ground for reviews of the army and for public games. At Rome the Campus Martius was exactly what the Greeks call προαστεῖον. suburb of the capital, which was unfortified. They also went against and took Molyenium, which, though a colony from Corinth, was subject to the Athenians.
Now Demosthenes, the Athenian, (for after what had happened in Aetolia, he was still in the neighbourhood of Naupactus) having previous notice of the armament, and being alarmed for the town, went and persuaded the Acarnanians (though with difficulty, on account of his retreat from Leucas) to go to the relief of Naupactus.
Accordingly they sent with him on board his ships a thousand heavy-armed, who threw themselves into the place and saved it. For the walls being extensive, and the garrison small, there was reason to fear that they might not hold out.
When Eurylochus and his colleagues found that this force had entered the town, and that it was impossible to take it by storm, they withdrew, not towards the Peloponnese, but to Aeolis, i. e. (as Arnold explains it, after Wasse, Palmer, and Kruse,) the district once called Aeolis was now called by the names of the two principal towns in it, Calydon and Pleuron. Poppo and Göller understand it as the ancient came of Calydon alone. which is now called Calydon and Pleuron, with the places in that quarter, and to Proschium in Aetolia.
For the Ambraciots had come to them, and urged them to make, in concert with themselves, an attack upon the Amphilochian Argos and the rest of that country, and upon Acarnania at the same time; telling them that if they made themselves masters of these countries, the whole of the continent would be united in alliance with the Lacedaemonians.
So Eurylochus consented, and having dismissed the Aetolians, remained quiet with his army in that neighbourhood, till he should have to assist the Ambraciots, on their taking the field before Argos. And so the summer ended.
The following winter, the Athenians in Sicily having marched with their Grecian allies, and as many of the Sieels as joined them in the war—being either subject by force to the Syracusans or allies who had revolted from them—against Inessa, the Sieel town, the citadel of which was held by the Syracusans, attacked it, and, not being able to take it, retired.
On their return, the Syracusans from the citadel fell on the allies as they were retiring somewhat after the Athenians, and routed a division of their army, and killed no small number.
After this, Laches and the Athenians, with the fleet, made some descents upon the Locrian territory, by the river Coecinus, and defeated in battle those of the Locrians who came out against them with Proxenus the son of Capaton, about three hundred in number, and having taken some arms, departed.
The same winter also the Athenians purified Delos, in obedience, as they professed, to a certain oracle. For Pisistratus the tyrant had also purified it before; not the whole of the island, but as much of it as was within sight of the temple. At this time, however, the whole of it was purified in the following manner.
All the sepulchres of those who had died in Delos they removed, and commanded that in future no one should either die in the island or bear a child, but that [in such cases all should] be carried across to Rhenea. (This Rhenea is so short a distance from Delos, that Polycrates the tyrant of Samos, after being powerful at sea for a considerable time, and ruling over the rest of the islands, and taking Rhenea, dedicated it to the Delian Apollo, by connecting it with Delos by a chain.)
It was at this time too, after the purification, that the Athenians first celebrated the quinquennial festival of the Delian games. There had been, however, even in very early times, a great assembly of the Ionians and the neighbouring islanders held at Delos; for they used to come to the feast with their wives and children, as the Ionians now do to the Ephesian festivals, and gymnastic and musical contests were held, and the different cities took up bands of dancers.
Homer shows most clearly that such was the case, in the following verses, taken from a hymn to Apollo. Anon to Delos, Phoebus, wouldst thou come,Still most delighting in thine island-home;Where the long-robed Ionians thronging meet,With wives and children, at thy hallow'd seat;With buffets, dance, and song extol thy name,And win thy smile upon their solemn game.
That there was a musical contest also, and that they went to take part in it, he shows again in the following verses, taken from the same hymn. For after mentioning the Delian dance of the women, he ends his praise of the god with these verses, in which he also makes mention of himself. Now be Apollo kind, and Dian too;And ye, fair Delian damsels, all adieu!But in your memory grant me still a home;And oft as to your sacred isle may comeA pilgrim care-worn denizen of earth,And ask, while joining in your social mirth,"Maidens, of all the bards that seek your coast, Who sings the sweetest, and who charms you most? Then answer one and all, with gracious smile,A blind old man who lives in Chios' rocky isle.
Such evidence does Homer afford of there having been, even in early times, a great assembly and festival at Delos. But afterwards, though the islanders and the Athenians sent the bands of dancers with sacrifices, the games and the greater part of the observances were abolished—as is most probable, through adversity—until the Athenians held the games at that time, with horse-races, which before had not been usual.
The same winter the Ambraciots, as they had promised Eurylochus when they retained his army, marched forth against the Amphilochian Argos with three thousand heavy-armed; and entering the Argive territory, occupied Olpae, a strong-hold on a hill near the sea, which the Acarnanians had once fortified, and used as their common place of meeting for judicial purposes; its distance from the city of Argos on the coast being about twenty-five stades.
Now some of the Acarnanians went to the relief of Argos, while others encamped in Amphilochia, in the place called Corresponding exactly to our Wells. Crenae, being on the watch to prevent the Peloponnesians with Eurylochus passing through unobserved to the Ambraciots.
They also sent for Demosthenes, who had commanded the Athenian expedition against Aetolia, to be their leader; and for the twenty Athenian ships that happened to be cruising about the Peloponnese, under the command of Aristoteles son of Timocrates, and Hierophon son of Antimnestus.
The Ambraciots at Olpae also sent a messenger to their city, desiring them to come in full force to their assistance, fearing that the troops under Eurylochus might not be able to effect a passage through the Acarnanians, and that they themselves might either have to fight unsupported, or, if they wished to retreat, find it unsafe to do so.
The Peloponnesians with Eurylochus, therefore, finding that the Ambraciots at Olpae were come, set out from Proschium and went as quickly as possible to their aid; and having crossed the Acheloüs, proceeded through Acarnania, which was left deserted in consequence of the reinforcement sent to Argos; keeping on their right hand the city of the Stratians with their garrison, and on the left the rest of Acarnania.
After passing the territory of the Stratians, they proceeded through Phytia, and again through Medeon, along the borders; then through Limnaea; and so they entered the territory of the $Aegraeans, which formed no part of Acarnania, but was friendly to themselves.
Then, having reached Mount Thyamus, which is uncultivated, they proceeded across it, and so came down into the Argive country by night, and passing unobserved between the city of Argos and the Acarnanian posts at Crenae, joined the Ambraciots at Olpae.
Having thus effected a union at day-break, they sat down at the place called Metropolis, and formed their encampment. Not long after, the Athenians came with their twenty ships into the Ambracian Gulf to assist the Argives; and Demosthenes arrived with two hundred heavy-armed of the Messenians, and sixty Athenian archers. The fleet therefore at Olpae blockaded the hill from the sea;
while the Acarnanians and a few of the Amphilochians (for the majority were forcibly detained by the Ambraciots) had by this time met at Argos, and were preparing to engage with the enemy, having appointed Demosthenes as commander of the whole army in concert with their own generals. He, having led them near to Olpae, encamped there;
a great ravine separating their armies. For five days they remained still, but on the sixth both sides drew up for battle. And as the force of the Peleponnesians was the larger, and outflanked his, Demosthenes, fearing that he might be surrounded, placed in ambush in a hollow way covered with a thicket, a body of heavy and light-armed troops, four hundred in all, that on the flank of the enemy which reached beyond his own, these troops might rise up in the very midst of the conflict and take them in their rear.
When the preparations were completed on both sides, they closed in battle. Demosthenes occupied the right wing with the Messenians and the few Athenians; while the remainder of the line was formed by the Acarnanians in their several divisions, and the Amphilochian dartmen that were present. The Peloponnesians and Ambraciots were drawn up without distinction, excepting the Mantineans, who kept together more on the left, though not in the extremity of the flank, for the extreme left was held by Eurylochus and his men, opposed to the Messenians and Demosthenes.
When the Peloponnesians, being now engaged, outflanked their opponents, and were surrounding their right, the Acarnanians, rising from the ambuscade, fell on them in the rear, and broke them; so that they did not stand to make any resistance, and, moreover, by their panic threw their main army into flight: for when they saw the division of Eurylochus, and the bravest of their forces being cut to pieces, they were far more alarmed. It was the Messenians, posted in that part of the field with Demosthenes, that performed the chief part of the work.
But the Ambraciots and those in the right wing defeated the division opposed to them, and pursued it back to Argos; for they are the most warlike of all in those parts.
When, however, on their return they saw their main army defeated, and the rest of the Acarnanians were pressing them closely, they escaped with difficulty into Olpe; and many of them were killed, while they hurried on without any order, excepting the Mantineans, who kept their ranks best of all the army during the retreat. And so the battle ended, after lasting till evening.
The next day Menedaeus, who on the death of Eurylochus and Macarius had succeeded to the sole command, was at a loss, since so great a defeat had been experienced, to see in what way he should either remain and sustain a siege—cut off as he was by land, and at the same time, through the presence of the Athenian fleet, by sea—or should escape if he retreated.
He therefore made proposals to Demosthenes and the Acarnanians for a truce, and permission to retire, as well as for the recovery of his dead. They restored him his dead, and themselves erected a trophy, and took up their own dead, about three hundred in number; but for permission to retire they did not openly grant any truce to the whole army; but Demosthenes and his Acarnanian colleagues secretly granted one to the Mantineans, and Menedaeus and the other Peloponnesian commanders, to retreat with all speed; wishing to strip of their supporters the Ambraciots and the mercenary host of foreigners; but most of all desiring to raise a prejudice against the Lacedaemonians and Peloponnesians amongst the Greeks in those parts, from the impression of their having betrayed their friends, and deemed their own interest of more importance.
They, then, took up their dead, and were burying them with all speed, as circumstances allowed; while those who had received permission were planning their retreat.
Now tidings were brought to Demosthenes and the Acarnanians, that the Ambraciots at home, in compliance with the first message from Olpae, were marching in full force with succours through Amphilochia, with a wish to join their countrymen at Olpae, and knowing nothing of what had happened.
Accordingly he straightway sent a division to lay ambushes beforehand in the roads, and to preoccupy the strong positions; while with the rest of his army he prepared to march against them.
Meanwhile the Mantineans, and those to whom tile truce had been granted, going out under the pretext of gathering herbs and fire-wood, secretly went away in small parties, picking up at the same time the things for which they professed to have left the camp:
but when they had now proceeded some distance from Olpae, they began to retreat at a quicker pace. The Ambraciots and the rest, as many as happened thus to have gone out with them in Ἀθρόοι seems to be in opposition to κατ᾽ ὀλίγους in the preceding section. Or it may signify, as Arnold takes it, in such numbers as would justify the experiment, which small parties might think too hazardous. a body, when they found that they were gone away, themselves also pushed forward, and began running, on purpose to overtake them.
But the Acarnanians at first thought that all alike were flying without permission, and began to pursue the Peloponnesians; and when some even of their generals tried to stop them, and said that permission had been granted to the Peloponnesians, one or two men threw their darts at them, believing that they were being betrayed.
Afterwards, however, they let the Mantineans and Peloponnesians go away, but killed the Ambraciots. And there was much contention and difficulty in distinguishing whether a man was an Ambraciot or a Peloponnesian. They killed some two hundred of them; the rest escaped into Agraea, a bordering territory, and Salaethus, king of the Agraeans, being their friend, received them.