Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/327

 ADVANCE OF THE LACEDEMONIANS. 305 march), and advanced as far as Sikyon, where probably all the Arcadian and Achasan contingents were ordered to rendezvous. The troops of the confederacy had advanced as far as Nemea when they learnt that the Lacedaemonian army was at Sikyon ; but they then altered their plan, and confined themselves to the defensive. The Lacedaemonians on their side crossed over the mountainous post called Epieikia, under considerable annoyance from the enemy's light troops, who poured missiles upon them from the high ground. But when they had reached the level country, on the other side, along the shore of the Saronic Gulf, where they probably received the contingents from Epidaurua, Trcezen, Hermione, and Halieis, the whole army thus reinforced marched forward without resistance, burning and ravaging the cultivated lands. The confederates retreated before them, and at length took up a position close to Corinth, amidst some rough ground with a ravine in their front. 1 The Lacedaemonians ad- vanced forward until they were little more than a mile distant from this position, and there encamped. 1 Xen. Hellen. iv, 2, 14, 15. In the passage, KOI oi erepoi /J.EVTUI iX-&6v T e f KareaTpaT efnrpoadev irotTjaa/iEvoi rrjv x a P^P av t I apprehend that (which is sanctioned by four MSS., and preferred by Leunclavius) is the proper reading, in place of e/ltfovref. For it seems certain that the march of the confederates was one of retreat, and that the battle was fought very near to the walls of Corinth ; since the defeated troops sought shelter within the town, and the Lacedaemonian pursuers were so close upon them, that the Corinthians within were afraid to keep open the gates. Hence we must reject the statement of Diodorus, that the battle was fought on the banks of the river Nemea (xiv, 83) as erroneous. There are some difficulties and obscurities in the description which Xen- ophon gives of the Lacedasmonian march. His words run ev TOVTQ ol Aaxcdaifiovioi, Kal 6r/ Teyeuraf Trapa/b^oref /cat Mavrweaf, ej-gsaav TJ)# afiQiahov . These last three words art not satisfactorily explained. Weiske and Schneider construe TTJV ufj.fyia'Xov (very justly) as indicating the region lying immediately on the Peloponnesian side of the isthmus of Corinth and having the Saronic Gulf on one side, and the Corinthian Gulf on ihe other ; in which was included Sikyon. But then it would not be correct to say, that " the Lacedaemonians had gone out by the bimarine way." On the contrary, the truth is, that " they had gone out into the bi marine road or region, which meaning however would require a prepo- sition tS-T/ftav eig rrjv apijtiaTiov. Sturz in his Lexicon (v. e^ievat) ren ders TTJV a/z^'iAor viam ad mare which seems an extraordinary sense of VOL. ix. 2(bc.