Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/157

 BEGINNING OF THE PE^OPONNESIAN WAR. 135 The place, neither strong nor well-garrisoned, would have been carried with little difficulty, had not Brasidas the son of Tellis,. a gallant Spartan now mentioned for the first time, but destined to great celebrity afterwards, who happened to be on guard at a neighboring post, thrown himself into it with one hundred men by a rapid movement, before the dispersed Athenian trocps could be brought together to prevent him. He infused such courage into the defenders of the place that every attack was repelled, and ths Athenians were forced to reembark, an act of prowess which procured for him the first public honors bestowed by the Spartans during this war. Sailing northward along the western coast of Peloponnesus, the Athenians landed again on the coast of Elis, a little south of the promontory called Cape Ichthys : they ravaged the territory for two days, defeating both the troops in the neighborhood and three hundred chosen men from the central Eleian territory. Strong winds on a harborless coast now induced the captains to sail with most of the troops round Cape Ichthys, in order to reach the harbor of Pheia on the north- ern side of it ; while the Messenian hoplites, marching by land across the promontory, attacked Pheia and carried it by assault. When the fleet arrived, all were reembarked, the full force of Elis being under march to attack them : they then sailed north- ward, landing on various other spots to commit devastation, until they reached Sollium, a Corinthian settlement on the coast of Akarnania. They captured this place, which they handed over to the inhabitants of the neighboring Akarnanian town of Palae- rus, as well as Astakus, from whence they expelled the despot Euarchus, and enrolled the town as a member of the Athenian alliance. From hence they passed over to Kephallenia, which they were fortunate enough also to acquire as an ally of Athena without any compulsion, with its four distinct towns, or districts, Pales, Kranii, Same, and Pione. These various operations took up near three months from about the beginning of July, so that they returned to Athens towards the close of September, 1 the beginning of the winter half of the year, according to the distri- bution of Thucydides. Nor was this the only maritime expedition of the s immer 1 Thncyd. ii, 25-30; Diodor. xii. 43, 44