Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/220

 198 HISTORY OF GREECE. ranged their triremes in a circle with the prows outward, like the spokes of a wheel ; the circle was made as large as it could realty, they "slipped anchor and put to sea during the night," as Mr. Bloomfield says, in hopes of getting across the shorter passage under favor of darkness, before Phormio could come upon them. That they must have done this is proved by the fact, that the subsequent battle was fought on the morrow in the mid-channel very little after daybreak (we learn this from what ThucydidOs says about the gulf-breeze, for which Phormio waited before he would commence his attack onep uvapevuv re TrepteTr^Et, <ai eludei yiyvea&ai, iiri TTJV eu). If Phormio had returned to Chalkis, they would probably have succeeded ; but he must have kept the sea all night, which would be the natural proceeding of a vigilant captain, deter- mined not to let the Peloponnesians get across without fighting : so that he was upon them in the mid-channel immediately that day broke. Putting all the statements of Thucydides together, we may be convinced that this is the way in which the facts occurred. But of the precise sense of vQopfiiaapEi-ot, I confess I do not feel certain : Ilaack says, it means " clam appellere ad littus," but here, I think, that sense will not do : for the Peloponnesians did not wish, and couM indeed hardly hope, to conceal from Phormio the spot where they brought to for the night, and to make him suppose that they brought to at some point of the shore west of Patrse, when in reality they passed the night in Patrse, which is what Dr. Arnold supposes. The shore west of Patraj makes a bend to the southwest, forming the gulf of Patras, so that the distance from the northern, or .opfi.iaa[j.evoi may reasonably be supposed to mean, especially in conjunction with OVK ehadov, "taking up a simulated or imperfect night-station," in which they did not really intend to stay all night, and which could be quitted at short notice and with ease. The preposition vnb, in composition, would thus have the sense, not of secrecy (clam.) but of sJiam-performance, or of mere going through the forms of an act for the purpose of making a false impression (like vTroQfpetv, Xenoph. Hell, iv, 72). Mr. Bloomfield proposes conjecturally uopjitau{ievoi, mean- ing, " that the Peloponnesians slipped their anchors in the night : " I place no faith in the conjecture, but I believe him to be quite right in supposing, that the Peloponnesians did actually slip their anchors in the night. Another point remains to be adverted to. The battle took place Kara fteaov TOV 7ropt?/z6v. Now we need not understand this expression to allude to the narrowest part of the sea, or the strait, strictly and precisely ; that is, the line of seven stadia between Rhium and Antirrhium. But I think we must understand it to mean a portion of sea not far westward of the itrait, whTe the breadth, though greater than that of the strait its<Jf, is yet