Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/236

 2U HISTORY OF GREECE. nesian armament, on reaching Corinth, were immediately disem- barked and marched, first across the isthmus, next to Megara, each man carrying his sitting-cloth, 1 and his oar, together with the loop whereby the oar was fastened to the oar-hole in the side, and thus prevented from slipping. There lay forty triremes in Nisaea, the harbor of Megara, which, though old and out of con- dition, were sufficient for so short a trip ; and the seamen imme- diately on arriving, launched these and got aboard. But such was the awe entertained of Athens and her power, that when the scheme came really to be executed, the courage of the Pelopon- nesians failed, though there was nothing to hinder them from actually reaching Peiraeus : but it was pretended that the wind was adverse, and they contented themselves with passing across to the station of Budorum, in the opposite Athenian island of Salamis, where they surprised and seized the three guard-ships which habitually blockaded the harbor of Megara, and then landed upon the island. They spread themselves over a large part of Salamis, ravaged the properties, and seized men as well as goods. Fire-signals immediately made known this unforeseen aggression, both at Peiraeus and at Athens, occasioning in both the extreme of astonishment and alarm; for the citizens in Athens, not conceiving distinctly the meaning of the signals, fancied that Peiraeus itself had fallen into the hands of the enemy. The whole population rushed down to the Peiraeus at break of day, and put to sea with all the triremes that were 1 Thacyd. ii, 93. ISoKEi 6e hajSovra rH>v VOVTUV exaarov ~>/v KUTrqv, KOI b vKTjpeaiov, KOI rbv TpoTruTqpa, etc. On these words there is an interest ing letter of Dr. Bishop's published in the Appendix to Dr. Arnold's Thu- cydides, vol. i. His remarks upon vxrjpeaiov are more satisfactory than those upon TpoTrurqp. Whether the fulcrum, of the oar was formed by a thowell, or a notch, on the gunwale, or by a perforation in the ship's side, there must in both cases have been required since it seems to have had nothing like what Dr. Bishop calls a nut a thong to prevent it from slip- ping down towards the water; especially with the oars of the thranitae, or upper tier of rowers, who pulled at so great an elevation, comparatively speaking, above the water. Dr. Arnold's explanation of rpoTrurqp is suited to the case of a boat, but not to that of a trireme. Dr. Bishop shows that the explanation of the purpose of the vmipeacov. given by the Scholiast, it aot the true one.