Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/337

 PYLUS AND SPHAKTERIA. 313 den, untenanted, and full of wood, which stretched along the coast for about a mile and three quarters, leaving only two narrow entrances : one at its northern end, opposite to the position fixed on by Demosthenes, so confined as to admit only two triremes abreast, the other at the southern end, about four times as broad ; while the inner water approached by these two channels was both roomy and protected. It was on the coast of Pelopon- nesus, a little within the northern or narrowest of the two chan- nels, that Demosthenes proposed to plant his little fort, tho ground being itself eminently favorable, and a spring of fresh water l in the centre of the promontory. 2 1 Thucyd. iv, 26. ! Topography of Sphakteria and Pylus. The description given by Thu- cydides, of the memorable incidents in or near Pylus and Sphakteria, is per- fectly clear, intelligible, and consistent with itself, as to topography. But when we consult the topography of the scene as it stands now, we find various circumstances which cannot possibly be reconciled with Thucydides. Both Colonel Leake (Travels in the Morea, vol. i, pp. 402-415) and Dr. Ar- nold (Appendix to the second and third volume of his Thucydides, p. 444) have given plans of the coast, accompanied with valuable remarks. The main discrepancy, between the statement of Thucydides and the present state of the coast, is to be found in the breadth of the two channels between Sphakteria and the mainland. The southern entrance into the bay of Navarino is now between thirteen hundred and fourteen hundred yards, with a depth of water varying from five, seven, twenty-eight, thirty- three fathoms ; whereas Thucydides states it as being only a breadth ade- quate to admit eight or nine triremes abreast. The northern entrance is about one hundred and fifty yards in width, with a shoal or bar of sand lying across it on which there are not more than eighteen inches of water : Thucydides tells us that it afforded room for no more than two triremes, and his narrative implies a much greater depth of water, so as to make the entrance for triremes perfectly unobstructed. Colonel Leake supposes that Thucydides was misinformed as to the breadth of the southern passage ; but Dr. Arnold has on this point given a satisfactory reply, that the narrowness of the breadth is not merely affirmed in the numbers of Thucydides, but is indirectly implied in his nar rative, where he tells us that the Lacedaemonians intended to choke up both of them by triremes closely packed. Obviously, this expedient could not be dreamt of, except for a very narrow mouth. The same reply suffices against the doubts which Bloomfield and Poppo (Comment, p. 10) raise about the genuineness of the numerals OKTU or kvvea in Thucydidfis ; a doubt which merely transfers the sr.pposed error from Thucydides to tha writer of the MS