Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/341

 MEASURES OF THE SPARTANS. JJ19 nesian allies, being just returned from Attica, were summoned to come as soon as they could, but did not accompany this first march. l At the last moment, before the Peloponnesian fleet came in and occupied the harbor, Demosthenes detached two out of his five triremes to warn Eurymedon and the main fleet, and to en- treat immediate succor : the remaining ships he hauled ashore under the fortification, protecting them by palisades planted in front, and preparing to defend himself in the best manner ha could. Having posted the larger portion of his force, some of them mere seamen without arms, and many only half-armed, round the assailable points of the fortification, to resist attacks from the land-force, he himself, with sixty chosen hoplites and a few bowmen, marched out of the fortification down to the sea- shore. It was on that side that the wall was weakest, for the Athenians, confident in their naval superiority, had given them- selves little trouble to provide against an assailant fleet. Accord- ingly, Demosthenes foresaw that the great stress of the attack would lie on the sea-side, and his only chance of safety consisted in preventing the enemy from landing ; a purpose, seconded by the rocky and perilous shore, which left no possibility of approach for ships, except on a narrow space immediately under the fortification. It was here that he took post, on the water's edge, addressing a few words of encouragement to his men, and warn- ing them that it was useless now to display acuteness in sum ming up perils which were but too obvious, and that the only chance of escape lay in boldly encountering the enemy before they could set foot ashore ; the difficulty of effecting a landing from ships in the face of resistance being better known to Athenian mariners than to any one else. 2 With a fleet of forty-three triremes, under Thrasymelidas, and a powerful land-force, simultaneously attacking, the Lacedaemonians had good hopes of storming at once a rock so hastily converted into a military post. But as they foresaw that the first attack might possibly fail, and that the fleet of Eurymedon would prob- ably return, they resolved to occupy forthwith the island of Sphakteria, the natural place where the Athenian fleet would take station for the purpose of assisting the garrison ashore. 1 Thucyd. iv, 8. * Thucyd. IT, 10.