Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/344

 #22 HISTORY OF GREECE. the difficulties of lauding insuperable. 1 But before these ships came back, the face of affairs was seriously changed by the un- welcome return of the Athenian fleet from Zakynthus, undei Eurymedon, reinforced by four Chian ships, and some of the guardships at Naupaktus, so as now to muster fifty sail. The Athet ian admiral, finding the enemy's fleet in possession of the harbor, and seeing both the island of Sphakteria occupied, and the opposite shore covered with Lacedaemonian hoplites, 2 for the allies from all parts of Peloponnesus had now arrived, looked around in vain for a place to land, and could find no other night-station except the uninhabited island of Prote, not very far distant. From hence he sailed forth in the morning to Pylus, prepared for a naval engagement, hoping that perhaps the Lacedemonians might come out to fight him in the open sea, but resolved, if this did not happen, to force his way in and attack the fleet in the harbor ; the breadth of sea between Sphakteria and the mainland being sufficient to admit of nautical manreuvre. 3 The Lacedemonian admirals, seemingly confounded by the speed of the Athenian fleet in coming back, never thought of sailing out of the harbor to fight, nor did they even realize their scheme of blocking up the two entrances of the harbor with triremes 1 Thucyd. iv, 13. k'A.movTef rb Kara. T&P 7.ifieva TEL^O^ VTpo<; /J.EV IXSLV, U7ro(3uaeuf 6e fiu^iara ovarjs fAetv pr;^avatc. See Poppo's note upon this passage. 2 Thucyd. iv, 14. 3 Thucyd. iv, 13. The Lacedaemonians irapEOKEVu^ovro, f/v t-uTr/lq; TVf, Lf kv r> TI.I/J.EVI bvrt, oil apiKpu vav/uaxqaovref. The expression, " the harbor which was not small," to designate the spa- cious bay of Navarino, has excited much remark from Mr. Bloomfield and Dr. Arnold, and was indeed one of the reasons which induced the latter to suspect that the harbor meant by Thucydides was not the bay of Navarino, but the neighboring lake of Osmyn Aga. I have already discussed that supposition in a former note : but in refer- ence to the expression ov a/j.iKp&, we may observe, first, that the use or neg- ative expressions to convey a positive idea would be in the ordinary man- ner of Thucydides. But farther, I have stated in a previous note that it is indispensable, in iny judgment, to suppose the island of Sphakteria to have touched the mainland much more closely in the time of Thucydides than it does now. At that time, therefore, very probably, the basin of Navarino was not s* large as we now find it.