Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/346

 324 HISTORY OF GREECE. with overflowing joy by their comrades, and where they erected a trophy for their victory, giving up the enemy's dead for burial, and picking up the floating wrecks and pieces. 1 But the great prize of the victory was neither in the five ships captured, nor in the relief afforded to the besieged at Pylus. It lay in the hoplites occupying the island of Sphakteria, who were now cut off from the mainland, as well as from all supplies- The Athenians, sailing round it in triumph, already looked upon them as their prisoners ; while the Lacedaemonians on the oppo- site mainland, deeply distressed, but not knowing what to do, sent to Sparta for advice. So grave was the emergency, that the ephors came in person to the spot forthwith. Since they could still muster sixty triremes, a greater number than the Athenians, besides a large force on land, and the whole command of the resources of the country, while the Athenians had no footing on shore except the contracted promontory of Pylus, we might have imagined that a sti'enuous effort to carry off" the imprisoned detachment across the narrow strait to the mainland would have had a fair chance of success. And probably, if either Demos- thenes or Brasidas had been in command, such an effort would have been made. But Lacedaemonian courage was rather stead- fast and unyielding than adventurous : and, moreover, the Athenian superiority at sea exercised a sort of fascination over men's minds, analogous to that of the Spartans themselves on land ; so that the ephors, on reaching Pylus, took a desponding view of their position, and sent a herald to the Athenian generals to propose an armistice, in order to allow time for envoys to go to Athens and treat for peace. To this Eurymedon and Demosthenes assented, and an armis- tice was concluded on the following terms : The Lacedaemonians agreed to surrender not only all their triremes now in the harbor, but also all the rest in their ports, altogether to the number of sixty ; also, to abstain from all attack upon the fortress at Pylus, either by land or sea, for such time as should be necessary for the mission of envoys to Athens as well as for their return, both to be effected in an Athenian trireme provided for the purpose. The Athenians on their side engaged to desist from all hostilities Tbucyd. iv, 13, U.