Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/484

 162 HISTORY OF GREECE. soldiers, many of them politically disliking him, stood little chance of wresting Amphipolis from Brasidas : but had Nikiaa or the strategi done their duty, and carried the entire force of the city under competent command to the same object, the issue would probably have been different as to gain and loss ; certainly very different as to dishonor. Kleon started from Peiraeus, apparently towards the beginning of August, with twelve hundred Athenian, Lemnian, and Imbrian hoplites, and three hundred horsemen, troops of excellent quality and condition : besides an auxiliary force of allies, number not exactly known, and thirty triremes. This armament was not of magnitude at all equal to the taking of Amphipolis ; for Brasidas had equal numbers, besides all the advantages of the position. But it was a part of the scheme of Kleon, on arriving at Eion, to procure Macedonian and Thracian reinforcements before he commenced his attack. He first halted in his voyage near Skione, from which place he took away such of the hoplites as could be spared from the blockade. He next sailed across the gulf from Pallene to the Sithonian peninsula, to a place called the Harbor of the Kolophonians, near Torone. 1 Having here learned that neither Brasidas himself, nor any considerable Pelo- ponnesian garrison were present in Torone, he landed his forces and marched to attack the town, sending ten triremes at the same time round a promontory which separated the harbor of the Kolophonians from Torone, to assail the latter place from sea- ward. It happened that Brasidas, desiring to enlarge the forti- fied circle of Torone, had broken down a portion of the old wall, and employed the materials in building a new and larger wall inclosing the proasteion, or suburb : this new wall appears to have been still incomplete and in an imperfect state of defence. Pasi- 1 The town of Torone was situated near the extremity of the Sithonian peninsula, on the side looking towards Pallene. But the territory belong ing to the town comprehended all the extremity of the peninsula on both sides, including the terminating point Cape Ampelos, 'kfiirsTiov rrjv To- (tuva'iTjv uKprjv (Herodot. vii, 122). Herodotus calls the Singitie gulf tid^aaaav rr/v UVTIOV Topuvijr (vii, 122). The ruins of Torone, bearing the ancient name, and Kufo, a land-locked harbor near it, are still to be seen (Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, vol lii, th. xxiv, p. 119)