Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/153

135 WAR IN SICILY. 135 feat so broke up the scheme of Lokrian operations against the latter place, that their land-force retired from the Rhegine terri- tory, while the whole defeated squadron was reunited on the op- posite coast under Cape Pelorus. Here the ships were moored close on shore under the protection of the land-force, when the Athenians and Rhegines came up to attack them ; but without success, and even with the loss of one trireme, which the men on shore contrived to seize and detain by a grappling-iron ; her crew escaping by swimming to the vessels of their comrades. Having repulsed the enemy, the Syracusans got aboard, and rowed close along-shore, partly aided by tow-ropes, to the harbor of Messene, in which transit they were again attacked, but the Athenians were a second time beaten off with the loss of another ship. Their superior seamanship was of no avail in this r.'ong-shore fighting. 1 The Athenian fleet was now suddenly withdrawn in order to prevent an intended movement in Kamarina, where a philo-Syra cusan party under Archias threatened revolt : and the Messenian forces, thus left free, invaded the territory of their neighbor, the Chalkidic city of Naxos, sending their fleet round to the mouth of the Akesines near that city. They were ravaging the lands, and were preparing to storm the town, when a considerable body of the indigenous Sikels were seen descending the neighboring hills to succor the Naxians : upon which the latter, elate with the sight, and mistaking the new comers for their Grecian breth- ren from Leontini, rushed out of the gates and made a vigorous sally at a moment when their enemies were unprepared. The Messenians were completely defeated, with the loss of no less than one thousand men, and with a still greater loss sustained in the Syracusan ships to the Syracusan station : but each separate ship fled to either one or the other, as it best could. 1 Thucyd. iv, 25. u~oatfj.uaa.vTuv itceivuv KO.I irpofj./3a?,6vruv. I do not distinctly understand the nautical movement which is expressed tiy u.7roaifj.uauvTuv, in spite of the notes of the commentators. And I can- not but doubt the correctness of Dr. Arnold's explanation, when he says. " The Syracusans, on a sudden, threw off their towing-ropes, made their way to the open sea by a lateral movement, and thus became the assailants," etc. The open sea was what the Athenians required, in order to obtain th l>enefit of their sunerior seamanshin.