Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/319

301 Ai.MMVAL <>F DEMOSTHENES. 301 discouragement. The mere stoppage of supplies, in fact, as the Syracusans were masters of the mouth of the harbor, would be sure to starve it out in no long time, if they maintained their superiority at sea. All their calculations were suspended, how ever, and the hopes of the Athenians for the time revived, by the entry of Demosthenes and Eurymedon with the second armament into the Great Harbor ; which seems to have taken place on the very day, or on the second day, after the recent battle. 1 So important were the consequences which turned upon that post- ponement of the Syracusan attack, occasioned by the recent defeat of their reinforcing army from the interior. So little did either party think, at that moment, that it would have been a mitigation of calamity to Athens, if Demosthenes had not arrived in time ; if the ruin of the first armament had been actually consummated before the coming of the second ! Demosthenes, after obtaining the required reinforcements at Korkyra, had crossed the Ionian sea to the islands called Chcerades on the coast of lapygia ; where he took aboard a band of one hundred and fifty Messapian darters, through the friendly aid of the native prince Artas, with whom an ancient alliance was re- newed. Passing on farther to Metapontum, already in alliance with Athens, he was there reinforced with two triremes and three hundred darters, with which addition he sailed on to Thurii. Here he found himself cordially welcomed; for the philo- Athenian party was in full ascendency, having recently got the better in a vehement dissension, and passed a sentence of banishment against their opponents. 2 They not only took a formal resolution to acknowledge the same friends and the same enemies as the Athe- nians, but equipped a regiment of seven hundred hoplites and three hundred darters to accompany Demosthenes, who remained there long enough to pass his troops in review and verify the completeness of each division. After having held tics review on the banks of the river Sybaris, he marched his troops by land through the Thurian territory to the banks of the river Hylias which divided it from Kroton. He was here met by Krotoniate envoys, who forbade the access to their territory : upon which he marched down the river to the sea-shore, got on shipboard, and 1 Thucyd. vii, 42. 8 Thucyd. vii, S3- 57.