Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/408

390 390 HISTOTn OF GREECE. these Spartan officers, but the Syracusan Hermokiates remon- strated so loudly against the reduction, that he obtained from Tissaphernes the promise of a slight increase above the half drachma, though he could not succeed in getting the entire drachma continued. 1 For the present, however, the seamen were in good spirits ; not merely from having received the high rate of pay, but from the plentiful booty recently acquired at lasus ; 2 while Astyochus and the Chians were also greatly encouraged by the arrival of so large a fleet. Nevertheless, the Athenians on their side were "also reinforced by thirty-five fresh triremes, which icachcd Samos under Strombichides, Charminus, and Euktemon. The Athenian fleet from Chios was now recalled to Samos, where the commanders mustered their whole naval force, with a view of redividing it for ulterior operations. Considering that in the autumn of the preceding year, imme- diately after the Syracusan disaster, the navy of Athens had been no less scanty in number of ships than defective in equipment, we read with amazement, that she had now at Samos no less than one hundred and four triremes in full condition and disposable for service, besides some others specially destined il>r the transport of troops. Indeed, the total number which she had sent out, put- ting together the separate squadrons, had been one hundred and twenty-eight. 3 So energetic an effort, and so unexpected a reno- vation of affairs from the hopeless prostration of last year, was such as no Grecian state except Athens could have accomplished ; nor even Athens herself, had she not been aided by that reserve fund, consecrated twenty years before through the long-sighted calculation of Perikles. The Athenians resolved to employ thirty triremes in making a landing, and establishing a fortified post, in Chios ; and lots being 1 Thucyd. viii, 29. What this new rate of pay was. or by what exact Trac- tion it exceeded the half drachma, is a matter which the words of Thucydides do not enable us to make out. None of the commentators can explain the text without admitting some alteration or omission of words: nor do any of the explanations given appear to me convincing. On the whole, I incline to consider the conjecture and explanation given by Paulmier and Dobrce as more plausible than that of Dr. Arnold and Goller, or of Poppo ;inj Hermann. * Thucyd. viii, 36. 3 Thucyd. viii, 30; compare Dr. Arnold's note.