Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/198

 176 HISTORY OF GREECE. least with slight reference to the second ; which latter, neverthe less, stands as far the gravest in the estimate of every impartial critic, and was also the most violent in its effect upon Athenian, feelings. Twenty-five Athenian triremes had been ruined, along with most of their crews ; that is, lay heeled over or disabled, with their oars destroyed, no masts, nor any means of moving ; mere hulls, partially broken by the impact of an enemy's ship, and gradually filling and sinking. The original crew of each was two hundred men. The field of battle, if we may use that word for a space of sea, was strewed with these wrecks ; the men remaining on board being helpless and unable to get away, for the ancient trireme carried no boat, nor any aids for escape. And there were, moreover, floating about, men who had fallen overboard, or were trying to save their lives by means of acci- rogat, et picta se tempestate tuetur," (Juvenal, xiv, 301.) Thucydides does not use the word vavayoi)<;, but speaks of roi>s veKpovs KO.I TO. vavayia, meaning by the latter word the damaged ships, with every person and thing on board. It is remarkable that Schneider and most other commentators on Xeno phon, Sturz in his Lexicon Xenophonteum (v. uvaipeoif), Stallbaum ad Platon. Apol. Socrat. c. 20, p. 32, Sicvers, Comment, ad Xenoph. Hellcn. p. 31, Forchhammer, Die Athener und Sokrates, pp. 30-31, Berlin, 1837, and others, all treat this event as if it were nothing but a question of picking up dead bodies for sepulture. This is a complete misinterpretation of Xeno phon ; not merely because the word vavaybf, which he uses four several times, means a living person, but because there are two other passages, whicfc leave absolutely no doubt about the matter: Hapi/h&e de rtf f TTJV iKKh.ii oiav, (puffKuv im rev^ovg atyiruv au&r/vai k-KiaTs'h'h.siv (5'avrw Toi)f UTTO /I hv jj, e vov<;, ai> au&ij, inr ayyethai T <5^jUK uvsihovTO roi)f dpia-rovq virep rriq jrarpl- dof y evofJ-ivovf. Again (ii, 3, 35), Theramenes, when vindicating himself before the oligarchy of Thirty, two years afterwards, for his conduct in accusing the generals, says that the generals brought their own destruc- tion upon themselves by accusing him first, and by saying that the men on the disabled ships might have been saved with proper diligence : QaffKovref yap (the generals) olov re elvai auaai roi)f avdpa?, irpOEjte- vot ai>Toi)f airoheo'dai, airoifheovrec w^ovro. These passages placa the point beyond dispute, that the generals were accused of having neg- lected to save the lives of men on the point of being drowned, and who by their neglect afterwards were drowned, not of having neglected to pick up dead bodies for sepulture. The misinterpretation of the commentators is here of the gravest import. It alters completely the criticisms on the pro- ceedings at Athens.