Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/199

 WRECKS AVTER THE BATTLE. 171 dental spars or empty casks It was one of the privileges of s naval victory, that the party who gaiued it could sail over the field of battle, and thus assist their own helpless or wounded comrades aboard the disabled ships, 1 taking captive, or sometimes Ailling, the corresponding persons belonging to the enemy. Ac- cording even to the speech made in the Athenian public assembly afterwards, by Euryptolemus, the defender of the accused gen- erals, there were twelve triremes with their crews on board lying in the condition just described. This is an admission by the defence, and therefore the minimum of the reality : there cannot possibly have been fewer, but there were probably several more, out of the whole twenty-five stated by Xenophon. 2 No step being taken to preserve them, the surviving portion, wounded as well 1 See Thucyd. i, 50, 51. eiKoaiv avroif avdpdoiv, iKTbf b'kr/uv TUV Trpdc, TTJV yijv irpoaevexdevTuv. Schneider in his note, and Mr. Mitford in his History, express surprise at the discrepancy between the number twelve, which appears in the speech of Euryptolemus, and the number twenty-five, given by Xenophon. But, first, wo are not to suppose Xenophon to guarantee those assertions, as to matters of fact which he gives, as coming from Euryptolemus ; who as an advocate, speaking in the assembly, might take great liberties wit! the truth. Next, Xenophon speaks of the total number of ships ruined or disabled in the action: Euryptolemus speaks of the total number of wrecks afloat and capable of being visited so as to rescue the sufferers, at the subsequent moment, when the generals directed the squadron under Thcramcnes to go out for the rescue. It is to be remembered that the generals went back to AiL r iiiusse from the battle, and there determined, according to their own statement, to send out from thence a squadron for visiting the wrecks. A certain interval of time must therefore have elapsed between the close of tho action and the order given to Thcramcnes. During that interval, undoubt- edly, some of the disabled ships went down, or came to pieces : if we arc to believe Euryptolemus, thirteen out of the twenty-five must have thus disap- peared, so that their crews were already drowned, and no more than twelve remained floating for Thcramenes to visit, even had he been ever so active and ever so much favored by weather. I distrust the statement of Euryptolemus, and believe that he most prol ably underrated the number. But assuming him to bo correct, this wi. only show how much tho generals were to blame, as we shall hereafter re mark, for not having seen to the visitation of the wrecks before they wen back to their moorings at Arginusoc. VOL. viii. 8* 12oc.
 * Xenoph. Hellen. i, 6, 34. 'ATrwAoiro de TUV nlv'Kdr]vaiuv v?/ef Kevre nal