Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/238

 216 HISTORY OF GREECE. The Athenian deet seems to have been employed in plunder ing Chios, when it received news that the Lacedaemonian com- mander was at the Hellespont engaged in the siege of Lampsakus. Either from the want of money, or from other causes which we do not understand, Konon and his colleagues were partly inactive, partly behindhand with Lysander, throughout all this summer. They now followed him to the Hellespont, sailing out on the sea- side of Chios and Lesbos, away from the Asiatic coast, which was all unfriendly to them. They reached Elaeus, at the southern extremity of the Chersonese, with their powerful fleet of one hundred and eighty triremes, just in time to hear, while at their morning meal, that Lysander was already master of Lampsakus ; apon which they immediately proceeded up the strait to Sestos, and from thence, after stopping only to collect a few provisions, I'jtill farther up, to a place called JEgospotami. 1 JEgospotami, or Goat's River a name of fatal sound to all subsequent Athenians was a place which had nothing to recommend it except that it was directly opposite to Lampsakus, separated by a breadth of strait about one mile and three-quar- ters. But it was an open beach, without harbor, without good anchorage, without either houses or inhabitants or supplies ; sc that everything necessary for this large army had to be fetched from Sestos, about one mile and three-quarters distant even by land, and yet more distant by sea, since it was necessary to round a headland. Such a station was highly inconvenient and danger- ous to an ancient naval armament, without any organized com- missariat ; since the seamen, being compelled to go to a distance from their ships in order to get their meals, were not easily reas- sembled. Yet this was the station chosen by the Athenian gen- erals, with the full design of compelling Lysander to fight a bat- tle. But the Lacedaemonian admiral, who was at Lampsakus, in a good harbor, with a well-furnished town in his rear, and a land- force to cooperate, had no intention of accepting the challenge of his enemies at the moment which suited their convenience. When the Athenians sailed across the strait the next morning, they found all his si ips fully manned, the men having already taken their morning meal, and ranged in perfect orc'er of bat- Xenoph. Hellen. ii, 1, 20, 21.