Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/93

 SAVAL DEFEAT CFF E Refill A. 71 through Peiraeus and Athens, that the forty-two triremes under the Lacedaemonian Agesandridas, having recently quitted the harbor of Megara, were sailing along the coast of Salamis in the direction towards Peiraus. Such an event, while causing uni- versal consternation throughout the city, confirmed all the previ- ous warnings of Theramenes as to the treasonable destination of the citadel recently demolished, and every one rejoiced that the demolition had been accomplished just in time. Foregoing their intended assembly, the citizens rushed with one accord down to Peiraeus, where some of them took post to garrison the walls and the mouth of the harbor ; others got aboard the triremes lying in the harbor : others, again, launched some fresh triremes from the boat-houses into the water. Agesandridas rowed along the shore, near the mouth of Peiraeus ; but found nothing to promise concert within, or tempt him to the intended attack. Accordingly, he passed by and moved onward to Sunium, in a southerly direc- tion. Having doubled the Cape of Sunium, he then turned his course along the coast of Attica northward, halted for a little while between Thorikus and Prasia?, and presently took station at Oropus. 1 Though relieved, when they found that he passed by Peirasus without making any attack, the Athenians knew that his destina- tion must now be against Euboca ; which to them was hardly less important than Peiraeus, since their main supplies were derived from that island. Accordingly, they put to sea at once with all the triremes which could be manned and got ready in the harbor. But from the hurry of the occasion, coupled with the mistrust and dissension now reigning, and the absence of their great naval force at Samos, the crews mustered were raw and ill-selected, and the armament inefficient. Polystratus, one of the members of the Four Hundred, perhaps others of them also, were aboard ; men who had an interest in defeat rather than victory. 2 Thymocha- 1 Thucyd. viii, 94. From another passage in this oration, it would seem that Polystratus' was in command of the fleet, possibly enough, in conjunction with Thyme- chart's, according to a common Athenian practice (c. 5. p. 679). His son, who defends him. atlirms that he was wounded in the battle. Diodoru? (xiii. 34) mentions the discord among the crews on board these
 * Lysi;is, Orat. xx, pro Polystrato, c. 4. p. G70, Kcisk.