Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/113

 GEOGRAPHY cix ii. 86 med. The distance of Rhium in Achaia from Rhium on the opposite coast is said by Thucydides to be less than a mile (7 stadia). According to Col. Leake (Morea, ii. 148) 'the distance is little, if at all, short of a mile and a half,' and would have been considerably greater in ancient times if we assume, as in this particular instance there is reason for thinking, that the sea, owing to the deposits of rivers, has retreated about 250 yards on the south, and somewhat less on the north coast. iv. 8 med. The southern entrance of the harbour formed by the bay of Navarino is more than three-quarters of a mile in width, and the northern is 132 yards. But accord- ing to Thucydides the northern entrance admitted the passage of only two ships, the southern of not more than eight or nine, and the Lacedaemonians had intended to block up both passages by ships placed lengthways Thucydides also underrates considerably the length of the island, which he describes (iv. 8) as 15 stadia (about 3000 yards), whereas it is really 2| miles (4800 yards). [Mr. Grundy (see note) points out that the distance from the place where the Athenians must have landed on the bay side of the island to its N. point is about 15 stadia.] ' [It has been suggested that Thucydides fell into the error by com- bining the accounts of two informants, one of whom meant by ' the harbour ' the lagoon of Osmyn Aga, behind Pylos, and the other the bay of Navarino: and mistook an intended blocking of the N. entrance to the bay of Navarino at both ends (by which a passage from the bay into the lagoon, which may have existed at the time, would also have been closed to the Athenians) for a blocking of the N. and S. entrances. See Mr. G. B. Grundy's admirable monograph on Pylos and Sphacteria. If this be so, the criticism, in the Essay, on Thucydides as a geographer would only be confirmed. It is clear from iv. 8 {rfjv hi vijaoy rair-qv <popovfievoi fir) e( avrrji rbv n6(fiov aipiai noiwyTai, oirKiTaf Sit^iPaaav is avTqv, Koi rrapa tt)V -rjirtipov dWovs tra^ay ovru yap rots 'A$T]vaioii rrjv t€ VTJaov no(ixiav iataOai Tqv t( ijnttf'Oy, dwo^aaiv oxjk (xovaav rd ydp avTTJs T^y rivKov t^o) rov tanXov Trpds rii •neXayos a.i/xfva ovra ovx (^fiV oOtf opfjujifxivoi w(peTjaovat roi/s avTwv) that Thucydides believed the Lacedae- monians to have intended to block both entrances of the bay of Navarino. — And it is after all hard to believe that as a fact they did not intend to keep out the Athenian ships by occupying (if not blocking) the S. entrance.]