Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/283

 85,86] PREPARATIONS FOR A SECOND ENGAGEMENT l6^ him twenty ships, but ordered the commander of them to go to Crete first; for Nicias of Gortys in Crete, who was the proxenus of the Athenians, had induced them to send a fleet against Cydonia, a hostile town which he promised to reduce. But he really invited them to please the Polichnitae, who are neighbours of the Cydoniatae. So the Athenian commander took the ships, went to Crete, and joined the Polichnitae in ravaging the lands of the Cydoniatae ; there, owing to contrary winds and bad weather, a considerable time was wasted. While the Athenians were detained in Crete the Pelo- 86 ponnesians at Cyllene, equipped for -r, r, , ^ ./'111 y/,^, l^eloponnesians a naval engagement, coasted along to and Phormio take up a Panormus in Achaia, whither the Pelo- position opposite to each ponnesian army had gone toco-operate ^'^^^^ Gulf!' ^'" ^"" with them. Phormio also coasted along to the Molycrian Rhium and anchored outside the gulf with the twenty ships which had fought in the previous engagement. This Rhium was friendly to the Athenians; there is another Rhium on the opposite coast in Peloponnesus ; the space between them, which is rather less than a mile, forms the mouth of the Crisaean Gulf. When the Peloponnesians saw that the Athenians had come to anchor, they likewise anchored with seventy- seven ships at the Rhium which is in Achaia, not far from Panormus where their land forces were stationed. For six or seven days the two fleets lay opposite one another, and were busy in practising and getting ready for the engagement— the one resolved not to sail into the open sea, fearing a recurrence of their disaster, the other not to sail into the strait, because the confined space was favourable to their enemies. At length Cne- mus, Brasidas, and the other Peloponnesian generals determined to bring op an engagement at once, and not wait until the Athenians too received their reinforce- ments. So they assembled their soldiers and, seeing that they were generally dispirited at their former defeat