Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/310

 194 NAVAL STRENGTH OF ATHENS [ill all but the highest class and the Knights ; they then set sail, and, after displaying their strength along the shores of the isthmus, made descents upon the Peloponncsian coast wherever they pleased. The Lacedaemonians were astounded, and thought that the Lesbians had told them what was not true. Their allies too had not yet arrived, and they heard that the Athenians in the thirty ships -"^ which had been sent to cruise around Peloponnesus were wasting their country districts ; and so, not knowing what else to do, they returned home. However, they after- wards prepared a fleet to go to Lesbos, and ordered the allies to equip forty ships : these they placed under the command of Alcidas, who was to take them out. When the Athenians saw that the Peloponnesians had gone home, they and their fleet of a hundred ships did the same. 17 At the time when the fleet was at sea, the Athenians had Perfection of the the largest number of ships which they ; Atheman navy at this ■ gyer had all together, effective and in / time. Great extendi- j • 1 1 1 1 1 ' tare on the navy and ^^^^ ^rim, although the mere number the siege of Potidaea in was as large or even larger at the com- "i the first year of the u>ar. mencement of the War. For then there j were a hundred which guarded Attica, Euboea, and Sala- mis, and another hundred which were cruising off Pelo- ponnesus ^ not including the ships employed in blockading Potidaea and at other places ; so that in one and the same summer their fleet in all numbered two hundred and fifty. — This and the money spent in the war against Potidaea was the chief call upon their treasury. Every one of the hoplites engaged in the siege received two drachmae ^ a-day, one for himself, and one for his servant ; the original force amounted to three thousand 'J, and this num- ber was maintained as long as the siege lasted. Sixteen hundred more came with Phormio, but went away before Cp. iii. 7 init. * Cp. ii. 17 fin. « About is. ^d. ^ Cp. i. 57 fin.; 61 init.