Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/27

 24,25] AFFAIRS OF SICILY I9 easily master the place, and their affairs would then be really gaining strength. Rhegium, the extreme point of Italy, and Messene, of Sicily, are close to one another; and if Rhegium were taken the Athenians would not be able to lie there and command the strait. Now the strait is that portion of sea between Rhegium and Messene where Sicily is nearest to the continent ; it is the so-called Charybdis by which Odysseus is said to have passed. The channel was naturally considered dangerous; for the strait is narrow, and the sea flowing into it from two great oceans, the Tyrrhenian and Sicilian, is full of currents. In this strait the Syracusans and their allies, who had 25 somewhat more than thirty ships, were „. ,, , -ij r Partial defeat of the compelled to fight late ni the day for Syracusan fled by the a vessel which was sailing through. Athemans and Rheg- They put out against sixteen Athenian « ^ *'"" ^^'"^ "/ . Messene, and eight Rhegian ships; but, being defeated by the Athenians, they made a hasty retreat, each ship as it best could, to their stations at Messene and near Rhegium ; one ship was lost. Night closed the engage- ment. After this the Locrians quitted the Rhegian territory, and the Syracusans and their Partial success of the confederates united their fleet and Syracusans, who take anchored at the promontory of Pelorus ^"° reman s nps. near Messene, where their land-forces were also stationed. . The Athenians and Rhegians, sailing up to them, and seeing that the crews were not there, fell upon the empty vessels, but an iron grapnel was thrown out at them, and they in their turn lost a ship, from which the crew escaped by swimming. Then the Syracusans embarked, and, as they were being towed along the shore towards Messene, the Athenians again attacked them. Making a sudden twist outwards they struck the first blow at the Athenians, who lost another ship. Thus both in the movement along the coast and in the naval engagement which ensued, the Syracusans proved themselves quite a match for the