Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/372

 364 SHIPS OF ASTYOCHUS IN THE MIST [vill Caunus. As he coasted along he made a descent on the island of Cos Meropis. The city was unfortified and had been overthrown by an earthquake, the greatest which has ever happened within our memory. The citizens had fled into the mountains; so he sacked the town and overran and despoiled the country, but let go the free inhabitants whom he found. From Cos he came by night to Cnidus, and was prevailed upon by the importunity of the Cnidians, instead of disembarking his men, to sail at once, just as he was, against twenty Athenian ships with which Charminus (one of the generals at Samos) was watching for the twenty-seven ships expected from Peloponnesus, being those which Astyochus was going to escort. The Athen- ians at Samos had heard from Melos of their coming, and Charminus was cruising oft' the islands of Syme, Chalce, and Rhodes, and on the coast of Lycia ; he had by this time discovered that they were at Caunus. 42 So Astyochus sailed at once to Syme before his arrival ///. ships lose their '^^^ reported, in the hope that he might way in the fog, and his come upoii the Athenian squadron in left wing is attacked and the open sea. The rain and cloudy ejeaei y 11. un- gj-^j.^ ^^ ^j^^ atmosphere caused con- tans, who tn their turn _ ... /7y at the sudden ap- fusion among liis sliips, which lost their pearanee of the rest of way in the dark. When dawn broke, '^■'^^- the fleet was dispersed and the left wing alone was visible to the Athenians, while the other ships were still straggling off" the shore of the islahd. Char- minus and the Athenians put out to sea with part of their twenty ships, supposing that these were only the squadron from Caunus for which they were watching. They at once attacked them, sank three of them, disabled others, and were gaining the victor^', when to their surprise there appeared the larger part of the Lacedaemonian fleet threatening to surround them. Whereupon the}' fled, and in their flight lost six ships, but with the rest gained the island of Teutlussa, and thence Halicarnassus. The Peloponnesians touched at Cnidus, and there uniting