hellenica.pdf

Hellenica

____________________

Xenophon

Translation by H. G. Dakyns

This classical e-book and more can be found at

http://www.textkit.com

HELLENICA

BOOK I

B.C. 411. To follow the order of events[1]. A few days

later Thymochares arrived from Athens with a few ships, when

another sea fight between the Lacedaemonians and Athenians at

once took place, in which the former, under the command of

Agesandridas, gained the victory.

[1] Lit. "after these events"; but is hard to conjecture to what

events the author refers. For the order of events and the

connection between the closing chapter of Thuc. viii. 109, and the

opening words of the "Hellenica," see introductory remarks above.

The scene of this sea-fight is, I think, the Hellespont.

Another short interval brings us to a morning in early winter,

when Dorieus, the son of Diagoras, was entering the Hellespont

with fourteen ships from Rhodes at break of day. The Athenian

day-watch descrying him, signalled to the generals, and they, with

twenty sail, put out to sea to attack him. Dorieus made good his

escape, and, as he shook himself free of the narrows,[2] ran his

triremes aground off Rhoeteum. When the Athenians had come to

close quarters, the fighting commenced, and was sustained at once

from ships and shore, until at length the Athenians retired to their

main camp at Madytus, having achieved nothing.

[2] Lit. "as he opened" {os enoige}. This is still a mariner's phrase

in modern Greek, if I am rightly informed.

Meanwhile Mindarus, while sacrificing to Athena at Ilium, had

observed the battle. He at once hastened to the sea, and getting his

own triremes afloat, sailed out to pick up the ships with Dorieus.

The Athenians on their side put out to meet him, and engaged him

off Abydos. From early morning till the afternoon the fight was

kept up close to the shore.[3] Victory and defeat hung still in even

balance, when Alcibiades came sailing up with eighteen ships.

Thereupon the Peloponnesians fled towards Abydos, where,

however, Pharnabazus brought them timely assistance.[4] Mounted

on horseback, he pushed forward into the sea as far as his horse

would let him, doing battle himself, and encouraging his troopers

and the infantry alike to play their parts. Then the Peloponnesians,

ranging their ships in close- packed order, and drawing up their

battle line in proximity to the land, kept up the fight. At length the

Athenians, having captured thirty of the enemy's vessels without

their crews, and having recovered those of their own which they

had previously lost, set sail for Sestos. Here the fleet, with the

exception of forty vessels, dispersed in different directions outside

the Hellespont, to collect money; while Thrasylus, one of the

generals, sailed to Athens to report what had happened, and to beg

for a reinforcement of troops and ships. After the above incidents,

Tissaphernes arrived in the Hellespont, and received a visit from

Alcibiades, who presented him with a single ship, bringing with

him tokens of friendship and gifts, whereupon Tissaphernes seized

him and shut him up in Sardis, giving out that the king's orders

were to go to war with the Athenians. Thirty days later Alcibiades,

accompanied by Mantitheus, who had been captured in Caria,

managed to procure horses and escaped by night to Clazomenae.

[3] The original has a somewhat more poetical ring. The author

uses the old Attic or Ionic word {eona}. This is a mark of style,

of which we shall have many instances. One might perhap

produce something of the effect here by translating: "the battle

hugged the strand."

[4] Or, "came to their aid along the shore."

B.C. 410. And now the Athenians at Sestos, hearing that Mindarus

was meditating an attack upon them with a squadron of sixty sail,

gave him the slip, and under cover of night escaped to Cardia.

Hither also Alcibiades repaired from Clazomenae, having with him

five triremes and a light skiff; but on learning that the

Peloponnesian fleet had left Abydos and was in full sail for

Cyzicus, he set off himself by land to Sestos, giving orders to the

fleet to sail round and join him there. Presently the vessels arrived,

and he was on the point of putting out to sea with everything ready

for action, when Theramenes, with a fleet of twenty ships from

Macedonia, entered the port, and at the same instant Thrasybulus,

with a second fleet of twenty sail from Thasos, both squadrons

having been engaged in collecting money. Bidding these officers

also follow him with all speed, as soon as they had taken out their

large sails and cleared for action, Alcibiades set sail himself for

Parium. During the following night the united squadron,

consisting now of eighty-six vessels, stood out to sea from Parium,

and reached Proconnesus next morning, about the hour of

breakfast. Here they learnt that Mindarus was in Cyzicus, and that

Pharnabazus, with a body of infantry, was with him. Accordingly

they waited the whole of this day at Proconnesus. On the following

day Alcibiades summoned an assembly, and addressing the men in

terms of encouragement, warned them that a threefold service was

expected of them; that they must be ready for a sea fight, a land

fight, and a wall fight all at once, "for look you," said he, "we have

no money, but the enemy has unlimited supplies from the king."

Now, on the previous day, as soon as they were come to moorings,

he had collected all the sea-going craft of the island, big and

little alike, under his own control, that no one might report the

number of his squadron to the enemy, and he had further caused a

proclamation to be made, that any one caught sailing across to the

opposite coast would be punished with death. When the meeting

was over, he got his ships ready for action, and stood out to sea

towards Cyzicus in torrents of rain. Off Cyzicus the sky cleared,

and the sun shone out and revealed to him the spectacle of

Mindarus's vessels, sixty in number, exercising at some distance

from the harbour, and, in fact, intercepted by himself. The

Peloponnesians, perceiving at a glance the greatly increased

number of the Athenian galleys, and noting their proximity to the

port, made haste to reach the land, where they brought their vessels

to anchor in a body, and prepared to engage the enemy as he sailed

to the attack. But Alcibiades, sailing round with twenty of his

vessels, came to land and disembarked. Seeing this, Mindarus also

landed, and in the engagement which ensued he fell fighting, whilst

those who were with him took to flight. As for the enemy's ships,

the Athenians succeeded in capturing the whole of them (with the

exception of the Syracusan vessels, which were burnt by their

crews), and made off with their prizes to Proconnesus. From thence

on the following day they sailed to attack Cyzicus. The men of that

place, seeing that the Peloponnesians and Pharnabazus

had evacuated the town, admitted the Athenians. Here Alcibiades

remained twenty days, obtaining large sums of money from the

Cyzicenes, but otherwise inflicting no sort of mischief on the

community. He then sailed back to Proconnesus, and from there to

Perinthus and Selybria. The inhabitants of the former place

welcomed his troops into their city, but the Selybrians preferred to

give money, and so escape the admission of the troops. Continuing

the voyage the squadron reached Chrysopolis in Chalcedonia,[5]

where they built a fort, and established a custom-house to collect

the tithe dues which they levied on all merchantmen passing

through the Straights from the Black Sea. Besides this, a

detachment of thirty ships was left there under the two generals,

Theramenes and Eubulus, with instructions not only to keep a look-

out on the port itself and on all traders passing through the channel,

but generally to injure the enemy in any way which might present

itself. This done, the rest of the generals hastened back to the

Hellespont.

[5] This is the common spelling, but the coins of Calchedon have

the letters {KALKH}, and so the name is written in the best

MSS. of Herodotus, Xenophon, and other writers, by whom the

place is named. See "Dict. of Greek and Roman Geog."

"Chalcedon."

Now a despatch from Hippocrates, Mindarus's vice-admiral,[6] had

been intercepted on its way to Lacedaemon, and taken to Athens. It

ran as follows (in broad Doric):[7] "Ships gone; Mindarus dead; the

men starving; at our wits' end what to do."

[6] "Epistoleus," i.e. secretary or despatch writer, is the Spartan

title of the officer second in command to the admiral.

[7] Reading {'Errei ta kala} (Bergk's conjecture for {kala}) =

"timbers," i.e. "ships" (a Doric word). Cf. Aristoph., "Lys." 1253,

{potta kala}. The despatch continues: {Mindaros apessoua} (al.

{apessua}), which is much more racy than the simple word

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: