91.
While in this part of the engagement the Lacedaemonians had the victory and routed
the1 Athenian ships, their twenty vessels on the right wing were pursuing the eleven
of the Athenians which had escaped from their attack into the open water of the gulf.
These fled and, with the exception of one, arrived at Naupactus before their pursuers.
They stopped off the temple of Apollo, and, turning their beaks outward, prepared to
defend themselves in case the enemy followed them to the land.
[2]
The Peloponnesians soon came up; they were singing a paean of victory as they rowed,
and one Leucadian ship far in advance of the rest was chasing the single Athenian ship
which had been left behind.
[3]
There chanced to be anchored in the deep water a merchant vessel, round
which the Athenian ship rowed just in time, struck the Leucadian amidships, and sank
her.
[4]
At this sudden and unexpected feat the Peloponnesians were dismayed; they had been
carrying on the pursuit in disorder because of their success.
And some of them, dropping the blades of their oars, halted, intending to await the
rest, which was a foolish thing to do when the enemy were so near and ready to attack
them.
Others, not knowing the coast, ran aground.
1 The Lacedaemonians chase the eleven Athenian ships, which had escaped, to Naupactus One of these by a sudden turn sinks her pursuer.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.