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94. By this time fire-signals had carried the alarm to Athens. Nothing which happened in the war1 caused a greater panic. The inhabitants of the city thought that the enemy had already sailed into the Piraeus; the belief in the Piraeus was that Salamis had been taken and that the enemy were on the point of sailing into the harbour, which, if they had been bolder, they might easily have done, and no wind would have prevented them. [2] But as soon as day dawned, the Athenians, coming down with the whole strength of the city to the Piraeus, launched their ships and, embarking in tumultuous haste, sailed to Salamis, while their landforces remained and guarded the Piraeus. [3] When the Peloponnesians saw the fleet coming they sailed quickly back to Nisaea, but not until they had ravaged the greater part of Salamis and taken many prisoners and much spoil, as well as the three ships which lay off the fort of Budorum. There was some apprehension about their own ships; for they had long been lain up and were not sea-worthy. [4] Arriving at Megara they marched back again to Corinth, and the Athenians, having failed to overtake them in Salamis, sailed back likewise. Henceforth they kept more careful watch over the Piraeus, among other precautions closing the entrance to the harbour.

1 Temporary panic at Athens. Relief is immediately sent to Salamis, and the Peloponnesian retire.

Thucydides translated into English; with introduction, marginal analysis, notes, and indices. Volume 1. Thucydides. Benjamin Jowett. translator. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1881.

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  • Commentary references to this page (9):
    • Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus, 459
    • W. W. How, J. Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus, 9.3
    • E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.2
    • T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8, 8.3
    • C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER XXXIV
    • C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER XLII
    • E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1, 1.89
    • Charles D. Morris, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1, 1.57
    • Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides Book 7, 7.69
  • Cross-references to this page (8):
    • The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, SALAMIS Attica, Greece.
    • Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, ADJECTIVES
    • Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.3.1
    • Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.3.2
    • Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.pos=2.2
    • Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 3.1.3
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ATHE´NAE
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), SA´LAMIS
  • Cross-references in notes to this page (1):
    • Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Thuc. 3.51
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (13):
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