51.
During the same summer, after the recovery of Lesbos, the Athenians, under the command
of1 Nicias the son of Niceratus, made an expedition against the island of Minoa,
which lies in front of Megara; the Megarians had built a fort there and used the island
as a military station.
[2]
But Nicias wanted the Athenians to keep a watch over Megara, not as
hitherto from Budorum in Salamis, but from this spot, which was nearer, the
Peloponnesians would then be no longer able to send out triremes, as they had already
done on one occasion2, or privateers from the harbour unobserved, and
nothing could be brought in by sea to Megara.
[3]
First of all he took3 two projecting towers on the side of the island towards Nisaea4 by the help of
engines from the sea, and, having thus freed a way into the channel dividing Minoa from
the coast of Megara, he fortified the point nearest the mainland, where, by a bridge
through a lagoon, aid could be brought by the enemy to the island, lying as it did at
that point close to the shore.
[4]
The work was completed in a few days.
Nicias then proceeded to build a fort on the island, and, leaving a garrison, returned
with the rest of his army.
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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