Thereupon Cimon, not
satisfied with a victory of such magnitude, set sail at once with his entire fleet against the
Persian land army, which was then encamped on the bank of the
Eurymedon River.
1 And wishing to overcome the barbarians by a stratagem, he manned
the captured Persian ships with his own best men, giving them tiaras for their heads and
clothing them in the Persian fashion generally.
[
2]
The
barbarians, so soon as the fleet approached them, were deceived by the Persian ships and garb
and supposed the triremes to be their own. Consequently they received the Athenians as if they
were friends. And Cimon, night having fallen, disembarked his soldiers, and being received by
the Persians as a friend, he fell upon their encampment.
[
3]
A
great tumult arose among the Persians, and the soldiers of Cimon cut down all who came in their
way, and seizing in his tent Pherendates, one of the two generals of the barbarians and a
nephew of the king, they slew him; and as for the rest of the Persians, some they cut down and
others they wounded, and all of them, because of the unexpectedness of the attack, they forced
to take flight. In a word, such consternation as well as bewilderment prevailed among the
Persians that most of them did not even know who it was that was attacking them.
[
4]
For they had no idea that the Greeks had come against them in force,
being persuaded that they had no land army at all; and they assumed that it was the Pisidians,
who dwelt in neighbouring territory and were hostile to them, who had come to attack them.
Consequently, thinking that the attack of the enemy was coming from the mainland, they fled to
their ships in the belief they were in friendly hands.
[
5]
And
since it was a dark night without a moon, their bewilderment was increased all the more and not
a man was able to discern the true state of affairs.
[
6]
Consequently, after a great slaughter had occurred on account of the disorder among the
barbarians, Cimon, who had previously given orders to the soldiers to come running to the torch
which would be raised, had the signal raised beside the ships, being anxious lest, if the
soldiers should scatter and turn to plundering, some miscarriage of his plans might occur.
[
7]
And when the soldiers had all been gathered at the torch and
had stopped plundering, for the time being they withdrew to the ships, and on the following day
they set up a trophy and then sailed back to
Cyprus,
having won two glorious victories, the one on land and the other on the sea; for not to this
day has history recorded the occurrence of so unusual and so important actions on the same day
by a host that fought both afloat and on land.