Incidents of the Sea-Fight
The fight having been begun on the ship on which King
Attalus was sailing, all the others near began
charging each other without waiting for orders.
Attalus ran into an eight-banked ship, and
having struck it a well-directed blow below the water-line, after
a prolonged struggle between the combatants on the decks, at
length succeeded in sinking it.
Loss of Philip's flagship and admiral. |
Philip's tenbanked ship, which, moreover, was the admiral's, was captured by the enemy in an
extraordinary manner. For one of the
triemioliae, having run
close under her, she struck against her violently amidships, just
beneath the thole of the topmost bank of oars, and got fast
jammed on to her, the steersman being unable to check the way
of his ship. The result was that, by this craft hanging suspended to her, she became unmanageable and unable to turn
one way or another. While in this plight, two quinqueremes
charged her on both sides at once, and destroyed the vessel itself and the fighting men on her deck,
among whom fell Democrates, Philip's admiral. At the same time Dionysodorus and
Deinocrates, who were brothers and joint-admirals of the fleet of
Attalus, charged, the one upon a seven-banked, the other upon an
eight-banked ship of the enemy, and had a most extraordinary
adventure in the battle.
Deinocrates, in the
first place, came into collision with an eightbanked ship, and had his ship struck above the water-line; for
the enemy's ship had its prow built high; but he struck the
enemy's ship below the water-line,
1
and at first could not get himself clear, though he tried again and again to back water;
and, accordingly, when the Macedonian boarded him and fought
with great gallantry, he was brought into the most imminent
danger. Presently, upon Attalus coming to his aid, and by a
vigorous charge separating the two ships, Deinocrates unexpectedly found himself free, and the enemy's boarders were all
killed after a gallant resistance, while their own vessel being
left without men was captured by Attalus.
In
the next place, Dionysodorus, making a furious
charge, missed his blow; but running up alongside of the enemy
lost all the oars on his right side, and had the timbers supporting his towers smashed to pieces,
and was thereupon immediately surrounded by the enemy. In the midst of loud shouts
and great confusion, all the rest of his marines perished along
with the ship, but he himself with two others managed to
escape by swimming to the
triemiolia which was coming up to
the rescue.