At a date not much earlier than that of the incidents just described, the Lacedaemonians had sent out Lysander as their admiral, in the place of Cratesippidas, whose period of office had expired. The new admiral first visited Rhodes, where he got some ships, and sailed to Cos and Miletus, and from the latter place to Ephesus. At Ephesus he waited with seventy sail, expecting the advent1 of Cyrus in Sardis, when he at once went up to pay the prince a visit with the ambassadors from Lacedaemon. And now an opportunity was given to denounce the proceedings2 of Tissaphernes, and at the same time to beg Cyrus himself to show as much zeal3 as possible in the prosecution4 of the war. Cyrus replied that not only had he received express injunction from his father to the same effect, but that his own views coincided with their wishes, which he was determined5 to carry out to the letter. He had, he informed them, brought with him five hundred talents;28 and if that sum failed, he had still the private revenue, which his father allowed him, to fall back upon, and when this resource was in its turn exhausted6, he would coin the gold and silver throne on which he sat, into money for their benefit.29
His audience thanked him for what he said, and further begged him to fix the rate of payment for the seamen7 at one Attic8 drachma per man,30 explaining that should this rate of payment be adopted, the sailors of the Athenians would desert, and in the end there would be a saving of expenditure9. Cyrus complimented them on the soundness of their arguments, but said that it was not in his power to exceed the injunctions of the king. The terms of agreement were precise, thirty minae31 a month per vessel10 to be given, whatever number of vessels11 the Lacedaemonians might choose to maintain.
To this rejoinder Lysander at the moment said nothing. But after dinner, when Cyrus drank to his health, asking him “What he could do to gratify him most?” Lysander replied, “Add an obol32 to the sailors’ pay.” After this the pay was raised to four instead of three obols, as it hitherto had been. Nor did the liberality of Cyrus end here; he not only paid up all arrears12, but further gave a month’s pay in advance, so that, if the enthusiasm of the army had been great before, it was greater than ever now. The Athenians when they heard the news were proportionately depressed13, and by help of Tissaphernes despatched ambassadors to Cyrus. That prince, however, refused to receive them, nor were the prayers of Tissaphernes of any avail, however much he insisted that Cyrus should adopt the policy which he himself, on the advice of Alcibiades, had persistently14 acted on. This was simply not to suffer any single Hellenic state to grow strong at the expense of the rest, but to keep them all weak alike, distracted by internecine15 strife16.
Lysander, now that the organisation17 of his navy was arranged to his satisfaction, beached his squadron of ninety vessels at Ephesus, and sat with hands folded, whilst the vessels dried and underwent repairs. Alcibiades, being informed that Thrasybulus had come south of the Hellespont and was fortifying18 Phocaea, sailed across to join him, leaving his own pilot Antiochus in command of the fleet, with orders not to attack Lysander’s fleet. Antiochus, however, was tempted20 to leave Notium and sail into the harbour of Ephesus with a couple of ships, his own and another, past the prows21 of Lysander’s squadron. The Spartan22 at first contented23 himself with launching a few of his ships, and started in pursuit of the intruder; but when the Athenians came out with other vessels to assist Antiochus, he formed his whole squadron into line of battle, and bore down upon them, whereupon the Athenians followed suit, and getting their remaining triremes under weigh at Notium, stood out to sea as fast as each vessel could clear the point.33 Thus it befell in the engagement which ensued, that while the enemy was in due order, the Athenians came up in scattered24 detachments and without concert, and in the end were put to flight with the loss of fifteen ships of war. Of the crews, indeed, the majority escaped, though a certain number fell into the hands of the enemy. Then Lysander collected his vessels, and having erected26 a trophy27 on Cape25 Notium, sailed across to Ephesus, whilst the Athenians retired28 to Samos.
On his return to Samos a little later, Alcibiades put out to sea with the whole squadron in the direction of the harbour of Ephesus. At the mouth of the harbour he marshalled his fleet in battle order, and tried to tempt19 the enemy to an engagement; but as Lysander, conscious of his inferiority in numbers, refused to accept the challenge, he sailed back again to Samos. Shortly after this the Lacedaemonians captured Delphinium and Eion.34
But now the news of the late disaster at Notium had reached the Athenians at home, and in their indignation they turned upon Alcibiades, to whose negligence29 and lack of self-command they attributed the destruction of the ships. Accordingly they chose ten new generals — namely Conon, Diomedon, Leon, Pericles, Erasinides, Aristocrates, Archestratus, Protomachus, Thrasylus, and Aristogenes. Alcibiades, who was moreover in bad odour in the camp, sailed away with a single trireme to his private fortress30 in the Chersonese.
After this Conon, in obedience31 to a decree of the Athenian people, set sail from Andros with the twenty vessels under his command in that island to Samos, and took command of the whole squadron. To fill the place thus vacated by Conon, Phanosthenes was sent to Andros with four ships. That captain was fortunate enough to intercept32 and capture two Thurian ships of war, crews and all, and these captives were all imprisoned33 by the Athenians, with the exception of their leader Dorieus. He was the Rhodian, who some while back had been banished34 from Athens and from his native city by the Athenians, when sentence of death was passed upon him and his family. This man, who had once enjoyed the right of citizenship35 among them, they now took pity on and released him without ransom36.
When Conon had reached Samos he found the armament in a state of great despondency. Accordingly his first measure was to man seventy ships with their full complement37, instead of the former hundred and odd vessels. With this squadron he put to sea accompanied by the other generals, and confined himself to making descents first at one point and then at another of the enemy’s territory, and to collecting plunder38.
And so the year drew to its close: a year signalled further by an invasion of Sicily by the Carthaginians, with one hundred and twenty ships of war and a land force of one hundred and twenty thousand men, which resulted in the capture of Agrigentum. The town was finally reduced to famine after a siege of seven months, the invaders39 having previously40 been worsted in battle and forced to sit down before its walls for so long a time.
1 advent | |
n.(重要事件等的)到来,来临 | |
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2 proceedings | |
n.进程,过程,议程;诉讼(程序);公报 | |
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3 zeal | |
n.热心,热情,热忱 | |
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4 prosecution | |
n.起诉,告发,检举,执行,经营 | |
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5 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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6 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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7 seamen | |
n.海员 | |
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8 attic | |
n.顶楼,屋顶室 | |
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9 expenditure | |
n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出;使用,消耗 | |
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10 vessel | |
n.船舶;容器,器皿;管,导管,血管 | |
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11 vessels | |
n.血管( vessel的名词复数 );船;容器;(具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的)人 | |
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12 arrears | |
n.到期未付之债,拖欠的款项;待做的工作 | |
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13 depressed | |
adj.沮丧的,抑郁的,不景气的,萧条的 | |
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14 persistently | |
ad.坚持地;固执地 | |
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15 internecine | |
adj.两败俱伤的 | |
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16 strife | |
n.争吵,冲突,倾轧,竞争 | |
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17 organisation | |
n.组织,安排,团体,有机休 | |
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18 fortifying | |
筑防御工事于( fortify的现在分词 ); 筑堡于; 增强; 强化(食品) | |
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19 tempt | |
vt.引诱,勾引,吸引,引起…的兴趣 | |
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20 tempted | |
v.怂恿(某人)干不正当的事;冒…的险(tempt的过去分词) | |
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21 prows | |
n.船首( prow的名词复数 ) | |
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22 spartan | |
adj.简朴的,刻苦的;n.斯巴达;斯巴达式的人 | |
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23 contented | |
adj.满意的,安心的,知足的 | |
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24 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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25 cape | |
n.海角,岬;披肩,短披风 | |
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26 ERECTED | |
adj. 直立的,竖立的,笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立,建立 | |
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27 trophy | |
n.优胜旗,奖品,奖杯,战胜品,纪念品 | |
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28 retired | |
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的 | |
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29 negligence | |
n.疏忽,玩忽,粗心大意 | |
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30 fortress | |
n.堡垒,防御工事 | |
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31 obedience | |
n.服从,顺从 | |
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32 intercept | |
vt.拦截,截住,截击 | |
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33 imprisoned | |
下狱,监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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34 banished | |
v.放逐,驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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35 citizenship | |
n.市民权,公民权,国民的义务(身份) | |
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36 ransom | |
n.赎金,赎身;v.赎回,解救 | |
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37 complement | |
n.补足物,船上的定员;补语;vt.补充,补足 | |
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38 plunder | |
vt.劫掠财物,掠夺;n.劫掠物,赃物;劫掠 | |
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39 invaders | |
入侵者,侵略者,侵入物( invader的名词复数 ) | |
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40 previously | |
adv.以前,先前(地) | |
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