Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/143

BATTLE OF KYZIKUS. 121 Resting at Prokonnesus one night, and seizing every boat on nse island, in order that their movements might be kept secret, Alkibiades warned the assembled seamen that they must prepare for a sea-fight, a land-fight, and a wall-fight, all at once. " We have no money (said he), while our enemies have plenty from the Great King." Nsither zeal in the men nor contrivance in the commanders was wanting. A body of hoplites were landed on the mainland in the territory of Kyzikus, for the purpose of operating a diversion ; after which the fleet was distributed into three divisions under Alkibiades, Theramenes, and Thrasybulus. The former, advancing near to Kyzikus with his single division, challenged the fleet of Mindarus, and contrived to inveigle him by pretended flight to a distance from the harbor ; while the other Athenian divisions, assisted by hazy and rainy weather, came up unexpectedly, cut off his retreat, and forced him to run his ships ashore on the neighboring mainland. After a gallant and hard-fought battle, partly on shipboard, partly ashore, at one time unpromising to the Athenians, in spite of their superi ority of number, but not very intelligible in its details, and dif- ferently conceived by our two authorities, both the Peloponne- sian fleet by sea and the forces of Pharnabazus on land were completely defeated. Mindarus himself was slain - T and the en- tire fleet, every single trireme, was captured, except the triremes of Syracuse, which were burnt by their own crews ; while Ky- zikus itself surrendered to the Athenians, and submitted to a large contribution, being spared from all other harm. The booty taken by the victors was abundant and valuable. The numbers of the triremes thus captured or destroyed is differently given ; the lowest estimate states it at sixty, the highest at eighty. 1 This capital action, ably planned and bravely executed by Al- kibiades and his two colleagues, about April 410 B.C., changed sensibly the relative position of the belligerents. The Pelopon- nesians had now no fleet of importance in Asia, though they probably still retained a small squadron at the station of Miletus; 1 Xenoph. Ilcllcn. i, 1, 14-20 ; Diodor. xiii, 50, 51. The numerous discrepancies between Diodorus and Xenophon, in the events of these few years, are collected by S 'vers, Comraentat in Xenoph. Ilcllen. note, 62, r ). 65, 66, scq VOL. VIII. 6