Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/139

BATTLES AT THE HELLESPONT. H7 me Hellsspont. lie had hoped probably to get up the strait u. Abydos during tlie night, but he was caught by daylight a little way from the entrance, near Rhocteium ; and the Athenian scouts instantly gave signal of his approach. Twenty Athenian tri- remes were despatched to attack him : upon which Dorieus fled, and sought safety by hauling his vessel ashore in the receding bay near Dardanus. The Athenian squadron here attacked him, but were repulsed and forced to sail back to Madytus. Mindarus was himself a spectator of this scene, from a distance ; being engaged in sacrificing to Athene, on the venerated hill of Ilium. He immediately hastened to Abydos, where he fitted out his whole fleet of eighty-four triremes, Pharnabazus cooperating on the shore with his land-force. Having rescued the ships of Dorieus, his next care was to resist the entire Athenian fleet, which pres- ently came to attack him under Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus. An obstinate naval combat took place between the two fleets, which lasted nearly the whole day with doubtful issue; at length, towards the evening, twenty fresh triremes were seen approach- ing. They proved to be the squadron of Alkibiades saih'ng from Samos : having probably heard of the rejunction of the squadron of Dorieus with the main Peloponnesian fleet, he had come with his own counter-balancing reinforcement. 1 As soon as his purple flag or signal was ascertained, the Athenian fleet became animated with redoubled spirit. The new-corners aided them in pressing the action so vigorously, that the Peloponnesian fleet was driven back to Abydos, and there run ashore. Here the Athenians still followed up their success, and endeavored to tow them all off. But the Persian land-force protected them, and Pharnaba- zus himself was seen foremost in the combat ; even pushing into the water in person, as far as his horse could stand. The main Peloponnesian fleet was thus preserved ; yet the Athenians retired with an important victory, carrying off thirty triremes as prizes, and retaking those which they had themselves lost in the two preceding actions.' 2 Mindarus kept his defeated fleet unemployed at Abydos during 1 Diodorus (xiii, 46) and Plutarch (Alkib. c. 27) spc:ik of his coming to the Hellespont by accident, xcnii ri^i/T, wl.'ich is certainly very iroprob nblc. Xenoph. Hcllen. i 1, 6, 7.