Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/197

MEN LEFT TO DROWN ON THE WRECKS. 175 to Methymna, burning his camp. Konon, thus finding himself unexpectedly at liberty, put to sea with his ships when the wind had become calmer, and joined the main Athenian fleet, which he found already on its way from Arginusae to Mitylene. The latter presently came to Mitylene, and from thence passed over to make an attack on Chios ; which attack proving unsu ecessful, they went forward to their ordinary station at Samos. 1 The news of the victory at Arginusse diffused joy and triumph at Athens. All the slaves who had served in the armament were manumitted and promoted, according to promise, to the rights of Platieans at Athens, a qualified species of citizenship. Yet the joy was poisoned by another incident, which became known at the same time, raising sentiments of a totally opposite character, and ending in one of the most gloomy and disgraceful proceedings in all Athenian history. Not only the bodies of the slain warriors floating about on the water had been picked up for burial, but the wrecks had not been visited to preserve those who were yet living. The first of these two points, even alone, would have sufficed to excite a painful sentiment of wounded piety at Athens. But the second point, here an essential part of the same omission, inflamed that senti ment into shame, grief, and indignation of the sharpest character. In the descriptions of this event, Diodorus and many other writers take notice of the first point, either exclusively, 2 or at 1 Xenoph. Hellen. i, 6, 38 ; Diodor. xiii, 100. 1 See the narrative of Diodorus (xiii, 100, 101, 102), where nothing ia mentioned except about picking up the floating dead bodies ; about the crime, and offence in the eyes of the people, of omitting to secure burial to so many dead bodies. He does not seem to have fancied that there were any livlny bodies, or that it was a question between life and death to so many of the crews. "Whereas, if we follow the narrative of Xcnophon (Hellen. i, 7), we shall see that the question is put throughout about picking up the living men, the thipureckcd men, or the men belonging to, and still living aboard of, the broken ships, uvefaa&ai rot)f vavayotif, rove ivarv^ovvraf, rot'f KOTaivvraf (Hellen. ii, 3, 32) : compare, especially, ii,3, 35, irfalv TI ruf Kara&edvKviac, vavf KOI Toi)( TT' avTuv uvdpuTtove (i, 6, 36). The word vavaybf docs not mean a dead body, but a living man who has suffered shipwreck : N a v a yd c T/KU frvof, aovl.ijTov -ycvof (says Menelaus, Eurip. Helen. 457) ; also 407, Kal vvv ruXaf vavaybc, uiroteaac. fy'ikovq 'ES-eneaov tf jf/v rf/vdf, etc. : again, 538 It corrcspon Is with the Latin naufragut : "merei rate naufragus asscm Dan