ATHENS AS A SEA POWER
1. THE PERSIAN WAR
In determining to crush the independence of the Greek cities of
the west, Darius was influenced not only by the desire to destroy a
dangerous rival on the sea and an obstacle to further advances by the
Persian empire, but also to tighten his hold on the Greek colonies of
Asia Minor. Helped by the Phnician fleet and the treachery of the
Lesbians and Samians, he had succeeded in putting down a formidable
rebellion in 500 B.C. In this rebellion the Asiatic Greeks had
received help from their Athenian brethren on the other side of
the Ægean; indeed just so long as Greek independence flourished
anywhere there would always be the threat of revolt in the Greek
colonies of Persia. Darius perceived rightly that the prestige and
the future power of his empire depended on his conquering Greece.
In 492 he dispatched Mardonius with an army of invasion to subdue
Attica and Eretria, and at the same time sent forth a great fleet to
conquer the independent island communities of the Ægean. Mardonius
succeeded in overcoming the tribes of Thrace and Macedonia, but the
fleet, after taking the island of Thasus, was struck by a storm
that wrecked three hundred triremes with a loss of 20,000 lives. As
the broken remnants of the fleet returned to Asia, leaving Mardonius
with no sea communications, and harassed by increasing opposition,
he was compelled to retreat also. In 490 Darius sent out another
army under Mardonius, this time embarking it on a fleet of 600
triremes which succeeded in arriving safely at the coast of Attica
in the bay of Marathon. While the army was disembarking it was
attacked by Miltiades and utterly defeated. The second expedition,
therefore, came to nothing. But Marathon can hardly be called a
decisive battle because it merely postponed the invasion; it affected
in no way the communications of the Persians and it did not weaken
seriously their military resources.
The great savior of Greece at this crisis was the Athenian,
Themistocles. He foresaw the renewed efforts of the Persian king
to destroy Greece, and realized also that the most vital point in
the coming conflict would be the control of the sea. Accordingly
he urged upon the Athenians the necessity of building a powerful
fleet. In this policy he was aided by one of those futile wars
so characteristic of Greek history, a war between Athens and the
island of Ægina. In order to overcome the Æginetans, who had a
large fleet, the Athenians were compelled to build a larger one,
and by the time this purpose was accomplished rumors came that
the Persian king was getting ready another invasion of Greece.
_Campaign of Salamis_
The third attempt was undertaken ten years after the second, in
the year 480, under Xerxes, the successor to Darius. This time the
very immensity of the forces employed was to overcome all opposition
and all misfortunes. An army, variously estimated at from one to
five million men, crossed the Hellespont on a bridge of boats to
invade the peninsula from the north, while a fleet of 1200 triremes
was assembled to insure the command of the sea.
Against the unlimited resources of the Persian empire and the unity
of plan represented by Xerxes and his generals, the Greeks had
little to offer. They possessed the two advantages of the defensive,
knowledge of the terrain and interior lines,[1] but their resources
were small and their spirit divided. Greece in those days was, as
was later said of Italy, "merely a geographical expression." The
various cities were mutually jealous and hostile, and it took a great
common danger to bring them even into a semblance of coöperation.
Even during this desperate crisis the cities of western Greece,
counting themselves reasonably safe from invasion, declined to
send a ship or a man for the common cause.
[Footnote 1: "'Interior Lines' conveys the meaning that from a
central position one can assemble more rapidly on either of two
opposite fronts than the enemy can, and therefore utilize force
more effectively." NAVAL STRATEGY, A. T. Mahan, p. 32.]
[Illustration: ROUTE OF XERXES' FLEET TO BATTLE OF SALAMIS]
The Persian army advanced without opposition as far as the pass of
Thermopylæ, which guarded the only road into the rest of Greece.
Twelve days after the army had started on its march the great fleet
crossed the Ægean to establish contact with the army and bring
supplies. The army was checked by the valor of Leonidas, and the
Persian fleet was intercepted by a Greek fleet which stood guard
over the channel leading to the Gulf of Lamia, thus protecting the
sea flank of Leonidas. The Persian fleet, after crossing the open
sea safely, made its base at Sepias preparatory to the attack on
the Greek fleet. The latter numbered only about 380 vessels to some
1200 of their enemy and the prospects for the Persian cause looked
bright indeed. But as the very number of the Persian ships made it
impossible to beach all of them for the night a large proportion
of them were anchored, lying in eight lines, prows toward the sea.
At dawn a northeast gale fell upon them, and, according to the
Greek accounts, wrecked 400 triremes, together with an uncounted
number of transports. Meanwhile the Greek ships had taken refuge
under the lee of the island of Euba, and the news of the Persian
disaster was signaled to them by the watchers on the heights.
[Illustration: SCENE OF PRELIMINARY NAVAL OPERATIONS, CAMPAIGN OF
SALAMIS]
As soon as the weather moderated the Greeks returned to their position
in the straits near Artemisium, and during the next three days the
two fleets fought stubbornly but without advantage to either side.
During the second day a southerly gale caught a flying squadron
of some 200 triremes, that had been dispatched round the island of
Euba to catch the Greeks in the rear, and not one of the Persian
ships survived. The Greek rear guard squadron of fifty brought
the welcome news to the main fleet and served as a much needed
reënforcement. Although the Persian armada had lost about half
its force in three days by storms, the odds were still so heavily
against the Greeks that they found themselves in constant peril
of having their flanks turned in this open sea fighting.
On the afternoon of the third day the pass of Thermopyæ was forced,
thanks to the treachery of a Greek and the contemptible policy of
the Spartan government which steadily refused the plea of Leonidas
for reënforcements. With Thermopyæ taken there was no further reason
for the Greek fleet to try to hold the straits north of Euba,
and during the night it retired unobserved. The following day the
Persian fleet advanced and brought to the army the supplies which
it sorely needed.
With the fall of Thermopyæ and the contact established between his
army and his fleet, Xerxes found his route open for the invasion
of Attica. Since there was no possibility of opposing him on land,
the population of the province was removed and Athens left to its
fate. Themistocles, who was in command of the Athenian division of
the Greek fleet, now urged the assembling of the fleet at Salamis,
partly to cover the withdrawal of the Athenians and partly to assist
in the defense of the Isthmus of Corinth, which was to be the next
stand of the Greeks. The advice was adopted and the fleet assembled
off the town of Salamis. Athenian refugees had crowded into the town
and from the heights above they watched the smoke of their burning
city. Their own future and the future of Athenian civilization hung
on the long lines of triremes drawn up on the shore.
A glance at the map of the region of Salamis shows the advantages
offered by the position for the defensive. The fighting off Artemisium
had shown the peril of attacking a greatly superior force in the open
because of the danger of being outflanked. In the narrow straits
between Salamis and the mainland the Greek line of battle would
rest its flanks on the opposite shores. But it is one thing to
choose a position and another to get the enemy to accept battle in
that position. If the Persians ignored the Greek fleet and moved to
the Isthmus, the Greeks would be caught in an awkward predicament. To
regain touch with the Greek army, the fleet would be then compelled
to come out of the straits and fight at a disadvantage in the open.
There was only one chance of defeating the Persian fleet and that
was to make it fight in the narrow waters of the strait where numbers
would not count so heavily. Everything depended on bringing this
to pass.
Nor could the Greeks wait indefinitely for the Persians. Already
the incorrigible jealousies of rival cities had almost reached the
point of disintegrating the fleet. Although the commander in chief
was the Spartan general Eurybiades, the whole Spartan contingent
was on the point of deserting in a body to its own coasts. The
situation was saved by Themistocles. Having wrung from his allies
a reluctant consent to stop at Salamis temporarily to cover the
withdrawal of the Athenian populace, the story is that he secretly
dispatched a messenger to Xerxes to say that if he would attack
at once he could crush the entire naval forces of the Greeks at a
blow, but if he delayed the Greeks would scatter. Acting on this
advice, Xerxes landed troops on the island of Psyttaleia, dispatched
a squadron to block the western outlet of Salamis Straits, and
proceeded to move the main body of his fleet to attack the Greeks
by way of the eastern channel. The preparations were made during
the night and were not completed till dawn of the day of battle,
September 20, 480 B.C.
The debates in the allied fleet came to an end with the appearance
of the Persians. The shrewd plan of Themistocles had succeeded.
The Greeks would have to fight with their backs to the wall, but
they would fight with better chance of success than under any other
circumstances.
The Greek force consisted of about 380 vessels. Of these, Athens
contributed 180, Sparta and the rest of the Peloponnesus were
represented by 89 and the remainder were made up of squadrons from
the island states. Some of these island contingents contained a
type of ship different from the triremes, the penteconter. This was
a galley with only one bank of oars, but these were long sweeps,
each manned by five oarsmen. The penteconter was an early prototype
of the galley of the Christian era.
The Persians had been reduced by this time to about 600 ships,
although there had been numerous reënforcements since the disaster
at Cape Sepias. The fleet was "Persian" only in name, for, except
for bands of Persian archers on some of the ships, it was composed
of elements levied from each of the subject nations that followed
the sea. Indeed Persia is a curious example in history of a nation
with a purely artificial sea power, for its navy was composed of
aliens entirely. Thus the squadron that was sent to blockade the
western end of the straits was Egyptian, the right wing of the fleet
as it advanced to the attack was composed of Phnicians, and the
center and left was made up of Cyprians, Cilicians, Samothracians,
and Ionians, the latter only recently in rebellion against Persia
and at that time welcoming help from Athens in a cause in which
Athens herself was now involved. Apparently there was no compunction
felt on this account, for the Ionians distinguished themselves by
gallant fighting against their Greek brethren. Nevertheless, it
is not hard to imagine difficulties involved in the task of making
a unit of such an assortment of peoples. The fleet was commanded
by a Persian, Prince Ariabignes, brother of Xerxes.
At daybreak the Persian triremes drew up in three lines on each
side of the island of Psyttaleia and advanced into the straits.
But the narrowing waters of the channel made it necessary to reduce
the front and bear to the left. Consequently all formation was
lost, and the Persian triremes poured into the narrows "in a
stream,"--to quote the phrase of the tragedian Æschylus, who fought
on an Athenian trireme in this battle and describes it in one of
his plays.
Facing the invader was a smaller array of ships but a better ordered
line of battle. On the Greek left was the Athenian division opposing
the advancing triremes of Phnicia; on the right was the Spartan
division facing the Greeks of Asia Minor. The two fleets rushed toward
each other, but just before contact the Persians found themselves
embarrassed by their very number of ships. As may be seen by the
map, they had an awkward turn to make in entering the narrows. At
this point, just opposite the peninsula of Salamis, the straits
are only about 2000 yards wide, making it impossible for more than
80 or 90 triremes to advance abreast. As a result the Phnician
wing of the line was extended considerably in advance of the rest,
forced ahead by the pressure of ships behind. Although, as a matter
of fact, the Spartan wing also was somewhat in advance of the rest of
the Greek line, the first shock of battle came between the Phnicians
and the Athenians.
[Illustration: After Grundy, _The Great Persian War._
THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS, 480 B. C.
1 The Original Position
2 The Advance
3 The Contact]
This initial advantage offered by an exposed wing was immediately
seized upon. While the Athenians bore the frontal attack, the Æginetans
on their right fell upon the Phnicians' flank. This double attack
on the Persian right wing eventually proved the turning point of
the battle. The Phnicians, however, had the reputation of being
the foremost sea fighters in the world, and they bore themselves
well. Similarly the Asiatic Greeks proved themselves foemen worthy
of their brethren from the Peloponnesus, and the fight was maintained
with great ferocity all along the line. The inhabitants of Athens
who had been removed to Salamis blackened the shores on one side of
the Strait, as anxious watchers of the tremendous spectacle. Opposite
them on the slope of Mt. Ægaleos sat Xerxes himself, surrounded by
his staff, a less anxious spectator but no less interested in the
outcome.
About seven o'clock a fresh westerly wind arose, as it does at
this day in that region, and as it did some years later during a
battle won by an Athenian admiral in the Gulf of Corinth.[1] This
wind blows every morning with considerable violence for about two
hours; and in this battle it must have tended to make the bows of
the Persian ships pay off--thus exposing their sides to the Greek
rams--and drift back upon the galleys that were crowding forward
from the rear in the attempt to get into the battle.
[Footnote 1: The Battle of the Corinthian Gulf: v. p. 43]
The Greeks pressed their advantage, using their rams to sink an
adversary or disable her by cutting away her oars. Where the mêlée
was too close for such tactics they tried to take their enemy by
boarding. On every Greek trireme was a specially organized boarding
party consisting of 36 men--18 marines, 14 heavily armed soldiers,
and four bowmen; and the Greeks seem to have been superior to their
enemy at close quarters. On the Persian side the superiority lay in
their archers and javelin throwers. Toward the end of the battle,
for instance, a Samothracian trireme performed a remarkable feat.
Having been disabled by an Æginetan ship, the Samothracian cleared the
decks of her assailant with arrows and javelins and took possession.
Although the invaders seem to have fought with the greatest courage
and determination, the disadvantage of confusion at the outset of
the battle, augmented by the head wind, told decisively against
them. They were unable to take advantage of their superiority in ships
on account of the narrowness of the channel, and indeed found that
the very multitude of their ships only added to their difficulties.
The retreat began with the flower of the Persian fleet, the Phnician
division. Caught at the opening of the battle with the Athenians in
front and the Æginetans on the left flank, they were never able to
extricate themselves, although they fought stubbornly. The foremost
ships, many in a disabled condition, began to retreat; others backed
water to make way for them; the rearmost finding it impossible to
reach the battle at all, withdrew out of the straits; and soon the
retreat became general. As the Phnicians withdrew, the Athenians
and the Æginetans fell upon the center of the Persian line, and the
rout became general with the Greeks in full pursuit. The latter
pressed their enemy as far as the island of Psyttaleia, thus cutting
off the Persian force on the island from their communications.
Whereupon Aristides, the Athenian, led a force in boats from Salamis
to the island and put to death every man of the Persian garrison.
The Persian ships fled to their base at Phaleron, while the Greeks
returned to their base at Salamis.
The battle of Salamis was won, but at the moment neither side realized
its decisive character. The Greeks had lost 40 ships; the Persians
had lost over 200 sunk, and an indeterminate number captured.
Nevertheless, the latter could probably have mustered a considerable
force for another attack--which the Greeks expected--if their morale
had not been so badly shaken. Their commander, Ariabignes, was
among the killed, and there was no one else capable of reorganizing
the shattered forces. Xerxes, fearing for the safety of his bridge
over the Hellespont, gave orders for his ships to retire thither to
protect it, and the very night after the battle found the remains
of the Persian fleet in full flight across the Ægean.
The news reached the Greeks at noon of the following day and they
set out in pursuit, but having gone as far as Andros without coming
up with the enemy, they paused for a council of war. The Athenians
urged the policy of going on and destroying the bridge over the
Hellespont, but they were voted down by their allies, who preferred
to leave well enough alone.
It is customary to speak of the victory of the Greeks at Salamis
as due to their superior physique and fighting qualities. This
superiority may be claimed for the Greek soldiers at Marathon and
Platæ, where the Persian army was actually Persian. The Asiatic
soldier, forced into service and flogged into battle, was indeed
no match for the virile and warlike Greek. But at Salamis it was
literally a case of Greek meeting Greek, except in the case of the
Phnicians--who had the reputation of being the finest seafighters
in the world--and it is not easy to see how the battle was won by
sheer physical prowess. There is no evidence to show any lack of
either courage or fighting ability on the Persian side. The decisive
feature of the battle was the fatal exposure of the Phnician wing
at the very outset. However, it is worth noting that the invaders
had been maneuvering all night and were tired--especially the
oarsmen--when called upon to enter battle against an enemy that
was fresh. In that respect there was undoubtedly some advantage
to the Greeks, but it can hardly have been of prime importance.
The immediate results of the victory at Salamis were soon apparent.
The all-conquering Persian army suddenly found itself in a critical
situation. Cut off from its supplies by sea, it had to retreat or
starve, for the country which it occupied was incapable of furnishing
supplies for a host so enormous. Xerxes left an army of occupation in
Thessaly consisting of 300,000 men under Mardonius, but the rest were
ordered to get back to Persia as best they could. A panic-stricken
rout to the Hellespont began, and for the next forty-five days
a great host, that had never been even opposed in battle, went
to pieces under famine, disease, and the guerilla warfare of the
inhabitants of the country it traversed, and it was only a broken
and demoralized remnant of the great army that survived to see the
Hellespont. This great military disaster was due entirely to the
fact that Salamis had deprived Xerxes of the command of the sea.
Indeed, if the advice of Themistodes had been taken and the Greek
fleet had proceeded to the Hellespont and held the position, not even
a remnant of the retreating army would have survived. It happened
that the bridge had been carried away by storms and the army had to
be ferried over by the ships of the beaten and demoralized Persian
fleet, an operation which would have been impossible in the face
of the victorious Greeks.
Xerxes still held to the idea of conquering Greece; but the chance
was gone. Mardonius, it is true, remained in Thessaly with an army,
but it was no longer an army of millions. The Greeks assembled an
army of about 100,000 men and in the battle of Platæa the following
year utterly defeated it. On the same day the Greeks destroyed
what was left of the Persian fleet in the battle of Mycale, on
the coast of Asia Minor. This, strictly speaking, was not a naval
battle at all, for the Persians had drawn their ships up on shore
and built a stockade around them. The Greeks landed their crews,
took the stockade by storm and burnt the ships. These later victories
were the direct consequences of the earlier victory of Salamis.
Another phase of the Persian plan of conquering the Greeks must not
be overlooked. Xerxes had stirred up Carthage to undertake a naval
and military expedition against the Greeks of Sicily, in order that
all the independent Greek states might be crushed simultaneously.
Again the weather came to the rescue, for the greater part of the
Carthaginian fleet was wrecked by storms. The survivors of the
expedition laid siege to the city of Himera, but were eventually
driven back to their ships in rout with the loss of their general.
Thus the Greek civilization of Sicily was saved at the same time
as that of Athens.
East and west, therefore, the grandiose plan of the Persian despot
fell in ruin, and with it fell the prestige and the power of the
empire. The Ionians revolted and joined Athens as allies, and the
control of the Ægean passed from Persia to Athens. With this loss
of sea power began the decline of Persia as a world power.
The significance of this astounding defeat of the greatest military
and naval power of the time lies in the fact that European, or
more particularly Greek, civilization was spared to develop its
own individuality. Had Xerxes succeeded, the paralyzing régime of
an Asiatic despotism would have stifled the genius of the Greek
people. Self-government would never have had its beginnings in
Greece, and a subjugated Athens would never have produced the "Age
of Pericles." In the two generations following Salamis, Athens
made a greater original contribution to literature, philosophy,
science, and art than any other nation in any two centuries of
its existence.
For the fact that this priceless heritage was left to later ages
the world is indebted chiefly to the Greeks who fought at Salamis.
The night before that battle the cause of Greece seemed doomed
beyond hope. The day after, the invaders began a retreat that ended
forever their hopes of conquest. This amazing change of fortune was
due to the fact that the success of the Persian invasion depended
on the control of the sea. Hence the Greeks, though unable to muster
an army large enough to meet the Persian host on land, defeated
it disastrously by winning a victory on the sea.
2. THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR
After Salamis, Athens rose to a commanding position among the Greek
states. Her period of supremacy was brief, lasting less than 75
years, but while it endured it rested on her triremes. In the middle
of the fifth century she had 100,000 men in her navy, practically
as many as Great Britain in her fleet before 1914. Although the
period of Athenian supremacy was short-lived, it is interesting
because it produced a great naval genius, Phormio, and because
it wrecked itself as Persian sea power had done, in an attempt at
foreign conquest.
Scarcely had the Persian invasion come to an end when bickering broke
out among the various Greek states, much of it directed against Athens.
She had small difficulty, however, in maintaining her ascendancy in
northern Greece on account of her superiority on the sea, and it
was during the half century after Salamis that Athens arose to
her splendid climax as the intellectual and artistic center of
the world.
[Illustration: After Shepherd's _Historical Atlas._
THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE AT ITS HEIGHT--ABOUT 450 B.C.]
In 431 began the Peloponnesian War. Its immediate cause was the
help given by Athens to Corcyra (Corfu) in a war against Corinth.
Corinth called on Sparta for help, and in consequence northern and
southern Greece were locked in a mortal struggle. The Athenians
had a naval base at Naupaktis on the Gulf of Corinth, and in 429,
two years after war broke out, the Athenian Phormio found himself
supplied with only twenty triremes with which to maintain control
of that important waterway. At the same time Sparta was setting in
motion a large land and water expedition with the object of sweeping
Athenian influence from all of western Greece and of obtaining
control of the Gulf of Corinth. A fleet from Corinth was to join
another at Leukas, one of the Ionian Islands, and then proceed to
operate on the northern coast of the gulf while an army invaded
the province.
[Illustration: SCENE OF PHORMIO'S CAMPAIGNS]
As it happened, the army moved off without waiting for the coöperation
of the fleet and eventually went to pieces in an ineffectual siege of
an inland city. When the fleet started out from Corinth it numbered
47 triremes. As this was more than twice the number possessed by
Phormio, the Corinthian admiral evidently counted on being secure
from attack. Accordingly he used some of his triremes as transports
and started on his journey without taking the precaution to train
his oarsmen or practice maneuvers. But as he skirted along the
southern coast he was surprised to see the Athenian ships moving in
a parallel course as if on the alert for an opportunity to attack.
When the Corinthian ships bore up from Patræ to cross to the Ætolian
shore, the Athenian column steered directly toward them. At this
threat the Corinthian fleet turned away and put in at Rhium, a
point near the narrowest part of the strait, in order to make the
crossing under cover of night. The Corinthian admiral made the same
fatal mistake committed by the commander of the Spanish Armada
2000 years later in a similar undertaking, that of trying to avoid
an enemy on the sea rather than fight him before carrying out an
invasion of the enemy's coast. This ignominious conduct on the
part of the Corinthian admiral was partly due to the fact that he
was encumbered with his transports, but chiefly to the fact that
he knew that in fighting qualities his men were no match for the
Athenians. The latter had no peers on the sea at that time. Since
Salamis they had progressed far in naval science and efficiency
and were filled with the confidence that comes from knowledge and
experience.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF THE CORINTHIAN GULF, 429 B. C.
Corinthian Formation and Circling Tactics of Phormio.]
All night Phormio watched his enemy and at dawn surprised him in
mid-crossing. On seeing Phormio advance to the attack, the Corinthian
drew up his squadron in a defensive position, ranging his vessels
in concentric circles, bows outward, like the spokes of a wheel.
In the center of this formation he placed his transports, together
with five of his largest triremes to assist at any threatened spot.
The formation suggests a leader of infantry rather than an admiral;
moreover, it revealed a fatal readiness to give up the offensive
to an enemy force less than half his own.
At any rate there was no lack of decision on the part of Phormio.
He advanced rapidly in line ahead formation, closed in near the
enemy's prows as if he intended to strike at any moment and circled
round the line. The Corinthian triremes, having no headway and
manned by inexperienced rowers, began crowding back on one another
as they tried to keep in position for the expected attack. Then the
same early morning wind that had embarrassed the Persian ships at
Salamis sprang up and added to the confusion of fouling ships and
clashing oar blades. Choosing his opening, Phormio flew the signal
for attack and rammed one of the flagships of the Corinthian fleet.
The Athenians fell upon their enemy and almost at the first blow
routed the entire Corinthian force. In addition to those triremes
that were sunk outright, twelve remained as prizes with their full
complement of crews, and the rest scattered in flight. Phormio
returned in triumph to Naupaktis with the loss of scarcely a man.
So humiliating a defeat had to be avenged, and Sparta organized
a new expedition. This time a fleet of 77 triremes was collected.
Meanwhile Phormio had sent to Athens the news of his victory together
with an urgent plea for reënforcements. Unfortunately the great
Pericles was dying and the government had fallen into weak and
unscrupulous hands. Consequently while 20 triremes were ordered to
the support of Phormio, political intrigue succeeded in diverting
this squadron to carry out a futile expedition to Crete, and Phormio
was left to contest the control of the gulf against a fleet of 77
with nothing more than his original twenty.
It is interesting to observe what strategy Phormio adopted in this
difficult situation. In the campaign of Salamis, Themistocles chose
the narrow waters of the strait as the safest position for a fleet
outnumbered by the enemy, because of the protection offered to the
flanks by the opposite shores. But Phormio, commanding a fleet about
one-fourth that of his adversary, chose the open sea. Apparently
his decision was based on the fact that the superiority of the
Athenian ship lay in its greater speed and skill in maneuvering.
Unable to cope with his adversary in full force, he might by his
superior mobility beat him in detail. Accordingly, he boldly took
the open sea.
For about a week the two fleets lay within sight of each other,
with Phormio trying to draw his enemy out of the narrows into open
water and his adversary attempting to crowd him into a corner against
the share. Finally the Peloponnesian, realizing that Phormio would
have to defend his base, and hoping to force him to fight at a
disadvantage, moved upon Naupaktis. As this port was undefended,
Phormio was compelled to return thither.
The Peloponnesian fleet advanced in line of four abreast with the
Spartan admiral and the twenty Spartan triremes--the best in the
fleet--in the lead. At the signal from the admiral the column swung
"left into line" and bore down in line abreast upon the Athenians
who were ranging along the shore in line ahead. The object of the
maneuver was to cut the Athenians off from the port and crowd them
upon the shore. The latter, however, developed such a burst of
speed that eleven of the twenty succeeded in reaching Naupaktis;
the remaining nine drove ashore and their crews escaped. Apparently
the victory of the Spartan was as complete as it was easy. But while
the rest of the fleet busied itself with the deserted Athenian
triremes on the share, the Spartan squadron continued in the pursuit
of the eleven Athenian ships that were heading for Naupaktis. Ten
of the eleven reached port and drew up in a position of defense.
The eleventh, less speedy than the rest, was being overhauled by
the Spartan flagship which was pushing the pursuit far in advance
of the rest of the squadron. The captain of the Athenian ship,
seeing this situation, determined on a bold stroke. Instead of
pushing on into the harbor he pulled round a merchant ship that lay
anchored at the mouth, and rammed his pursuer amidships, disabling
her at a blow. The Spartan admiral promptly killed himself and the
rest of the ship's company were too panic stricken to resist.
At this disaster the rest of the Spartan squadron hesitated, dropped
oars or ran into shallow water. Seeing his opportunity, Phormio
dashed out of the harbor with his ten triremes and fell upon the
Spartans. In spite of the ridiculous disparity of forces, this
handful of Athenian ships pressed their attack so gallantly that
they destroyed the Spartan advance wing and then, catching the
rest of the fleet in disorder, routed the main body as well. By
nightfall Phormio had rescued eight of the nine Athenian triremes
that had fallen into the hands of the enemy and sent the scattered
remnants of the Peloponnesian fleet in full flight towards Corinth.
This battle of Naupaktis remains one of the most brilliant naval
victories in history, a victory won against overwhelming odds by
quick decision and superb audacity.
Only a half century separates Salamis from the battle of the Corinthian
Gulf and the battle of Naupaktis, but during that period there had
been a great advance in naval science.
As far as naval tactics are concerned, Salamis was merely a fight
between two mobs of ships, except that when opportunity offered,
a vessel used her ram. Otherwise the only difference from land
fighting was the fact that the combatants stood on floating platforms.
But in the Peloponnesian war we see not only the birth of naval
tactics but a very high development, especially as revealed in
these two victories of Phormio.
With the development of a naval science rose also a naval profession.
At Salamis Themistocles was a politician and Eurybiades was a soldier;
it happened that they were made fleet commanders for the emergency.
Phormio was a naval officer by profession, and he won by genius
combined with superior efficiency in the personnel under his command.
In his courage, resourcefulness, in the spirit he inspired, and
the high pitch of skill he developed among his officers and men,
he is an ideal type for every later age. Little is known of his
life and character beyond the story of these two exploits, but
they are sufficient to give him the name of the first great admiral
of history.
His exploits illustrate, too, at the very outset of naval history,
the vital truth that the man counts more than the machine. In these
later days, when the tendency is to measure naval power merely by
counting dreadnoughts, and to settle all hypothetical combats by
the proportion of strength at a given point on the game board, it
is well to remember that the most overwhelming victories have been
won by the skill and audacity of a great leader, which overcame
odds that would be reckoned by the experts as insuperable.
The Peloponnesian war dragged on with varying fortunes for ten
years. The Athenians were regularly successful on the sea and
unsuccessful on land. They seem to have laid an unwise dependence
on their navy for a state situated on the mainland with land
communications open to the enemy. They attempted to make an island
of their state by withdrawing into the city of Athens the entire
population of Attica, leaving open to the invader the rest of the
province. The repeated ravaging of Attica by Peloponnesian armies
weakened both the resources and the morale of the Athenians, and
the crowding of the inhabitants into the city resulted in frightful
mortality from the plague. At the same time the naval expeditions
sent out to harry the coast of the Peloponnesus accomplished nothing
of real advantage.
In 421 a truce was agreed upon between Athens and Sparta, which
was to last fifty years. Both sides were sorely weakened by the
protracted struggle and neither had gained any real advantage over
the other. Without waiting to recuperate from the losses of the
war, Athens embarked in 415 on an ambitious plan of conquering
Syracuse, and gaining all of Sicily as an Athenian colony. In the
event of success Athens would have a western outpost for the eventual
control of the Mediterranean, as she already had an eastern outpost
in Ionia, which gave her control of the Ægean.
In the light of the event it is customary to refer to this expedition
as the climax of folly, and yet it is clear that if the commander
in chief had not wasted time in interminable delays the Athenians
might easily have won their objective. At first the Syracusans felt
hopeless because of the large army and fleet dispatched against
them, and the great naval prestige of their enemy, but as delay
succeeded delay, assistance arrived from Corinth and Sparta, and
the besieged citizens took heart. The siege dragged on for the
greater part of two years, with the offensive gradually slipping
from the Athenians to the Syracusans, till finally the invaders
found their troops besieged on shore and their ships bottled up
in the harbor by a line of galleys anchored across the entrance.
The Syracusans knew that they were no match for the Athenians on
the open sea, but with a fleet crowded into a harbor with no room
for maneuvering, the problem was not essentially different from
that of fighting on land. They built a fleet of ships with specially
strengthened bows for ramming and erected catapults for throwing
heavy stones on the decks of the enemy. Meanwhile, the Athenian
ships had deteriorated from lack of opportunity to refit and their
crews had been heavily reduced by disease. In a pitched battle
between the two fleets in the harbor, the Athenians were worsted.
Shortly after as the Athenians were attempting to break through
the barrier and escape, they were again attacked by the Syracusans.
There was no room for maneuvering; the Athenian ships were jammed
together in a mass in which all advantage of numbers was lost.
Moreover, against the deadly rain of huge stones the Athenians had
no defense whatever.
The result was an overwhelming victory for the Syracusans. Out
of 110 triremes the Athenians lost fifty. The besieging army went
to pieces in attempting a retreat across the island, and the whole
expedition came to a tragic end. This defeat of the Athenian fleet
in the harbor of Syracuse was the ruin of Athens. When the news
reached Greece, many of her dependencies revolted, the Peloponnesian
war had broken out anew, and she had no strength left to hold her
own. The deathblow was given when a Spartan admiral destroyed all
that was left of the Athenian navy at Ægospotami in the year 405.
Thereafter Athens was merely a conquered province, permitted to
keep a fleet of only twelve ships, and watched by a garrison of
Spartan soldiers in the citadel.
The downfall of Athenian sea power at Syracuse may be compared
with the downfall of Persian sea power at Salamis. Just as the
latter prevented the spread of an Asiatic form of civilization
in Europe and gave Greek civilization a chance to develop, so the
former put an end to the extension of a strong Hellenic power in
Italy and left opportunity for the rise of the civilization of
Rome.
REFERENCES
HISTORY OF GREECE, Ernst Curtius, 1874.
HISTORY OF GREECE, George Grote, 1856.
THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR, G. B. Grundy, 1901.
HISTORY OF THE PERSIAN WARS, Herodotus, ed. and transl. by Geo.
Rawlinson, 1862.
HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR, Thucydides, ed. and transl.
by Jowett.