seem
to excel in this mode of warfare.

As soon as night fell, Cnemus hastily drew off his army to the river
Anapus, about nine miles from Stratus, recovering his dead next day
under truce, and being there joined by the friendly Oeniadae, fell back
upon their city before the enemy's reinforcements came up. From hence
each returned home; and the Stratians set up a trophy for the battle
with the barbarians.

Meanwhile the fleet from Corinth and the rest of the confederates in the
Crissaean Gulf, which was to have co-operated with Cnemus and prevented
the coast Acarnanians from joining their countrymen in the interior,
was disabled from doing so by being compelled about the same time as the
battle at Stratus to fight with Phormio and the twenty Athenian vessels
stationed at Naupactus. For they were watched, as they coasted along out
of the gulf, by Phormio, who wished to attack in the open sea. But the
Corinthians and allies had started for Acarnania without any idea of
fighting at sea, and with vessels more like transports for carrying
soldiers; besides which, they never dreamed of the twenty Athenian ships
venturing to engage their forty-seven. However, while they were coasting
along their own shore, there were the Athenians sailing along in line
with them; and when they tried to cross over from Patrae in Achaea to
the mainland on the other side, on their way to Acarnania, they saw them
again coming out from Chalcis and the river Evenus to meet them. They
slipped from their moorings in the night, but were observed, and were at
length compelled to fight in mid passage. Each state that contributed
to the armament had its own general; the Corinthian commanders were
Machaon, Isocrates, and Agatharchidas. The Peloponnesians ranged their
vessels in as large a circle as possible without leaving an opening,
with the prows outside and the sterns in; and placed within all the
small craft in company, and their five best sailers to issue out at a
moment's notice and strengthen any point threatened by the enemy.

The Athenians, formed in line, sailed round and round them, and forced
them to contract their circle, by continually brushing past and making
as though they would attack at once, having been previously cautioned
by Phormio not to do so till he gave the signal. His hope was that the
Peloponnesians would not retain their order like a force on shore, but
that the ships would fall foul of one another and the small craft cause