but the naval action necessarily
becomes a land one, in which numbers must decide the matter. For all
this I will provide as far as can be. Do you stay at your posts by your
ships, and be sharp at catching the word of command, the more so as we
are observing one another from so short a distance; and in action think
order and silence all-important--qualities useful in war generally, and
in naval engagements in particular; and behave before the enemy in a
manner worthy of your past exploits. The issues you will fight for are
great--to destroy the naval hopes of the Peloponnesians or to bring
nearer to the Athenians their fears for the sea. And I may once more
remind you that you have defeated most of them already; and beaten men
do not face a danger twice with the same determination."

Such was the exhortation of Phormio. The Peloponnesians finding that the
Athenians did not sail into the gulf and the narrows, in order to lead
them in whether they wished it or not, put out at dawn, and forming four
abreast, sailed inside the gulf in the direction of their own country,
the right wing leading as they had lain at anchor. In this wing were
placed twenty of their best sailers; so that in the event of Phormio
thinking that their object was Naupactus, and coasting along thither to
save the place, the Athenians might not be able to escape their onset
by getting outside their wing, but might be cut off by the vessels in
question. As they expected, Phormio, in alarm for the place at that
moment emptied of its garrison, as soon as he saw them put out,
reluctantly and hurriedly embarked and sailed along shore; the Messenian
land forces moving along also to support him. The Peloponnesians seeing
him coasting along with his ships in single file, and by this inside
the gulf and close inshore as they so much wished, at one signal tacked
suddenly and bore down in line at their best speed on the Athenians,
hoping to cut off the whole squadron. The eleven leading vessels,
however, escaped the Peloponnesian wing and its sudden movement, and
reached the more open water; but the rest were overtaken as they tried
to run through, driven ashore and disabled; such of the crews being
slain as had not swum out of them. Some of the ships the Peloponnesians
lashed to their own, and towed off empty; one they took with the men
in it; others were just being towed off, when they were saved by the
Messenians dashing into the sea with their armour and fighti