ABSTRACT
I. With Sophocles and Eurymedon sailed the boldest and ablest captain Athens then possessed-Demosthenes. On his return from Acarnania he had
escaped all prosecution for his calamitous enterprise in Ætolia; but had not been re-promoted to any official command. He had requested leave, however, to accompany Eurymedon and Sophocles, and
given the government to understand that he had devised an advantageous plan upon Laconia-to be executed as the fleet sailed by the Peloponnesus. The Athenians were doubtless willing to employ the services of a man of such unquestionable talents, and to suffer still further successes than those which had effaced his offence to justify his formal restoration to military command. As long, therefore, as the fleets should be on the Peloponnesian coast,1 it was arranged that Demosthenes, without superseding the commanders, in their ultimate destination to Corcyra and to Sicily, should advise them with regard to its employment. As the Athenian squadron were on the coast of Laconia, Demosthenes desired the admirals to bring to at a stony promontory called Pylus, constituting the northern horn of the modern
Navarino.2 At this very time the intelligence was received that the Peloponnesian fleet had already arrived at Corcyra; and Sophocles and Eurymedon would have hastened thither but for the rough weather which actually drove them to Pylus. Demosthenes then urged them instantly to fortify the place. “For this”, he said, “For this expressly he had taken part in the voyage”. He pointed out the extraordinary advantages of the place, not more than fifty miles from Sparta itself-the strength of its position, the materials in timber and large stones for the construction of a fort which the soil supplied, its excellence as an harbour-the most spacious indeed in Greece-and suggested the expediency of manning the garrison, if built, with the Naupactan Messenians-the old inhabitants of the very district, speaking the same Doric dialect as the Spartans, thoroughly acquainted with the country, whose hostility to Sparta would lead them to constant incursions, whose fidelity to Athens would render them hardy guardians of so important a post in the enemy’s domains.
