History of the Peloponnesian War

"But as regards anything that could be helpful to us, in view of the narrowness of the harbour, in combating such a throng of ships as will fill it and the forces which the enemy has placed on their decks—conditions which injured us before —all this has now been made ready by us also, as far as our circumstances permit, after consultation with our pilots.

Indeed, many bowmen and javelin-men will go on board, and a multitude such as we should not use if we were making a fight in the open sea, because they would hamper our skill by increasing the weight of our ships, whereas in the land-battle that we are forced to fight here from the decks of our ships they will be of advantage.

And we have contrived whatever counter-devices were necessary in the construction of our ships, and especially to combat the thickness of the enemy's catheads, a device from which we suffered most injury, we have provided grappling-irons, which will prevent the ship that has rammed us from backing off again, if the marines perform the service that will then devolve upon them.[*](ie. if they board the hostile ships and fight hand to hand.)

For we have been forced to the extremity of having to fight a land-battle on shipboard, and it is manifestly to our interest neither to back water ourselves nor to suffer them to do so, especially since the whole shore, except the small part of it that our land-force holds, is hostile.