The commander therefore of the squadron went with it to Crete, and in conjunction with the Polichnitae laid waste the territory of the Cydonians; and wasted no little time in the country, owing to adverse winds and the impossibility of putting to sea.

During the time that the Athenians were thus detained on the coast of Crete, the Peloponnesians at Cyllene, having made their preparations for an engagement, coasted along to Panormus in Achaea, where the land-force of the Peloponnesians had come to support them.

Phormio, too, coasted along to the Rhium near Molycrium, and dropped anchor outside of it, with twenty ships, the same as he had before fought with.

This Rhium was friendly to the Athenians; the other, namely, that in the Peloponnese, is opposite to it; the distance between the two being about seven stades of sea, which forms the mouth of the Crisaean Gulf.

At the Rhium in Achaea, then, being not far from Panormus, where their land-force was, the Peloponnesians also came to anchor with seventy-seven ships, when they saw that the Athenians had done the same.