History of the Peloponnesian War

But the Peloponnesian ships, after sailing by and doubling Sunium, came to anchor between Thoricus and Prasiae, and subsequently went to Oropus.

So the Athenians were compelled to go to sea in a hurry and with [*](ἀξυγκροτήτοις.] Literally, not hammered together; i. e. not blended into one body, like two pieces of metal welded together by the hammer. To the examples of this metaphorical use of the verbs quoted by Arnold may be added Demosth. 23. 3, (Reiske,) θαυμαστοὶ καὶ συγκεκροημένοι τὰ τοῦ πολέμου; 520. 12, συγκροτεῖν καὶ διδάσκειν τὸν χορόν.) untrained crews, inasmuch as the city was in a state of sedition, and they were anxious with all speed to go to the rescue of what was their most important possession; (for since Attica had been closed against them, Euboea was every thing to them;) and accordingly they sent Thymochares in command of some ships to Eretria.

When they arrived there, they amounted, with those that were in Euboea before, to six and thirty; and they were immediately forced to an engagement. For Agesandridas, after his men had dined, put out from Oropus, which is distant from Eretria about sixty stades by sea.

When, then, he was advancing against them, the Athenians straightway prepared to man their ships, supposing that their men were near their vessels. They, however, were purchasing provisions for their dinner, not from the market-place, (for by an arrangement of the Eretrians there was nothing on sale there,) but from the houses in the outskirts of the town, in order that the enemy, while the Athenians were long in manning their ships, might attack them by surprise, and compel them to put out just as they might happen. Moreover, a signal had been raised at Eretria to give them notice at Oropus of the time when they should put to sea.

The Athenians then, having put out with such scanty preparations, and fought a battle off the harbour of Eretria, held out against them, notwithstanding, for some little time, and were then put to flight and pursued to the shore.

And now such of them as took refuge in the city of the Eretrians, as being friendly to them, fared worst of all, for they were butchered by them; but those who fled to the fort in the Eretrian territory, which the Athenians themselves occupied, were saved;