The Battle of Arginusae by Debra Hamel

Author:Debra Hamel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

Fear of Punishment

Those three generals who were dispatched to Corcyra in 433 with precise instructions about when they could engage the enemy ultimately failed to do as they were told. They had been ordered not to attack the Corinthians unless they attempted a landing on Corcyraean territory. In theory, staying out of the fight was easily done, but the reality was different. The Corcyraeans had 110 ships in the water against a Corinthian fleet of 150. Once the signals were raised on either side, chaos reigned. It was an old-fashioned battle in which the sophisticated tactics that Athens’ fleet used to such advantage were not tried. Instead, the fighting was hand-to-hand—marines on blood-drenched decks thrusting with spears and swords. All the while the ten Athenian ships that were on hand tried to help their allies without coming to blows with the Corinthians: “The Athenian ships came up to the Corcyraeans wherever they were hard pressed,” Thucydides tells us, “and they alarmed the enemy, but the generals did not join the battle, as they were afraid of the instructions of the Athenians.” Finally, however, the generals could no longer stay their hands. The Athenians wound up joining the fight rather than sitting idly by while their allies were destroyed:

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