^o8 REVOLT OF EUBOEA [vill demolished. Nor is it impossible that Agesandridas may have been hovering about Epidaurus and the neighbour- hood by agreement ; but it is equally likely that he lingered there of his own accord, with an eye to the agitation which prevailed at Athens, hoping to be on the spot at the critical moment. Instantly upon the arrival of the news the whole city rushed down to the Piraeus, » thinking that a conflict with their enemies more serious than their domestic strife '^ was now awaiting them, not at a distance, but at the very mouth of the harbour. Some embarked in the ships which were lying ready; others launched fresh ships ; others manned the walls and prepared to defend the entrance of the Piraeus. 95 The Peloponnesian squadron, however, sailed onward, T-, , J, ^ doubled the promontory of Sunium, The snips pass on- »^ -' ' ward to Euboca and and then, after putting in between put in at Oropus. A Thoricus and Prasiae, finally pro- W/ ^i'l'^'nan fleet ^^^^^^ ^^ Oropus. The Athenians in folloivs them, btit being ^ constrained to fight their haste Were compelled to employ huriicdly, are utterly crews not yet trained to work together, cjca e , an ic c o- ^^^ ^^^ ^j ^^^ j^ ^ state of revolution, ponnestans obtain pos- •> ' session of the whole and the matter was vital and urgent ; island, which revolts Euboea was all in all to them now that ^^^^* they were shut out from Attica . They despatched a fleet under the command of Thymochares to Eretria; these ships, added to those which were at Euboea before, made up thirty-six. No sooner had they arrived than they were constrained to fight ; for Agesan- dridas, after his men had taken their midday meal, brought put his own ships from Oropus, which is distant by sea about seven miles from the city of Eretria, and bore down upon them. The Athenians at once began to man their • Omitting ti with one MS. Otherwise, retaining t) with a great majority of MSS. : ' thinking that a conflict among themselves more serious than the attack of their enemies* etc. Cp. vii. 27 fin., a8 in it.
