Callias: A Tale of the Fall of Athens by Alfred John Church
CHAPTER VII.
AFTER THE FIGHT.
A council of war was held by the Athenian admirals on one of theArginusae islets as soon as they could meet after the fighting had cometo an end. Callias, by Diomedon's desire, waited outside the tent inwhich the deliberations were being held, and could not help hearing, sohigh were the voices of the speakers raised, that there was an angryargument about the course to be pursued. The intolerably clumsy systemof having ten generals of equal authority was on its trial, if indeedany trial was needed, and was once more found wanting.[23] Even if theright decision should be reached, time was being wasted, time that, aswe shall see, was of a value absolutely incalculable.
When at last the council broke up--its deliberations had lasted for morethan an hour--and Diomedon rejoined the young officer, he wore a gloomyand anxious look.
"I am afraid," he said, "that mischief will come of this. I feel it sostrongly that, though I ought not, perhaps, to tell outside the councilwhat has been going on within, I must call you to witness. I did myvery best to persuade my colleagues. 'Our first business,' I said, 'isto save our friends. There were twenty-six ships, I said, disabled. Afew were sunk on the spot; others, I am afraid, have gone down since;but more than half, I hope, are still afloat. Even where the ship isgone already, there are sure to be some of the crew who have been ableto keep themselves afloat either by swimming or by holding on tofloating stuff. For the sake of the gods, gentlemen,'--I give you myvery words--'don't lose another moment. We have lost too many already.Send every seaworthy ship that you have got to the rescue of theshipwrecked. It is better to let ten enemies escape, than lose a singlefriend.' They would not listen to me. They were bent, they said, onfollowing up their victory, an excellent thing, I allow; but only whenthe first duty of making all that you have got quite safe has beenperformed. One of them--I will mention no names--positively insulted me.'Diomedon,' he said, 'has doubtless had enough fighting for the day.'Why, in the name of Athene, do they put such lowbred villains intooffice. The fellow has a long tongue, and so the people elect him. I'tired of fighting' indeed? I might have some excuse if I were, for Iwas hard at it, when he was a thievish boy, picking up unconsideredtrifles in the market-place. Well; the end of it was that we came to asort of compromise. Forty-odd ships are to go and save what can be savedfrom the wrecks--the gods only know how many will be left by thistime--while the rest are to make the best of their way to Mitylene, andcut off the blockading squadron."
"And you, sir?" asked Callias, "with which squadron are you to be?"
"I am to go to Mitylene, of course, after what that fellow said, I couldnot ask to have the other duty; but I feel that it is what I ought to bedoing."
"Who is to have it, sir," said Callias.
"No one, if you will believe it," answered the admiral, with an angrystamp of the foot. "I mean no one of ourselves, of the Ten. They are allso anxious to follow up the victory, as they put it, and make a greatshow of taking Spartan ships, that they will not take the trouble.Theramenes and Thrasybulus are to do it. I know that they have been incommand in former years and may be supposed to be competent.Thrasybulus, too, is trustworthy; but Theramenes--to put it plainly--isa scoundrel. You know that I don't care about politics; I am a plainsailor and leave such things to others; but I say this, politics or nopolitics, a man who turns against his friends is a scoundrel.[24] Idon't know what trick he is not capable of playing. Anyhow, whetherthese two do the business ill or well, one of the Ten ought to go. Itwould be better; and I am sure trouble will come of our not going. Mindthis is all in confidence. You are never to breathe a word of it, till Igive you leave."
"And am I to go with you, sir?" said Callias.
"No," was the answer; "I forgot to tell you; the worry of all this putit out of my mind. You are to take the despatch to Athens."
"But the shipwrecked men"--exclaimed Callias.
"We must obey orders."
An hour afterward Callias was on his way to Athens; the storm had nowincreased to something like a gale. As the waves came from the south itwas impossible to take a straight course for the point in view, lying asit did almost due west. Few ships in those days could keep a straightline with the wind on the quarter.[25] Indeed it was soon impossible tokeep up any sail at all, nor was it safe, even if the strength of therowers already wearied by the labors of the day, had permitted it tokeep the ship broadside to the waves. Nothing remained but to put herabout and drive before the wind, a sail being now hoisted again and therowers exerting themselves to the utmost to avoid being "pooped" by theheavy waves. Toward morning the wind moderated, but by that time the_Swallow_, for that was the name of the despatch-boat which had beentold off for the service, had been driven as much as fifty miles out ofher course. This would not have been of much consequence, but that thetimber of the _Swallow_ had been so strained by her battle with the seathat she began to leak inconveniently, if not dangerously. Her crew,too, were now in urgent need of rest. Under ordinary circumstances,Chios, which could be seen, as the day broke, about ten miles on theright bow, would have afforded a convenient shelter; but Chios was inthe hands of the enemy. The little island of Vara, lying some ten milesto the north-west, was the only alternative. Here Callias, much againsthis will, for he feared that his news would be anticipated, wascompelled to stop, the captains of the despatch-boat refusing toproceed, until vessel and men were better able to face the weather.
As it turned out, the delay did no harm. In fact it was the means of hisreaching Athens with more speed and safety than he might otherwise havedone. A day indeed was lost in doing such repairs as the imperfectresources of the little island permitted, but on the morrow, Callias setout again, and was groaning over the day that had been lost, and thevery little good that the clumsy boat-builders had been able to do forhim, when he found himself being rapidly overhauled by a vessel whichhad not long before hove in sight. Before noon he recognized the cut ofthe disguised _Skylark_, and at once ran up a signal which Hippocleswhom he supposed to be on board would, he knew, recognize. The signalwas immediately answered, and before another half-hour had passed the_Skylark_ was along-side. After a brief colloquy it was arranged thatthe _Swallow_ should make the best of her way to Samos, where there wasan arsenal in which she could be properly repaired and that Callias withhis dispatches should take his passage to Athens in the yacht.
Hippocles was acquainted with the general fact that the Athenian fleethad won a great victory; but he knew no details, and was eager to hearfrom the lips of one who had taken a part in the action. And he had muchthat was interesting to say to his young friend. The three weeks whichhe had spent in Mitylene with the blockaded squadron had not made himhopeful about the first issue of the war. He had found that Conon wasnot hopeful, and Conon was as able and intelligent an officer as Athenshad in her service.
"This has been a stupendous effort on the part of the city," he said,"and it has saved us for a time, but it can't be kept, and it can't berepeated. Athens is like a gambler reduced to his last stake. He winsit; very good. But then he has to throw again; and as often as hethrows, it is the same--if he loses, he loses all. And, sooner or later,lose he must. In the long run the chances are against us. We have lostour _morale_. I saw a good deal of Conon's men when I was shut up, and Ithought very badly of them; and he thinks badly, too, I know. It is onlya question of time. Do you know," he went on, sinking his voice to awhisper--"and mark you, this is a thing that I should not venture to sayto anyone in the world but you--I am half inclined to wish that we hadbeen beaten in the last battle--that is, if Callicratidas had lived. Anoble fellow indeed! Do you know that he let the Athenians whom he tookat Methymna go on their _parole_? Any one else would have sold them forslaves."
"Well," said Callias, who was a little staggered by his friend's view ofaffairs, "as your hero is drowned--mind that I quite agree in what yousay of him--perhaps it is better that things have turned out as theyhave. And I can't believe that our chances are as bad as you make out.Anyhow we are
"I hope so; I hope so;" said Hippocles in a despondent tone, "But theymight have done better. For instance, we have let the blockadingsquadron at Mitylene escape."
"How was that?" asked Callias. "Did you see nothing of our fleet. It wasto sail northward at once."
"No--I never saw or heard of it. Now listen to what happened. On the dayafter the battle--though of course I knew nothing of whathappened--_two_ despatch-boats came into the harbor--so at leasteveryone thought--and the second had wreaths on mast and stern, as if ithad brought good news. And Eteonicus--he was in command of theblockading squadron--was good enough to send us a herald with theintelligence that Callicratidas had won a great sea fight, and that thewhole of the Athenian fleet had been destroyed. Of course we did notquite believe that, but if only a quarter of it was true, it was notpleasant hearing. My old sailing master, who has as sharp eyes as anyman I know, said to me. 'My belief, sir, is that it is all nonsenseabout this great victory, and that the second boat was only the first_dressed up_. I observed them both particularly, and they were amazinglyalike. In both the bow sides oars were just a little behind the stroke,and one of the oars, I noticed, was a new one, and not painted like therest. And why should the man take the trouble to tell us about thevictory as he calls it. If it is true, he has us safe, and can cut us upat his leisure. No, sir, I don't believe a word of it.' Well, I was notcertain that the old man was right, but I strongly suspected that hewas. Anyhow I was so convinced of it that I spent the whole night ingetting ready; and, sure enough, the next morning the blockadingsquadron had slipped off, with nobody to hinder them."
"That was a very smart trick for a Spartan," said Callias.
FOOTNOTES:
[23] I may refer my readers to a signal instance in earlier Greekhistory where the same system almost led to disaster. It was only by theunusual personal influence of Miltiades, a personal influence almostunparalleled in Athenian history, that thus the ten generals wereinduced to fight at Marathon. There can be little doubt that, if theconflict had been delayed the pro-Persian party might have seriouslyhampered, if it did not altogether defeat, the efforts of the patriots.
[24] Theramenes had taken a prominent part four years before this datein the establishment of the oligarchy of the Four Hundred; finding thathis own position was not such as he conceived to be suited to hismerits, and having reason also to believe that the oligarchy would soonbe overthrown--the fleet had declared against them--he changed sides andwas the means of bringing up the condemnation of two of his own intimatefriends, Antiphon and Archeptolemus.
[25] Catullus mentions it as a special excellence of his yacht that itcould
"Carry its load o'er stormy seas Whether from right or left the breeze Call o'er the main, as safe and fleet Over course, as when, on either sheet With equal strength blew fair behind, With level keel the following wind."