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On the Egyptian Expedition of 459-4 B.C
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Extract
It appears to be a generally accepted opinion among modern historians that the expedition which the Athenians led up-Nile in 459 B.C. in support of the Egyptian insurrection against Persia was an exceptionally large one, numbering no less than 200 sail. Modern authors also seem to imply, though they may not say so explicitly, that the whole of this armada was involved in the catastrophe which overtook the rebels in 454 B.C.
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References
page 198 note 1 Ed. Meyer alone goes so far as to mention expressly that the Greek fleet may have been reduced in numbers during the course of the campaign (Geschichte des Altertums, III. p. 606). [After the completion of the present article the author has found his views confirmed in Cavaignac's recently published Histoire de I′An tiquie, vol. II. pp. 71, 72, where the total Greek force is estimated on the authority of Ctesias at 40 sail. But the point is not argued by Prof- Cavaignac at any length.
page 199 note 1 Persica, bk. 14 § 63 (ed. Gilmore).
page 199 note 2 K. W. Krtuger, Philologisch-historische Studien, I. p. 163, followed by Busolt, Griechischc Gc- sthkhte, III. p. 306, n. 2.
page 199 note 3 Ibid. § 65. Ctesias calls these 6,000 survivors Έληνες, not Αθηναίοι. Accordingly they represent the total surviving remnant of the Expedition.
page 200 note 1 According to Thucydides (I. no), only a small proportion of the Greek force got safe home. This does not contradict the view put forward above, for the Persians broke the terms of the capitulation (Thucydides, ad loc.; Ctesias, §§ 67–8) and slaughtered off part of the surviving 6,000.
page 201 note 1 I.G.I. 433; Hicks and Hill, No. 26.
page 201 note 1 The summer winds blow from N. from Cyprus to Egypt, and from S.W. along the coast of Syria. The current travels E. along the shore of Africa, N. (as a rule) along the Syrian coast, and W. along the coast of Karamania.—Mediteransan Pilot, vol. II., pp. 7–8, 12.
page 202 note 1 In 443 B c. the Corinthians levied 133 ships on themselves and their colonists (Thuc. I. 46). There is no apparent reason why they should not have raised as many in 458 B.C. TO this fleet must be added the navy of Aegina, which amounted to more than 30 triremes in 480 B.C. (Herodot. VIII. 46).
page 202 note 2 In 431 B.C. Athens possessed 300 seaworthy galleys (Thuc. II. 13). A confused passage in Andocides, De Pace, § 5, seems to convey that in the twenty or thirty years which followed the Persian invasion the Athenian navy was merely kept up to its previous strength of 200 sail.
page 202 note 3 The Athenians committed a mistake of this kind in sending out the two expeditions to Sicily in 415–3 B.C. But Peisanderand Charicles should not be compared for statesmanlike prudence with Pericles.