Author Description

Excerpt from PELOPONNESIAN WAR. BOOK III.—[continued.] Year vi.—The following summer, the Peloponne- sians and confederates assembled at the isthmus, in order to make the usual inroad into Attica; and Agis, son of Archidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians, was there ready for the command. But the frequent earthquakes which happened about this time caused them to return back, and intirely put a stop to the designed incursion. About the same space of time shocks of earthquakes were felt in Euhoea, where at Orobiae the sea breaking over what was then land with impetuous swells, laid a part of that city under water; some of which stagnated there, though some washed its way however, a tract now continues sea which before was land. All those who could not reach the higher grounds in time, by running before the surge, were drowned. A similar inundation happened at the isle of Atalanta, amongst the Locrians of Opus, where it washed away the Athenian fort, and of two vessels that lay dry on the beach staved one to pieces. At Peparethus also the surge of the sea rose very high, but did not overflow. An earthquake however demolished part of the fortification,1 1 Prytaneum. THUC. VOL. II. A the town-house, and some few dwelling-houses. My solution of such effects is where the shock of the earthquake was most violent, it forcibly drove away the sea hefore it, which suddenly returning again occasioned these more violent swells. And without an earthquake I deem all such accidents impossible. The same summer many of other nations, as they happened to be drawn into the quarrel, were engaged in the war of Sicily, as well as the Sicilians themselves, who took up arms one against another, and the Athenians together with their allies.