[6] "Epistoleus," i.e. secretary or despatch writer, is the Spartan
title of the officer second in command to the admiral.

[7] Reading {'Errei ta kala} (Bergk's conjecture for {kala}) =
"timbers," i.e. "ships" (a Doric word). Cf. Aristoph., "Lys."
1253, {potta kala}. The despatch continues: {Mindaros apessoua}
(al. {apessua}), which is much more racy than the simple word
"dead." "M. is gone off." I cannot find the right English or
"broad Scotch" equivalent. See Thirlwall, "Hist. Gr." IV. xxix. 88
note.

Pharnabazus, however, was ready to meet with encouragement the
despondency which afflicted the whole Peloponnesian army and their
allies. "As long as their own bodies were safe and sound, why need
they take to heart the loss of a few wooden hulls? Was there not
timber enough and to spare in the king's territory?" And so he
presented each man with a cloak and maintenance for a couple of
months, after which he armed the sailors and formed them into a
coastguard for the security of his own seaboard.

He next called a meeting of the generals and trierarchs of the
different States, and instructed them to build just as many new ships
in the dockyards of Antandrus as they had respectively lost. He
himself was to furnish the funds, and he gave them to understand that
they might bring down timber from Mount Ida. While the ships were
building, the Syracusans helped the men of Antandrus to finish a
section of their walls, and were particularly pleasant on garrison
duty; and that is why the Syracusans to this day enjoy the privilege
of citizenship, with the title of "benefactors," at Antandrus. Having