II

The authorities at Sparta were highly indignant at the failure of
their expedition in Acarnania, and the defeat of the Peloponnesian
fleet by so inferior a force. For this was their first experience of a
sea-fight since the outbreak of the war, and they made no allowance
for the want of skill in their own crews, attributing the disaster to
mere cowardice. They did not reflect how vast was the difference
between raw sailors, lately transferred from the plough to the oar,
and the veteran seamen of Athens, trained under a system which had
been slowly perfected in the course of half a century. So they sent
three commissioners to Cnemus, with peremptory orders to prepare for
another sea-fight, and not allow himself to be shut up in harbour by
the feeble squadron of Phormio. One of these commissioners was
Brasidas, a brilliant young officer, who had gained distinction two
years before by saving the harbour-town of Methone, on the coast of
Messenia, from being captured by the Athenians. We shall hear much
more of him in the sequel.

On the arrival of Brasidas and his colleagues, the ships lying at
Cyllene were made ready for immediate service, and orders were sent
round to the allied cities for other ships. Phormio also sent an
urgent despatch to Athens announcing his victory, and asking for
reinforcements; and the Athenians sent twenty triremes to his aid.
These vessels, however, arrived too late, for the admiral, acting on
instructions from Athens, sailed first to Crete, where he was delayed
a long time by contrary winds. Phormio, with his twenty triremes, was
therefore compelled to engage the whole Peloponnesian fleet, numbering
seventy-seven ships, which had now sailed round from Cyllene, and
taken up its station just within the strait, close to the Achaean town