|
The Battle of Naupactus was a naval battle in the Peloponnesian War. The battle, which took place a week after the Athenian victory at Rhium, set an Athenian fleet of twenty ships, commanded by Phormio, against a Peloponnesian fleet of seventy-seven ships, commanded by Cnemus. In the battle, the Peloponnesians drew the Athenians out from their anchorage at Antirrhium by sailing into the Corinthian gulf, moving as if to attack the vital Athenian base at Naupactus. The Athenians were forced to shadow their movements, sailing eastward along the northern shore of the gulf. Attacking suddenly, the Peloponnesians drove nine Athenian ships ashore and pursued the others towards Naupactus; victory seemed securely in their hands. At the entrance to the harbor of Naupactus, however, the last Athenian ship to reach the harbor turned the tide by circling around an anchored merchant ship to ram and sink its leading pursuer. Confusion set in among the Peloponnesians, and the newly emboldened Athenians set out after them and routed them. In all, the Athenians recaptured all but one of their nine grounded ships and seized six Peloponnesian ships to boot. This surprising victory preserved Athens' naval dominance and kept Naupactus secure; the arrival of an additional twenty Athenian ships shortly afterwards secured the victory and put an end to Sparta's attempt to take the offensive in the Northwest. ==Prelude== In 429 BC, the Spartan government had ordered the navarch Cnemus to launch an offensive in the Corinthian gulf and northwestern Greece aimed at knocking several Athenian allies out of the Peloponnesian War. Ideally, the Spartans hoped to capture the Athenian base at Naupactus, from which the Athenians had been harassing Corinthian shipping.〔Thucydides, ''The Peloponnesian War'', 2.80〕 That offensive, however, suffered a severe setback when Cnemus was turned back on land by the Acarnanians at Stratus, while a Peloponnesian fleet of forty-seven ships was routed by Phormio's twenty ships at Rhium.〔Kagan, ''The Peloponnesian War'', 91-93〕 The Spartan government, dismayed by this unexpected reversal, dispatched several advisors (including the aggressive and talented Brasidas) to oversee Cnemus as he resumed the offensive.〔Thucydides, ''The Peloponnesian War'', 2.85〕 Phormio, meanwhile, sent to Athens for reinforcements, and twenty ships were sent out to him; these were ordered to first sail to Crete to attack Cydonia, and as a result did not arrive in time to participate in the battle.〔Thucydides, ''The Peloponnesian War'', 2.85-6〕 Cnemus and the advisors, combining the ships that Cnemus had taken with him to Stratus with those retreating from Rhium and raising more ships levied from Sparta's allies on the gulf, had soon assembled a fleet of seventy-seven ships.〔Unless otherwise noted, all details regarding the maneuvers leading up to the battle are drawn from Thucydides, ''The Peloponnesian War'', 2.86.〕 The admirals then advanced with this fleet to Panormus, in Achaea, where they met up with the Peloponnesian infantry. Phormio, meanwhile, brought his ships up to Antirrhium, across the strait of Rhium from the Peloponnesians. Here, he was in position to move against the enemy fleet if it attempted to sail west into the open sea; if he allowed it to escape in this way, he would essentially have surrendered Athens' dominance over the sea, and might well have found himself blockaded in Naupactus.〔Kagan, ''The Peloponnesian War'', 94〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Naupactus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|