AND THE PASSAGE OF THE EURIPUS. 549 



Athens by the news of this disaster was greater than had ever before 

 been known there, greater even than that which was occasioned by 

 the destruction of nearly all their forces, both naval and military in 

 Sicily ; " not only," says he, " on account of their fleet, but what was of 

 more importance, the loss of Euboea, Ir yiq -rXiiu; ri t-/]^ a77"''5?' u^iXouujo, 

 on which they were more dependent for their supplies of provisions 

 than even on Attica." L. viii. c. xcvi. The second happened in the 

 105th olympiad, when in consequence of the revolt of Rhodes, Chios, 

 Byzantium, Cos, and Caria, from the sovereignty of Athens, Euboea 

 entered into a close connection with Thebes, and renounced her 

 alliance with Athens, the receipt of which intelligence there pro- 

 duced such an effect on the public spirit, as stimulated it to make an 

 exertion till then unparalleled, with a view to re-establish its do- 

 minion. 



Now, the loss of subsidies and of a supply of provisions from the 

 single island of Euboija, will not sufficiently account for the feeling 

 here described, unless we add to these assigned causes, the prospect 

 of having all communication cut off between Athens and the northern 

 parts of Greece and Macedonia ; that is, all power of co-operating 

 with their allies in those parts, and of procuring from them any 

 farther supplies of grain, naval stores*, &c. f In this enlarged sense, 

 then, I take the passage above quoted from Thucydides J, the loss of 

 Euboea alone, unconnected with the free navigation of the Eubcean 

 gulfs and of the Euripus, not being sufficient to account for the 



* Vide Tluicyd. 1. iv. 108. with regard to ship timber. 



f And in this way its importance appears to have been estimated in subsequent times by 

 the Romans. " Ut terra Thermopyhirum angustiae Greciam, ila mari jfretum Euripi 

 claudit." Liv. Hb. xxxi. c. 23. Ciialcis, Corinth, and Denietrias were called by Philip 

 the fetters of Greece. 



X There is another remarkable passage in this Historian relating to Euboea; it is 

 that (1. 3.) wherein he mentions the planting the colony of Heraclea in Trachenia by 

 the Lacedaemonians ; who among other objects, intended to intercept the conununication 

 between Athens, Thrace, and Macedonia: Kai a^ta toO Trgoj A^vatouc ■KoXkfi.ou x«X<of auToj; 

 l2ox£i >; ToXi; xaSicrTatrSai' Itti te yiq tTi 'Eu/3oia vx'JTikov Tragarxsuao-fiiji/ai av, cu<tt' ex figctygos 

 T))V 8ia/3a(riv yiyvccrSai, T^j re Itti ©gaxrjj TragoSou p^pr,(r»'jU.a)5 E0eiv. 



