AND THE PASSAGE OF THE EURIPUS. 



545 



Now, it is evident that the closing of the passage of the Euripus 

 alone, could not prevent the Athenians from over- running the island, 

 at least, that portion of it which lay to the south of Chalcis ; nor 

 could it prevent Chalcis itself from being invested by land. We must 

 therefore conclude the meaning of Diodorus to have been, that when 

 a communication of this kind was opened between the island and 

 the main, it would be impossible for the Athenians to prevent the 

 Boeotians from succouring their allies in Euboea, as they had hitherto 

 done. And this I conceive to have been the direct and immediate 

 object in view when the work was undertaken. There was another 

 object however of infinite importance, which could not have been 

 overlooked when the work was projected, and this was the intercep- 

 tion of all communication between Athens and the north of Greece, 

 Thessaly, and Macedonia, during a great part of the year. 



To explain this supposition, it will be necessary to state some 

 peculiar circumstances in the navigation of the iEgean, which have 

 been little attended to by the ancient as well as modern writers on the 

 affairs of Greece. 



There were two seasons of the year when the open navigation of 

 this sea must have been either subject to great obstructions, or wholly 

 interdicted to the Greeks ; namely, the season of the Etesian winds, 

 which prevail about four months of the summer and autumn, when 

 all attempts to proceed northwards must have been fruitless ; and the 

 season of winter which was deemed too perilous. 



These remarks however, apply only to the open navigation of the 

 JEgean, for there was still a very practicable passage in the worst 

 seasons for vessels, between the main land and the neighbouring 

 island of Euboea, where the smoothness of the water enabled them 

 to take every advantage of local winds and the land breezes. I speak 

 here from personal experience, having myself navigated the two 

 Euboean gulfs in all seasons, the spring excepted, without any material 

 obstacle or impediment. 



On the other hand, the ancients appear to have had a singular 

 dread of the passage round the Capharean promontory*, and they 



* " Et Euboicse cautes, ultorque Caphareus." iEneid, lib. xi. 



4 A 



