So among the Romans, service in the legions was accounted higher and more honorable than that of the classiarii milites (Tacit. Histor. i, 87).
The Athenian epibatæ, though not forming a corps permanently distinct, correspond in function to the English marines, who seem to have been first distinguished permanently from other foot-soldiers about the year 1684. “It having been found necessary on many occasions to embark a number of soldiers on board our ships of war, and mere landsmen being at first extremely unhealthy,—and at first, until they had been accustomed to the sea, in a great measure unserviceable,—it was at length judged expedient to appoint certain regiments for that service, who were trained to the different modes of sea-fighting, and also made useful in some of those manœuvres of a ship where a great many hands were required. These, from the nature of their duty, were distinguished by the appellation of maritime soldiers, or marines.”—Grose’s Military Antiquities of the English Army, vol. i, p. 186. (London, 1786.)
[487] Thucyd. iii, 100. Προπέμψαντες πρότερον ἔς τε Κόρινθον καὶ ἐς Λακεδαίμονα πρέσβεις—πείθουσιν ὥστε σφίσι πέμψαι στρατιὰν ἐπὶ Ναύπακτον διὰ τὴν τῶν Ἀθηναίων ἐπαγωγήν.
It is not here meant, I think—as Göller and Dr. Arnold suppose—that the Ætolians sent envoys to Lacedæmon before there was any talk or thought of the invasion of Ætolia, simply in prosecution of the standing antipathy which they bore to Naupaktus: but that they had sent envoys immediately when they heard of the preparations for invading Ætolia,—yet before the invasion actually took place. The words διὰ τὴν τῶν Ἀθηναίων ἐπαγωγήν show that this is the meaning.
The word ἐπαγωγὴ is rightly construed by Haack, against the Scholiast: “Because the Naupaktians were bringing in the Athenians to invade Ætolia.”
[488] Thucyd. iii, 98.
[489] Thucyd. iii, 101, 102.
[490] Thucyd. iii, 102-105.
[491] Thucyd. iii, 105, 106, 107.
[492] Thucyd. iii, 107, 108: compare Polyænus, iii, 1.