[487] The destructive impact of these metallic masses at the head of the ships of war, as well as the periplus practised by a lighter ship to avoid direct collision against a heavier, is strikingly illustrated by a passage in Plutarch’s Life of Lucullus, where a naval engagement between the Roman general, and Neoptolemus the admiral of Mithridates, is described. “Lucullus was on board a Rhodian quinquerime, commanded by Damagoras, a skilful Rhodian pilot; while Neoptolemus was approaching with a ship much heavier, and driving forward to a direct collision: upon which Damagoras evaded the blow, rowed rapidly round, and struck the enemy in the stern.” ... δείσας ὁ Δαμαγόρας τὸ βάρος τῆς βασιλικῆς, καὶ τὴν τραχύτητα τοῦ χαλκώματος, οὐκ ἐτόλμησε συμπεσεῖν ἀντίπρωρος, ἀλλ’ ὀξέως ἐκ περιαγωγῆς ἀποστρέψας ἐκέλευσεν ἐπὶ πρύμναν ὤσασθαι· καὶ πιεσθείσης ἐνταῦθα τῆς νεώς ἐδέξατο τὴν πληγὴν ἀβλαβῆ γενομένην, ἅτε δὴ τοῖς θαλαττεύουσι τῆς νέως μέρεσι προσπεσοῦσαν.—Plutarch, Lucull. c. 3.
[488] Thucyd. vii, 71.
[489] Thucyd. vii, 60. τὰς ναῦς ἁπάσας ὅσαι ἦσαν καὶ δυναταὶ καὶ ἀπλοώτεραι.
[490] Thucyd. vii, 60. πάντα τινὰ ἐσβιβάζοντες πληρῶσαι—ἀναγκάσαντες ἐσβαίνειν ὅστις καὶ ὁπωσοῦν ἐδόκει ἡλικίας μετέχων ἐπιτήδειος εἶναι. Compare also the speech of Gylippus, c. 67.
[491] The language of Theokritus, in describing the pugilistic contest between Pollux and the Bebrykian Amykus, is not inapplicable to the position of the Athenian ships and seamen when cramped up in this harbor (Idyll. xxii, 91):—
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ἐκ δ’ ἑτέρωθεν
Ἥρωες κρατερὸν Πολυδεύκεα θαρσύνεσκον,
Δειδιότες μή πώς μιν ἐπιβρίσας δαμάσειεν,
Χώρῳ ἐνὶ στεινῷ, Τιτύῳ ἐναλίγκιος ἀνήρ.
Compare Virgil’s picture of Entellus and Darês, Æneid, v, 430.