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Second Naval Battle at Naupactus
With the arrival of the three Spartan commissioners at Cyllene,
Phormio began to prepare
his ships for a second naval battle. Cnemus now had seventy-seven ships under
his command and set anchor at Achaean Rhium. Phormio, with the same twenty
ships from his victory at Naupactus, set anchor at Molycrian Rhium, directly
across the Spartans at the mouth of the Crisaean Gulf. Aware that Phormio had
sent to Athens for reinforcements, Cnemus and the other Spartan commanders
sought to engage the Athenians as soon as possible. They also desired to wage
the battle between the Rhia, so that the Athenians would be unable to employ
the same strategy they had used at the first battle of Naupactus. Seeing that
the Spartan troops were afraid of the prospect of battle, however, Cnemus and
the Spartan commanders had to give a speech of encouragement to their troops
before they could begin the engagement. The speech largely consisted of
extolling the Spartans’ native valor and their superiority of numbers, as
well as blaming the previous defeat at Naupactus on bad luck and the
Spartans’ lack of naval experience. Because Cnemus and the Spartan
commanders desired to wage the battle in the narrows between the Rhia, they
ordered their ships to sail towards Corinth in the hope that Phormio would
interpret their departure as a move to attack the now-unguarded Naupactus and
would follow them into the narrows. It is not clear whether this was
Cnemus’ plan or the plan of one of his advisers; nonetheless, Cnemus was
responsible for agreeing to implement the plan.
Phormio, taking the Spartans’ bait, ordered his ships to sail along the
shore, in single file, towards Naupactus. Taking advantage of the
Athenians’ exposed position, the Spartans quickly turned their formation,
hoping to cut the Athenians off before they reached Naupactus. Eleven of the
Athenian ships escaped the Spartans’ maneuver; nine ships were disabled by
the Spartans. With the destruction of nearly half the Athenian fleet, the
Spartan strategy seemed to be a success. The eleven remaining Athenian ships
fled to Naupactus, pursued by twenty Spartan ships. Ten of the Athenian ships
made it to the shore of Naupactus and positioned themselves so as to repel an
attack, should the Spartans pursue them further. However, one Athenian ship
remained in open water and was being closely pursued by a single Spartan ship.
Suddenly turning around, the Athenian ship sank its pursuer. The rest of the
pursuing Spartans, having become careless in their premature sense of victory
and surprised by the sight of one of their own ships sunk by an enemy that had
ostensibly been retreating, were suddenly overcome by a sense of panic. The
Spartans quickly halted their pursuit and, as a consequence of their lack of
familiarity with the local geography, ran several of their ships aground.
Taking advantage of the chaos among the Spartans, the Athenians launched an
attack in which they captured six Spartan ships and recovered the nine ships
they had lost earlier. The Spartans proceeded to retreat to Panormus. Among the
Spartan dead was Cnemus’ advisor, Timocrates, who, having been on board
the first Spartan ship to be sunk, killed himself out of shame. Although both
sides later claimed victory, the Spartans, concerned about immanent Athenian
reinforcement, retreated to Corinth.
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