As yet,
however, no decisive advantage had been gained on either side. But in
the seventh year of the war an event occurred which would have enabled
the Athenians, but for their own folly, to conclude an honourable
peace.
The ablest of the Athenian generals at this time was Demosthenes,
[Footnote: To be carefully distinguished from the great orator, born
about forty years after the date reached in this chapter (425 B.C.).]
who in the previous year had greatly distinguished himself by a
brilliant campaign in Aetolia. In the following summer he obtained
permission to take passage on board a fleet which was bound on a
voyage to Corcyra and Sicily. He sailed in a private capacity, but he
was authorized to use the ships against the coasts of Peloponnesus, if
he saw any opening which might be utilized in the interests of Athens.
On a rocky promontory, at the northern end of the spacious bay of
Navarino, lies the little town of Pylos, generally believed to have
been the home of the Homeric Nestor. Since the conquest of Messenia by
the Spartans, the town had remained in ruins, and the country for some
distance round was a desert. The natural advantages of the adjacent
coast had already caught the keen eye of Demosthenes, and he had
formed the plan of raising a fortified outpost on the spot, to be held
by a picked troop of the banished Messenians, and thus planting a
thorn in the side of Sparta.
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