37.24
But
the excellence of their vessels and their own practiced seamanship took away
all fear from the Rhodians in a moment. Each ship in turn steered towards
the open sea and so allowed room on the land side for the one which
followed it, and whenever any of them closed with an enemy vessel with its
beak foremost, it either tore a hole in its prow or sheared off its oars, or else,
where it found a clear way through the line, it passed it and attacked its
stern. What caused the greatest alarm was the sinking of one of the hepteres
at a single stroke by a much smaller Rhodian vessel; and on this, the right
division were showing unmistakable signs of preparing for flight. Hannibal,
on the other hand, in the open sea, was closing with a large number of ships
on Eudamus, and in spite of the Rhodian's superiority in all other respects,
would have hemmed him in had not the signal which is customarily used to
call a scattered fleet together been given from the commander's ship. All the
ships which had won the day on the right immediately rushed to their
comrades' help. Now it was Hannibal and the ships round him which took to
flight; the Rhodians, however, were unable to pursue them as most of the
rowers were out of health, and therefore more quickly tired. Whilst they
were recruiting their strength with food as they lay on the water, Eudamus
from the turret of his ship was watching the enemy as they employed their
open ships to tow away the damaged and crippled ones, not much more than
twenty getting away uninjured. He called for silence and then said, "Come
and feast your eyes on a wonderful sight." They all got up, and after
watching the hurried flight of the enemy exclaimed, with almost one voice,
that they ought to follow them up. Eudamus' own ship had been repeatedly
struck, so he ordered Pamphilidas and Chariclitus to go in pursuit as far as
they could do so with safety. They kept up the chase for a considerable time,
but when Hannibal drew near the land they were afraid of being wind-bound
off the enemy shores, and so they returned to Eudamus with the captured
heptere which had been struck in the beginning of the battle, and with some
difficulty they succeeded in towing it to Phaselis. From there they sailed back
to Rhodes, not so much delighted at their victory as angry with one another
because they had not sunk or captured the whole of the hostile fleet, when it
was in their power to do so. So deeply did Hannibal feel this one defeat that
though he was very anxious to join the king's fleet as soon as he could, he
did not venture to sail beyond the coast of Lycia, and to prevent him from
being at liberty to do this the Rhodians sent Chariclitus with twenty ships of
war to Patara and the harbour of Megiste. Eudamus received instructions to
return to the Romans at Samos with seven of the largest vessels out of his
fleet and use all the influence he possessed and every argument he could
employ to induce the Romans to take Patara.
