g and to signal to the city. Here he stationed his look-out
men. A code of signals was agreed upon to signify "vessels in sight,"
"mooring," etc.; which done he gave his orders to twenty of his captains
of men-of-war who were to follow him at a given word of command. Any one
who failed to follow him must not grumble at the penalty; that he warned
them. Presently the vessels were signalled approaching; the word of
command was given, and then the enthusiasm was a sight to see--every
man of the crews told off for the expedition racing to join his ship and
embark. Sailing to the point where the enemy's vessels lay, he had no
difficulty in capturing the crews, who had disembarked from all the
ships with one exception. The exception was that of Melanippus the
Rhodian, who had advised the other captains not to stop at this point,
and had then manned his own vessel and sailed off. Thus he encountered
the ships of Iphicrates, but contrived to slip through his fingers,
while the whole of the Syracusan vessels were captured, crews and all.

Having cut the beaks off the prows, Iphicrates bore down into the
harbour of Corcyra with the captured triremes in tow. With the captive
crews themselves he came to an agreement that each should pay a fixed
sum as ransom, with one exception, that of Crinippus, their commander.
Him he kept under guard, with the intention apparently of exacting a
handsome sum in his case or else of selling him. The prisoner, however,
from vexation of spirit, put an end to his own life. The rest were sent
about their business by Iphicrates, who accepted the Corcyraeans as
sureties for the money. His own sailors he supported for the most part
as labourers on the lands of the Corcyraeans, while at the head of his
light infantry and the hoplites of the contingent he crossed over into
Acarnania, and there lent his aid to any friendly state that needed his
services; besides which he went to war with the Thyrians, (17) a sturdy
race of warriors in possession of a strong fortress.

(17) Thyreum (or Thyrium), in Acarnania, a chief city at the time of
the Roman wars in Greece; and according to Polybius (xxxviii. 5),
a meeting-place of the League on one occasion. See "Dict. Anct.
Geog." s.v.; Freeman, op. cit. iv. 148; cf. Paus. IV. xxvi. 3, in
reference to the Messenians and Naupactus; Grote, "H. G." x. 212.

B.C. 372. Having attached to his squadron the navy also of Corcyra,
with a fleet numbering now ab