The naval Battle of Naupactus took place over the course of a week in 429 BC, in the early part of the Peloponnesian War, between the Athenian fleet under Phormio and a combined Spartan and Corinthian fleet. Map of the Greek world at the start of the Peloponnesian War The Peloponnesian War began in 431 BC between the Athenian Empire (or The Delian League) and the Peloponnesian League which included Sparta and Corinth. ... Battle of Sybota Conflict Peloponnesian War Date 433 BC Place Off Corcyra Result Indecisive The Battle of Sybota took place in 433 BC between Corcyra and Corinth. ... Battle of Potidaea Conflict Peloponnesian War Date 432 BC Place Potidaea Result Athenian victory The Battle of Potidaea was, with the Battle of Sybota, one of the catalysts for the Peloponnesian War. ... Battle of Chalcis Conflict Peloponnesian War Date 429 BC Place Chalcis Result Athenian defeat The Battle of Chalcis took place in 429 BC between Athens and the Chalcidians and their allies, in the early part of the Peloponnesian War. ... Battle of Tanagra Conflict Peloponnesian War Date 426 BC Place Tanagra Result Athenian victory The Battle of Tanagra was a battle in the Peloponnesian War in 426 BC between Athens and Tanagra. ... Battle of Olpae Conflict Peloponnesian War Date 426 BC Place Olpae Result Athenian victory The Battle of Olpae was a battle of the Peloponnesian War in 426 BC, between armies led by Athens and Sparta. ... Battle of Pylos Conflict Peloponnesian War Date 425 BC Place Pylos Result Athenian victory The Battle of Pylos took place between Athens and Sparta during the Peloponnesian War in 425 BC. Accompanying this battle was the Battle of Sphacteria. ... Battle of Sphacteria Conflict Peloponnesian War Date 425 BC Place Sphacteria Result Athenian victory The Battle of Sphacteria was a battle of the Peloponnesian War in 425 BC, between Athens and Sparta. ... The Battle of Delium took place in 424 BC between the Athenians and the Boeotians, and ended with the siege of Delium in the following weeks. ... Battle of Amphipolis Conflict Peloponnesian War Date 422 BC Place Amphipolis Result Spartan victory The Battle of Amphipolis was fought in 422 BC during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. ... The Battle of Mantinea took place in 418 BC between Sparta and its allies, and an army led by Argos and Athens. ... The Sicilian Expedition was an Athenian expedition to Sicily from 415 BC to 413 BC, during the Peloponnesian War. ... Battle of Syme Conflict Peloponnesian War Date 411 BC Place Off Syme Result Indecisive The Battle of Syme was a naval battle in 411 BC between Sparta and Athens, during the Peloponnesian War. ... Battle of Cynossema Conflict Peloponnesian War Date 411 BC Place Off Cynossema Result Athenian victory The Battle of Cynossema was a naval battle in the Hellespont in 411 BC between Athens and Sparta, around the same time the Athenian democracy was overthrown in favour of a short_lived oligarchy. ... The Battle of Cyzicus in 410 BC was a small-scale naval battle during the Peloponnesian War between an Athenian fleet led by Alcibiades and a Peloponnesian fleet led by Sparta. ... At the Battle of Notium (or Ephesus) in 406 BC, the Spartan fleet of Lysander defeated a part of the Athenian fleet, resulting in the recall of Alcibiades, the Athenian admiral. ... The naval Battle of Arginusae took place in 406 BC during the Peloponnesian War. ... Battle of Aegospotami Conflict Peloponnesian War Date 405 BC Place Aegospotami Result Spartan victory The battle of Aegospotami in 405 BC was the destruction of the Athenian navy in the Peloponnesian War, and led directly to Athens final defeat by Sparta in the following year. ... Centuries: 6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC Decades: 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC - 420s BC - 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC 380s BC 370s BC Years: 434 BC 433 BC 432 BC 431 BC 430 BC - 429 BC - 428 BC 427 BC... Map of the Greek world at the start of the Peloponnesian War The Peloponnesian War began in 431 BC between the Athenian Empire (or The Delian League) and the Peloponnesian League which included Sparta and Corinth. ... The Acropolis in central Athens, one of the most important landmarks in world history. ... Phormio, the son of Asopius, was an Athenian general and admiral during the Peloponnesian War. ... Spartan may refer to: An inhabitant of Sparta, a city in ancient (and modern) Greece. ... Temple of Apollo at Corinth Corinth, or Korinth (Κόρινθος) is a Greek city, on the Isthmus of Corinth, the original isthmus, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece. ...

The battle took place shortly after the Battle of Chalcis. Ambracia and Chaonia asked Sparta to send a fleet and an army to conquer Acarnania from Athens, which would allow Sparta to attack Naupactus, the Athenian naval base on the Gulf of Corinth. The Spartan general Cnemus, with a fleet and 1000 hoplites, ravaged Acarnania, while Phormio and the Athenian fleet waited in the Gulf of Corinth for the Corinthian fleet in case it tried to attack Naupactus. Cnedus was defeated at Stratus in Acarnania, while the Corinthian fleet was delayed in the Gulf by Phormio. Battle of Chalcis Conflict Peloponnesian War Date 429 BC Place Chalcis Result Athenian defeat The Battle of Chalcis took place in 429 BC between Athens and the Chalcidians and their allies, in the early part of the Peloponnesian War. ... Ambracia (more correctly Ampracia) was an ancient Corinthian colony, situated about 7 miles from the Ambracian Gulf in Greece, on a bend of the navigable river Aracthus (or Aratthus), in the midst of a fertile wooded plain. ... The landscape Chaonia covered the coastal region of the Ioni sea at the road of Korfu in the antiquity . ... Acarnania was a region of ancient central western Greece that lay along the Ionian Sea, west of Aetolia, with the Achelous River for a boundary, and north of the gulf of Calydon, which is the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth. ... Naupactus is also a scientific name, see Naupactus (beetle) Nafpaktos, Latin: Naupactus or Naupactos (Turkish, İnebahtı; Italian, Lepanto; modern Greek, Ναύπακτος, rarely Epakto), is a town in the prefecture of Aetolia-Acarnania, Greece, situated on a bay on the north side of the straits of Lepanto. ... The Gulf of Corinth or the Corinthian Gulf is a deep inlet of the Ionian Sea separating the Peloponnese from western mainland Greece. ... A hoplite armed with a spear. ... A Stratus cloud is a cloud belonging to a class characterized by horizontal layering with a uniform base, as opposed to convective clouds that are as tall or taller than wide (these are termed Cumulus clouds). ...

The Corinthians had 47 ships, commanded by Machaon, Isocrates, and Agatharchidas, and were not prepared to fight a battle against Phormio, even though he only had 20 ships, as they were attempting to bring aid and supplies to Cnedus. However, the Athenians followed them through the Gulf and would not let them leave. The larger Corinthian ships formed a circle to protect the support ships that were not armed for battle. The Athenians formed a line and continually sailed around the Corinthians, forcing the Corinthian circle to become compacted as they tried to avoid being rammed. The Corinthians were eventually unable to manoeuvre at all, and Phormio took this opportunity to attack. The Athenians captured 12 ships and sank many more, but allowed the rest to escape. The remnants of the Corinthian fleet then joined Cnedus in Acarnania.

Phormio continued to follow the Corinthians, which combined with the Spartan fleet, led by Timocrates, Brasidas, and Lycophron. Athens also sent out another 20 ships under Nicias, but this fleet was delayed near Crete. During the week after the first battle, the combined Peloponnesian fleet of 77 ships anchored at the entrance to the Gulf across from the Athenian ships. The Corinthians did not want another battle, and the Spartans felt they had been cowards in the first battle, so it was difficult to convince the Peloponnesian fleet to sail even though it greatly outnumbered the Athenian fleet. Cnemus and Brasidas tried to convince the Peloponnesians that they had simply been unprepared, and would certainly win a second battle: Brasidas (d. ... Nicias (d. ... Greece and Crete Crete, sometimes spelled Krete (Greek Κρήτη / Kriti; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is the largest of the Greek islands and the fifth largest in the Mediterranean Sea. ... Though Peloponnese is used to refer to the entire peninsula, the periphery with that name includes only part of that landmass. ...

"There are solid advantages on your side - you have the bigger fleet: you are fighting off your own native shores with hoplites ready to support you. And as a rule the side that wins is the side with the numbers and the equipment. There is not one single reason, therefore, why we should lose." (Thucydides, 2.87)

The Athenians did not want to fight either, seeing that they were outnumbered. Phormio believed that the Athenians were more experienced at sea and could defeat any fleet sent against them, even this larger Peloponnesian fleet: Bust of Thucydides Thucydides (between 460 and 455 BC–circa 400 BC, Greek Θουκυδίδης, Thoukudídês) was an ancient Greek historian, and the author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens. ...

"Great forces before now have been defeated by small ones because of lack of skill and sometimes because of lack of daring. We are deficient in neither of these qualities." (Thucydides, 2.89)

The Peloponnesians wanted to draw the Athenian ships into the narrowest part of the Gulf, but Phormio intended to fight at Naupactus. However, the Peloponnesians formed four lines, with 20 ships of the right wing pretending to head for Naupactus, which tricked Phormio into moving out in an attempt to stop them. Nine Athenian ships were captured or destroyed in the ensuing skirmish, while the other eleven were able to escape, although the twenty Peloponnesian ships continued to chase them. Ten of the Athenian ships made it to Naupactus, while the eleventh used an offshore merchant ship as a hiding spot. When the lone Peloponnesian ship still in pursuit, under the command of Timocrates, appeared near the merchant ship, the Athenian ship moved out of its hiding spot and sank it. This was an unexpected move and the inexperienced Peloponnesians panicked. The eleven Athenian ships attacked from the safety of the harbour at Naupactus, capturing six Peloponnesian ships and chasing the rest out of the Gulf. Soon after this, the other 20 ships commanded by Nicias arrived at Naupactus, and the Peloponnesians withdrew completely.

A few months later, Cnemus and Brasidas made a surprise attack on Salamis Island and the Athenian port of Piraeus, but they were defeated there as well. The Greek island of Salamis (Greek, Modern: Σαλάμινα Salamina, Ancient/Katharevousa: ) is the largest island in the Saronic Gulf, about 1 nautical mile (2 km) off-coast from Piraeus. ... View of Piraeus A night ferry about to leave the port of Piraeus for the Dodecanese Piraeus, or Peiraeus (Modern Greek: Πειραιάς Peiraiás or Pireás, Ancient Greek / Katharevousa: Πειραιεύς Pireéfs) is a city in the prefecture of Attica, Greece, located south of Athens. ...