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The rest of the Phocaeans who kept their oath, proceeded without
stopping upon their voyage, and when they came to Cyrnus established
themselves along with the earlier settlers at Alalia and built temples
in the place. For five years they annoyed their neighbours by
plundering and pillaging on all sides, until at length the
Carthaginians and Tyrrhenians leagued against them, and sent each a
fleet of sixty ships to attack the town. The Phocaeans, on their
part, manned all their vessels, sixty in number, and met their enemy
on the Sardinian sea. In the engagement which followed the Phocaeans
were victorious, but their success was only a sort of Cadmeian
victory.' They lost forty ships in the battle, and the twenty which
remained came out of the engagement with beaks so bent and blunted as to
be no longer serviceable. The Phocaeans therefore sailed back again
to Alalia, and taking their wives and children on board, with such
portion of their goods and chattels as the vessels could bear, bade
adieu to Cyrnus and sailed to Rhegium.
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