Barbarossa ravaged Skios, Andros, and other islands, putting them under
contribution, and in this manner raised some eight thousand ducats; from a
pen of guinea-fowl to a king's ransom, nothing escaped the maw of this most
rapacious of corsairs. Candia and some other islands yielded up some small
spoil, but the sufferings of such insignificant folk as the wretched
islanders were soon lost to the sight of the Christian world in the
magnitude of the events which were now impending.
Kheyr-ed-Din Barbarossa, Corsair, Admiral, and King, the scourge of the
Mediterranean, and Andrea Doria, Prince of Oneglia, Admiral of the modern
Caesar, Charles V., Emperor and King, were at last to meet face to face.
CHAPTER XII
THE PREVESA CAMPAIGN; THE GATHERING OF THE FLEETS
Some thirty-five miles to the south-eastward of Cape Bianco (the
southernmost point of the island of Corfu) lies Prevesa, at the entrance of
the Gulf of Arta, or, as it was known in classic times, the Ambracian Gulf.
In these seas, in the year 31 B.C., was fought one of the most memorable
battles of antiquity, for it was here that Octavius, afterward Augustus
Caesar, defeated the forces of Antony and Cleopatra. There have been many
controversies of late years as to whom the original idea of breaking the
line in naval combats is due: anyhow, it can claim a respectable antiquity,
as it was practised at the battle of Actium by Octavius, who by a skilful
manoeuvre caused Antony to lengthen his line, which he then cut through and
attacked the ships of Cleopatra, which were in support: this was too much
for the lady, who fled with her sixty ships, followed by Antony, to his
eternal disgrace.
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