§4.1Chabrias autem periit bello sociali tali modo.
But Chabrias perished in the Social War in the following manner.
oppugnabant Athenienses Chium.
The Athenians were attacking Chios.
erat in classe Chabrias privatus, sed omnes, qui in magistratu erant, auctoritate anteibat, eumque magis milites quam qui praeerant suspiciebant.
Chabrias was in the fleet as a private citizen, but he surpassed in authority all those who were in office, and the soldiers looked up to him more than to those who were in command.
§4.2quae res ei maturavit mortem.
This circumstance hastened his death.
nam dum primus studet portum intrare gubernatoremque iubet eo derigere navem, ipse sibi perniciei fuit: cum enim eo penetrasset, ceterae non sunt secutae.
For while he was anxious to be the first to enter the harbor and ordered the helmsman to steer the ship there, he himself became the cause of his own ruin; for when he had penetrated into it, the other ships did not follow.
quo facto circumfusus hostium concursu cum fortissime pugnaret, navis rostro percussa coepit sidere.
Upon this, surrounded by a rush of the enemy while he was fighting most bravely, his ship, struck by the beak of an enemy vessel, began to sink.
§4.3hinc refugere cum posset, si se in mare deiecisset, quod suberat classis Atheniensium, quae exciperet natantes, perire maluit quam armis abiectis navem relinquere, in qua fuerat vectus.
Although he might have escaped from there if he had thrown himself into the sea, since the Athenian fleet was at hand to pick up those who were swimming, he preferred to perish rather than throw away his arms and abandon the ship in which he had been carried.
id ceteri facere noluerunt, qui nando in tutum pervenerunt.
The others refused to do this, and reached safety by swimming.
at ille, praestare honestam mortem existimans turpi vitae, comminus pugnans telis hostium interfectus est.
But he, thinking that an honorable death was preferable to a shameful life, was slain by the weapons of the enemy while fighting hand-to-hand.