History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides [best free ebook reader TXT] 📗

a day, one for himself and another for his servant), which

amounted to three thousand at first, and was kept at this number

down to the end of the siege; besides sixteen hundred with Phormio who

went away before it was over; and the ships being all paid at the same

rate. In this way her money was wasted at first; and this was the

largest number of ships ever manned by her.

 

About the same time that the Lacedaemonians were at the Isthmus, the

Mitylenians marched by land with their mercenaries against Methymna,

which they thought to gain by treachery. After assaulting the town,

and not meeting with the success that they anticipated, they

withdrew to Antissa, Pyrrha, and Eresus; and taking measures for the

better security of these towns and strengthening their walls,

hastily returned home. After their departure the Methymnians marched

against Antissa, but were defeated in a sortie by the Antissians and

their mercenaries, and retreated in haste after losing many of their

number. Word of this reaching Athens, and the Athenians learning

that the Mitylenians were masters of the country and their own

soldiers unable to hold them in check, they sent out about the

beginning of autumn Paches, son of Epicurus, to take the command,

and a thousand Athenian heavy infantry; who worked their own passage

and, arriving at Mitylene, built a single wall all round it, forts

being erected at some of the strongest points. Mitylene was thus

blockaded strictly on both sides, by land and by sea; and winter now

drew near.

 

The Athenians needing money for the siege, although they had for the

first time raised a contribution of two hundred talents from their own

citizens, now sent out twelve ships to levy subsidies from their

allies, with Lysicles and four others in command. After cruising to

different places and laying them under contribution, Lysicles went

up the country from Myus, in Caria, across the plain of the Meander,

as far as the hill of Sandius; and being attacked by the Carians and

the people of Anaia, was slain with many of his soldiers.

 

The same winter the Plataeans, who were still being besieged by

the Peloponnesians and Boeotians, distressed by the failure of their

provisions, and seeing no hope of relief from Athens, nor any other

means of safety, formed a scheme with the Athenians besieged with them

for escaping, if possible, by forcing their way over the enemy’s

walls; the attempt having been suggested by Theaenetus, son of

Tolmides, a soothsayer, and Eupompides, son of Daimachus, one of their

generals. At first all were to join: afterwards, half hung back,

thinking the risk great; about two hundred and twenty, however,

voluntarily persevered in the attempt, which was carried out in the

following way. Ladders were made to match the height of the enemy’s

wall, which they measured by the layers of bricks, the side turned

towards them not being thoroughly whitewashed. These were counted by

many persons at once; and though some might miss the right

calculation, most would hit upon it, particularly as they counted over

and over again, and were no great way from the wall, but could see

it easily enough for their purpose. The length required for the

ladders was thus obtained, being calculated from the breadth of the

brick.

 

Now the wall of the Peloponnesians was constructed as follows. It

consisted of two lines drawn round the place, one against the

Plataeans, the other against any attack on the outside from Athens,

about sixteen feet apart. The intermediate space of sixteen feet was

occupied by huts portioned out among the soldiers on guard, and

built in one block, so as to give the appearance of a single thick

wall with battlements on either side. At intervals of every ten

battlements were towers of considerable size, and the same breadth

as the wall, reaching right across from its inner to its outer face,

with no means of passing except through the middle. Accordingly on

stormy and wet nights the battlements were deserted, and guard kept

from the towers, which were not far apart and roofed in above.

 

Such being the structure of the wall by which the Plataeans were

blockaded, when their preparations were completed, they waited for a

stormy night of wind and rain and without any moon, and then set

out, guided by the authors of the enterprise. Crossing first the ditch

that ran round the town, they next gained the wall of the enemy

unperceived by the sentinels, who did not see them in the darkness, or

hear them, as the wind drowned with its roar the noise of their

approach; besides which they kept a good way off from each other, that

they might not be betrayed by the clash of their weapons. They were

also lightly equipped, and had only the left foot shod to preserve

them from slipping in the mire. They came up to the battlements at one

of the intermediate spaces where they knew them to be unguarded: those

who carried the ladders went first and planted them; next twelve

light-armed soldiers with only a dagger and a breastplate mounted, led

by Ammias, son of Coroebus, who was the first on the wall; his

followers getting up after him and going six to each of the towers.

After these came another party of light troops armed with spears,

whose shields, that they might advance the easier, were carried by men

behind, who were to hand them to them when they found themselves in

presence of the enemy. After a good many had mounted they were

discovered by the sentinels in the towers, by the noise made by a tile

which was knocked down by one of the Plataeans as he was laying hold

of the battlements. The alarm was instantly given, and the troops

rushed to the wall, not knowing the nature of the danger, owing to the

dark night and stormy weather; the Plataeans in the town having also

chosen that moment to make a sortie against the wall of the

Peloponnesians upon the side opposite to that on which their men

were getting over, in order to divert the attention of the

besiegers. Accordingly they remained distracted at their several

posts, without any venturing to stir to give help from his own

station, and at a loss to guess what was going on. Meanwhile the three

hundred set aside for service on emergencies went outside the wall

in the direction of the alarm. Fire-signals of an attack were also

raised towards Thebes; but the Plataeans in the town at once displayed

a number of others, prepared beforehand for this very purpose, in

order to render the enemy’s signals unintelligible, and to prevent his

friends getting a true idea of what was passing and coming to his

aid before their comrades who had gone out should have made good their

escape and be in safety.

 

Meanwhile the first of the scaling party that had got up, after

carrying both the towers and putting the sentinels to the sword,

posted themselves inside to prevent any one coming through against

them; and rearing ladders from the wall, sent several men up on the

towers, and from their summit and base kept in check all of the

enemy that came up, with their missiles, while their main body planted

a number of ladders against the wall, and knocking down the

battlements, passed over between the towers; each as soon as he had

got over taking up his station at the edge of the ditch, and plying

from thence with arrows and darts any who came along the wall to

stop the passage of his comrades. When all were over, the party on the

towers came down, the last of them not without difficulty, and

proceeded to the ditch, just as the three hundred came up carrying

torches. The Plataeans, standing on the edge of the ditch in the dark,

had a good view of their opponents, and discharged their arrows and

darts upon the unarmed parts of their bodies, while they themselves

could not be so well seen in the obscurity for the torches; and thus

even the last of them got over the ditch, though not without effort

and difficulty; as ice had formed in it, not strong enough to walk

upon, but of that watery kind which generally comes with a wind more

east than north, and the snow which this wind had caused to fall

during the night had made the water in the ditch rise, so that they

could scarcely breast it as they crossed. However, it was mainly the

violence of the storm that enabled them to effect their escape at all.

 

Starting from the ditch, the Plataeans went all together along the

road leading to Thebes, keeping the chapel of the hero Androcrates

upon their right; considering that the last road which the

Peloponnesians would suspect them of having taken would be that

towards their enemies’ country. Indeed they could see them pursuing

with torches upon the Athens road towards Cithaeron and

Druoskephalai or Oakheads. After going for rather more than half a

mile upon the road to Thebes, the Plataeans turned off and took that

leading to the mountain, to Erythrae and Hysiae, and reaching the

hills, made good their escape to Athens, two hundred and twelve men in

all; some of their number having turned back into the town before

getting over the wall, and one archer having been taken prisoner at

the outer ditch. Meanwhile the Peloponnesians gave up the pursuit

and returned to their posts; and the Plataeans in the town, knowing

nothing of what had passed, and informed by those who had turned

back that not a man had escaped, sent out a herald as soon as it was

day to make a truce for the recovery of the dead bodies, and then,

learning the truth, desisted. In this way the Plataean party got

over and were saved.

 

Towards the close of the same winter, Salaethus, a Lacedaemonian,

was sent out in a galley from Lacedaemon to Mitylene. Going by sea

to Pyrrha, and from thence overland, he passed along the bed of a

torrent, where the line of circumvallation was passable, and thus

entering unperceived into Mitylene told the magistrates that Attica

would certainly be invaded, and the forty ships destined to relieve

them arrive, and that he had been sent on to announce this and to

superintend matters generally. The Mitylenians upon this took courage,

and laid aside the idea of treating with the Athenians; and now this

winter ended, and with it ended the fourth year of the war of which

Thucydides was the historian.

 

The next summer the Peloponnesians sent off the forty-two ships

for Mitylene, under Alcidas, their high admiral, and themselves and

their allies invaded Attica, their object being to distract the

Athenians by a double movement, and thus to make it less easy for them

to act against the fleet sailing to Mitylene. The commander in this

invasion was Cleomenes, in the place of King Pausanias, son of

Pleistoanax, his nephew, who was still a minor. Not content with

laying waste whatever had shot up in the parts which they had before

devastated, the invaders now extended their ravages to lands passed

over in their previous incursions; so that this invasion was more

severely felt by the Athenians than any except the second; the enemy

staying on and on until they had overrun most of the country, in the

expectation of hearing from Lesbos of something having been achieved

by their fleet, which they thought must now have got over. However, as

they did not obtain any of the results expected, and their

provisions began to run short, they retreated and dispersed to their

different cities.

 

In the meantime the Mitylenians, finding their provisions failing,

while the fleet from Peloponnese was