History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides [best free ebook reader TXT] 📗
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who on the death of Eurylochus and Macarius had succeeded to the
sole command, being at a loss after so signal a defeat how to stay and
sustain a siege, cut off as he was by land and by the Athenian fleet
by sea, and equally so how to retreat in safety, opened a parley
with Demosthenes and the Acarnanian generals for a truce and
permission to retreat, and at the same time for the recovery of the
dead. The dead they gave back to him, and setting up a trophy took
up their own also to the number of about three hundred. The retreat
demanded they refused publicly to the army; but permission to depart
without delay was secretly granted to the Mantineans and to
Menedaius and the other commanders and principal men of the
Peloponnesians by Demosthenes and his Acarnanian colleagues; who
desired to strip the Ambraciots and the mercenary host of foreigners
of their supporters; and, above all, to discredit the Lacedaemonians
and Peloponnesians with the Hellenes in those parts, as traitors and
self-seekers.
While the enemy was taking up his dead and hastily burying them as
he could, and those who obtained permission were secretly planning
their retreat, word was brought to Demosthenes and the Acarnanians
that the Ambraciots from the city, in compliance with the first
message from Olpae, were on the march with their whole levy through
Amphilochia to join their countrymen at Olpae, knowing nothing of what
had occurred. Demosthenes prepared to march with his army against
them, and meanwhile sent on at once a strong division to beset the
roads and occupy the strong positions. In the meantime the
Mantineans and others included in the agreement went out under the
pretence of gathering herbs and firewood, and stole off by twos and
threes, picking on the way the things which they professed to have
come out for, until they had gone some distance from Olpae, when
they quickened their pace. The Ambraciots and such of the rest as
had accompanied them in larger parties, seeing them going on, pushed
on in their turn, and began running in order to catch them up. The
Acarnanians at first thought that all alike were departing without
permission, and began to pursue the Peloponnesians; and believing that
they were being betrayed, even threw a dart or two at some of their
generals who tried to stop them and told them that leave had been
given. Eventually, however, they let pass the Mantineans and
Peloponnesians, and slew only the Ambraciots, there being much dispute
and difficulty in distinguishing whether a man was an Ambraciot or a
Peloponnesian. The number thus slain was about two hundred; the rest
escaped into the bordering territory of Agraea, and found refuge
with Salynthius, the friendly king of the Agraeans.
Meanwhile the Ambraciots from the city arrived at Idomene. Idomene
consists of two lofty hills, the higher of which the troops sent on by
Demosthenes succeeded in occupying after nightfall, unobserved by
the Ambraciots, who had meanwhile ascended the smaller and
bivouacked under it. After supper Demosthenes set out with the rest of
the army, as soon as it was evening; himself with half his force
making for the pass, and the remainder going by the Amphilochian
hills. At dawn he fell upon the Ambraciots while they were still abed,
ignorant of what had passed, and fully thinking that it was their
own countrymen—Demosthenes having purposely put the Messenians in
front with orders to address them in the Doric dialect, and thus to
inspire confidence in the sentinels, who would not be able to see them
as it was still night. In this way he routed their army as soon as
he attacked it, slaying most of them where they were, the rest
breaking away in flight over the hills. The roads, however, were
already occupied, and while the Amphilochians knew their own
country, the Ambraciots were ignorant of it and could not tell which
way to turn, and had also heavy armour as against a light-armed enemy,
and so fell into ravines and into the ambushes which had been set
for them, and perished there. In their manifold efforts to escape some
even turned to the sea, which was not far off, and seeing the Athenian
ships coasting alongshore just while the action was going on, swam off
to them, thinking it better in the panic they were in, to perish, if
perish they must, by the hands of the Athenians, than by those of
the barbarous and detested Amphilochians. Of the large Ambraciot force
destroyed in this manner, a few only reached the city in safety; while
the Acarnanians, after stripping the dead and setting up a trophy,
returned to Argos.
The next day arrived a herald from the Ambraciots who had fled
from Olpae to the Agraeans, to ask leave to take up the dead that
had fallen after the first engagement, when they left the camp with
the Mantineans and their companions, without, like them, having had
permission to do so. At the sight of the arms of the Ambraciots from
the city, the herald was astonished at their number, knowing nothing
of the disaster and fancying that they were those of their own
party. Some one asked him what he was so astonished at, and how many
of them had been killed, fancying in his turn that this was the herald
from the troops at Idomene. He replied: “About two hundred”; upon
which his interrogator took him up, saying: “Why, the arms you see
here are of more than a thousand.” The herald replied: “Then they
are not the arms of those who fought with us?” The other answered:
“Yes, they are, if at least you fought at Idomene yesterday.” “But
we fought with no one yesterday; but the day before in the retreat.”
“However that may be, we fought yesterday with those who came to
reinforce you from the city of the Ambraciots.” When the herald
heard this and knew that the reinforcement from the city had been
destroyed, he broke into wailing and, stunned at the magnitude of
the present evils, went away at once without having performed his
errand, or again asking for the dead bodies. Indeed, this was by far
the greatest disaster that befell any one Hellenic city in an equal
number of days during this war; and I have not set down the number
of the dead, because the amount stated seems so out of proportion to
the size of the city as to be incredible. In any case I know that if
the Acarnanians and Amphilochians had wished to take Ambracia as the
Athenians and Demosthenes advised, they would have done so without a
blow; as it was, they feared that if the Athenians had it they would
be worse neighbours to them than the present.
After this the Acarnanians allotted a third of the spoils to the
Athenians, and divided the rest among their own different towns. The
share of the Athenians was captured on the voyage home; the arms now
deposited in the Attic temples are three hundred panoplies, which
the Acarnanians set apart for Demosthenes, and which he brought to
Athens in person, his return to his country after the Aetolian
disaster being rendered less hazardous by this exploit. The
Athenians in the twenty ships also went off to Naupactus. The
Acarnanians and Amphilochians, after the departure of Demosthenes
and the Athenians, granted the Ambraciots and Peloponnesians who had
taken refuge with Salynthius and the Agraeans a free retreat from
Oeniadae, to which place they had removed from the country of
Salynthius, and for the future concluded with the Ambraciots a
treaty and alliance for one hundred years, upon the terms following.
It was to be a defensive, not an offensive alliance; the Ambraciots
could not be required to march with the Acarnanians against the
Peloponnesians, nor the Acarnanians with the Ambraciots against the
Athenians; for the rest the Ambraciots were to give up the places
and hostages that they held of the Amphilochians, and not to give help
to Anactorium, which was at enmity with the Acarnanians. With this
arrangement they put an end to the war. After this the Corinthians
sent a garrison of their own citizens to Ambracia, composed of three
hundred heavy infantry, under the command of Xenocleides, son of
Euthycles, who reached their destination after a difficult journey
across the continent. Such was the history of the affair of Ambracia.
The same winter the Athenians in Sicily made a descent from their
ships upon the territory of Himera, in concert with the Sicels, who
had invaded its borders from the interior, and also sailed to the
islands of Aeolus. Upon their return to Rhegium they found the
Athenian general, Pythodorus, son of Isolochus, come to supersede
Laches in the command of the fleet. The allies in Sicily had sailed to
Athens and induced the Athenians to send out more vessels to their
assistance, pointing out that the Syracusans who already commanded
their land were making efforts to get together a navy, to avoid
being any longer excluded from the sea by a few vessels. The Athenians
proceeded to man forty ships to send to them, thinking that the war in
Sicily would thus be the sooner ended, and also wishing to exercise
their navy. One of the generals, Pythodorus, was accordingly sent
out with a few ships; Sophocles, son of Sostratides, and Eurymedon,
son of Thucles, being destined to follow with the main body. Meanwhile
Pythodorus had taken the command of Laches’ ships, and towards the end
of winter sailed against the Locrian fort, which Laches had formerly
taken, and returned after being defeated in battle by the Locrians.
In the first days of this spring, the stream of fire issued from
Etna, as on former occasions, and destroyed some land of the
Catanians, who live upon Mount Etna, which is the largest mountain
in Sicily. Fifty years, it is said, had elapsed since the last
eruption, there having been three in all since the Hellenes have
inhabited Sicily. Such were the events of this winter; and with it
ended the sixth year of this war, of which Thucydides was the
historian.
_Seventh Year of the War - Occupation of Pylos - Surrender of
the Spartan Army in Sphacteria_
Next summer, about the time of the corn’s coming into ear, ten
Syracusan and as many Locrian vessels sailed to Messina, in Sicily,
and occupied the town upon the invitation of the inhabitants; and
Messina revolted from the Athenians. The Syracusans contrived this
chiefly because they saw that the place afforded an approach to
Sicily, and feared that the Athenians might hereafter use it as a base
for attacking them with a larger force; the Locrians because they
wished to carry on hostilities from both sides of the strait and to
reduce their enemies, the people of Rhegium. Meanwhile, the Locrians
had invaded the Rhegian territory with all their forces, to prevent
their succouring Messina, and also at the instance of some exiles from
Rhegium who were with them; the long factions by which that town had
been torn rendering it for the moment incapable of resistance, and
thus furnishing an additional temptation to the invaders. After
devastating the country the Locrian land forces retired, their ships
remaining to guard Messina, while others were being manned for the
same destination to carry on the war from thence.
About the same time in the spring, before the corn was ripe, the
Peloponnesians and their allies invaded Attica under Agis, the son
of Archidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians, and sat down and laid waste
the country. Meanwhile the Athenians sent off the forty ships which
they had been preparing to Sicily, with the remaining generals
Eurymedon and Sophocles;
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