History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides [best free ebook reader TXT] 📗
- Author: Thucydides
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During his voyage along the coast to and from Sicily, he treated
with some cities in Italy on the subject of friendship with Athens,
and also fell in with some Locrian settlers exiled from Messina, who
had been sent thither when the Locrians were called in by one of the
factions that divided Messina after the pacification of Sicily, and
Messina came for a time into the hands of the Locrians. These being
met by Phaeax on their return home received no injury at his hands, as
the Locrians had agreed with him for a treaty with Athens. They were
the only people of the allies who, when the reconciliation between the
Sicilians took place, had not made peace with her; nor indeed would
they have done so now, if they had not been pressed by a war with
the Hipponians and Medmaeans who lived on their border, and were
colonists of theirs. Phaeax meanwhile proceeded on his voyage, and
at length arrived at Athens.
Cleon, whom we left on his voyage from Torone to Amphipolis, made
Eion his base, and after an unsuccessful assault upon the Andrian
colony of Stagirus, took Galepsus, a colony of Thasos, by storm. He
now sent envoys to Perdiccas to command his attendance with an army,
as provided by the alliance; and others to Thrace, to Polles, king
of the Odomantians, who was to bring as many Thracian mercenaries as
possible; and himself remained inactive in Eion, awaiting their
arrival. Informed of this, Brasidas on his part took up a position
of observation upon Cerdylium, a place situated in the Argilian
country on high ground across the river, not far from Amphipolis,
and commanding a view on all sides, and thus made it impossible for
Cleon’s army to move without his seeing it; for he fully expected that
Cleon, despising the scanty numbers of his opponent, would march
against Amphipolis with the force that he had got with him. At the
same time Brasidas made his preparations, calling to his standard
fifteen hundred Thracian mercenaries and all the Edonians, horse and
targeteers; he also had a thousand Myrcinian and Chalcidian
targeteers, besides those in Amphipolis, and a force of heavy infantry
numbering altogether about two thousand, and three hundred Hellenic
horse. Fifteen hundred of these he had with him upon Cerdylium; the
rest were stationed with Clearidas in Amphipolis.
After remaining quiet for some time, Cleon was at length obliged
to do as Brasidas expected. His soldiers, tired of their inactivity,
began also seriously to reflect on the weakness and incompetence of
their commander, and the skill and valour that would be opposed to
him, and on their own original unwillingness to accompany him. These
murmurs coming to the ears of Cleon, he resolved not to disgust the
army by keeping it in the same place, and broke up his camp and
advanced. The temper of the general was what it had been at Pylos, his
success on that occasion having given him confidence in his
capacity. He never dreamed of any one coming out to fight him, but
said that he was rather going up to view the place; and if he waited
for his reinforcements, it was not in order to make victory secure
in case he should be compelled to engage, but to be enabled to
surround and storm the city. He accordingly came and posted his army
upon a strong hill in front of Amphipolis, and proceeded to examine
the lake formed by the Strymon, and how the town lay on the side of
Thrace. He thought to retire at pleasure without fighting, as there
was no one to be seen upon the wall or coming out of the gates, all of
which were shut. Indeed, it seemed a mistake not to have brought
down engines with him; he could then have taken the town, there
being no one to defend it.
As soon as Brasidas saw the Athenians in motion he descended himself
from Cerdylium and entered Amphipolis. He did not venture to go out in
regular order against the Athenians: he mistrusted his strength, and
thought it inadequate to the attempt; not in numbers—these were not
so unequal—but in quality, the flower of the Athenian army being in
the field, with the best of the Lemnians and Imbrians. He therefore
prepared to assail them by stratagem. By showing the enemy the
number of his troops, and the shifts which he had been put to to to
arm them, he thought that he should have less chance of beating him
than by not letting him have a sight of them, and thus learn how
good a right he had to despise them. He accordingly picked out a
hundred and fifty heavy infantry and, putting the rest under
Clearidas, determined to attack suddenly before the Athenians retired;
thinking that he should not have again such a chance of catching
them alone, if their reinforcements were once allowed to come up;
and so calling all his soldiers together in order to encourage them
and explain his intention, spoke as follows:
“Peloponnesians, the character of the country from which we have
come, one which has always owed its freedom to valour, and the fact
that you are Dorians and the enemy you are about to fight Ionians,
whom you are accustomed to beat, are things that do not need further
comment. But the plan of attack that I propose to pursue, this it is
as well to explain, in order that the fact of our adventuring with a
part instead of with the whole of our forces may not damp your courage
by the apparent disadvantage at which it places you. I imagine it is
the poor opinion that he has of us, and the fact that he has no idea
of any one coming out to engage him, that has made the enemy march
up to the place and carelessly look about him as he is doing,
without noticing us. But the most successful soldier will always be
the man who most happily detects a blunder like this, and who
carefully consulting his own means makes his attack not so much by
open and regular approaches, as by seizing the opportunity of the
moment; and these stratagems, which do the greatest service to our
friends by most completely deceiving our enemies, have the most
brilliant name in war. Therefore, while their careless confidence
continues, and they are still thinking, as in my judgment they are now
doing, more of retreat than of maintaining their position, while their
spirit is slack and not high-strung with expectation, I with the men
under my command will, if possible, take them by surprise and fall
with a run upon their centre; and do you, Clearidas, afterwards,
when you see me already upon them, and, as is likely, dealing terror
among them, take with you the Amphipolitans, and the rest of the
allies, and suddenly open the gates and dash at them, and hasten to
engage as quickly as you can. That is our best chance of
establishing a panic among them, as a fresh assailant has always
more terrors for an enemy than the one he is immediately engaged with.
Show yourself a brave man, as a Spartan should; and do you, allies,
follow him like men, and remember that zeal, honour, and obedience
mark the good soldier, and that this day will make you either free men
and allies of Lacedaemon, or slaves of Athens; even if you escape
without personal loss of liberty or life, your bondage will be on
harsher terms than before, and you will also hinder the liberation
of the rest of the Hellenes. No cowardice then on your part, seeing
the greatness of the issues at stake, and I will show that what I
preach to others I can practise myself.”
After this brief speech Brasidas himself prepared for the sally, and
placed the rest with Clearidas at the Thracian gates to support him as
had been agreed. Meanwhile he had been seen coming down from Cerdylium
and then in the city, which is overlooked from the outside,
sacrificing near the temple of Athene; in short, all his movements had
been observed, and word was brought to Cleon, who had at the moment
gone on to look about him, that the whole of the enemy’s force could
be seen in the town, and that the feet of horses and men in great
numbers were visible under the gates, as if a sally were intended.
Upon hearing this he went up to look, and having done so, being
unwilling to venture upon the decisive step of a battle before his
reinforcements came up, and fancying that he would have time to
retire, bid the retreat be sounded and sent orders to the men to
effect it by moving on the left wing in the direction of Eion, which
was indeed the only way practicable. This however not being quick
enough for him, he joined the retreat in person and made the right
wing wheel round, thus turning its unarmed side to the enemy. It was
then that Brasidas, seeing the Athenian force in motion and his
opportunity come, said to the men with him and the rest: “Those
fellows will never stand before us, one can see that by the way
their spears and heads are going. Troops which do as they do seldom
stand a charge. Quick, someone, and open the gates I spoke of, and let
us be out and at them with no fears for the result.” Accordingly
issuing out by the palisade gate and by the first in the long wall
then existing, he ran at the top of his speed along the straight road,
where the trophy now stands as you go by the steepest part of the
hill, and fell upon and routed the centre of the Athenians,
panic-stricken by their own disorder and astounded at his audacity. At
the same moment Clearidas in execution of his orders issued out from
the Thracian gates to support him, and also attacked the enemy. The
result was that the Athenians, suddenly and unexpectedly attacked on
both sides, fell into confusion; and their left towards Eion, which
had already got on some distance, at once broke and fled. Just as it
was in full retreat and Brasidas was passing on to attack the right,
he received a wound; but his fall was not perceived by the
Athenians, as he was taken up by those near him and carried off the
field. The Athenian right made a better stand, and though Cleon, who
from the first had no thought of fighting, at once fled and was
overtaken and slain by a Myrcinian targeteer, his infantry forming
in close order upon the hill twice or thrice repulsed the attacks of
Clearidas, and did not finally give way until they were surrounded and
routed by the missiles of the Myrcinian and Chalcidian horse and the
targeteers. Thus the Athenian army was all now in flight; and such
as escaped being killed in the battle, or by the Chalcidian horse
and the targeteers, dispersed among the hills, and with difficulty
made their way to Eion. The men who had taken up and rescued Brasidas,
brought him into the town with the breath still in him: he lived to
hear of the victory of his troops, and not long after expired. The
rest of the army returning with Clearidas from the pursuit stripped
the dead and set up a trophy.
After this all the allies attended in arms and buried Brasidas at the
public expense in the city, in front of what is now the marketplace,
and the Amphipolitans, having enclosed his tomb, ever afterwards
sacrifice to him as a hero and have given to him the honour of games
and annual offerings. They constituted him the founder of their
colony, and pulled
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