History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides (free ebooks for android .txt) 📕

the island, and that if he had himself been in command, he would

have done it.

Nicias, seeing the Athenians murmuring against Cleon for not sailing

now if it seemed to him so easy, and further seeing himself the object

of attack, told him that for all that the generals cared, he might

take what force he chose and make the attempt. At first Cleon

fancied that this resignation was merely a figure of speech, and was

ready to go, but finding that it was seriously meant, he drew back,

and said that Nicias, not he, was general, being now frightened, and

having never supposed that Nicias would go so far as to retire in

his favour. Nicias, however, repeated his offer, and resigned the

command against Pylos, and called the Athenians to witness that he did

so. And as the multitude is wont to do, the more Cleon shrank from the

expedition and tried to back out of what he had said, the more they

encouraged Nicias to hand over his command, and clamoured at Cleon

to go. At last, not knowing how to get out of his words, he

undertook the expedition, and came forward and said that he was not

afraid of the Lacedaemonians, but would sail without taking any one

from the city with him, except the Lemnians and Imbrians that were

at Athens, with some targeteers that had come up from Aenus, and

four hundred archers from other quarters. With these and the

soldiers at Pylos, he would within twenty days either bring the

Lacedaemonians alive, or kill them on the spot. The Athenians could

not help laughing at his fatuity, while sensible men comforted

themselves with the reflection that they must gain in either

circumstance; either they would be rid of Cleon, which they rather

hoped, or if disappointed in this expectation, would reduce the

Lacedaemonians.

After he had settled everything in the assembly, and the Athenians

had voted him the command of the expedition, he chose as his colleague

Demosthenes, one of the generals at Pylos, and pushed forward the

preparations for his voyage. His choice fell upon Demosthenes

because he heard that he was contemplating a descent on the island;

the soldiers distressed by the difficulties of the position, and

rather besieged than besiegers, being eager to fight it out, while the

firing of the island had increased the confidence of the general. He

had been at first afraid, because the island having never been

inhabited was almost entirely covered with wood and without paths,

thinking this to be in the enemy’s favour, as he might land with a

large force, and yet might suffer loss by an attack from an unseen

position. The mistakes and forces of the enemy the wood would in a

great measure conceal from him, while every blunder of his own

troops would be at once detected, and they would be thus able to

fall upon him unexpectedly just where they pleased, the attack being

always in their power. If, on the other hand, he should force them

to engage in the thicket, the smaller number who knew the country

would, he thought, have the advantage over the larger who were

ignorant of it, while his own army might be cut off imperceptibly,

in spite of its numbers, as the men would not be able to see where

to succour each other.

The Aetolian disaster, which had been mainly caused by the wood, had

not a little to do with these reflections. Meanwhile, one of the

soldiers who were compelled by want of room to land on the extremities

of the island and take their dinners, with outposts fixed to prevent a

surprise, set fire to a little of the wood without meaning to do so;

and as it came on to blow soon afterwards, almost the whole was

consumed before they were aware of it. Demosthenes was now able for

the first time to see how numerous the Lacedaemonians really were,

having up to this moment been under the impression that they took in

provisions for a smaller number; he also saw that the Athenians

thought success important and were anxious about it, and that it was

now easier to land on the island, and accordingly got ready for the

attempt, sent for troops from the allies in the neighbourhood, and

pushed forward his other preparations. At this moment Cleon arrived at

Pylos with the troops which he had asked for, having sent on word to

say that he was coming. The first step taken by the two generals after

their meeting was to send a herald to the camp on the mainland, to ask

if they were disposed to avoid all risk and to order the men on the

island to surrender themselves and their arms, to be kept in gentle

custody until some general convention should be concluded.

On the rejection of this proposition the generals let one day

pass, and the next, embarking all their heavy infantry on board a

few ships, put out by night, and a little before dawn landed on both

sides of the island from the open sea and from the harbour, being

about eight hundred strong, and advanced with a run against the

first post in the island.

The enemy had distributed his force as follows: In this first post

there were about thirty heavy infantry; the centre and most level

part, where the water was, was held by the main body, and by

Epitadas their commander; while a small party guarded the very end

of the island, towards Pylos, which was precipitous on the sea-side

and very difficult to attack from the land, and where there was also a

sort of old fort of stones rudely put together, which they thought

might be useful to them, in case they should be forced to retreat.

Such was their disposition.

The advanced post thus attacked by the Athenians was at once put

to the sword, the men being scarcely out of bed and still arming,

the landing having taken them by surprise, as they fancied the ships

were only sailing as usual to their stations for the night. As soon as

day broke, the rest of the army landed, that is to say, all the

crews of rather more than seventy ships, except the lowest rank of

oars, with the arms they carried, eight hundred archers, and as many

targeteers, the Messenian reinforcements, and all the other troops

on duty round Pylos, except the garrison on the fort. The tactics of

Demosthenes had divided them into companies of two hundred, more or

less, and made them occupy the highest points in order to paralyse the

enemy by surrounding him on every side and thus leaving him without

any tangible adversary, exposed to the cross-fire of their host; plied

by those in his rear if he attacked in front, and by those on one

flank if he moved against those on the other. In short, wherever he

went he would have the assailants behind him, and these light-armed

assailants, the most awkward of all; arrows, darts, stones, and slings

making them formidable at a distance, and there being no means of

getting at them at close quarters, as they could conquer flying, and

the moment their pursuer turned they were upon him. Such was the

idea that inspired Demosthenes in his conception of the descent, and

presided over its execution.

Meanwhile the main body of the troops in the island (that under

Epitadas), seeing their outpost cut off and an army advancing

against them, serried their ranks and pressed forward to close with

the Athenian heavy infantry in front of them, the light troops being

upon their flanks and rear. However, they were not able to engage or

to profit by their superior skill, the light troops keeping them in

check on either side with their missiles, and the heavy infantry

remaining stationary instead of advancing to meet them; and although

they routed the light troops wherever they ran up and approached too

closely, yet they retreated fighting, being lightly equipped, and

easily getting the start in their flight, from the difficult and

rugged nature of the ground, in an island hitherto desert, over

which the Lacedaemonians could not pursue them with their heavy

armour.

After this skirmishing had lasted some little while, the

Lacedaemonians became unable to dash out with the same rapidity as

before upon the points attacked, and the light troops finding that

they now fought with less vigour, became more confident. They could

see with their own eyes that they were many times more numerous than

the enemy; they were now more familiar with his aspect and found him

less terrible, the result not having justified the apprehensions which

they had suffered, when they first landed in slavish dismay at the

idea of attacking Lacedaemonians; and accordingly their fear

changing to disdain, they now rushed all together with loud shouts

upon them, and pelted them with stones, darts, and arrows, whichever

came first to hand. The shouting accompanying their onset confounded

the Lacedaemonians, unaccustomed to this mode of fighting; dust rose

from the newly burnt wood, and it was impossible to see in front of

one with the arrows and stones flying through clouds of dust from

the hands of numerous assailants. The Lacedaemonians had now to

sustain a rude conflict; their caps would not keep out the arrows,

darts had broken off in the armour of the wounded, while they

themselves were helpless for offence, being prevented from using their

eyes to see what was before them, and unable to hear the words of

command for the hubbub raised by the enemy; danger encompassed them on

every side, and there was no hope of any means of defence or safety.

At last, after many had been already wounded in the confined space

in which they were fighting, they formed in close order and retired on

the fort at the end of the island, which was not far off, and to their

friends who held it. The moment they gave way, the light troops became

bolder and pressed upon them, shouting louder than ever, and killed as

many as they came up with in their retreat, but most of the

Lacedaemonians made good their escape to the fort, and with the

garrison in it ranged themselves all along its whole extent to repulse

the enemy wherever it was assailable. The Athenians pursuing, unable

to surround and hem them in, owing to the strength of the ground,

attacked them in front and tried to storm the position. For a long

time, indeed for most of the day, both sides held out against all

the torments of the battle, thirst, and sun, the one endeavouring to

drive the enemy from the high ground, the other to maintain himself

upon it, it being now more easy for the Lacedaemonians to defend

themselves than before, as they could not be surrounded on the flanks.

The struggle began to seem endless, when the commander of the

Messenians came to Cleon and Demosthenes, and told them that they were

losing their labour: but if they would give him some archers and light

troops to go round on the enemy’s rear by a way he would undertake

to find, he thought he could force the approach. Upon receiving what

he asked for, he started from a point out of sight in order not to

be seen by the enemy, and creeping on wherever the precipices of the

island permitted, and where the Lacedaemonians, trusting to the

strength of the ground, kept no guard, succeeded after the greatest

difficulty in getting round without their seeing him, and suddenly

appeared on the high ground in their rear, to the dismay of the

surprised enemy and the still greater joy of his expectant friends.