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

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