2–4
And when they came up with the troops under Demosthenes, which were far in the rear and proceeding in a rather leisurely and disorderly fashion, due to the confusion into which they had fallen the night before, they fell upon them at once and began a battle; and since they were separated from the others the Syracusan cavalry found it easier to surround them and drive them together.
The division of Nicias was about fifty stadia ahead; for Nicias marched his men more rapidly, thinking that in the circumstances safety lay, not in standing firm and fighting of their own choice, but in retreating as rapidly as possible, fighting only as they were forced to do so.
But it was the fortune of Demosthenes to be for the most part in more continual trouble because, being far in the rear on the retreat, the enemy pressed upon him first, and now also, when he saw the Syracusans in pursuit, he was more taken up with ordering his troops for battle than with pressing forward, and so wasted time until he was surrounded by the enemy and both he and his men were in a state of utter confusion. For huddled together in a plot of ground surrounded by a wall, on either side of which a road passed, there being inside the wall a considerable number of olive trees, they were pelted with missiles from every side.