Kitap 7
Two Syracusan ships, however, elated by their victory, approached too close to the cranes and were destroyed, one of them being captured together with its crew.
The Syracusans, having sunk seven of the Athenian ships and damaged many others, and having taken prisoner most of the men upon them and killed the rest, then withdrew and set up a trophy for both the sea-fights. They now cherished the confident belief that they were far superior to the Athenians on the sea, and they thought that they should get the better of the army on land as well. So they, on their part, proceeded to make preparations to attack the enemy again on both elements.
At this juncture, however, Demosthenes and Eurymedon arrived with the reinforcements from Athens, consisting of about seventy-three ships, including the foreign vessels, and nearly five thousand hoplites, both Athenian and allied, and not a few Barbarian and Hellenic javelin-men, slingers, and bowmen, together with an adequate supply of other equipment. The Syracusans and their allies were seized with no little consternation at the moment, wondering if they were never to have any final deliverance from their peril;
for they saw that in spite of the fortification of Deceleia an army equal or nearly equal to the first one had come to reinforce it, and that the power of the Athenians was apparently great in all directions. The first Athenian army, on the other hand, had, considering their past misfortunes,Or, “by a natural rebound after their misfortunes.” recovered a certain confidence. Demosthenes, seeing how matters stood, was of the opinion that it would not do to waste time and thus invite the same experience that Nicias had met with.
For Nicias when he first came inspired terror; but as he did not immediately attack Syracuse but spent the winter at Catana, he came to be despised, and Gylippus forestalled him by coming from the Peloponnesus with an army. This force the Syracusans would not even have sent for if he had attacked without delay; for they would have supposed that they could cope with him unaided, and would not, therefore, have discovered that they were too weak until they had been completely walled in, so that, even if they had sent for reinforcements then, these would no longer have availed them to the same extent. Demosthenes, therefore, taking these facts into consideration and realizing that he also at the present time was most formidable to his opponents on the very first day after his arrival, wished at the earliest possible moment to reap the full benefit of their present consternation at his army.
Accordingly, seeing that the Syracusan cross-wall, by which they had prevented the Athenians from completing their investment, was a single one, and that, if one should get control of the ascent to Epipolae and after that of the camp upon it, the wall itself could easily be taken—for the enemy would not then stand his ground against them—
he was eager to make the attempt. He thought this to be the shortest way to end the war; for he would either be successful and take Syracuse, or else would lead his army home and not wear out to no purpose both the Athenians who took part in the expedition and the entire state.
In the first place, then, the Athenians went out and proceeded to ravage the land of the Syracusans in the region of the Anapus river, and at this time, as at first, they had the upper hand with their army both by land and by sea; for on neither element did the Syracusans come out to meet them except with their cavalry and javelin-men from the Olympieium.
Afterwards it seemed best to Demosthenes, before going further, to make an attempt with engines upon the cross-wall. But when he brought his engines up they were burned by the enemy, who defended themselves from the wall, and the assaults which he made at many points with the rest of his army were regularly repulsed; it therefore seemed best not to waste more time, and so with the consent of Nicias and his other colleagues he undertook, as he had planned, the attack upon Epipolae.
Now it seemed impossible to approach the heights in the daytime and make the ascent without being observed; he accordingly ordered provisions for five days, took with him all the stonemasons and carpenters, and also a supply of arrows, and whatever things they would need while building a wall, in case they should succeed in their undertaking, and after the first watch, accompanied by Eurymedon and Menander, led out the entire army and advanced to Epipolae, leaving Nicias behind in the fortifications.
When they had reached Epipolae, taking the route by Euryelus, which had been followed by the former army in the first ascent, they got by the Syracusan guards without being observed, and advancing to the Syracusan fort at that point captured it and killed some of the guards;
most of these, however, fled at once to the camps, of which there were three upon Epipolae—one belonging to the Syracusans, one to the other Siceliots, and one to the allies—and brought word of the attack, informing also the six hundred Syracusans who were posted as an advanced guard on that part of Epipolae.
These hastened at once to the rescue, but Demosthenes and the Athenians met them and put them to rout despite their vigorous resistance. This body of Athenians then straightway pressed forward, in order that, taking advantage of their present impulse, they might not be too late to accomplish the purpose for which they had come; while another party at the very first proceeded to seize the cross-wall of the Syracusans, where the guards did not wait to receive them, and to lay low the battlements.
But the Syracusans and their allies, as well as Gylippus with his own troops, came up from the outworks; yet, since this daring attempt had been made upon them unexpectedly at night, they were still dazed as they attacked the Athenians and were at first forced back by them.
But while the Athenians were by now going forward, in some disorder, considering themselves victorious and wishing as quickly as possible to push their way through all the enemy's forces that had not yet been engaged, in order that they might not rally again when they themselves relaxed their onset, it was the Boeotians who first made a stand against them, and by making a charge routed and put them to flight.
By this time the Athenians were getting into a state of so great confusion and perplexity that it has not been easy to learn from either side just how the several events occurred. In the daytime things are clearer, of course, yet even so those who are present do not know everything that happens, but each man barely knows what happens near himself; but in a battle by night—the only one that took place in this war between large armies—how could anyone know anything clearly?
For though there was a bright moon, they could only see one another, as it is natural to do in moonlight—seeing before them the vision of a person but mistrusting their recognition of their own friends. There were, besides, large numbers of hoplites belonging to both sides moving about in a narrow space. And on the Athenian side, some were already being defeated, while others, still in their first onset, were advancing unchecked;
but of the rest of their army a large portion had only just finished the ascent and others were still coming up, so that they did not know which body to join. For the front lines were already all in confusion in consequence of the rout that had taken place, and the two sides were difficult to distinguish by reason of the outcries.
The Syracusans and their allies, as they were winning, were cheering one another and indulging in no little shouting—it being impossible in the night to communicate in any other way— while at the same time they held their ground against their assailants; the Athenians were trying to find their own comrades, and regarded as hostile whatever came from the opposite direction, even though it might be a party of friends belonging to the troops already in flight, and as they were constantly calling out the demand for the watchword, the only means they had of distinguishing friend from foe, they not only caused much confusion in their own ranks, everybody making the demand at the same time, but also made their watchword known to the enemy. They had not the same opportunity, however, of learning the enemy's watchword, because the Syracusans, who were winning the day and had not become scattered, had less difficulty in recognizing one another.
The result was that if a body of Athenians, even though superior in number, fell in with a party of the enemy, these would make their escape, inasmuch as they knew the Athenian watchword, whereas if they on their part could not give the answer they were put to the sword.
But that which put the Athenians at the greatest disadvantage and did them most harm was the singing of the paean; for the song of both armies was very similar and caused perplexity. Whenever, that is, the Argives or the Corcyraeans or any Dorian contingent of the Athenian army would raise the paean, the Athenians were just as much terrified thereby as when the enemy sang.
And so finally, when once they had been thrown into confusion, coming into collision with their own comrades in many different parts of the army, friends with friends and citizens with fellow-citizens, they not only became panic-stricken but came to blows with one another and were with difficulty separated.
And as they were being pursued by the enemy many hurled themselves down from the bluffs and perished; for the way down from Epipolae was narrow; and of those who in their attempt to escape got down to the level ground, the greater part, and especially those who belonged to the first expedition and therefore had a better acquaintance with the country, got through to the camp, but of those who had come later, some missed the roads and wandered about over the country, and these when day came were destroyed by the Syracusan cavalry, which were scouring the fields.
On the next day the Syracusans set up two trophies on Epipolae, one where the Athenian ascent was made, the other at the place where the Boeotians made the first resistance; and the Athenians recovered their dead under truce.
Not a few were killed, both of the Athenians and their allies; the arms taken, however, were out of all proportion to the dead, for while some of those who were forced to leap down the bluffs perished, some escaped.
After this the Syracusans, their earlier confidence now being restored as a result of their unexpected good fortune, sent Sicanus with fifteen ships to Agrigentum, which was in a state of revolution, in order that he might if possible win over that city; and Gylippus went out once more by land to the other parts of Sicily to secure additional troops, being in hope that he could even carry the walls of the Athenians by storm, now that the engagement on Epipolae had turned out thus.
Meanwhile the Athenian generals were deliberating about the situation in view both of the calamity that had happened and of the utter discouragement that now prevailed in the army. They saw that they were not succeeding in their undertaking, and that the soldiers were finding their stay burdensome.
For they were distressed by sickness for a double cause, the season of the year being that in which men are most liable to illness, while at the same time the place in which they were encamped was marshy and unhealthy; and the situation in general appeared to them to be utterly hopeless.
Demosthenes, therefore, was of the opinion that they should not remain there any longer, but since the plan which had induced him to risk the attack upon Epipolae had failed, his vote was for going away without loss of time, while it was still possible to cross the sea and to have some superiority over the enemy with at any rate the ships of the armament which had come to reinforce them.
From the point of view of the State, also, he said, it was more profitable to carry on the war against the enemy who were building a hostile fortress in their own territory than against the Syracusans, whom it was no longer easy to conquer; and furthermore, it was not right that they should continue the siege and spend a great deal of money to no purpose.
Such was the judgment of Demosthenes. Nicias, however, although he also thought that their situation was bad, did not wish expressly to reveal their weakness, or that they should be reported to the enemy as openly voting in full council for the retreat; for, he urged, they would be far less likely, when they should wish to retreat, to do this unobserved.
Besides, the affairs of the enemy, from such information as he had beyond the rest, still afforded some hope that they would turn out to be worse than their own, if they persisted in the siege; for they would wear the enemy out by cutting off his supplies, especially since now with their present fleet they were to a greater extent than before the masters of the sea. And, in fact, there was a party in Syracuse that favoured submitting to the Athenians, and it was secretly sending proposals to him and urging him not to withdraw. Having knowledge of these things, although in reality he still wavered between the two alternatives and kept pondering them, yet in the speech which he openly made at that time he refused to lead the army away.
For he knew well, he said, that the Athenians would not approve of the generals withdrawing without any vote of their own to that effect. ForThe mental thought to be supplied is: “And it would involve them in personal danger if they did, for . . . .” those who would vote on their case would not be men who would form their judgments from seeing the facts with their own eyes, as they themselves had seen them, and not from listening to the harsh criticisms of others; on the contrary, whatever calumnies any clever speaker might utter, by these the Athenians would be persuaded.
And of the soldiers now present in Sicily, many, he said—aye, the majority—who were now crying out that they were in a desperate plight, as soon as they arrived in Athens would cry out just the reverse, that their generals had been bribed to betray them and withdraw. Accordingly, he at any rate did not wish, knowing as he did the character of the Athenians, to be put to death on a shameful charge and unjustly at the hands of the Athenians, but rather to fight and die, if so he must, his own death at the hands of the foe. And bad as their own situation was, that of the Syracusans, he said, was still worse;
for in point of money, since they were supporting a mercenary force and at the same time bearing the expense of patrol guard-posts, and had now for a year been maintaining a large fleet besides, they were already embarrassed, and hereafter would be quite without resources;Or, “were in some respects already ill-provided, and in still others would be utterly at a loss what to do.” indeed, they had spent two thousand talents already and were in debt for many talents more, and if they should lose any portion whatsoever of their present force by not being able to pay for its maintenance, their cause would be ruined, since it depended upon mercenary troops and had not, like their own, the backing of necessity.ie. mercenary troops had to be bribed, but the Athenians were compelled to fight.
They ought, therefore, he concluded, to stay on and continue the siege, and not go back home beaten by money, in which they had by far the greater resources.
To such effect Nicias spoke with confidence, because he had accurate knowledge of affairs in Syracuse, both of their lack of money and that a party existed there that wished the government to come under the control of the Athenians and was constantly making overtures to him to keep him from withdrawing; and at the same time, though beaten in the field, he had as much confidence as ever in the fleet at any rate.
Demosthenes, however, would not consent on any consideration whatever to continue the siege; if they could not lead the army home without a vote of the Athenians, but must stay on in Sicily, he said that they should do this only after removing to Thapsus or to Catana. From this new base they could overrun with their army large tracts of the country and support themselves by ravaging the enemy's property, and at the same time do him damage; and as for the fleet, they would thenceforth do their fighting, not in a narrow space, which was more in the enemy's favour, but in the open sea, where there was plenty of room and the advantages of skill would be on their side, and they would not have to make their retreats and advances setting out from and falling back into a scant and circumscribed base.
To sum up his position in a word, he said that he did not at all approve of remaining any longer in the same place, but urged that they should now as quickly as possible move to another place and make no delay.
And Eurymedon concurred with him in these views. But since Nicias objected, some hesitation and delay ensued; and at the same time there was a suspicion that it was because of some superior knowledge that he insisted. And so in this way the Athenians delayed to the end and continued to remain where they were.