Kitap 7
It so happened, furthermore, that at this same time there was some thunder and rain,cf. 6.70.1. as is apt to be the case toward the fall of the year; and this caused the Athenians to be still more despondent, for they believed that all these things too were conspiring for their destruction.
While they were resting, Gylippus and the Syracusans sent a part of their army to build a wall across the line of march in their rear, at a point on the road by which they had come;
but the Athenians sent a detachment of their own men and prevented it. After that the Athenians moved their whole army back into the more level country and bivouacked. On the next dayFifth day of the retreat. they advanced again, and the Syracusans surrounded them and attacked them on every side, wounding many; if the Athenians attacked they retreated, but if they retreated they would charge, falling chiefly upon the rearmost in the hope that by routing them a few at a time they might put the whole army in a panic.
Now for a long time, fighting in this fashion, the Athenians resisted, then after they had advanced five or six stadia they rested in the plain; and the Syracusans on their part left them and went back to their own camp.
During the night, finding their army in wretched plight, since by now they were in want of all supplies and many had been wounded in many assaults made by the enemy, it was determined by Nicias and Demosthenes to kindle as many fires as possible and then withdraw the army, not now by the route which they had at first planned, but in the opposite direction to that in which the Syracusans were watching for them—that is, towards the sea.
(But previously the line of march which I have been describing had not been toward Catana,ie. towards the sea. but toward the other side of Sicily, in the direction of Camarina and Gela and the cities in that region both Hellenic and Barbarian.)
So they kindled many fires and then set out during the night. And just as in all armies, and most of all in the largest, terrors and panics are apt to arise, especially at night and when they are marching through a hostile country with the enemy not far away, so confusion fell upon them also.
The army of Nicias, as it was in the van,cf 7.78.2. kept together and got a long distance ahead, but that of Demosthenes, about half or more of the whole, became separated and proceeded in considerable disorder.
Nevertheless at dawn they reached the sea, and taking the road called Elorine marched on, intending when they reached the river CacyparisModern Cassibili. to follow this stream up into the interior of the island; for they hoped that the Sicels, whom they had sent for, would meet them in that region.
But when they came to the river, there also they found a Syracusan guard blocking the way with a wall and a palisade. Forcing their way past them, they crossed the river and advanced again towards another river, the Erineus;Modern Cavallata. for their guides bade them take that route.
Meanwhile, when day cameSixth day of the retreat. and the Syracusans and their allies realized that the Athenians had gone away, most of them blamed Gylippus, saying that he purposely had let the Athenians get away; and pursuing them in hot haste, following the road which they could readily see that the enemy had taken, they overtook them about dinnertime.
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.
And the Syracusans had good reason to adopt attacks of this kind rather than contests at close quarters; for to risk their lives against men in despair was not now to their advantage, so much as to that of the Athenians. Besides, they considered that success was already assured; therefore everyone spared himself somewhat, not wishing to throw away his life before the end, and they all thought that even as it was, and following this manner of fighting, they would subdue and capture the enemy.
And so when they had assailed the Athenians and their allies with missiles from all sides throughout the day and saw that they were at length worn out by reason of their wounds and general misery, Gylippus and the Syracusans and their allies made proclamation, first, that any of the islanderscf. 7.57.4, ὑπήκοοι ὐντες καὶ ἀνάγκῃ . . . ἠκολούθουν who so wished might come over to their side on a guarantee of freedom;
and some states, but only a few, came over. Afterwards, however, an agreement was made with all the rest of the troops under Demosthenes that if they would surrender their arms no one should suffer death either by violence or by imprisonment or by deprivation of the bare necessities of life.
So they all surrendered, six thousand in number; and they gave up all the money they had, casting it into upturned shields; and four of these were filled. These captives the Syracusans immediately took to the city; as for Nicias and his men, they reached the river Erineus that same day, and after crossing it Nicias encamped his army on a height.
The next daySeventh day of the retreat. the Syracusans overtook Nicias and told him that the troops under Demosthenes had surrendered, bidding him do likewise; but Nicias was incredulous, and obtained a truce that he might send a horseman and find out.
And when the horseman had gone and brought back word that they had indeed surrendered, Nicias announced by herald to Gylippus and the Syracusans that he was ready to agree, on behalf of the Athenians, to repay to the Syracusans all the money which they had spent upon the war, on condition that they should let his army go; and until the money should be paid, he would give Athenians as hostages, one man for each talent.
Gylippus and the Syracusans, however, would not accept these terms, but renewing the attack and surrounding the Athenian army plied these men also with their missiles until evening.
And they were in a wretched plight through want of food and of all necessaries. Nevertheless they waited for the quiet time of night and intended then to proceed. But no sooner had they taken up their arms than the Syracusans perceived it and raised the paean.
So the Athenians, seeing that their movements were detected, again put down their arms—all except about three hundred men, who forced their way through the guards and proceeded during the night by whatever way they could.
When day cameEighth day of the retreat. Nicias led his army forward; but the Syracusans and their allies kept attacking in the same fashion, hurling missiles and striking them down with javelins on all sides.
The Athenians pushed on to the river Assinarus,The modern Falconara, called also Fiume di Noto. partly because they thought, hard pressed as they were on all sides by the attack of numerous horsemen and of the miscellaneous troops, that they would be somewhat better off if they crossed the river, and partly by reason of their weariness and desire for water.
And when they reached it, they rushed in, no longer preserving order, but everyone eager to be himself the first to cross; and at the same time the pressure of the enemy now made the crossing difficult. For since they were obliged to move in a dense mass, they fell upon and trod one another down, and some perished at once, run through by their own spears, while others became entangled in their trappings and were carried away by the current.
The Syracusans stood along the other bank of the river, which was steep, and hurled missiles down upon the Athenians, most of whom were drinking greedily and were all huddled in confusion in the hollow bed of the river.
Moreover, the Peloponnesians went down to the water's edge and butchered them, especially those in the river. The water at once became foul, but was drunk all the same, although muddy and dyed with blood, and indeed was fought for by most of them.
At length, when the deadThucydides is silent as to the number of the slain. Diodorus (xviii. 19) puts the loss at the river at 18,000 and the captured at 7000; but it is evident that he includes the army of Demosthenes. now lay in heaps one upon the other in the river, and the army had perished utterly, part in the river, and part—if any got safely across—at the hands of the cavalry, Nicias surrendered himself to Gylippus, having more confidence in him than in the Syracusans; and he bade him and the Lacedaemonians do with himself whatever they pleased, but to stop slaughtering the rest of the soldiers. Whereupon Gylippus at last gave orders to make prisoners;
and those of the survivors who had not been secretly appropriated by the Syracusan soldiers—and these were many— were brought in a body to Syracuse alive. They also sent men in pursuit of the three hundred, who had got through the guards the night before, and captured them.
Now that part of the army which was collected into the common stock was not large,Not more than 1000; for the total number of the captives was about 7000 (7.87.4), and of these 6000 had belonged to the division of Demosthenes (7.82.3). But the full magnitude of the catastrophe is seen in the fact that eight days before the final surrender the Athenian army numbered 40,000. but that which was secretly taken by the soldiers was large, and all Sicily was filled with them, inasmuch as they had not been taken by capitulation, as had the force under Demosthenes.
Besides, no small number had been killed; for the slaughter at the river had been very great—in fact, not inferior to any in this Sicilian war. And in the other frequent encounters which occurred on the march not a few had lost their lives. Notwithstanding all this, many escaped, some at the time, others afterwards, having become slaves and then making their escape; and the refuge for these was Catana.
When the forces of the Syracusans and their allies had been brought together, they took with them as many of the captives as they could and the booty and returned to the city.
All the rest of the prisoners they had taken of the Athenians and their allies they sent down into the stone-quarries, thinking it the safest way to keep them; but Nicias and Demosthenes they put to the sword, though against the wish of Gylippus. For he thought that it would be a glorious achievement if, in addition to his other successes, he could also bring the generals of the enemy home to the Lacedaemonians.
And it so happened that the one, Demosthenes, was regarded by the Lacedaemonians as their bitterest foe, on account of what had taken place on the island of Sphacteria and at Pylos; the other, for the same reason, as a very good friend; for Nicias had eagerly desiredcf. v. xvi. 1. that the Lacedaemonian prisoners taken on the island should be released, when he urged the Athenians to make peace.
For these reasons the Lacedaemonians were friendly towards him, and it was not least on that account that he trusted in Gylippus and surrendered himself to him. But it was said that some of the Syracusans were afraid, seeing that they had been in communication with him, lest, if he were subjected to torture on that account, he might make trouble for them in the midst of their success; and others, especially the Corinthians, were afraid, lest, as he was wealthy,He was worth 100 talents, according to Lysias, xix. 47. His property was chiefly in silver mines. He employed 1000 slaves in the mines at Laurium (Xen., De Vect. iv. 14). he might by means of bribes make his escape and cause them fresh difficulties; they therefore persuaded their allies and put him to death.
For this reason, then, or for a reason very near to this, Nicias was put to death—a man who, of all the Hellenes of my time, least deserved to meet with such a calamity, because of his course of life that had been wholly regulated in accordance with virtue.
The prisoners in the stone-quarries were at first treated harshly by the Syracusans. Crowded as they were in large numbers in a deep and narrow place, at first the sun and the suffocating heat caused them distress, there being no roof; while the nights that followed were, on the contrary, autumnal and cold, so that the sudden change engendered illness.
Besides, they were so cramped for space that they had to do everything in the same place; moreover, the dead were heaped together upon one another, some having died from wounds or because of the change in temperature or like causes, so that there was a stench that was intolerable. At the same time they were oppressed by both hunger and thirst—the Syracusans having for eight months given them each only a half-pint of water and a pint of food a dayThe scantiness of this allowance—only half the amount of food given to slaves—is best seen by a comparison with that which was allowed the Lacedaemonians taken on the island of Sphacteria, namely, “two quarts of barley-meal for each man and a pint of wine” (v. xvi. 1).; and of all the other ills which men thrown into such a place would be likely to suffer there was none that did not befall them.
Now for some seventy days they lived in this way all together; then all the rest, except the Athenians and any Siceliots and Italiots that had joined the expedition, were sold.