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Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War

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Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War
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Author(s): Thucydides
Date Published: 2013/01
Page Count: 504
Softcover ISBN-13: 978-1-78282-001-7
Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-1-78282-000-0

An ancient conflict brought vividly to life by its greatest historian

For those familiar with contemporary works of military history there may be something disconcerting about a book written over 2,000 years ago. The Athenian Thucydides was however an historian very much in the modern mould, who wrote without making reference to ‘the Gods’ and who relied upon the verification of facts to assemble his narrative. So contemporary readers might be surprised—and delighted even—to discover here a very readable text full of vital and immediate detail. The Peloponnesian War, fought in the fifth century B. C between the city-states of Greece, lasted twenty seven years. The warring factions were the the dominant Greek city-state Athens, supported by its imperial allies, and Sparta which led the Peloponnesian League. The war comprised three phases, the first of which, the ‘Archidamian War’ involved sustained land attacks on Attica by the Spartans whilst Athens raided the enemy coastline with its superior naval power. A brief peace soon failed and then Athens dispatched a force to Sicily where it was annihilated. The final phase, ‘The Ionian War’ or ‘Decelean War,’ proved decisive, as Sparta both allied itself with the Persian Empire and supported subject states in their rebellions against Athens. Critically, this strategy deprived Athens of its naval supremacy at the Battle of Aegospotami and forced its surrender. The war was long, bitter and destructive, with swathes of the countryside being devastated and whole cities destroyed. Atrocities on a grand scale were common. The outcome of the war fundamentally changed the character of ancient Greece and the conflict is considered to have terminated Greece’s classical ‘golden age.’ New readers should not be daunted by the antiquity of this work which is recommended to all those interested in the warfare of the ancient world. Includes maps to assist the modern reader in understanding both the theatre of war and specific engagements.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.

ing the night Nicias and Demosthenes, seeing the wretched condition of their troops, now in want of every kind of necessary, and numbers of them disabled in the numerous attacks of the enemy, determined to light as many fires as possible, and to lead off the army, no longer by the same route as they had intended, but towards the sea in the opposite direction to that guarded by the Syracusans. The whole of this route was leading the army not to Catana but to the other side of Sicily, towards Camarina, Gela, and the other Hellenic and barbarian towns in that quarter. They accordingly lit a number of fires and set out by night. Now all armies, and the greatest most of all, are liable to fears and alarms, especially when they are marching by night through an enemy’s country and with the enemy near; and the Athenians falling into one of these panics, the leading division, that of Nicias, kept together and got on a good way in front, while that of Demosthenes, comprising rather more than half the army, got separated and marched on in some disorder.<br>
By morning, however, they reached the sea, and getting into the Helorine Road, pushed on in order to reach the River Cacyparis, and to follow the stream up through the interior, where they hoped to be met by the Sicels whom they had sent for. Arrived at the river, they found there also a Syracusan party engaged in barring the passage of the ford with a wall and a palisade, and forcing this guard, crossed the river and went on to another called the Erineus, according to the advice of their guides.<br>
Meanwhile, when day came and the Syracusans and allies found that the Athenians were gone, most of them accused Gylippus of having let them escape on purpose, and hastily pursuing by the road which they had no difficulty in finding that they had taken, overtook them about dinner-time. They first came up with the troops under Demosthenes, who were behind and marching somewhat slowly and in disorder, owing to the night-panic above referred to, and at once attacked and engaged them, the Syracusan horse surrounding them with more ease now that they were separated from the rest, and hemming them in on one spot. The division of Nicias was five or six miles on in front, as he led them more rapidly, thinking that under the circumstances their safety lay not in staying and fighting, unless obliged, but in retreating as fast as possible, and only fighting when forced to do so.<br>
On the other hand, Demosthenes was, generally speaking, harassed more incessantly, as his post in the rear left him the first exposed to the attacks of the enemy; and new, finding that the Syracusans were in pursuit, he omitted to push on, in order to form, his men for battle, and so lingered until he was surrounded by his pursuers and himself and the Athenians with him placed in the most distressing position, being huddled into an enclosure with a wall all round it, a road on this side and on that, and olive-trees in great number, where missiles were showered in upon them from every quarter. This mode of attack the Syracusans had with good reason adopted in preference to fighting at close quarters, as to risk a struggle with desperate men was now more for the advantage of the Athenians than for their own; besides, their success had now become so certain that they began to spare themselves a little in order not to be cut off in the moment of victory, thinking too that, as it was, they would be able in this way to subdue and capture the enemy.<br>
In fact, after plying the Athenians and allies all day long from every side with missiles, they at length saw that they were worn out with their wounds and other sufferings; and Gylippus and the Syracusans and their allies made a proclamation, offering their liberty to any of the islanders who chose to come over to them; and some few cities went over. Afterwards a capitulation was agreed upon for all the rest with Demosthenes, to lay down their arms on condition that no one was to be put to death either by violence or imprisonment or want of the necessaries of life. Upon this they surrendered to the number of six thousand in all, laying down all the money in their possession, which filled the hollows of four shields, and were immediately conveyed by the Syracusans to the town.<br>
Meanwhile Nicias with his division arrived that day at the River Erineus, crossed over and posted his army upon some high ground upon the other side. The next day the Syracusans overtook him and told him that the troops under Demosthenes had surrendered, and invited him to follow their example. Incredulous of the fact, Nicias asked for a truce to send a horseman to see, and upon the return of the messenger with the tidings that they had surrendered, sent a herald to Gylippus and the Syracusans, saying that he was ready to agree with them on behalf of the Athenians to repay whatever money the Syracusans had spent upon the war if they would let his army go; and offered until the money was paid to give Athenians as hostages, one for every talent.<br>
The Syracusans and Gylippus rejected this proposition, and attacked this division as they had the other, standing all round and plying them with missiles until the evening. Food and necessaries were as miserably wanting to the troops of Nicias as they had been to their comrades; nevertheless they watched for the quiet of the night to resume their march. But as they were taking up their arms the Syracusans perceived it and raised their pæan, upon which the Athenians, finding that they were discovered, laid them down again, except about three hundred men who forced their way through the guards and went on during the night as they were able.<br>
As soon as it was day Nicias put his army in motion, pressed, as before, by the Syracusans and their allies, pelted from every side by their missiles, and struck down by their javelins. The Athenians pushed on for the Assinarus, impelled by the attacks made upon them from every side by a numerous cavalry and the swarm of other arms, fancying that they should breathe more freely if once across the river, and driven on also by their exhaustion and craving for water.