XVIII. CHAP. that the sacred dues of the dead, objects commonly of such anxious attention, were totally neglected; no herald was sent to request the restitution of the bodies, no care was taken about their burial, but every thought was absorbed in the evils that pressed, and the perils that threatened, the living. Amid the general despair, however, Demosthenes did not lose his usual energy of mind. Going to Nicias, he proposed what might still have saved the greater part of the forces. Sixty triremes remained to the Athenians those of the enemy, tho victorious, were reduced to fifty. He thought it therefore very possible still to force the passage out to sea, if, imbarking that very night, they made the attempt at daybreak. Nicias approved, but the crews absolutely refused. To retreat,' they peevishly remonstrated, was all the generals wanted; they 'would go anywhere by land, and fight their way, if necessary; but by sea the experience of the past sufficiently proved that they could expect ' nothing but destruction.' The execution of the salutary measure was thus prevented by excess of discouragement. ut ant. SECTION VIII. Retreat of the Athenians from Syracuse. GYLIPPUS and the Syracusan chiefs, on considering Thucyd. the advantages which their last success gave them, became more than ever desirous to prevent the departure of the enemy: the Syracusans, by the complete destruction of the invading armament, would deter future invasion; and Gylippus hoped, in VIII. effect, to conquer Athens itself in Sicily. The opi- SECT. nion was general in Syracuse, and it justified the proposal of Demosthenes, that the Athenians would now think only of retreat by land, and it was suppos ed they would move that very night. But the Syracusan people, wearied with the labor of the day, and exhilarated with its success, were more eager to injoy the leisure, which they had so well earned, than solicitous about any future events. It happened too that the morrow was the festival of Hercules. Among such an assemblage of people of Dorian race, and on such an occasion, the desire of duly celebrating the day of a hero-god, with whom they esteemed themselves so connected, became irresistible; and nothing could persuade them to quit the religious revel for nocturnal military enterprize. Hermocrates, who had been at first most urgent for marching immediately to intercept the Athenians, knew his fellowcitizens and mankind too well to attempt, in such circumstances, to force inclination: but his fruitful genius provided still a resource for the attainment of his purpose. In the evening, some persons under his direction went on horseback to the Athenian camp; and approaching enough to be heard, when they could be little distinctly seen, pretended they were of the party which had been accustomed to communicate with Nicias. Finding credit so far, they charged those whom they had ingaged in conversation, to go and tell the general, that the passes were already occupied by the Syracusans, and that he would therefore do 'well not to move that night, but wait and concert 'his measures.' The fatal bait was taken, and the next day was spent by the Athenians in various 1. 7. c. 74. preparation for the march. Thucyd. CHAP. But Gylippus and Hermocrates, having yielded XVIII. in the moment to the wishes of their people, found means, before the morrow ended, to ingage them in their own views. Their victorious fleet went to the Athenian naval station, and no opposition being attempted, they carried off, or burnt on the spot, every ship there. The army at the same time marched out, under the conduct of Gylippus, and occupied all the principal passes around the Athenian camp, and in that line of country which the Athenians would probably propose to traverse. On the next day26, every thing being prepared, as far as circumstances would permit, orders were issued by the Athenian generals for marching. The Thucyd. pen of Thucydides and the language of Athens are 1.7.c. 75. wanting, to describe adequately the scene presenting itself upon that occasion; when, in the bitterness of antient warfare, every horror offered itself to expectation, that the human body can suffer or the human mind conceive. No light distress arose from the reflection, that, instead of fulfilling the lofty hopes of their enterprize, the whole of so powerful a fleet was destroyed; that, through their failure, ruin threatened their country; and that, instead of returning, as they had so lately with reason expected, conquerors of Sicily, an ignominious flight was their only, and that almost a hopeless resource, for avoiding slavery or death. But, in the circumstances of that flight, many dreadful considerations, many lamentable objects, presented themselves, striking home to the feelings of every individual. The dead lay yet unburied; and the 26 The third from the naval action, according to the phrase of Thucydides, and the usual manner of reckoning of the Greeks; who counted the day itself of an action first, the next day as second, and so forth. recollection, or, in many instances, the sight, of a relation or a friend so neglected, struck not only with grief but with horror. Yet the voices and the actions of the many living, whom wounds or sickness disabled for the march, their complaints, their expostulations, their prayers, their embraces, and the painful, yet fruitless endevors of some to follow their friends, were still more distressing than the compunction which arose from the neglect, impious as it was deemed, but so far excusable as it was unavoidable, of the still and silent dead. Mutual reproach then, and self-reproach, for that share which any had had in superinducing or inhancing the public calamity, whether by promoting the enterprize, or by obstructing the retreat, occasionally aggravated the bitterness of woe. Such, in short, says the historian, was the accumulated weight of present misery, that it threw the whole multitude into tears; and, absorbing the apprehension of farther danger, took away almost the desire, and even the power to move. At length the march commencing, resembled that of a whole city flying from a besieging army. This is the remark of the cotemporary historian, drawing a comparison from among those circumstances which distinguish antient from modern times. For the numbers, he continues, including attendants, were not less than forty thousand. Attendants however were of little importance: mostly slaves, they deserted openly; and in the instant of the army's moving, the greater part disappeared. Thus even the cavalry and the heavy-armed were reduced to carry their own provisions and necessaries; some being without attendants, some mistrusting those who remained to them: and the small portion of provisions they possessed demand SECT. VIII. CHAP. ed every care, since it was far from being equal to their probable wants. XVIII. Thucyd. 1.7. c. 76. c. 77. Amid the extreme dejection and anguish, not without reason pervading the armament, Nicias wonderfully supported the dignity of his character and situation. Individually the distress of the existing circumstances appeared not to affect him; his only anxiety seemed to be to relieve that of others, and to diffuse incouragement among all. The historian's authority for the remarkable words he attributes to him on the occasion, tho not stated, certainly might be good: but whether we consider them as conveying the sentiments of Nicias or of Thucydides, they are highly interesting, as they mark the opinion entertained of the Divine Providence, by a man of exalted rank, of extensive information and experience, just and religiously disposed, but never taught to consider this life as a state of probation, and to expect, in futurity, the reward of good or the punishment of evil deeds, From the head of the line, according to Thucydides, exerting his voice to the utmost, that he might be heard as extensively as possible, Nicias, with an unruffled countenance, desired the troops to advert to his own case: 'I,' he said, 'am in body (you may see indeed the state to which sickness has 'reduced me) very far from being the strongest among you. In the blessings of high fortune I was once inferior to none: but now I must bear every present evil, I have to apprehend every threatened 'danger, in common with the lowest under my 'command. Such is my lot; who have always been regular and zealous in every duty to the gods; and not only, as far as depended simply on myself, scrupulously just, but liberally charitable among men. Hence I have hope and confidence |