Nikias occupies the southern cliff-and prosecutes blockade Circle. Accordingly, without staying to finish his blockading wall regularly and continuously from the Circle southward, across the slope of Epipola-he his line of left the Circle under guard and marched across south of the at once to take possession of the southern cliff, at the point where the blockading wall was intended to reach it. This point of the southern cliff he immediately fortified as a defensive position, whereby he accomplished two objects. First, he prevented the Syracusans from again employing the cliff as a flank defence for a second counter-wall'. Next, he acquired the means of providing a safe and easy road of communication between the high ground of Epipole and the low marshy ground beneath, which 1 Thucyd. vi. 101. Τῇ δ' ὑστεραίᾳ ἀπὸ τοῦ κύκλου ἐτείχιζον οἱ ̓Αθηναῖοι τὸν κρημνὸν τὸν ὑπὲρ τοῦ ὅλους, ὃς τῶν Ἐπιπολῶν ταύτῃ πρὸς τὸν μέγαν λιμένα ὅρᾳ, καὶ ᾗπερ αὐτοῖς βραχύτατον ἐγίγνετο καταβᾶσι διὰ τοῦ ὁμάλου καὶ τοῦ ἔλους ἐς τὸν λίμενα τὸ περιτείχισμα. I give in the text what I believe to be the meaning of this sentence, though the words άñò тоû kúkλov are not clear, and have been differently construed. Göller in his first edition had construed them as if it stood ἀρξάμενοι ἀπὸ τοῦ κύκλου : as if the fortification now begun on the cliff was continuous and in actual junction with the Circle. In his second edition, he seems to relinquish this opinion, and to translate them in a manner similar to Dr. Arnold, who considers them as equivalent to аñò τοῦ κύκλου ὁρμώμενοι, but not at all implying that the fresh work performed was continuous with the Circle-which he believes not to have been the fact. If thus construed, the words would imply "starting from the Circle as a base of operations." Agreeing with Dr. Arnold in his conception of the event signified, I incline, in construing the words, to proceed upon the analogy of two or three passages in Thucyd. i. 7 ; i. 46; 1. 99 ; vi. 64-Αἱ δὲ παλαιαὶ πόλεις διὰ τὴν λῃστείαν ἐπιπολὺ ἀντισχοῦσαν ἀπὸ θαλάσσης μᾶλλον ο κίσθησαν...... Ἐστὶ δὲ λιμὴν, καὶ πόλις ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ κεῖται ἀπὸ θαλάσσης ἐν τῇ Ἐλαιάτιδι τῆς Θεσπρώτιδος, Εφύρη. In these passages ἀπὸ is used in the same sense as we find aжоev, iv. 125, signifying “apart from, at some distance from;" but not implying any accompanying idea of motion, or proceeding from, either literal or metaphorical. "The Athenians began to fortify, at some distance from their Circle, the cliff above the marsh," &c. divided Epipolæ from the Great Harbour, and across which the Athenian wall of circumvallation must necessarily be presently carried. As his troops would have to carry on simultaneous operations, partly on the high ground above, partly on the low ground beneath, he could not allow them to be separated from each other by a precipitous cliff which would prevent ready mutual assistance. The intermediate space between the Circle and the fortified point of the Cliff, was for the time left with an unfinished wall, with the intention of coming back to it (as was in fact afterwards done, and this portion of wall was in the end completed). The Circle, though isolated, was strong enough for the time to maintain itself against attack, and was adequately garrisoned. counter Syracusans marsh, south of Epipolæ, to the river Anapus. By this new movement, the Syracusans were de- Second barred from carrying a second counter-wall on the work of the same side of Epipolæ, since the enemy were mas--reaching ters of the terminating cliff on the southern side of across the the slope. They now turned their operations to the lower ground or marsh between the southern cliff of Epipolæ and the Great Harbour; being as yet free on that side, since the Athenian fleet was still at Thapsus. Across that marsh-and seemingly as far as the river Anapus, to serve as a flank barrier-they resolved to carry a palisade work with a ditch, so as to intersect the line which the Athenians must next pursue in completing the southernmost portion of their circumvallation. They so pressed the prosecution of this new cross palisade, beginning from the lower portion of their own city-walls, and stretching in a south-westerly direction across the low ground as far as the river This counter-work attacked and taken by Lama chus-ge -death of Anapus, that by the time the new Athenian fortification of the cliff was completed, the new Syracusan obstacle was completed also1, and a stockade with a ditch seemed to shut out the besiegers from reaching the Great Harbour. Lamachus overcame the difficulty before him with ability and bravery. Descending unexpectedly, one morning before daybreak, from his fort neral battle on the cliff at Epipolæ into the low ground beneath Lamachus. and providing his troops with planks and broad gates to bridge over the marsh where it was scarcely passable-he contrived to reach and surprise the palisade with the first dawn of morning. Orders were at the same time given for the Athenian fleet to sail round from Thapsus into the Great Harbour, so as to divert the attention of the enemy, and get on the rear of the new palisade work. But before the fleet could arrive, the palisade and ditch had been carried, and its defenders driven off. A large Syracusan force came out from the city to sustain them, and retake it; bringing on a general action in the low ground between the Cliff of Epipolæ, the Harbour, and the river Anapus. The superior discipline of the Athenians proved successful: the Syracusans were defeated and driven back on all sides, so that their right wing fled into the city, and their left (including the larger portion of their best force, the horsemen), along the banks of the river Anapus, to reach the bridge. Flushed with victory, the Athenians hoped to cut them off The course and extent (as I conceive it) of this second counterwork, palisade, and ditch, will be found marked on Plan I., by the letters P, Q. from this retreat, and a chosen body of 300 hoplites ran fast in hopes of getting to the bridge first. In this hasty movement they fell into such disorder, that the Syracusan cavalry turned upon them, put them to flight, and threw them back upon the Athenian right wing, to which the fugitives communicated their own panic and disorder. The fate of the battle appeared to be turning against the Athenians, when Lamachus, who was on the left wing, hastened to their aid with the Argeian hoplites and as many bowmen as he could collect. His ardour carried him incautiously forward, so that he crossed a ditch, with very few followers, before the remaining troops could follow him. He was here attacked and slain', in single combat with a horseman named Kallikratês but the Syracusans were driven back when his soldiers came up, and had only just time to snatch and carry off his dead body, with which they crossed the bridge and retreated behind the Anapus. The rapid movement of this gallant officer was thus crowned with complete success, restoring the victory to his own right wing; a victory dearly purchased by the forfeit of his own life2. the Athe Meanwhile the visible disorder and temporary Danger of flight of the Athenian right wing, and the with- nian Circle drawal of Lamachus from the left to reinforce it, and of Niimparted fresh courage to the Syracusan right, tory of the which had fled into the town. They again came forth to renew the contest; while their generals at 1 Thucyd. vi. 102; Plutarch, Nikias, c. 18. Diodorus erroneously places the battle, in which Lamachus was slain, after the arrival of Gylippus (xiii. 8). 2 Thucyd. vi. 102. Athenians. tempted a diversion by sending out a detachment from the north-western gates of the city to attack the Athenian Circle on the mid-slope of Epipolæ. As this Circle lay completely apart and at considerable distance from the battle, they hoped to find the garrison unprepared for attack, and thus to carry it by surprise. Their manœuvre, bold and well-timed, was on the point of succeeding. They carried with little difficulty the covering outwork in front, and the Circle itself, probably stript of part of its garrison to reinforce the combatants in the lower ground, was only saved by the presence of mind and resource of Nikias, who was lying ill within it. He directed the attendants to set fire to a quantity of wood which lay, together with the battering engines of the army, in front of the Circle-wall, so that the flames prevented all farther advance on the part of the assailants, and forced them to retreat. The flames also served as a signal to the Athenians engaged in the battle beneath, who immediately sent reinforcements to the relief of their general; while at the same time the Entrance of Athenian fleet, just arrived from Thapsus, was seen sailing into the Great Harbour. This last event, Great Har- threatening the Syracusans on a new side, drew off their whole attention to the defence of their city. Their combatants from the field, and their detachment from the Circle, were each brought back within the walls1. the Athe nian fleet into the bour. Had the recent attempt on the Circle succeeded, carrying with it the death or capture of Nikias, and 1 Thucyd. vi. 102. |