Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/137

EEPULSE OF NYPSIUS. HI there lay before him the tripartite interior city Tycha, Neapo- lis, Achradina. Each of these parts had its separate fortification between Tycha and Neapolis lay an unfortified space, but each of them joined on to Achradina, the western wall of which formed their eastern wall. It is probable that these interior fortifications had been partially neglected since the construction of the outer walls along Epipoke, which comprised them all within, and form- ed the principal defence against a foreign enemy. Moreover the troops of Nypsius, having been masters of the three towns, and roving as destroyers around them, for several hours, had doubt- less broken down the gates and in other ways weakened the de- fences. The scene was frightful, and the ways everywhere im- peded by flame and smoke, by falling houses and fragments, and by the numbers who lay massacred around. It was amidst such horrors that Dion and his soldiers found themselves while pen- etrating in different divisions at once into Neapolis, Tycha, and Achradina. His task would probably have been difficult, had Nypsius been able to control the troops under his command, in themselves brave and good. But these troops had been for some hours dispersed throughout the streets, satiating their licentious and murderous passions, and destroying a town which Dionysius now no longer expected to retain. Recalling as many soldiers as he could from this brutal disorder, Nypsius marshalled them along the interior fortification, occupying the entrances and exposed points where Dion would seek to penetrate into the city. 1 The battle was dius not continuous, but fought between detached parties at separate openings, often very narrow, and on ground sometimes difficult to surmount, amidst the conflagration blazing everywhere around. 9 Disorganized by pillage, the troops of Nypsius could 1 Plutarch, Dion, c. 46. Trapareray/zevwv irapu TO ret^t<T l ua ^a/le- nt/v t'xov Kal 6vaeK/3iaaTOv TTJV irpoaodov. To n person who, after penetrating into the interior of the wall of Epi- polae, stood on the slope, and looked down eastward, the outer wall of Tycha, Achradina, and Neapolis, might be said to form one Tet^ifffja ; not indeed iu one and the same line or direction, yet continuous from the northern to the southern brink of Epipolae. 2 Plutarch, Dion, c. 46. 'Of 6e irpoat:fj.i^av Tolf Kohsfiioif, cv xepal (isv Mdyuv ?rpdf 6/Uyouf eyf.vero /J.a%r], diu TTJV arevo~rjTa Kal Tqv avupaXiav rot fo.vw, etc.