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SALLY AND DEATH OF EPmALTES. 97 fnth so much impetuosity, that some of the covering wicker-work of the engines, and even the main wood-work of one of them, Avas burnt. It was not without ditiiculty that Pliilotas and Hellani- kus, the officers on guard, preserved the remainder ; nor were the besieged finally driven in, until Alexander himself appeared with reinforcements.^ Though his troops had been victors in these successive combats, yet he could not carry off" his dead, who lay close to the walls, without soliciting a truce for burial. Such request usually counted as a confession of defeat : nevertheless Alexander solicited the truce, which was granted by Memnon, in spite of the contrary opinion of Ephialtes.2 After a few days of interval, for burying his dead and repair ing the engines, Alexander recommenced attack upon the half- moon, under his own personal superintendence. Among the leaders within, a conviction gained ground that the place could not long hold out. Ephialtes especially, resolved not to survive the capture, and seeing that the only chance of preservation con- sisted in destroying the besieging engines, obtained pennission from Memnon to put himself at the head of a last desperate sal- ly .3 He took immediately near him 2000 chosen troops, half to encounter the enemy, half with torches to burn the engines. At daybreak, all the gates being suddenly and simultaneously thrown ' Anian, i. 21, 7-12. ^ Diodor. xvii. 25. ^ The last desperate struggle of the besieged, is what stands described in i. 22 of Arrian, and in xvii. 26, 27 of Diodorus ; though the two descriptions are very difFererit. Arrian does not name Ephialtes at Halikarnassus. He follows the Macedonian authors, Ptolemy and Aristobulus ; who probably dwelt only on Memnon and the Persians as their real enemies, treating the Greeks in general as a portion of the hostile force. On the other hand, Diodorus and Curtius appear to have followed, in great part, Grecian authors ; in whose viev/ eminent Athenian exiles, like Ephialtes and Chari- demus, counted for much more. The fact here mentioned by Diodorus, that Ephialtes drove back the young Macedonian guard, and that the l)attle was restored only by the extraordinary efforts of the old guard — is one of much interest, which I see no reason for mistrusting, though Arrian says nothing about it. Cur- tius (v. 2; viii.l) makes allusion to it on a subsequent occasion, naming Atharrias : the part of his work in which it ought to have been narrated, is lost. On this, as on other occasions, Arrian slurs over the partial reverses, obstructions, and losses, cf Alexander's career. His authorities probably did so before him. VOL. XII. 9