Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/166

158 BATTLE OF M ANT IN E A [v beyond the Sciritae : and still further, in proportion as the army to which they belonged was the larger, did the Lace- daemonians and Tegeans on the Lacedaemonian right wing extend beyond the Athenian left. Agis was afraid that the Lacedaemonian left wing would be surrounded, and, thinking that the Mantineans outflanked them too far, he signalled to the Sciritae and the old soldiers of Brasidas to make a lateral movement away from his own division of the army, and so cover the line of the Mantineans : to fill up the space thus left vacant he ordered Hipponoidas and Aristocles, two of the polemarchs, to bring up their two divisions from the right wing, thinking that he would still have more troops than he wanted there, and that he would thus strengthen that part of his line which was opposed to the Mantineans. 72 He had given the order at the last moment, when the But the ddachmmt charge had already begun, and Aris- refitsing to stir, the toclcs and Ilipponoidas refused to Mm.tmeaus and A,- niake the movement. (Forthecowardice gives rush throtii^h the ■ • 1 ■ 11 gap and defeat the left which theyvvere supposed to have ivmg of the Lacidae- shown on this occasion they were after- uiontaus. wards banished from Sparta.) The enemy were upon him before he was ready, and as the two divisions would not advance into the place left by the Sciritae, Agis ordered the Sciritae themselves to close up, but he found that it was too late, and that they also were now unable to fill the vacant space. Then the Lacedae- monians showed in a remarkable manner that, although utterly failing in their tactics, they could win by their courage alone. When they were at close quarters with the enemy, the Mantinean right put to flight the Sciritae and the soldiers of Brasidas. The Mantineans and their allies and the thousand chosen Argives dashed in through the gap in the Lacedaemonian ranks and completed their defeat; they surrounded and routed them, and so drove them to their waggons, where they killed some of the elder men who were appointed to guard them. In this part of