Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/328

320 THE GREAT DEFEAT OF THE ATHENIANS [vil to land. Then that part of the navy which had not been taken in the deep water fell back in confusion to the shore, and the crews rushed out of the ships into the camp ^. And the land-forces, no longer now divided in feeling, but uttering one universal groan of intolerable anguish, ran, some of them to save the ships, others to defend what remained of the wall ; but the greater ninnber began to look to themselves and to their own safety. Never had there been a greater panic in an Athenian army than at that moment. They now suffered what they had done to others at Pylos. For at Pylos the Lacedaemonians, when they saw their ships destroyed, knew that their friends who had crossed over into the island of Sphacteria were lost with themK And so now the Athenians, after the rout of their fleet, knew that they had no hope of saving themselves by land unless events took some extraordinary turn. 72 Thus, after a fierce battle and a great destruction of ships and men on both sides, the Syra- Demosilicnes desires j ,1 • n- • 1*1 . .. ,,. /7 , cusans and their allies gamed the to renew the coiijlict. o Ihit the sailors are victory. They gathered up the wrecks paralysed and refuse to j^^d bodies of the dead, and sailing embark. So it is de- , , . .^ , , ^ u ciJed to depart by land, ^ack to the City, erected a trophy. The Athenians, overwhelmed by their misery, never so much as thought of recovering their wrecks or of asking leave to collect their dead. Their intention was to retreat that very night. Demosthenes came to Nicias and proposed that they should once more man their remaining vessels and endeavour to force the passage at daybreak, saying that they had more ships fit for service than the enemy. For the Athenian fleet still numbered sixty, but the enemy had less than fifty. Nicias approved of his proposal, and they would have manned the ships, but the sailors refused to embark ; for they were paralysed by their defeat, and had no longer any hope of Cp. vii. 41 init., 74 fin. Cp. iv. 14 init.