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 THUCYDIDES AT AMPHIPOLIS i8i own country, where he had some hereditary chieftain- ship among the Thracians, and it was at that moment the very centre of the war. The Spartan Brasidas, in the flush of his enormous prestige, was in the heart of the Athenian dependencies. A defeat would annihilate him, as he had no base to retire upon ; and the conqueror of Brasidas would be the first military name in Greece. No one can tell exactly what happened. The two towns in especial danger were Amphipolis and Eion on the Strymon. The mere presence of the Athenian ships might suffice to save these two towns, but could do little to hurt Brasidas. Whereas, if only Thucydides could raise the Thracian tribes, Brasidas might be all but annihilated. That is what the Amphipolitans seem to have expected ; and that is perhaps why, when Brasidas, starting unexpectedly and marching all day and all night through driving snow, stormed the bridge of the Strymon in the winter dawn and appeared under the walls of Amphipolis, Thucydides was half a day's sail away near Thasos, opposite his centre of influence in Thrace. His colleague Eucles was in Amphipolis, and the town could easily have held out. But Brasidas had his agents inside ; his terms were more than moderate, and there had always been an anti- Athenian party. When the first seven ships from Thasos raced into the river at dusk, Amphipolis was lost, and so was Thucydides's great opportunity. He threw himself into Eion, had the barren satisfac- tion of beating Brasidas twice back from the walls ; then — all we know is given in his own words (v. 26) — "// befell to me to be an exile from my country for twenty years after my command at Amphipolis y