Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/367

 THE LACEDEMONIANS ARE OVERPOWERED. 34{, of higher ground against enemies charging from beneath. Al- though the Athenians were double their own numbers and withal yet unexhausted, they were repulsed in many successive attacks. The besieged maintained their ground in spite of all their pre- vious fatigue and suffering, harder to be borne from the scanty diet on which they had recently subsisted. The struggle lasted so long that heat and thirst began to tell even upon the assailants, when the commander of the Messenians came to Kleon and De- mosthenes, and intimated that they were now laboring in vain ; promising at the same time that if they would confide to him a detachment of light troops and bowmen, he would find his way round to the higher cliffs in the rear of the assailants. 1 He accordingly stole away unobserved from the rear, scrambling round over pathless crags, and by an almost impracticable foot- ing on the brink of the sea, amidst approaches which the Lacedae- monians had left unguarded, never imagining that they could be molested in that direction. He suddenly appeared with his detachment on the higher peak above them, so that thei"* position was thus commanded, and they found themselves, as at Ther- mopylae, between two fires, without any hope of escape. Their enemies in front, encouraged by the success of the Messenians, pressed forward with increased ardor, until at length the courage of the Lacedaemonians gave way, and the position was carried. 2 A few moments more, and they would have been all overpow- ered and slain, when Kleon and Demosthenes, anxious to carry them as prisoners to Athens, constrained their men to halt, and proclaimed by herald an invitation to surrender, on condition of delivering up their arms and being held at the disposal of the Athenians. Most of them, incapable of farther effort, closed with the proposition forthwith, signifying compliance by dropping their shields and waving both hands above their heads. The battle being thus ended, Styphon the commander originally only third in command, but now chief, since Epitadas had been slain, and the second in command, Hippagretes, was lying dis- abled by wounds on the field entered into confereace with Kleon and Demosthenes, and entreated permission to send across for orders to the Lacedaemonians on the mainland. The Athe 1 Thncyd. iv, 36. * Thucvd. iv, 37 15*