Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/470

 448 HISTORY OF G REECE. them were moving down upon his rear. Brasidas gave orders to his chosen three hundred, to charge up the most assailable of the two hills, with their best speed, before it became more numerously occupied, not staying to preserve compact ranks. This unexpected and vigorous movement disconcerted the barbarians, who fled, abandoning the eminence to the Greeks, and leaving their own men in the pass expDsed on one of their flanks. 1 The retreating army, thus master of one of the side hills, was enabled to force its way through the middle pass, and to drive away the Lynkestian and Illyrian occupants. Having got through this narrow outlet, Brasidas found himself on thf- higher ground, nor did his enemies dare to attack him farther : so that he was enabled to reach, even in that day's march, the first town or village in the kingdom of Perdikkas, called Arnissa. So incensed were his soldiers with the Macedonian subjects of Perdikkas, who had fled on the first news of danger without giving them any notice, that they seized and appropriated all the articles of baggage, not inconsiderable in number, which hap- pened to have been dropped in the disorder of a nocturnal flight ; and they even unharnessed and slew the oxen out of the baggage carts. 2 Perdikkas keenly resented this behavior of the troops of Bras- idas, following as it did immediately upon his own quarrel with that general, and upon the mortification of his repulse from Lyn- kestis. From this moment he broke off his alliance with tho Peloponnesians, and opened negotiations with Nikias, then en- gaged in constructing the wall of blockade round Skione. Such was the general faithlessness of this prince, however, that Nikias 1 Thncyd. iv, 128. It is not possible clearly to understand this passage without some knowledge of the ground to which it refers. I presume that the regular road through the defile, along which the main army of Brasidas passed, was long and winding, making the ascent to the top very gradual, but at the same time exposed on both sides from the heights above. The detachment of three hundred scaled the steep heights on one side, and drova away the enemy, thus making it imp jssible for him to remain any longer even in the main road. But I do not suppose, with Dr. Arnold, that tho main army of Brasidas followed the three hundred, and ' : broke out of the valley by scaling one of its sides : " they pursued the main rc-d, as soon n* it was cleared for them. * Thucyd. iv, 127, 128