Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/494

 472 HISTORY Ot GREECE. soldiers issued out through them to attack the retreating Athe- nians. Running rapidly down the straight road which joined laterally the road towards Eion along which the Athenians were marching, he charged their central division on the right flank : l their left wing had already got beyond him on the road towards Eion. Taken completely unprepared, conscious of their own dis- orderly array, and astounded at the boldness of their enemy, the Athenians of the centre were seized with panic, made not the least resistance, and presently fled. Even the Athenian left, though not attacked at all, instead of halting to lend assistance., shared the panic and fled in disorder. Having thus disorganized this part of the army, Brasidas passed along the line to press his attack on the Athenian right : but in this movement he was mor- tally wounded and carried off the field, unobserved by his enemies. Meanwhile Klearidas, sallying forth from the Thracian gate, had attacked the Athenian right on the ridge opposite to him, imme- diately after it began its retreat. But the soldiers on the Athe- 1 Thucyd. v, 10. Kal 6 fiev, aru raf ni TO aravpu/ia TriJAaf, KOI ruf Trpurac TOV jtaKpov Tei%ovf TOTE ovTOf eAi?wv, e&ei Spofiu TTJV o6bv ravTTjv ei&eiar, $~ep vvv Kara, rd KapTtpuTarov TOV %upiov IOVTI TO rpo-alov iarrjue. Brasidas and his men sallied forth by two different gates at the same time. One was the first gate in the Long Wall, which would be the first gate in order, to a person coming from the southward. The other was the gate upon the palisade (al evl TO aravpufia xiihai), that is, the gate in the Long Wall which opened from the town upon the palisade. The persons who sallied out by this gate would get out to attack the enemy by the gate in the palisade itself. The gate in the Long Wall which opened from the town upon the pal- isade, would be that by which Brasidas himself with his army entered Amphipolis from Mount Kerdylium. It probably stood open at this mo- ment when he directed the sally forth : that which had to be opened at the moment, was the gate in the palisade, together with the first gate in the Long Wall. The last words cited in Thucydides tf~fp virv narti, TO KaprepuTaroi TOV xupiov IOVTI TO Tpoiralov IOTTJKE are not intelligible without better knowledge of the topography than we possess. What Thucydides means by " the strongest point in the place," we cannot tell. We only understand that the trophy was erected in the road by which a person went up to that point. We must recollect that the expressions of Thucydides here refer tc the ground as it stood sometime afterwards, m t as it stood at the time of the battle between Kleon and Brasidas.