Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/272

254 251 HISTORY OF GREECE. carried. As his troops would have to carry on simultaneous operations, partly on the high ground above, partly on the low ground beneath, he could not allow them to be separated from each other by a precipitous cliff which would prevent ready mutual assistance. The intermediate space between the Circle and the fortified point of the cliff, was for the time left with an unfinished wall, with the intention of coming back to it, as was in fact afterwards done, and this portion of wall was in the end com- pleted. The Circle though isolated, was strong enough for the time to maintain itself against attack, and was adequately garri- soned. By this new movement, the Syracusans were debarred from carrying a second counter-wall on the same side of Epipolae, since the enemy were masters of the terminating cliff on the southern side of the slope. They now turned their operations to the lower ground or marsh between the southern cliff of the Epipoloa and the Great Harbor; being as yet free on that side, since the Athenian fleet was still at Thapsus. Across that marsh and seemingly as far as the river Anapus, to serve as a flank barrier they resolved to carry a palisade work with a ditch, so as to intersect the line which the Athenians must next pursue in com- pleting the southernmost portion of their circumvallation. They so pressed the prosecution of this new cross palisade, beginning from the lower portion of their own city walls, and stretching in a southwesterly direction across the low ground as far as the river Anapus, that, by the- time the new Athenian fortification on the cliff was completed, the new Syracusan obstacle was com- pleted also, and a stockade with a ditch seemed to shut out the besiegers from reaching the Great Harbor. Lamachus overcame the difficulty before him with ability and bravery. Descending unexpectedly, one morning before day- break, from his fort on the cliff of Epipolae into the low ground beneath, and providing his troops with planks and broad gates to bridge over the marsh where it was scarcely passable, he contrived to reach and surprise the palisade with the first dawn of morning. Orders were at the same time given for the Athe- nian fleet to sail round from Thapsus into the Great Harbor, sc as to divert the attention of the enemy, and get on the rear of the new palisade work. But before the fleet (vould arrive, thf