Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/355

337 DIFFICULTIES OF THE RETREAT. 337 on before them, and to occupy in force & position on the road, called the Aknsan cliff. Here the road, ascending a high hill, formed a sort of ravine bordered on each side by steep cliffs. The Syracusans erected a wall or barricade across the whole breadth of the road, and occupied the high ground on each side. But even to reach this pass was beyond the competence of the Athenians ; so impracticable was it to get over the ground in the face of overwhelming attacks from the enemy's cavalry and light troops. They were compelled, after a short march, to retreat to their camp of the night before. 1 Every hour added to the distress of their position ; for their food was all but exhausted, nor could any man straggle from the main body without encountering certain destruction from the cav- alry. Accordingly, on the next morning, they tried one more desperate effort to get over the hilly ground into the interior. Starting very early, they arrived at the foot of the hill called the Aknean cliff, where they found the barricades placed across the road, with deep files of Syracusan hoplites behind them, and crowds of light troops lining the cliffs on each border. They made the most strenuous and obstinate efforts to force this inex pugnable position, but all their struggles were vain, while they suffered miserably from the missiles of the troops above. Amidst all the discouragement of this repulse, they were yet farther dis- heartened by storms of thunder and lightning, which occurred during the time, and which they construed as portents significant of their impending ruin.- This fact strikingly illustrates both the change which the last two years had wrought in the contending parties, and the degree to which such religious interpretations of phenomena depended for their efficacy on predisposing temper, gloomy or cheerful. In the first battle between Nikias and the Syracusane, near the Great Harbor, some months before the siege was begun, a similar thunder-storm had taken place : on that occasion the Athenian soldiers had continued the battle unmoved, treating it as a natural event belonging to the season, and such indifference on their part 1 Thncyd. vii, 78. 1 Thucyd. vii, 79. (terfO(f i^e&cXf Kill ravra nuitra yiyvea'dai, VOL. vii. 15 22oc.