Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/167

 DEFEAT OF MNASIPPUS. 145 many of the citizens deserted, and numbers of slaves were thrust* out. Mnasippus refused to receive them, making pu): i; c proclama- tion that eveiy one who deserted should be sold into slavery ; and since deserters nevertheless continued to come, he caused them to be scourged back to the city-gates. As for the unfortunate slaves, being neither received by him, nor re-admitted within, many perished outside of the gates from sheer hunger. 1 Such spectacles of misery portended so visibly the approaching hour of surrender, that the besieging army became careless, and the general insolent. Though his military chest was well-filled, through the numerous pecuniary payments which he had received from allies in commutation of personal service, yet he had dis- missed several of his mercenaries without pay, and had kept all of them unpaid for the last two months. His present temper made him not only more harsh towards his own soldiers, 2 but also less vigilant in the conduct of the siege. Accordingly the be- sieged, detecting from their watch-towers the negligence of the guards, chose a favorable opportunity and made a vigorous sally. Mnasippus, on seeing his outposts driven in, armed himself and hastened forward with the Lacedaemonians around him to sustain them ; giving orders to the officers of the mercenaries to bring their men forward also. But these officers replied, that they could not answer for the obedience of soldiers without pay ; upon which Mnasippus was so incensed, that he struck them with his stick and with the shaft of his spear. Such an insult inflamed still farther the existing discontent. Both officers and soldiers came to the combat discouraged and heartless, while the Athenian peltasts and the Korkyrasan hoplites, rushing out of several gates at once, pressed their attack with desperate energy. Mnasippus, after dis- playing great personal valor, was at length slain, and all his troops, being completely routed, fled back to the fortified camp in which their stores were preserved. Even this too might have been taken, and the whole armament destroyed, had the besieged attacked it 1 Xen. Hellen. vi, 2, 15. 2 Xen. Hellen. vi, 2, 16. 'O <5' aii MvatTiTTTrcif dptiv ravra, evo/j.c^e t e oaov OVK fjdri exeiv rqv fro/Uv, Kal Tiepl rovf fiiiF&oQopovf, eKaivovpyei, /cat rovt; /uev nvaf avruv airo/j,ia-&oif tTTfTTOli/KEt.. TOif <5' OVOl KClt 6vOlV 7j6lJ fXTjVOlv U^tAs TOV JLLKT&bv, OVK UTTOpUV, wf ^Aeyero, ^pj^drov, etc. VOL. x. 7 lOoc.