Page:Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902).djvu/367

337 THE RETREAT FROM SYRACUSE 337

THE RETREAT FROM SYRACUSE

III 415 B. c, Alcibiades persuaded Athens to undertake the great Sicilian expedition against the Dorian city of Syracuse. He purposed through this to gain control of all Sicily, and to make that island the base of operations against Africa and Italy. The expedition consisted of forty thousand men under Alcibia- des, Nicias, Demosthenes, and Lamachus. Immediately on their arrival at Sicily Alcibiades was summoned back to Athens to answer a charge of sacrilege. He escaped to Sparta and re- vealed the plans of Athens to her enemies. A small Spartan fleet was sent to Syracuse under an able commander, Gylippus, which destroyed the Athenian fleet. Thucydides here describes the destruction of the land force, early in September, 413 B. c.

On the third day after the sea-fight, when Nicias and Demosthenes thought that their preparations were complete, the army began to move. They were in a dreadful condition ; not only was there the great fact that they had lost their whole fleet, and instead of their expected triumph had brought the utmost peril upon Athens as well as upon themselves, but also the sights which presented themselves as they quitted the camp were painful to every eye and mind. The dead were unburied, and when any one saw the body of a friend lying on the ground he was smitten with sorrow and dread, while the sick or wounded who still survived, but had to be left, were even a greater trial to the living, and more to be pitied than those who were gone. Their prayers and lamentations drove their companions to distraction ; they would beg that they might be taken with them, and call by name any friend or relation whom they saw passing ; they would hang upon their departing comrades and follow as far as they could, and when their limbs and