Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/230

 222 ANTONY. gave up the contest, with the loss of not nioie than five thousand men killed, but of three hundred ships taken, as Caesar himself has recorded. Only few had known of Antony's flight ; and those who were told of it could not at first give any belief to so incredible a thing, as that a general who had nineteen entire legions and twelve thousand horse upon the sea-shore, coidd abandon all and fly away ; and he, above all, who had so often experienced both good and evil fortune, and had in a thousand wars and battles been inured to changes. His soldiers, how- ever, would not give up their desires and exjsectations, still fancying he would appear from some part or other, and showed such a generous fidelity to his service, that, when they were thoroughly assured that he was fled in earnest, they kept themselves in a body seven days, mak- ing no account of the messages that Caesar sent to them. But at last, seeing that Canidius himself, who commanded them, was fled from the camp by night, and that all their officers had quite abandoned them, they gave way, and made their submission to the conqueror. After this, CsBsar set sail for Athens, where he made a settlement with Greece, and distributed what remained of the pro- vision of corn that Antony had made for his army among the cities, which were in a miserable condition, despoiled of their money, their slaves, their horses, and beasts of service. My great-grandfather Nicarchus used to relate, that the whole body of the people of our city were put in requisition to carry each one a certain measure of corn upon their shoulders to the sea-side near Anticyra, men standing by to quicken them with the lash. They had made one journey of the kind, but when they had just measured out the corn and were putting it on their backs for a second, news came of Antony's defeat, and so saved Choeronea, for all Antony's purveyors and soldiers fled upon the news, and left them to divide the corn among themselves.