Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/297

 DION. 289 was wounded, and the greatest part of the city either in ruins or in flames. When Dion met this sad news, he was about sixty furlongs distant from the -city. When he had acquainted the soldiers with the exigency, and exhorted them to behave themselves like men, the army no longer marched but ran forwards, and by the way were met by messengers upon messengers entreating them to make haste. By the wonderful eagerness of the sol- diers and their extraordinary speed, Dion quickly came to the city and entered what is called the Hecatompe- don, sending his light-armed men at once to charge the enemy, that, seeing them, the Syracusans might take courage. In the mean time, he drew up in good order his fuU-armed men and all the citizens that came in and joined him ; forming his battalions deep, and distributing his officers in many separate commands, that he might be able to attack from many quarters at once, and so be more alarming to the enemy. So, having made his arrangements and offered vows to the gods, when he was seen in the streets advancing at the head of his men to engage the enemy, a confused noise of shouts, congratulations, vows, and prayers was raised by the Syracusans, who now called Dion their deliverer and tutelar deity, and his soldiers their friends, brethren, and fellow-citizens. And, indeed, at that mo- ment, none seemed to regard themselves, or value their safeties, but to be concerned more for Dion's life than for all their own together, as he marched at the head of thein to meet the danger, through blood and fire and over heaps of dead bodies that lay in his way. And indeed the posture of the enemy was in appear- ance terrible ; for they were flushed and ferocious with victory, and had posted themselves very advantageously along the demolished works, which made the access to them very hazardous and difficult. Yet that which dis- VOL. v. 19