Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/167

 72,73] BATTLE OF MANTINEA I59 the field the Lacedaemonians were beaten, but elsewhere, and especially in the centre of the army, where the king Agis and the three hundred Knights, as they are called, who attend him, were posted, they charged the elder Argives, the Five Divisions as they are termed, the Cleonaeans, Orneatae, and those of the Athenians who were ranged with them, and put them to flight. Most of them never even struck a blow, but gave way at once on the approach of the Lacedaemonians ; some were actually trodden under foot, being overtaken by the advancing host. When the allies and the Argives had yielded in this 73 quarter, they became severed from their Danger of the Aihen- comrades to the left as well as to the ians, ivhich is only right of the line ; meanwhile the ex- averted by the retirement ., . /-IT 1 of the Lacedaemonians tended right wmg of the Lacedaemon- ^,^ „,^ ,.,^/,/ ^^,.„^^ ^^,/,^ ians and the Tegeans threatened to go to the assistance of surround the Athenians. They were their own defeated troops . . . . . on the h'ft. The Lace- in great danger ; their men were being d„„„o,;ians win the hemmed in at one point and were battle, but do not pursue already defeated at another ; and but /'"'• for their cavalry, which did them good service, they would have suffered more than any other part of the army. Just then Agis, observing the distress of the Lacedaemonian left wing, which was opposed to the Mantineans and the thousand select Argives, commanded his whole forces to go and assist their own defeated troops. Whereupon the Athenians, when their opponents turned aside and began to move away from them, quietly made their escape, and along with them the defeated Argives. The Mantineans and their allies and the chosen force of Argives, seeing their army conquered and the Lacedaemonians bearing down upon them, gave up all thoughts of following up their advantage and fled. The loss incurred by the chosen Argives was small, that of the Mantineans more serious. The pursuit was not fierce nor the flight protracted, for the Lacedaemonians fight long and refuse to move until they