Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/17

 lo, ii] THE GALLANTRY OF BRASIDAS 9 for they are not on land but on water, and ships require many favourable accidents before they can act with ad- vantage. So that I consider their embarrassments to counterbalance our want of numbers. You are Athenians, who know by experience the difficulty of disembarking in the presence of an enemy, and that if a man is not frightened out of his wits at the splashing of oars and the threatening look of a ship bearing down upon him, but is determined to hold his ground, no force can move him. It is now your turn to be attacked, and I call on you to stand fast and not to let the enemy touch the beach at all. Thus you will save yourselves and the place.' The Athenians, inspirited by the words of Demosthenes, n went down to the shore and formed n/r n f ^ r Dtjjiciilty of effecting a line along the water's edge. The a landing. Brasidas Lacedaemonians now began to move, g'catly distinguishes and assaulted the fort with their army '""^'^J- by land, and with their fleet, consisting of forty-three ships, by sea. The admiral in command was Thrasymelidas, son of Cratesicles, a Spartan; he made his attack just where Demosthenes expected. The Athenians defended them- selves both by sea and land. The Peloponnesians had divided their fleet into relays of a few ships — the space would not allow of more — and so resting and fighting by turns they made their attack with great spirit, loudly ex- horting one another to force back the enemy and take the fort. Brasidas distinguished himself above all other men in the engagement ; he was captain of a ship, and seeing his fellow-captains and the pilots, even if they could touch anywhere, hesitating and afraid of running their ships on the rocks, he called out to them : ' Not to be sparing of timber when the enemy had built a fort in their country; let them wreck their ships to force a landing' : this he said to his own countrymen, and to the allies that 'they should not hesitate at such a moment to make a present of their ships to the Lacedaemonians, who had done so much for c 2