Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/240

 232 DEFEAT OF THE SYRACUSANS [vi to make a hasty defence, for they felt sure that the Athenians would not begin the attack. Nevertheless they took up their arms and immediately went forward to meet them. For a while the throwers of stones, and slingcrs, and archers skirmished in front of the two armies, driving one another before them after the manner of light-armed troops. Then the soothsayers brought out the customary victims, and the trumpets sounded and called the infantry to the charge. The two armies ad- vanced ; the Syracusans to fight for their countr}-, and every man for life now, and liberty hereafter ; on the opposite side the Athenians to gain a new country, and to save the old from the disaster of defeat ; the Argives and the independent allies eager to share the good things of Sicily, and, if they returned victorious, to see their own homes once more. The courage of the subject allies was chiefly inspired by a lively consciousness that their only chance of life was in victory ; they had also a distant hope that, if they assisted the Athenians in overthrowing others, their own yoke might be lightened. 70 The armies met, and for a long time the issue was The Syracusans are doubtful. During the battle there came defeated, but they are on thunder and lightning, and a deluge saved in their retreat by ^f j.^^jp,. th^ge added to the terror of the inexperienced who were fighting for the first time, but experienced soldiers ascribed the storm to the time of year, and were much more alarmed "at the stubborn resistance of the enemy". First the Argives drove back the left wing of the Syracusans ; next the Athenians the right wing which was opposed to them. Whereupon the rest of the army began to give way and were soon put to flight. Their opponents did not pursue them far, for the Syracusan horsemen, who were numerous and had not shared in the defeat, interposed, and wherever ■ Or, giving a sliglitly ciiflTcrent meaning to llic present: 'at the prospect of the cncmj's success.'