Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/304

 296 NIGHT ATTACK ON EPIPOLAE [vi a vigorous resistance, drove them back. The Athenians immediately pressed forward ; they were determined not to lose a moment or to slacl^en their onset until they had accomplished their purpose. Others captured the first part of the Syracusan counter-wall and, the guards taking to flight, began to drag off the battlements. Meanwhile the Syracusans, the allies, and Gylippus with his own troops, were hurrying from the outworks. The boldness of this night attack quite amazed them. They had not recovered from their terror when they met the Athenians, who were at first too strong for them and drove them back. But now the conquerors, in the confidence of victory, began to fall into disorder as they advanced ; they wanted to force their way as quickly as they could through all that part of the enemy which had not yet fought, and they were afraid that if they relaxed their efforts the Syracusans might rally. The Boeotians were the first to make a stand : they attacked the Athenians, turned, and put them to flight. 44 The whole army was soon in utter confusion, and the All now becomes con- perplexity was so great that from fusion. Those behind neither side could the particulars of press on those be/ore, the Conflict be exactly ascertained. In who aye already ittnttng 1 1 • 1 , back. The moonlight, ^he daytime the combatants see more the dense masses, the clearly ; though even then only what is nanow space jheivatch- goj^g q^ immediately around them, and ivord, the Paean, con-,. r 1 1 • /- 1 1 1 tribute to the rout, ^hat miperfcctly— nothing of the battle Friends attack friends, as a whole. But in a night engagement. Many throw themselves jik^ t^is in which two great armies from the cliffs, leavinq. rii-i,-i their arms behind; fought— the Only one of the kind which others miss their way in occurred during the War — who could be the dark and are cut oj. certain of anything? The moo;i was bright, and they saw before them, as men naturally would in the moonlight, the figures of one another, but were unable to distinguish with certainty who was friend or foe. Large bodies of heavy-armed troops, both Athenian and Syracusan, were moving about in a narrow space ; of the