Greece -- History -- Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C.
The same winter the Megarians took and razed to the foundations the
long walls which had been occupied by the Athenians; and Brasidas after
the capture of Amphipolis marched with his allies against Acte, a
promontory running out from the King’s dike with an inward curve, and
ending in Athos, a lofty mountain looking towards the Aegean Sea. In it
are various towns, Sane, an Andrian colony, close to the canal, and
facing the sea in the direction of Euboea; the others being Thyssus,
Cleone, Acrothoi, Olophyxus, and Dium, inhabited by mixed barbarian
races speaking the two languages. There is also a small Chalcidian
element; but the greater number are Tyrrheno-Pelasgians once settled in
Lemnos and Athens, and Bisaltians, Crestonians, and Edonians; the towns
being all small ones. Most of these came over to Brasidas; but Sane and
Dium held out and saw their land ravaged by him and his army.
Upon their not submitting, he at once marched against Torone in
Chalcidice, which was held by an Athenian garrison, having been invited
by a few persons who were prepared to hand over the town. Arriving in
the dark a little before daybreak, he sat down with his army near the
temple of the Dioscuri, rather more than a quarter of a mile from the
city. The rest of the town of Torone and the Athenians in garrison did
not perceive his approach; but his partisans knowing that he was coming
(a few of them had secretly gone out to meet him) were on the watch for
his arrival, and were no sooner aware of it than they took it to them
seven light-armed men with daggers, who alone of twenty men ordered on
this service dared to enter, commanded by Lysistratus an Olynthian.
These passed through the sea wall, and without being seen went up and
put to the sword the garrison of the highest post in the town, which
stands on a hill, and broke open the postern on the side of
Canastraeum.
Brasidas meanwhile came a little nearer and then halted with his main
body, sending on one hundred targeteers to be ready to rush in first,
the moment that a gate should be thrown open and the beacon lighted as
agreed. After some time passed in waiting and wondering at the delay,
the targeteers by degrees got up close to the town. The Toronaeans
inside at work with the party that had entered had by this time broken
down the postern and opened the gates leading to the market-place by
cutting through the bar, and first brought some men round and let them
in by the postern, in order to strike a panic into the surprised
townsmen by suddenly attacking them from behind and on both sides at
once; after which they raised the fire-signal as had been agreed, and
took in by the market gates the rest of the targeteers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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