Greece -- History -- Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C.
Brasidas, perceiving their intention, told his three hundred to run on
without order, each as quickly as he could, to the hill which seemed
easiest to take, and to try to dislodge the barbarians already there,
before they should be joined by the main body closing round him. These
attacked and overpowered the party upon the hill, and the main army of
the Hellenes now advanced with less difficulty towards it—the
barbarians being terrified at seeing their men on that side driven from
the height and no longer following the main body, who, they considered,
had gained the frontier and made good their escape. The heights once
gained, Brasidas now proceeded more securely, and the same day arrived
at Arnisa, the first town in the dominions of Perdiccas. The soldiers,
enraged at the desertion of the Macedonians, vented their rage on all
their yokes of oxen which they found on the road, and on any baggage
which had tumbled off (as might easily happen in the panic of a night
retreat), by unyoking and cutting down the cattle and taking the
baggage for themselves. From this moment Perdiccas began to regard
Brasidas as an enemy and to feel against the Peloponnesians a hatred
which could not be congenial to the adversary of the Athenians.
However, he departed from his natural interests and made it his
endeavour to come to terms with the latter and to get rid of the
former.
On his return from Macedonia to Torone, Brasidas found the Athenians
already masters of Mende, and remained quiet where he was, thinking it
now out of his power to cross over into Pallene and assist the
Mendaeans, but he kept good watch over Torone. For about the same time
as the campaign in Lyncus, the Athenians sailed upon the expedition
which we left them preparing against Mende and Scione, with fifty
ships, ten of which were Chians, one thousand Athenian heavy infantry
and six hundred archers, one hundred Thracian mercenaries and some
targeteers drawn from their allies in the neighbourhood, under the
command of Nicias, son of Niceratus, and Nicostratus, son of
Diitrephes. Weighing from Potidæa, the fleet came to land opposite the
temple of Poseidon, and proceeded against Mende; the men of which town,
reinforced by three hundred Scionaeans, with their Peloponnesian
auxiliaries, seven hundred heavy infantry in all, under Polydamidas,
they found encamped upon a strong hill outside the city. These Nicias,
with one hundred and twenty light-armed Methonaeans, sixty picked men
from the Athenian heavy infantry, and all the archers, tried to reach
by a path running up the hill, but received a wound and found himself
unable to force the position; while Nicostratus, with all the rest of
the army, advancing upon the hill, which was naturally difficult, by a
different approach further off, was thrown into utter disorder; and the
whole Athenian army narrowly escaped being defeated. For that day, as
the Mendaeans and their allies showed no signs of yielding, the
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