and then in the city, which is overlooked from the outside,
sacrificing near the temple of Athene; in short, all his movements had
been observed, and word was brought to Cleon, who had at the moment
gone on to look about him, that the whole of the enemy's force could
be seen in the town, and that the feet of horses and men in great
numbers were visible under the gates, as if a sally were intended.
Upon hearing this he went up to look, and having done so, being
unwilling to venture upon the decisive step of a battle before his
reinforcements came up, and fancying that he would have time to
retire, bid the retreat be sounded and sent orders to the men to
effect it by moving on the left wing in the direction of Eion, which
was indeed the only way practicable. This however not being quick
enough for him, he joined the retreat in person and made the right
wing wheel round, thus turning its unarmed side to the enemy. It was
then that Brasidas, seeing the Athenian force in motion and his
opportunity come, said to the men with him and the rest: "Those
fellows will never stand before us, one can see that by the way
their spears and heads are going. Troops which do as they do seldom
stand a charge. Quick, someone, and open the gates I spoke of, and let
us be out and at them with no fears for the result." Accordingly
issuing out by the palisade gate and by the first in the long wall
then existing, he ran at the top of his speed along the straight road,
where the trophy now stands as you go by the steepest part of the
hill, and fell upon and routed the centre of the Athenians,
panic-stricken by their own disorder and astounded at his audacity. At
the same moment Clearidas in execution of his orders issued out from
the Thracian gates to support him, and also attacked the enemy. The
result was that the Athenians, suddenly and unexpectedly attacked on
both sides, fell into confusion; and their left towards Eion, which
had already got on some distance, at once broke and fled. Just as it
was in full retreat and Brasidas was passing on to attack the right,
he received a wound; but his fall was not perceived by the
Athenians, as he was taken up by those near him and carried off the
field. The Athenian right made a better stand, and though Cleon, who
from the first had no thought of fighting, at once fled and was
overtaken and slain by a Myrcinian targeteer, his infantry forming
in close order upon the hill twice or thrice repulsed the attacks of
Clearidas, and did not finally give way until they were surrounded and
routed by the missiles of the Myrcinian and Chalcidian horse and the
targeteers. Thus the Athenian army was all now in flight; and such
as escaped being killed in the battle, or by the Chalcidian horse
and the targeteers, dispersed among the hills, and with difficulty
made their way to Eion. The men who had taken up and rescued Brasidas,
brought him into the town with the breath still in him: he lived to
hear of the victory of his troops, and not long after expired. The
rest of the army returning with Clearidas from the pursuit stripped
the dead and set up a trophy.
After this all the allies attended in arms and buried Brasidas at the
public expense in the city, in front of what is now the marketplace,
and the Amphipolitans, having enclosed his tomb, ever afterwards
sacrifice to him as a hero and have given to him the honour of games
and annual offerings. They constituted him the founder of their
colony, and pulled down the Hagnonic erections, and obliterated
everything that could be interpreted as a memorial of his having
founded the place; for they considered that Brasidas had been their
preserver, and courting as they did the alliance of Lacedaemon for
fear of Athens, in their present hostile relations with the latter
they could no longer with the same advantage or satisfaction pay
Hagnon his honours. They also gave the Athenians back their dead.
About six hundred of the latter had fallen and only seven of the
enemy, owing to there having been no regular engagement, but the
affair of accident and panic that I have described. After taking up
their dead the Athenians sailed off home, while Clearidas and his
troops remained to arrange matters at Amphipolis.