8.
No sooner did Brasidas see the Athenians in motion, than he himself descended from1 Cerdylium, and went into Amphipolis. He did not go out and draw up his forces in order of battle;
[2]
he feared too much the inferiority of his own troops, not in their numbers (which were about equal to those of the enemy) but in quality; for the Athenian forces were the flower of their army, and they were supported by the best of the Lemnians and Imbrians.
[3]
So he determined to employ a manœuvre, thinking that, if he showed them the real number and meagre equipment of his soldiers, he would be less likely to succeed than if he came upon them before there had been time to observe him, and when as yet they had no real grounds for their contempt of him.
[4]
Selecting a hundred and fifty hoplites, and handing over the rest to Clearidas, he resolved to make a sudden attack before the Athenians retired, considering that, if their reinforcements should arrive, he might never again have an opportunity of fighting them by themselves. So he called together all his troops, and wishing to encourage them, and explain his plan, spoke as follows:—
1 Brasidas descends from Cerdylium. Fearing he inferiority of his own troops he deter mines to fall upon the Athenians in two separate detachments
Thucydides translated into English; with introduction, marginal analysis, notes, and indices. Volume 1. Thucydides. Benjamin Jowett. translator. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1881.
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