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75.
After this, Nicias and Demosthenes now
thinking that enough had been done in the way of preparation, the removal of
the army took place upon the second day after the sea-fight.
[2]
It was a lamentable scene, not merely from the single circumstance that
they were retreating after having lost all their ships, their great hopes
gone, and themselves and the state in peril; but also in leaving the camp there were things most grievous for every eye
and heart to contemplate.
[3]
The dead lay unburied, and each man as he recognized a friend among them
shuddered with grief and horror; while the living whom they were leaving behind, wounded or sick, were to
the living far more shocking than the dead, and more to be pitied than those
who had perished.
[4]
These fell to entreating and bewailing until their friends knew not what to
do, begging them to take them and loudly calling to each individual comrade
or relative whom they could see, hanging upon the necks of their
tent-fellows in the act of departure, and following as far as they could,
and when their bodily strength failed them, calling again and again upon
heaven and shrieking aloud as they were left behind.
So that the whole army being filled with tears and distracted after this
fashion found it not easy to go, even from an enemy's land, where they had
already suffered evils too great for tears and in the unknown future before
them feared to suffer more.
[5]
Dejection and self-condemnation were also rife among them.
Indeed they could only be compared to a starved-out town, and that no small
one, escaping; the whole multitude upon the march being not less than forty thousand men.
All carried anything they could which might be of use, and the heavy
infantry and troopers, contrary to their wont, while under arms carried
their own victuals, in some cases for want of servants, in others through
not trusting them; as they had long been deserting and now did so in greater numbers than
ever.
Yet even thus they did not carry enough, as there was no longer food in the
camp.
[6]
Moreover their disgrace generally, and the universality of their
sufferings, however to a certain extent alleviated by being borne in
company, were still felt at the moment a heavy burden, especially when they
contrasted the splendor and glory of their setting out with the humiliation
in which it had ended.
[7]
For this was by far the greatest reverse that ever befell an Hellenic army.
They had come to enslave others, and were departing in fear of being
enslaved themselves: they had sailed out with prayer and paeans, and now
started to go back with omens directly contrary; travelling by land instead of by sea, and trusting not in their fleet but
in their heavy infantry.
Nevertheless the greatness of the danger still impending made all this
appear tolerable.
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References (63 total)
- Commentary references to this page
(13):
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus, 598
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Ajax, 502
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Philoctetes, 520
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Philoctetes, 938
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.112
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 7, 7.4
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 7, 7.77
- T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8, 8.93
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER CXXVI
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER XIII
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.14
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.26
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.7
- Cross-references to this page
(12):
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, THE ARTICLE—ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, THE CASES
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, PREPOSITIONS
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, THE PARTICIPLE
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES
- Raphael Kühner, Friedrich Blass, Ausführliche Grammatik der Griechischen Sprache, (Abundantia)
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.3.1
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.3.2
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.4.2
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 3.2.2
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 3.pos=7.2
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Selections from the Attic Orators, 5.11
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(38):
- LSJ, Παιάν
- LSJ, ἀκόλουθ-ος
- LSJ, ἀνά-στα^σις
- LSJ, ἀντί
- LSJ, ἀντιβολ-ία
- LSJ, ἀπαυτομολέω
- LSJ, ἀπόλειψις
- LSJ, ἀπο-λείπω
- LSJ, αἰκ-ία
- LSJ, αὔχ-ημα
- LSJ, δάκρυ
- LSJ, ἔοικα
- LSJ, ἐκκρεμ-άννυ_μι
- LSJ, ἐναντίος
- LSJ, ἐπιφήμ-ισμα
- LSJ, ἐπικρεμάννυ_μι
- LSJ, ἐπιθει-ασμός
- LSJ, ἰσομοιρ-ία
- LSJ, καθίστημι
- LSJ, κατά
- LSJ, κατάμεμψις
- LSJ, κατήφ-εια
- LSJ, κούφ-ι^σις
- LSJ, λαμπρότης
- LSJ, μικρός
- LSJ, ὅμως
- LSJ, ὅπλον
- LSJ, ὄψις
- LSJ, οἰστός
- LSJ, παραχρῆμα
- LSJ, πίμπλημι
- LSJ, πολι^ορκ-έω
- LSJ, προλείπω
- LSJ, ῥώμη
- LSJ, σύσκην-ος
- LSJ, τα^πεινότης
- LSJ, τις
- LSJ, τραυμα^τ-ίας
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