eminence of toil and woe; and he deferves the regard of posterity by his character and sufferings, and ftill more by the melancholy firmnefs of his conduct. The load of accumulated difafters did not fink him into inactive defpondency. Though afflicted with the ftone, he moved with a rapid pace around every part of the army, and the ardour of his mind re-animating the languor of his debilitated frame, he exclaimed, with a loud and diftinct voice, "Athenians and allies, there is yet room "for hope. Many have escaped from still greater evils; "nor ought you rafhly to accufe either fortune or

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yourselves. As to me, who in bodily ftrength excel "not the weakest among you, and who in the happi"ness of private life, and the deceitful gifts of profpe

rity, had long been distinguished above the most il"luftrious of my contemporaries, I am now confound"ed in affliction with the meanest and most worthless. "Yet am I unconscious of deferving fuch a fatal re"verfe of fortune. For this reason I am still animated "with confidence; calamities, unmerited by guilt, are "difarmed of their terrors. Our numbers, our refo"lutions, and even our misfortunes, ftill render us "formidable. There is not any army ready to inter

cept our courfe; much less any capable of expelling

"us from the first friendly territory in which we shall "fix our camp. If we can fecure, therefore, our pre"fent fafety, by a prudent, speedy, and courageous "retreat, we may afterwards retrieve our loft honour,

and restore the fallen glory of Athens; fince the chief " ornament of a state confifts in brave and virtuous men, "not in empty fhips and undefended walls."

Ni

The actions of NICIAS fully correfponded with his words. He neglected none of the duties of a great general. The troops were divided into two bodies. CIAS led the van; DEMOSTHENES conducted the rear; the baggage occupied the center.

In this order of march they passed the river Anapus, and having proceeded beyond it five miles, they encamped in the evening on a rifing ground, after being much haraffed during the latter part of the journey by the Syracufan cavalry and archers, who galled them at a distance, intercepted the ftragglers, and avoided, by a seasonable retreat, to commit the fecurity of their own fortune with the dangerous defpair of the Athenians.

The next day the Athenians had a defile to pass where the Syracufans were pofted in great force. In vain the Athenians attempted, on three fucceffive days, to force the paffage. They were repelled with lofs in every new attack,

attack, which became more feeble than the preceding. In the first and most desperate, an accidental ftorm of thunder increased the courage of the Syracufans and the terror of the Athenians. A fimilar event had, in the first engagement after the invasion of Sicily, produced an oppofite effect on the contending nations. But the hopes and the fears of men change with their fortune.

They gave up at length the hopes of forcing this passage, and under the cover of the night they hoped to evade the enemy, and left their encampment in the fame order they had before obferved. But they had not proceeded far in this nocturnal expedition, when the obfcurity of the skies, the deceitful tracks of an unknown and hostile country, filled the most timid or unfortunate with imaginary terrors, and DEMOSTHENES, with above one half of his divifion, in this confufion, fatally mistook the road, and quitted, never more to rejoin, the rest

of the army.

NICIAS with the reft of the forces reached the banks of the river Afinaros. There GYLIPPUS and the Syra-. cufans affaulted them during the whole day with darts, arrows, and javelins. Their distress was most lamentable and incurable yet hope did not totally forfake them;

VOL. IV.

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for,

for, like men in the oppreffion and languor of a con◄ fuming disease, they still entertained a confused idea, that their fufferings would end, could they but reach the opposite banks of the river. The defire also of affuaging their thirst, encouraged this daring defign. They rufhed with frantic diforder into the rapidity of the ftream; the pursuing Syracufans, who had occupied the rocky banks, destroying them with innumerable volleys of miffile weapons. In the Affinaros they had a new enemy to contend with. The depth and force of the waters triumphed over their fingle, and fhook their implicated strength. Many were borne down the stream. At length the weight of their numbers refifted the violence of the torrent; but a new form of danger prefented itself to the eyes of NICIAS. His foldiers turned their fury against each other, disputing, with the point of the sword, the fordable parts of this turbid ftream. This fpectacle melted the firmness of his manly foul. He confented to ask quarter for the miserable remnant of his troops, who had not perished in the Affinaros, or been destroyed by the Syracufan archers and cavalry. His foldiers having laid down their arms were entitled to the pity and protection of GYLIPPUS; who, after fending

proper

proper detachments to intercept and collect the ftragglers, returned in triumph to the city with the ineftimable trophies of his valour and conduct.

The generals NICIAS and DEMOSTHENES were fucceffively brought to Syracufe. GYLIPPUS would have fpared their lives, not from any motives of humanity and esteem, but that his joyous return to Sparta might have been graced by their prefence. But the refentment of the Syracufans, and above all the fufpicious jealousy of thofe perfidious traitors who had maintained a fecret correspondence with NICIAS, which they dreaded left the accidents of his future life might difcover, loudly demanded the immediate execution of the captive generals. The Athenians justly regretted the loss of DEMOSTHENES, a gallant and enterprifing commander; but posterity will for ever lament the fate of NICIAS, the moft pious, the most virtuous, and the moft unfortunate man of the age in which he lived.

The other prisoners were condemned to labour in the mines and quarries of Sicily: their whole fuftenance was bread and water: day and night they languished in this dreadful captivity, during which, the diseases incident to this manner of life were rendered infectious by the stench of the dead bodies, which corrupted the purity of the 4 Z 2 furrounding