History of the Peloponnesian War

(It was just when it began to retire that Brasidas, who was pressing forward against the right wing, was wounded, and the Athenians did not observe that he had fallen, but those who were near took him up and carried him from the field.) The right wing of the Athenians stood its ground better. Cleon, indeed, as he had not intended from the first to stand his ground, fled at once, and was overtaken and slain by a Myrcinian targeteer; but the hoplites, rallying at their first position on the hill, twice or thrice repulsed the attack of Clearidas, and did not give way till the Myrcinian and Chalcidian horse and the targeteers, who surrounded and hurled javelins at them, put them to flight.

Then at last the whole Athenian army took to flight, making their way with difficulty and by many routes over the hills, until finally the survivors—all that were not destroyed either at once in hand to hand conflict or by the Chalcidian horse and targeteers—got back to Eion.

Brasidas was taken up by his followers and carried safely from the battlefield to the city, still breathing; and he learned that his men were victorious, but after a little interval he died.

The rest of the army, after returning with Clearidas from the pursuit, despoiled the dead and set up a trophy.

After this all the allies gave Brasidas a public burial in the city at a spot facing what is now the market-place, following his body in full armour. And the Amphipolitans fenced in his monument and have ever since made offerings to him as a hero, giving honours and instituting games and yearly sacrifices. They also adopted him as founder of the colony, pulling down the edifices of Hagnon and obliterating whatever was likely, if left standing, to be a reminder of his settlement,[*](cf. 4.102.3, 4.) for at the present moment they courted the alliance of the Lacedaemonians through fear of the Athenians, thinking Brasidas to have been their saviour, whereas Hagnon, in consequence of their hostile attitude towards Athens, would not in like manner as before[*](ie. as formerly, when their relations with Athens were pleasant. Or the meaning may be, “so advantageously for them as Brasidas would.”) receive their honours either with benefit to themselves or with pleasure to himself.

The dead they gave back to the Athenians. About six hundred of these had been killed, but of their adversaries only seven; for the fight had been made, not as a regular battle, but as the result of such an accident and previous panic as has been described.

After taking up the dead the Athenians sailed back home, but Clearidas and his followers remained and set in order the affairs of Amphipolis.

About the same time, towards the close of this summer, Rhamphias, Autocharidas, and Epicydidas, who were Lacedaemonians, were on their way with reinforcements, consisting of nine hundred hoplites, to the strongholds in Thrace, and arriving at Heracleia in Trachis they set in order whatever seemed to them amiss.

It was while they were staying there that the battle at Amphipolis occurred; and so the summer ended.

As soon as winter came on Rhamphias and his followers advanced as far as Pierium in Thessaly; but as the Thessalians hindered their progress and Brasidas, to whom they were bringing the army, was now dead, they turned back homeward. They thought the favourable moment was past, for the Athenians had gone away in consequence of their defeat, and they were not competent by themselves to carry out any of Brasidas' plans.

But the chief reason for their return was that they knew that the Lacedaemonians, at the time when they set out, were more than ever inclined to peace.