History of the Peloponnesian War

but on the next, when an engine was going to be brought up against them by the enemy, from which they intended to throw fire on the wooden defences, and when the army was now advancing where they thought they should best bring up the engine, and where the place was most assailable, the defenders placed a wooden tower on the wall opposite to them, and carried up on to it many jars and casks of water, with large stones, an a large party of men ascended it.

But the building, having had too great a weight put on it, suddenly broke down, and making a loud noise, vexed more than it terrified those of the Athenians who were near and saw it; but those who were at a distance, and most of all those who were at the greatest, thinking that the place was already taken in that quarter, hurried away, and fled to the sea and to their ships.

When Brasidas perceived that they were deserting the battlements, and saw what was going on, he rushed up with his army, d immediately took the fort, and put to the sword as many s he found in it.

The Athenians in this way evacuated the race, and went across in their boats and ships to Pallene. How there is in Lecythus a temple of Minerva; and Brasidas had proclaimed, when he was about to make the assault, that the man who first scaled the wall he would give thirty minae of silver. Thinking, therefore, that the capture had been effected by other means than human, he presented the thirty mine to the goddess, for the use of her temple; and having razed and cleared Lecythus, he devoted the whole, as sacred ground.

During the remainder of the winter, he was settling the affairs of the places in his possession, and forming designs against others; and at the expiration of the winter, the eighth year of this war ended.

At the commencement of the spring of the following summer, the Lacedaemonians and Athenians immediately concluded an armistice for a year; the Athenians considering that Brasidas would then no longer win any more of their towns to revolt, before they had made their preparations for securing them at their leisure; and at the same time, that if it were for their interest, they might conclude a general peace: while the Lacedaemonians thought that the Athenians feared what they really were afraid of; and that after having a suspension of their miseries and suffering, they would be more desirous, from their taste of it, to effect a reconciliation, and, restoring their men, to make a treaty for a longer time.

For they deemed it of [*]( I have followed Göller in referring τοῖς δὲ to the troops which Sparta would still retain, in opposition to τῶν μὲν, the prisoners whose services she would have lost. Others refer it to the Athenians, while Arnold thinks it corrupt.) greater importance to recover their men at a time when Brasidas was still prosperous: and, [on the other hand,] if he reached a still greater measure of success, and put matters on an equality, they were likely to lose those men, and while defending themselves with their others, on equal terms, still to run a risk of not gaining the mastery.