XXVI. They were all eager to depart during the night which followed
this disastrous day; but Gylippus, perceiving that the people of
Syracuse were so given up to feasting and merry-making, celebrating
both their victory and the festival of their national hero Herakles,
to whom the day was sacred, that they could not be either forced or
persuaded into attempting to harass the enemy's retreat, sent some of
those men who had formerly been in correspondence with Nikias to tell
him not to attempt to retreat that night, as all the roads were
occupied by Syracusans lying in wait to attack him. Deceived by this
intelligence, Nikias waited to find what he feared in the night turned
into a reality on the following day. At daybreak the passes were
occupied by the Syracusans, who also threw up entrenchments at all the
places where rivers had to be forded, and broke all the bridges,
stationing their cavalry upon the level ground, so that the Athenians
could not advance a step without fighting. The Athenians remained for
all that day and the following night in their camp, and then set out,
with such weeping and lamentation that it seemed rather as if they
were leaving their native country than a hostile one, so distressed
were they to see the miseries of their friends and relatives, and of
the sick and wounded who were unable to accompany their march and had
to be left to their fate, while they themselves had a presentiment
that their present sufferings were nothing in comparison with those
which awaited them.
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