hundred men who broke through the enemy's
guard, and made their escape in the darkness as best they could.

When the day dawned Nicias led forward his army, and the Syracusans
and the allies again assailed them on every side, hurling javelins and
other missiles at them. The Athenians hurried on to the river
Assinarus. They hoped to gain a little relief if they forded the
river, for the mass of horsemen and other troops overwhelmed and
crusht them; and they were worn out by fatigue and thirst. But no
sooner did they reach the water than they lost all order and rushed
in; every man was trying to cross first, and, the enemy pressing upon
them at the same time, the passage of the river became hopeless. Being
compelled to keep close together they fell one upon another, and
trampled each other under foot; some at once perished, pierced by
their own spears; others got entangled in the baggage and were carried
down the stream. The Syracusans stood upon the further bank of the
river, which was steep, and hurled missiles from above on the
Athenians, who were huddled together in the deep bed of the stream and
for the most part were drinking greedily. The Peloponnesians came down
the bank and slaughtered them, falling chiefly upon those who were in
the river. Whereupon the water at once became foul but was drunk all
the same, altho muddy and dyed with blood, and the crowd fought for
it.

At last, when the dead bodies were lying in heaps upon one another in
the water and the army was utterly undone, some perishing in the
river, and any one who escaped being cut off by the cavalry, Nicias
surrendered to Gylippus, in whom he had more confidence than in the
Syracusans. He entreated him and the Lacedaemonians to do what they
pleased with himself, but not to go on killing the men. So Gylippus
gave the word to make prisoners. Thereupon the survivors, not
including, however, a large number whom the soldiers concealed, were
brought in alive. As for the three hundred who had broken through the
guard in the night, the Syracusans sent in pursuit and seized them.
The total of the public prisoners when collected was not great; for
many were appropriated by the soldiers, and the whole of Sicily was
full of them, they not having capitulated like the troops under
Demosthenes. A large number also perished; the slaughter at the river
being very great, quite as great as any which took place in the
Sicilian war; and not a few had fallen in the frequ