the beach and towed off the
ships of the Athenians. Some few were burned by the Athenians themselves
as they had intended; the rest the Syracusans lashed on to their own
at their leisure as they had been thrown up on shore, without any one
trying to stop them, and conveyed to the town.

After this, Nicias and Demosthenes now thinking that enough had been
done in the way of preparation, the removal of the army took place
upon the second day after the sea-fight. It was a lamentable scene,
not merely from the single circumstance that they were retreating after
having lost all their ships, their great hopes gone, and themselves and
the state in peril; but also in leaving the camp there were things most
grievous for every eye and heart to contemplate. The dead lay unburied,
and each man as he recognized a friend among them shuddered with grief
and horror; while the living whom they were leaving behind, wounded or
sick, were to the living far more shocking than the dead, and more to
be pitied than those who had perished. These fell to entreating and
bewailing until their friends knew not what to do, begging them to take
them and loudly calling to each individual comrade or relative whom they
could see, hanging upon the necks of their tent-fellows in the act of
departure, and following as far as they could, and, when their bodily
strength failed them, calling again and again upon heaven and shrieking
aloud as they were left behind. So that the whole army being filled with
tears and distracted after this fashion found it not easy to go, even
from an enemy's land, where they had already suffered evils too great
for tears and in the unknown future before them feared to suffer more.
Dejection and self-condemnation were also rife among them. Indeed they
could only be compared to a starved-out town, and that no small one,
escaping; the whole multitude upon the march being not less than forty
thousand men. All carried anything they could which might be of use,
and the heavy infantry and troopers, contrary to their wont, while under
arms carried their own victuals, in some cases for want of servants, in
others through not trusting them; as they had long been deserting and
now did so in greater numbers than ever. Yet even thus they did not
carry enough, as there was no longer food in the camp. Moreover their
disgrace generally, and the universality of their sufferings, however to
a certain extent alleviated by being borne in company, w