nce put to the
sword, the men being scarcely out of bed and still arming, the landing
having taken them by surprise, as they fancied the ships were only
sailing as usual to their stations for the night. As soon as day broke,
the rest of the army landed, that is to say, all the crews of rather
more than seventy ships, except the lowest rank of oars, with the
arms they carried, eight hundred archers, and as many targeteers, the
Messenian reinforcements, and all the other troops on duty round Pylos,
except the garrison on the fort. The tactics of Demosthenes had divided
them into companies of two hundred, more or less, and made them occupy
the highest points in order to paralyse the enemy by surrounding him on
every side and thus leaving him without any tangible adversary, exposed
to the cross-fire of their host; plied by those in his rear if he
attacked in front, and by those on one flank if he moved against those
on the other. In short, wherever he went he would have the assailants
behind him, and these light-armed assailants, the most awkward of all;
arrows, darts, stones, and slings making them formidable at a distance,
and there being no means of getting at them at close quarters, as they
could conquer flying, and the moment their pursuer turned they were upon
him. Such was the idea that inspired Demosthenes in his conception of
the descent, and presided over its execution.

Meanwhile the main body of the troops in the island (that under
Epitadas), seeing their outpost cut off and an army advancing against
them, serried their ranks and pressed forward to close with the Athenian
heavy infantry in front of them, the light troops being upon their
flanks and rear. However, they were not able to engage or to profit by
their superior skill, the light troops keeping them in check on either
side with their missiles, and the heavy infantry remaining stationary
instead of advancing to meet them; and although they routed the light
troops wherever they ran up and approached too closely, yet they
retreated fighting, being lightly equipped, and easily getting the start
in their flight, from the difficult and rugged nature of the ground,
in an island hitherto desert, over which the Lacedaemonians could not
pursue them with their heavy armour.

After this skirmishing had lasted some little while, the Lacedaemonians
became unable to dash out with the same rapidity as before upon the
points attacked, and the light troops finding that