d Demosthenes, and told them that they were losing their
labour: but if they would give him some archers and light troops to
go round on the enemy's rear by a way he would undertake to find, he
thought he could force the approach. Upon receiving what he asked for,
he started from a point out of sight in order not to be seen by the
enemy, and creeping on wherever the precipices of the island permitted,
and where the Lacedaemonians, trusting to the strength of the ground,
kept no guard, succeeded after the greatest difficulty in getting round
without their seeing him, and suddenly appeared on the high ground in
their rear, to the dismay of the surprised enemy and the still greater
joy of his expectant friends. The Lacedaemonians thus placed between two
fires, and in the same dilemma, to compare small things with great, as
at Thermopylae, where the defenders were cut off through the Persians
getting round by the path, being now attacked in front and behind, began
to give way, and overcome by the odds against them and exhausted from
want of food, retreated.

The Athenians were already masters of the approaches when Cleon and
Demosthenes perceiving that, if the enemy gave way a single step
further, they would be destroyed by their soldiery, put a stop to the
battle and held their men back; wishing to take the Lacedaemonians alive
to Athens, and hoping that their stubbornness might relax on hearing the
offer of terms, and that they might surrender and yield to the present
overwhelming danger. Proclamation was accordingly made, to know if they
would surrender themselves and their arms to the Athenians to be dealt
at their discretion.

The Lacedaemonians hearing this offer, most of them lowered their
shields and waved their hands to show that they accepted it. Hostilities
now ceased, and a parley was held between Cleon and Demosthenes and
Styphon, son of Pharax, on the other side; since Epitadas, the first of
the previous commanders, had been killed, and Hippagretas, the next in
command, left for dead among the slain, though still alive, and thus
the command had devolved upon Styphon according to the law, in case of
anything happening to his superiors. Styphon and his companions said
they wished to send a herald to the Lacedaemonians on the mainland, to
know what they were to do. The Athenians would not let any of them go,
but themselves called for heralds from the mainland, and after questions
had been carried backwards and f