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84.
And Nicias, when it was day, led his army forward, the Syracusians and their confederates still pressing them in the same manner, shooting and darting at them from every side.
[2]
The Athenians hasted to get the river Asinarus, not only because they were urged on every side by the assault of the many horsemen and other multitude and thought to be more at ease when they were over the river, but out of weariness also and desire to drink.
[3]
When they were come unto the river, they rushed in without any order, every man striving who should first get over.
But the pressing of the enemy made the passage now more difficult.
For being forced to take the river in heaps, they fell upon and trampled one another under their feet;
and falling amongst the spears and utensils of the army, some perished presently;
and others, catching hold one of another, were carried away together down the stream.
[4]
And [not only] the Syracusians standing along the farther bank, being a steep one, killed the Athenians with their shot from above as they were many of them greedily drinking and troubling one another in the hollow of the river;
[5]
but the Peloponnesians came also down and slew them with their swords, and those especially that were in the river.
And suddenly the water was corrupted;
nevertheless they drunk it, foul as it was with blood and mire;
and many also fought for it.
The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury. Thucydides. Thomas Hobbes. translator. London. Bohn. 1843.
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