e 
450 On the Pefilential Difeafes which 
unwholefome ground *,” a fituation “ always unhealthy for 
an army, and Bleetally' in this feafon of the year f)"""a pef-" 
tilential difeafe fhewed itfelf in the camp, extending with the 
progrefs of the feafon, and the continued expofure of the fol- 
diery, or, as Plutarch expreffes himfelf, by contagion; till, 
haraffed by the enemy on one part, and worn down by fa- 
tigue and ficknefs on the other, the Athenians were driven 
to the fad neceflity of attempting a forced and fecret retreat, 
with the dereliction of their camp, their wounded, and their 
fick. The confummate eloquence of Thucydides alone is . 
adequate to the defcri iption of this fcene of hotvors: 
Of the numbers whe erithed by this peftilence, and of its, 
P P > 
particular fymptoms, no record is tranfmitted down to us 
The event of this fiege is known. The Athenians were fur- 
rounded on their retreat, and defeated with immenfe deftruc- 
tion, and under the mofi melancholy circumftances of dif- 
trefs: their general, worthy of a better fate, was cruelly put 
to death; and the greater part of thofe who were made pri- 
foners perifhed in Syracufe, the victims of difeafes induced 
by exceffive labour and unwholefome food. A few (in fuch 
honour was poefy among the ancients,) were emancipated by 
the recollection and recitation of even a fingle verfe of the 
pathetic tragedies of Euripides f. 
At a fubfequent period, and during the war between the 
Carthaginians and Dionyfius the elder, Himilco, or Imilcon, 
after al fuccefsful enterprifes in other parts of Sicily, 
marched againft Syracufe. He invaded it with an army of 
300,060 foot and 3000 horfe; while the Carthaginian fleet, 
of 200 fhips, under the command of Mago, followed by 500 
barks, entered the great port in a triumphal manner, and 
laden with the fpoils of the ravaged cities of the ifland. Imil~ 
con pitched his tent in the very temple of Jupiter, then 
ftanding at Olympia; and his army encamped around him. 
* Smith’s Thueydides, Vol. ET. p. 236. + } 
+, Piutarch, art, Nicias. 
+, f614.— For the particular hiftory of the fiege of Syracufe, the reader. 
ig referred, generally, to Thucydides, B. vi. and vii.; and to the Life of 
Nicias, by Plutareh. citing 
In 
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