appeared in the Neighbourhood of Syracufe. 259 
The ficknefs iti the Athenian army is fimply called a fever, 
faid to be contagious by Plutarch, but probably not fo. Livy 
defcribes no fymptoms of the plague recorded by him. Dio- 
dorts Siculus is fomewhat more particular; but only fo far 
as to mark the variety of form in which the feldiers of Imil- 
con were attacked by the difeafe. In fome, in the fhape of 
enteritis, or inflammation of the bowels; in others, of dyfen- 
tery, fometimes invading as a violent fever, with acute pains 
in every part of the body, and fometimes with madnefs or 
delirium. Yet, even thefe fcanty particulars are of import- 
ance, as they ferve to identify the difeafe, and to proclaim its 
ftri&. affinity to thofe which are the common offspring of 
fuch fituations as that in which the army avere encamped, 
‘and thofe which have fpread fo much apprehenfion, and ex- 
cited fo. much difcuffien in our own country. 
7. Ceflation of the peftilence.—Another circumftance 
which chara¢terifes the difeafe under confideration, is the 
manner in which it was extinguifhed. So long as Nicias 
remained in his camp, he faw his men conftantly dying 
around him by ficknefs. His removal, notwithftanding the 
fubfequent calamities which befel him, appears to have tho- 
roughly delivered his army from fevers. The furvivors were 
employed as {laves in Syracufe; which could fcarcely have 
happened had they been fick, or had the Syracufans dreaded _ 
the introduction of a contagious difeafe by their means.— 
Imilcon preferved the refidue of his army only by flight : there 
was no other hope for their fafety; and, after his return to 
Carthage, he exclaimed, in the bitternefs of his grief, that the 
plague, not the enemy, had conquered him! But neither 
then nor before did the dry and airy city of Syracufe fuffer 
from any ficknefs; nor did the fear of contagion prevent the 
Syracufans from repeatedly attacking the Athenian and Car- 
thaginian camps. ‘Their minds were probably unwarped by 
the bias of fyftem; and they difcerned, in the pofition of their 
enemies, the true caufe of their misfortunes. —The fads re- 
lated by Livy are fingularly precife and important. In the 
 firft place, neither the citizens of Syracufe, nor the army of 
Epicides, which had pofleffion of Ortygia and Achradina, 
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