Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

94 BATTLE OF OLPJB.against the fire o£ tlie enemy and tlie weatlier. Thus the twowalls became one, with a double parapet. Towers surmountedthe wall at intervals, and commanded both sides. Largeditches were dug on either side with drawbridges thrownacross them. Previous to this we find no methodical plan ofsiege works.The Peloponnesian war bred some good generals. Ofthese probably Brasidas, the Spartan, should hold the firstplace as a military man, though Athens developed the greateststatesmen. Pericles' conception of the plan on whichAthens shoidd work, — a defensive war on land, an aggressivewar at sea, — and the words Thucydides puts into his mouth,are full of wisdom. The foresight of Demosthenes in seizingPylos (b. c. 425), by which he threatened so dangerous anincursion on the rear of Sparta that he at once compelled hernot only to relax her hold on the throat of Athens, but suefor peace, is part and parcel of the very best of strategic ability.Demosthenes also won the battle of Olpse (b. c. 425) by''/-....ao-^o OtOo^Olpae, B. c. 425.the clever use of an ambuscade. He hid in a wooded valleya force of four hundred hoplites and light troops, beyond hisown right, hoping by a surprise to demoralize the Lacedaemonianleft, which outflanked him, in case it should gain the advantage.What he anticipated occurred. Eurylochus turned