ch. 62
12.62.1Both sides displayed unsurpassable energy in the siege, and as for the Spartans in their assaults upon the walls, while many others were objects of wonder for their deeds of valour, the greatest acclaim was won by Brasidas.
12.62.2For when the captains of the triremes lacked the courage to bring the ships to land because of the rugged nature of the shore, he, being himself the commander of a trireme, called out in a loud voice to the pilot, ordering him not to spare the vessel but to drive the trireme at full speed to the land; for it would be disgraceful, he cried, for Spartans to be unsparing of their lives as they fought for victory, and yet to spare their vessels and to endure the sight of Athenians holding the soil of Laconia.
12.62.3And finally he succeeded in forcing the pilot to drive the ship forward and, when the trireme struck the shore, Brasidas, taking his stand on the gangway, fought off from there the multitude of Athenians who converged upon him. And at the outset he slew many as they came at him, but after a while, as numerous missiles assailed him, he suffered many wounds on the front of his body.
12.62.4In the end he suffered much loss of blood from the wounds, and as he lost consciousness his arm extended over the side of the ship and his shield, note slipping off and falling into the sea, came into the hands of the enemy.
12.62.5After this Brasidas, who had built up a heap of many corpses of the enemy, was himself carried off half-dead from the ship by his men, having surpassed to such a degree all other men in bravery that, whereas in the case of all other men those who lose their shields are punished with death, he for that very reason won for himself glory.
12.62.6Now the Lacedaemonians, although they kept making continuous assaults upon Pylos and had lost many soldiers, remained steadfast in the fierce struggles. And one may well be amazed at the strange perversity of Fortune and at the singular character of her ordering of what happened at Pylos.
12.62.7For the Athenians, defending themselves from a base on Laconian soil, were gaining the mastery over the Spartans, whereas the Lacedaemonians, regarding their own soil as the enemy's, were assaulting the enemy from the sea as then base; and, as it happened, those who were masters of the land in this case controlled the sea, and those who held first place on the sea were beating off an attack on land which they held.
