Battle of Orchomenus - Battle

Battle

While Archelaus let his men relax after taking their positions, Sulla set his men to work building trenches which he hoped would cut Archelaus' cavalry off from the plains and move the fighting to more boggy areas. Archelaus recognized Sulla's strategy, and launched several attacks on the workers and the soldiers sent to protect them. In one of these, Archelaus' stepson Diogenese distinguished himself in a valiant attack where he died gloriously. In Archelaus' final attack, Sulla routed his troops and carried his camp. Plutarch says that so many men died that the marshes ran with blood, and almost two hundred years later weapons were still found sticking out of the marshes. After the battle, he destroyed three Boeotian towns: Anthedon, Darymna, and Halae. Later, upon meeting fisherman from Halae who gifted him fish, Sulla told them he was surprised there were any of them left, but let them go and told them not to worry. As a result of this incident, the people of Halae were inspired to repopulate their town.

Read more about this topic:  Battle Of Orchomenus

Famous quotes containing the word battle:

    Fold up the banners! Smelt the guns!
    Love rules, Her gentler purpose runs.
    A mighty mother turns in tears
    The pages of her battle years,
    Lamenting all her fallen sons!
    Will Henry Thompson (1848–1918)

    Whose kiss
    stings and stills;
    your kiss was stale, satiate and pale
    beside his,
    who commands battles,
    who kills
    when the battle delays.
    Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)

    I have just read your dispatch about sore tongued and fatiegued [sic] horses. Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietem that fatigue anything?
    Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)