Note 47 — LIFE OF PYRRHUS.
George Long translation
On this passage Thirlwall ('History of Greece,' chapter lx.) has the following note: "Flathe (vol. ii. p. 94) conceives that the waggons were placed in the ditch, which I can neither understand, nor reconcile with Plutarch's description. Clough follows Flathe, and says that 'the waggons were sunk in the ditch, here and there along it.' Plutarch's description is most unfortunately brief. We do not know to what extent Sparta had been fortified during its wars with Kassander and Demetrius, or whether the ditch which was dug on this occasion covered the only gap in the walls. At any rate it is hard to understand why the Spartans, according to Clough, should dig a ditch and then sink their waggons in it, as in that case they might as well not have dug any ditch at all."