Some steps in this direction
they had already taken; and tidings soon arrived at Syracuse which
caused them to redouble their exertions.
For in the meantime the Athenians had reached Corcyra, where they held
a final review of all their forces. The total number of the triremes
was a hundred and thirty-four, and with these sailed a vast fleet of
merchant ships, and smaller craft, laden with stores of all kinds, and
carrying a whole army of bakers, masons, and carpenters, with the
tools of their crafts, and all the engines required for a siege.
Besides these, there was a great number of other vessels, small and
great, fitted out by private speculators for purposes of trade. The
military force was on a corresponding scale, comprising five thousand,
one hundred hoplites, of whom fifteen hundred were full Athenian
citizens, four hundred and eighty archers, seven hundred slingers from
Rhodes, and a hundred and twenty exiles from Megara, equipped as
light-armed troops. The force of cavalry was but small, being conveyed
in a single transport.
The whole armament now weighed anchor from Corcyra and sailed in three
divisions, each commanded by one of the generals, to the opposite
coast of Italy. On arriving at Rhegium, an Ionic city on the Italian
side of the strait, they received permission to beach their ships, and
form a camp outside the walls; and here they waited for the return of
three fast-sailing triremes, which had been sent forward from
Corcyrato carry the news of their approach to Egesta, and claim the
promised subsidy, and at the same time to sound the temper of the
Greek cities in Sicily.
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