Most were agreed that it was a warning from heaven,
forbidding their departure until the angry powers had been appeased by
sacrifice and prayer. In the mind of Nicias, enslaved by the grossest
superstition, there was no room for doubt. He was surrounded by
prophets, whose advice he sought on every occasion, and guided by them
he proclaimed that for thrice nine days, the time required for a
complete circuit of the moon, there could be no talk of departing.
But the Athenians were soon engaged in a sterner task than the vain
rites of propitiation and penitential observance. The news of their
intended retreat, and its untoward interruption, so raised the spirits
of the Syracusans, that they resolved to risk another sea-fight, and
after some days spent in training their crews, they sailed out with
seventy-six ships, and offered battle, and Gylippus at the same time
attacked the Athenian lines by land. The Athenians succeeded in
repulsing the assault on their walls, but in the encounter between the
fleets, though they out-numbered the enemy by ten ships, they suffered
a decisive defeat. Eurymedon was slain, and eighteen vessels fell into
the hands of the Syracusans, who put all the crews to the sword.
The pride and ambition of the Syracusans now knew no bounds.
Pages:
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263