Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
also embattled these. And Gylippus, piling his arms in view of the
Athenians, sent a herald to tell them he would give them leave to
depart from Sicily without molestation. To this Nicias would not
vouchsafe any answer, but some of his soldiers laughing asked if
with the sight of one coarse coat and Laconian staff the Syracusan
prospects had become so brilliant that they could despise the
Athenians, who had released to the Lacedaemonians three hundred,
whom they held in chains, bigger men than Gylippus, and
longer-haired? Timaeus, also, writes that even the Syracusans made
no account of Gylippus, at the first sight mocking at his staff and
long hair, as afterwards they found reason to blame his
covetousness and meanness. The same author, however, adds that on
Gylippus's first appearance, as it might have been at the sight of
an owl abroad in the air, there was a general flocking together of
men to serve in the war. And this is the truer saying of the two;
for in the staff and the cloak they saw the badge and authority of
Sparta, and crowded to him accordingly. And not only Thucydides
affirms that the whole thing was done by him alone, but so, also,
does Philistus, who was a Syracusan and an actual witness of what
happened.
However, the Athenians had the better in the first encounter, and
slew some few of the Syracusans, and amongst them Gongylus of
Corinth. But on the next day Gylippus showed what it is to be a
man of experience; for with the same arms, the same horses, and on
the same spot of ground, only employing them otherwise, he overcame
the Athenians; and they fleeing to their camp, he set the
Syracusans to work, and with the stone and materials that had been
brought together for finishing the wall of the Athenians, he built
a cross wall to intercept theirs and break it off, so that even if
they were successful in the field, they would not be able to do
anything. And after this the Syracusans taking courage manned their
galleys, and with their horse and followers ranging about took a
good many prisoners; and Gylippus going himself to the cities,
called upon them to join with him, and was listened to and
supported vigorously by them. So that Nicias fell back again to
his old views, and, seeing the face of affairs change, desponded,
and wrote to Athens, bidding them either send another army, or
recall this out of Sicily, and that he might, in any case, be
wholly relieved of the command, because of his disease.
Before this, the Athenians had been intending to send another army
to Sicily, but envy of Nicias's early achievements and high fortune
had occasioned, up to this time, many delays; but now they were all
eager to send off succors. Eurymedon went before, in midwinter,
with money, and to announce that Euthydemus and Menander were
chosen out of those that served there under Nicias to be joint
commanders with him. Demosthenes was to go after in the spring
with a great armament. In the meantime Nicias was briskly
attacked, both by sea and land; in the beginning he had the
disadvantage on the water, but in the end repulsed and sunk many
galleys of the enemy. But by land he could not provide succor in
time, so Gylippus surprised and captured Plemmyrium, in which the
stores for the navy, and a great sum of money being there kept, all
fell into his hands, and many were slain, and many taken prisoners.
And what was of greatest importance, he now cut off Nicias's
supplies, which had been safely and readily conveyed to him under
Plemmyrium, while the Athenians still held it, but now that they
were beaten out, he could only procure them with great difficulty,
and with opposition from the enemy, who lay in wait with their
ships under that fort. Moreover, it seemed manifest to the
Syracusans that their navy had not been beaten by strength, but by
their disorder in the pursuit. Now, therefore, all hands went to
work to prepare for a new attempt, that should succeed better than
the former. Nicias had no wish for a sea-fight, but said it was
mere folly for them, when Demosthenes was coming in all haste with
so great a fleet and fresh forces to their succor, to engage the
enemy with a less number of ships and ill provided. But, on the
other hand, Menander and Euthydemus, who were just commencing their
new command, prompted by a feeling of rivalry and emulation of both
the generals, were eager to gain some great success before
Demosthenes came, and to prove themselves superior to Nicias. They
urged the honor of the city, which, said they, would be blemished
and utterly lost, if they should decline a challenge from the
Syracusans. Thus they forced Nicias to a sea-fight; and by the
stratagem of Ariston, the Corinthian pilot, (his trick, described
by Thucydides, about the men's dinners,) they were worsted, and
lost many of their men, causing the greatest dejection to Nicias,
who had suffered so much from having the sole command, and now
again miscarried through his colleagues.
But now, by this time, Demosthenes with his splendid fleet came in
sight outside the harbor, a terror to the enemy. He brought along,
in seventy-three galleys, five thousand men at arms; of darters,
archers, and slingers, not less than three thousand; with the
glittering of their armor, the flags waving from the galleys, the
multitude of coxswains and flute-players giving time to the rowers,
setting off the whole with all possible warlike pomp and
ostentation to dismay the enemy. Now, one may believe the
Syracusans were again in extreme alarm, seeing no end or prospect
of release before them, toiling, as it seemed, in vain, and
perishing to no purpose. Nicias, however, was not long overjoyed
with the reinforcement, for the first time he conferred with
Demosthenes, who advised forthwith to attack the Syracusans, and to
put all to the speediest hazard, to win Syracuse, or else return
home, afraid, and wondering at his promptness and audacity, he
besought him to do nothing rashly and desperately, since delay
would be the ruin of the enemy, whose money would not hold out, nor
their confederates be long kept together; that when once they came
to be pinched with want, they would presently come again to him for
terms, as formerly. For, indeed, many in Syracuse held secret
correspondence with him, and urged him to stay, declaring that even
now the people were quite worn out with the war, and weary of
Gylippus. And if their necessities should the least sharpen upon
them they would give up all.
Nicias glancing darkly at these matters, and unwilling to speak out
plainly, made his colleagues imagine that it was cowardice which
made him talk in this manner. And saying that this was the old
story over again, the well known procrastinations and delays and
refinements with which at first he let slip the opportunity in not
immediately falling on the enemy, but suffering the armament to
become a thing of yesterday, that nobody was alarmed with, they
took the side of Demosthenes, and with much ado forced Nicias to
comply. And so Demosthenes, taking the land-forces, by night made
an assault upon Epipolae; part of the enemy he slew ere they took
the alarm, the rest defending themselves he put to flight. Nor was
he content with this victory there, but pushed on further, till he
met the Boeotians. For these were the first that made head against
the Athenians, and charged them with a shout, spear against spear,
and killed many on the place. And now at once there ensued a panic
and confusion throughout the whole army; the victorious portion got
infected with the fears of the flying part, and those who were
still disembarking and coming forward, falling foul of the
retreaters, came into conflict with their own party, taking the
fugitives for pursuers, and treating their friends as if they were
the enemy.
Thus huddled together in disorder, distracted with fear and
uncertainties, and unable to be sure of seeing anything, the night
not being absolutely dark, nor yielding any steady light, the moon
then towards setting, shadowed with the many weapons and bodies
that moved to and fro, and glimmering so as not to show an object
plain, but to make friends through fear suspected for foes, the
Athenians fell into utter perplexity and desperation. For,
moreover, they had the moon at their backs, and consequently their
own shadows fell upon them, and both hid the number and the
glittering of their arms; while the reflection of the moon from the
shields of the enemy made them show more numerous and better
appointed than, indeed, they were. At last, being pressed on every
side, when once they had given way, they took to rout, and in their
flight were destroyed, some by the enemy, some by the hand of their
friends, and some tumbling down the rocks, while those that were
dispersed and straggled about were picked off in the morning by the
horsemen and put to the sword. The slain were two thousand; and of
the rest few came off safe with their arms.
Upon this disaster, which to him was not wholly an unexpected one,
Nicias accused the rashness of Demosthenes; but he, making his
excuses for the past, now advised to be gone in all haste, for
neither were other forces to come, nor could the enemy be beaten
with the present. And, indeed, even supposing they were yet too
hard for the enemy in any case, they ought to remove and quit a
situation which they understood to be always accounted a sickly
one, and dangerous for an army, and was more particularly
unwholesome now, as they could see themselves, because of the time
of year. It was the beginning of autumn, and many now lay sick,
and all were out of heart.
It grieved Nicias to hear of flight and departing home, not that he
did not fear the Syracusans, but he was worse afraid of the
Athenians, their impeachments and sentences; he professed that he
apprehended no further harm there, or if it must be, he would
rather die by the hand of an enemy, than by his fellow-citizens.
He was not of the opinion which Leo of Byzantium declared to his
fellow-citizens: "I had rather," said he, "perish by you, than
with you." As to the matter of place and quarter whither to remove
their camp, that, he said, might be debated at leisure. And
Demosthenes, his former counsel having succeeded so ill, ceased to
press him further; others thought Nicias had reasons for
expectation, and relied on some assurance from people within the
city, and that this made him so strongly oppose their retreat, so
they acquiesced. But fresh forces now coming to the Syracusans,
and the sickness growing worse in his camp, he, also, now approved
of their retreat, and commanded the soldiers to make ready to go
aboard.
And when all were in readiness, and none of the enemy had observed
them, not expecting such a thing, the moon was eclipsed in the
night, to the great fright of Nicias and others, who, for want of
experience, or out of superstition, felt alarm at such appearances.
That the sun might be darkened about the close of the month, this
even ordinary people now understood pretty well to be the effect of
the moon; but the moon itself to be darkened, how that could come
about, and how, on the sudden, a broad full moon should lose her
light, and show such various colors, was not easy to be
comprehended; they concluded it to be ominous, and a divine
intimation of some heavy calamities. For he who the first, and the
most plainly of any, and with the greatest assurance committed to
writing how the moon is enlightened and overshadowed, was
Anaxagoras; and he was as yet but recent, nor was his argument much
known, but was rather kept secret, passing only amongst a few,
under some kind of caution and confidence. People would not then
tolerate natural philosophers, and theorists, as they then called