seeing how great and how near the peril was (for the
ships were on the very point of rowing out), feeling too, as men do on
the eve of a great struggle, that all which he had done was nothing,
and that he had not said half enough, again addrest the trierarchs,
and calling each of them by his father's name, and his own name, and
the name of his tribe, he entreated those who had made any reputation
for themselves not to be false to it, and those whose ancestors were
eminent not to tarnish their hereditary fame. He reminded them that
they were the inhabitants of the freest country in the world, and how
in Athens there was no interference with the daily life of any man. He
spoke to them of their wives and children and their fathers' gods, as
men will at such a time; for then they do not care whether their
common-place phrases seem to be out of date or not, but loudly
reiterate the old appeals, believing that they may be of some service
at the awful moment. When he thought that he had exhorted them, not
enough, but as much as the scanty time allowed, he retired, and led
the land-forces to the shore, extending the line as far as he could,
so that they might be of the greatest use in encouraging the
combatants on board ship. Demosthenes,[41] Menander, and Euthydemus,
who had gone on board the Athenian fleet to take command, now quitted
their own station, and proceeded straight to the closed mouth of the
harbor, intending to force their way to the open sea where a passage
was still left.

The Syracusans and their allies had already put out with nearly the
same number of ships as before. A detachment of them guarded the
entrance of the harbor; the remainder were disposed all round it in
such a manner that they might fall on the Athenians from every side at
once, and that their land-forces might at the same time be able to
cooperate whenever the ships retreated to the shore. Sicanus and
Agatharchus commanded the Syracusan fleet, each of them a wing; Pythen
and the Corinthians occupied the center.

When the Athenians approached the closed mouth of the harbor, the
violence of their onset overpowered the ships which were stationed
there; they then attempted to loosen the fastenings. Whereupon from
all sides the Syracusans and their allies came bearing down upon them,
and the conflict was no longer confined to the entrance, but extended
throughout the harbor. No previous engagement had been so fierce and
obstinate. Great was the e