rally preferred this mode of
attack to a regular engagement. For to risk themselves against
desperate men would have been only playing into the hands of the
Athenians. Moreover, every one was sparing of his life; their good
fortune was already assured, and they did not wish to fall in the hour
of victory. Even by this irregular mode of fighting they thought that
they could overpower and capture the Athenians.

And so when they had gone on all day assailing them with missiles from
every quarter, and saw that they were quite worn out with their wounds
and all their other sufferings, Gylippus and the Syracusans made a
proclamation, first of all to the islanders, that any of them who
pleased might come over to them and have their freedom. But only a few
cities accepted the offer. At length an agreement was made for the
entire force under Demosthenes. Their arms were to be surrendered but
no one was to suffer death, either from violence or from imprisonment,
or from want of the bare means of life. So they all surrendered, being
in number six thousand, and gave up what money they had. This they
threw into the hollows of shields and filled four. The captives were
at once taken to the city. On the same day Nicias and his division
reached the river Erineus, which he crossed, and halted his army on a
rising ground.

On the following day, he was overtaken by the Syracusans, who told him
that Demosthenes had surrendered, and bade him do the same. He, not
believing them, procured a truce while he sent a horseman to go and
see. Upon the return of the horseman bringing assurance of the fact,
he sent a herald to Gylippus and the Syracusans, saying that he would
agree, on behalf of the Athenian state, to pay the expenses which the
Syracusans had incurred in the war, on condition that they should let
his army go; until the money was paid he would give Athenian citizens
as hostages, a man for a talent. Gylippus and the Syracusans would not
accept these proposals, but attacked and surrounded this division of
the army as well as the other, and hurled missiles at them from every
side until the evening. They too were grievously in want of food and
necessaries. Nevertheless they meant to wait for the dead of the night
and then to proceed. They were just resuming their arms, when the
Syracusans discovered them and raised the paean. The Athenians,
perceiving that they were detected, laid down their arms again, with
the exception of about three