nd ground
as before, but he dealt with them so differently that he defeated the
Athenians. Checking the Syracusans, who wished to chase them back to
their camp, he ordered them to use the stones and timber which had
been collected by the Athenians, to build a counter-wall, reaching
beyond the line of circumvallation, so that the Athenians could no
longer hope to surround the city. And now the Syracusans, taking fresh
courage, began to man their ships of war, and to cut off the
stragglers with their cavalry. Gylippus personally visited many of the
Greek cities in Sicily, all of whom eagerly promised their aid, and
furnished him with troops; so that Nikias, perceiving that he was
losing ground, relapsed into his former desponding condition, and
wrote a despatch to Athens, bidding the people either send out another
armament, or let the one now in Sicily return to Athens, and
especially beseeching them to relieve him from his command, for which
he was incapacitated by disease.

XX. The Athenians had long before proposed to send out a reinforcement
to the army in Sicily, but as all had gone on prosperously, the
enemies of Nikias had contrived to put it off. Now, however, they were
eager to send him assistance. It was arranged that Demosthenes should
employ himself actively in getting ready a large force, to go to
reinforce Nikias in the early spring, while Eurymedon, although it was
winter, started immediately with a supply of money, and with a decree
naming Euthydemus and Menander, officers already serving in his army,
to be joint commanders along with him. Meanwhile, Nikias was suddenly
attacked by the Syracusans both by sea and land. His ships were at
first thrown into confusion, but rallied and sank many of the enemy,
or forced them to run on shore; but on land Gylippus managed at the
same time to surprise the fort of Plemmyrium, where there was a
magazine of naval stores and war material of all kinds. A considerable
number of the garrison, also, were either slain or taken prisoners;
but the most serious result was the stoppage of Nikias's supplies,
which heretofore had been easily and quickly brought through the Great
Harbour, while it remained in the hands of the Athenians, but which
now could not reach his camp by sea without a convoy and a battle.[2]
Moreover, the Syracusan fleet had not been defeated by any superiority
of force of the Athenians, but by the disorder into which it had been
thrown by pursuing the enem