cked from all sides by the lighter and more
manageable vessels of the enemy. The Syracusans also used stones as
missiles, which strike with equal effect, however they are thrown,
while the Athenians replied with volleys of arrows and javelins, whose
aim was often spoiled by the motion of the vessels, and which are
useless unless they fly with the point foremost. All these details had
been foreseen and taught to the Syracusans by Aristion the Corinthian
steersman, who fell in the moment of victory. The Athenians were
finally routed and driven ashore with great slaughter, and their
retreat by sea completely cut off. Knowing how difficult it would be
to make their way to any place of safety by land, they allowed
themselves to be so paralyzed by despair, that they let the Syracusans
tow away their ships as prizes, without making an effort to save them,
and actually neglected to ask for a truce for the burial of their
dead. They seemed to think that the case of the sick and wounded whom
they saw amongst them, and whom they must perforce abandon when they
left their camp, was even more pitiable than that of the floating
corpses, and they actually envied the lot of the slain, knowing well
that after a few more days of suffering they themselves were all
destined to share their fate.

XXVI. They were all eager to depart during the night which followed
this disastrous day; but Gylippus, perceiving that the people of
Syracuse were so given up to feasting and merry-making, celebrating
both their victory and the festival of their national hero Herakles,
to whom the day was sacred, that they could not be either forced or
persuaded into attempting to harass the enemy's retreat, sent some of
those men who had formerly been in correspondence with Nikias to tell
him not to attempt to retreat that night, as all the roads were
occupied by Syracusans lying in wait to attack him. Deceived by this
intelligence, Nikias waited to find what he feared in the night turned
into a reality on the following day. At daybreak the passes were
occupied by the Syracusans, who also threw up entrenchments at all the
places where rivers had to be forded, and broke all the bridges,
stationing their cavalry upon the level ground, so that the Athenians
could not advance a step without fighting. The Athenians remained for
all that day and the following night in their camp, and then set out,
with such weeping and lamentation that it seemed rather as if they
were