d Catana. Nicias now resolved to make an attempt upon
Syracuse. By a false message that the Catanaeans were ready to assist
in expelling the Athenians, he induced the Syracusans to proceed
thither in great force, and he availed himself of their absence to sail
with his whole fleet into the Great Harbour of Syracuse, where he
landed near the mouth of the Anapus. The Syracusans, when they found
that they had been deceived at Catana, marched back and offered Nicias
battle in his new position. The latter accepted it, and gained the
victory; after which he retired to Catana, and subsequently to Naxos
into winter quarters.

The Syracusans employed the winter in preparations for defence. They
also despatched envoys to Corinth and Sparta to solicit assistance, in
the latter of which towns they found an unexpected advocate.
Alcibiades, having crossed from Thurii to Cyllene in Peloponnesus,
received a special invitation to proceed to Sparta. Here he revealed
all the plans of Athens, and exhorted the Lacedaemonians to frustrate
them. For this purpose he advised them to send an army into Sicily,
under the command of a Spartan general, and, by way of causing a
diversion, to establish a fortified post at Decelea in the Attic
territory. The Spartans fell in with these views, and resolved to send
a force to the assistance of Syracuse in the spring, under the command
of Gylippus.

Nicias, having received reinforcements from Athens, recommenced
hostilities as soon as the season allowed of it, and resolved on
besieging Syracuse. That town consisted of two parts--the inner and
the outer city. The former of these--the original settlement was
comprised in the island of Ortygia; the latter afterwards known by the
name of Achradina, covered the high ground of the peninsula north of
Ortygia, and was completely separate from the inner city. The island
of Ortygia, to which the modern city is now confined, is of an oblong
shape, about two miles in circumference, lying between the Great
Harbour on the west, and the Little Harbour on the east, and separated
from the mainland by a narrow channel. The Great Harbour is a splendid
bay, about five miles in circumference, and the Little Harbour was
spacious enough to receive a large fleet of ships of war. The outer
city was surrounded on the north and east by the sea and by sea-walls
which rendered an assault on that side almost impracticable. On the
land side it was defended by a wall, and