our most capital interests are now under deliberation; and I urge you
to send without hesitation the expeditions to Sicily and Attica; by the
presence of a small part of your forces you will save important cities
in that island, and you will destroy the power of Athens both present
and prospective; after this you will dwell in security and enjoy the
supremacy over all Hellas, resting not on force but upon consent and
affection."

Such were the words of Alcibiades. The Lacedaemonians, who had
themselves before intended to march against Athens, but were still
waiting and looking about them, at once became much more in earnest
when they received this particular information from Alcibiades, and
considered that they had heard it from the man who best knew the truth
of the matter. Accordingly they now turned their attention to the
fortifying of Decelea and sending immediate aid to the Sicilians; and
naming Gylippus, son of Cleandridas, to the command of the Syracusans,
bade him consult with that people and with the Corinthians and arrange
for succours reaching the island, in the best and speediest way possible
under the circumstances. Gylippus desired the Corinthians to send him at
once two ships to Asine, and to prepare the rest that they intended to
send, and to have them ready to sail at the proper time. Having settled
this, the envoys departed from Lacedaemon.

In the meantime arrived the Athenian galley from Sicily sent by the
generals for money and cavalry; and the Athenians, after hearing
what they wanted, voted to send the supplies for the armament and the
cavalry. And the winter ended, and with it ended the seventeenth year of
the present war of which Thucydides is the historian.

The next summer, at the very beginning of the season, the Athenians in
Sicily put out from Catana, and sailed along shore to Megara in Sicily,
from which, as I have mentioned above, the Syracusans expelled the
inhabitants in the time of their tyrant Gelo, themselves occupying the
territory. Here the Athenians landed and laid waste the country, and
after an unsuccessful attack upon a fort of the Syracusans, went on with
the fleet and army to the river Terias, and advancing inland laid waste
the plain and set fire to the corn; and after killing some of a small
Syracusan party which they encountered, and setting up a trophy,
went back again to their ships. They now sailed to Catana and took in
provisions there, and going with their whole for