magnitude of Sicily affords them. Some even engage in
trade themselves and prevail upon the captains to take Hyccaric slaves
on board in their place; thus they have ruined the efficiency of our
navy.

"Now I need not remind you that the time during which a crew is in its
prime is short, and that the number of sailors who can start a ship on
her way and keep the rowing in time is small. But by far my greatest
trouble is, that holding the post which I do, I am prevented by the
natural indocility of the Athenian seaman from putting a stop to these
evils; and that meanwhile we have no source from which to recruit our
crews, which the enemy can do from many quarters, but are compelled to
depend both for supplying the crews in service and for making good
our losses upon the men whom we brought with us. For our present
confederates, Naxos and Catana, are incapable of supplying us. There is
only one thing more wanting to our opponents, I mean the defection of
our Italian markets. If they were to see you neglect to relieve us from
our present condition, and were to go over to the enemy, famine would
compel us to evacuate, and Syracuse would finish the war without a blow.

"I might, it is true, have written to you something different and
more agreeable than this, but nothing certainly more useful, if it is
desirable for you to know the real state of things here before taking
your measures. Besides I know that it is your nature to love to be
told the best side of things, and then to blame the teller if the
expectations which he has raised in your minds are not answered by the
result; and I therefore thought it safest to declare to you the truth.

"Now you are not to think that either your generals or your soldiers
have ceased to be a match for the forces originally opposed to them.
But you are to reflect that a general Sicilian coalition is being formed
against us; that a fresh army is expected from Peloponnese, while the
force we have here is unable to cope even with our present antagonists;
and you must promptly decide either to recall us or to send out to us
another fleet and army as numerous again, with a large sum of money,
and someone to succeed me, as a disease in the kidneys unfits me for
retaining my post. I have, I think, some claim on your indulgence, as
while I was in my prime I did you much good service in my commands. But
whatever you mean to do, do it at the commencement of spring and without
delay, as the enemy