ut the same time, the heavy infantry in the
merchant vessels to Sicily; the Lacedaemonians furnishing a picked force
of Helots and Neodamodes (or freedmen), six hundred heavy infantry in
all, under the command of Eccritus, a Spartan; and the Boeotians three
hundred heavy infantry, commanded by two Thebans, Xenon and Nicon, and
by Hegesander, a Thespian. These were among the first to put out into
the open sea, starting from Taenarus in Laconia. Not long after their
departure the Corinthians sent off a force of five hundred heavy
infantry, consisting partly of men from Corinth itself, and partly
of Arcadian mercenaries, placed under the command of Alexarchus, a
Corinthian. The Sicyonians also sent off two hundred heavy infantry at
same time as the Corinthians, under the command of Sargeus, a Sicyonian.
Meantime the five-and-twenty vessels manned by Corinth during the winter
lay confronting the twenty Athenian ships at Naupactus until the heavy
infantry in the merchantmen were fairly on their way from Peloponnese;
thus fulfilling the object for which they had been manned originally,
which was to divert the attention of the Athenians from the merchantmen
to the galleys.

During this time the Athenians were not idle. Simultaneously with the
fortification of Decelea, at the very beginning of spring, they sent
thirty ships round Peloponnese, under Charicles, son of Apollodorus,
with instructions to call at Argos and demand a force of their heavy
infantry for the fleet, agreeably to the alliance. At the same time
they dispatched Demosthenes to Sicily, as they had intended, with sixty
Athenian and five Chian vessels, twelve hundred Athenian heavy infantry
from the muster-roll, and as many of the islanders as could be raised
in the different quarters, drawing upon the other subject allies for
whatever they could supply that would be of use for the war. Demosthenes
was instructed first to sail round with Charicles and to operate with
him upon the coasts of Laconia, and accordingly sailed to Aegina and
there waited for the remainder of his armament, and for Charicles to
fetch the Argive troops.

In Sicily, about the same time in this spring, Gylippus came to Syracuse
with as many troops as he could bring from the cities which he had
persuaded to join. Calling the Syracusans together, he told them
that they must man as many ships as possible, and try their hand at
a sea-fight, by which he hoped to achieve an advantage in the war no