t
unworthy of the risk. With him Hermocrates actively joined in trying to
encourage his countrymen to attack the Athenians at sea, saying that the
latter had not inherited their naval prowess nor would they retain
it for ever; they had been landsmen even to a greater degree than the
Syracusans, and had only become a maritime power when obliged by the
Mede. Besides, to daring spirits like the Athenians, a daring adversary
would seem the most formidable; and the Athenian plan of paralysing by
the boldness of their attack a neighbour often not their inferior in
strength could now be used against them with as good effect by the
Syracusans. He was convinced also that the unlooked-for spectacle of
Syracusans daring to face the Athenian navy would cause a terror to the
enemy, the advantages of which would far outweigh any loss that Athenian
science might inflict upon their inexperience. He accordingly urged
them to throw aside their fears and to try their fortune at sea; and the
Syracusans, under the influence of Gylippus and Hermocrates, and perhaps
some others, made up their minds for the sea-fight and began to man
their vessels.

When the fleet was ready, Gylippus led out the whole army by night; his
plan being to assault in person the forts on Plemmyrium by land, while
thirty-five Syracusan galleys sailed according to appointment against
the enemy from the great harbour, and the forty-five remaining came
round from the lesser harbour, where they had their arsenal, in order
to effect a junction with those inside and simultaneously to attack
Plemmyrium, and thus to distract the Athenians by assaulting them on
two sides at once. The Athenians quickly manned sixty ships, and with
twenty-five of these engaged the thirty-five of the Syracusans in the
great harbour, sending the rest to meet those sailing round from the
arsenal; and an action now ensued directly in front of the mouth of the
great harbour, maintained with equal tenacity on both sides; the one
wishing to force the passage, the other to prevent them.

In the meantime, while the Athenians in Plemmyrium were down at the sea,
attending to the engagement, Gylippus made a sudden attack on the forts
in the early morning and took the largest first, and afterwards the two
smaller, whose garrisons did not wait for him, seeing the largest
so easily taken. At the fall of the first fort, the men from it who
succeeded in taking refuge in their boats and merchantmen, found great