History of the Peloponnesian War

"And they have also sent envoys to the Peloponnesus for another army, and Gylippus has gone to the cities of Sicily, to persuade such of them as are now neutral to join them in the war, and to bring from other cities, if he can, still further reinforcements for his army and navy.

For they plan, as I hear, to make an attempt upon our walls with their land-force and at the same time to try their luck at sea also with their fleet.

And let it not seem incredible to any of you that they will try also by sea. For our fleet, as the enemy also have learned, though at first it was in prime condition as regards both the soundness[*](Lit. “dryness,” as opposed to a water-logged condition (διάβροχοι).) of the ships and the unimpaired condition of the crews, is not so now; the ships are water-logged, from having been at sea for so long a time already, and the crews have wasted away.

For it is not possible to draw the ships up on shore and dry them out, because the fleet of the enemy, which is quite a match for us and in number is even superior, keeps us in continual expectation that it will sail against us.

They keep practising in plain view; the initiative to make attack lies with them; and they have a better opportunity to dry their ships than we, for they are not blockading others.

"We, on the contrary, could hardly enjoy this advantage even if we had a great superiority in the number of our ships, and were not compelled, as now, to use them all for guard-duty. For if we relax our vigilance ever so little, we shall not have our supplies, which are even now with difficulty brought past their city and into our camp.

And our crews have been and are still being wasted, for the reason that our sailors, forced to go out to a distance for wood and forage and water, are constantly being killed by the cavalry. And now that we have been reduced to equal terms with the enemy, our servants are deserting. Of the mercenaries also, some, who embarked on our ships under compulsion, go home to their cities on the first opportunity; others, who were in the first place stirred by the prospects of high pay and thought they were going to make money rather than to fight, now that, contrary to their expectation, they see on the enemy's side the fleet and everything else offering resistance, either go over as professed[*](ie. as they would profess after they had got within the enemy's lines. Or, “on any occasion for deserting,” ie. whenever the deserters thought themselves unobserved by the Athenians or found themselves in the neighbourhood of the Syracusan troops, πρόφασις being used not of a pretended, but Of a real occasion, as in 1.23.6, 1.118.1, 1.126.1, .) deserters, or get away as best they can—for Sicily is large—and there are also some who, being themselves engaged in traffic, have persuaded the trierarchs to take Hyccarian slaves on board in their stead, and thus have robbed our navy of its perfection of discipline.