History of the Peloponnesian War

Meanwhile the twenty-five Corinthian ships, which had been manned during the winter, lay opposite the twenty Athenian ships at Naupactus, until their hoplites in the merchant-ships had got well on their voyage from the Peloponnesus; it was for this purpose, indeed, that they had been manned in the first place—that the Athenians might not give their attention so much to the merchant-ships as to the triremes.

Meanwhile the Athenians, simultaneously with the fortification of Deceleia and at the very beginning of spring, sent thirty ships round the Peloponnesus under the command of Charicles son of Apollodorus, whose orders were on reaching Argos to summon to the ships Argive hoplites, in accordance with the terms of their alliance.

And they also were setting Demosthenes on his way to Sicily, as they had planned to do, with fifty Athenian ships and five Chian, twelve hundred Athenian hoplites from the muster-roll, and as many islanders as it was possible to get into their service from each place; and from their other allies who were subjects they collected whatever these had anywhere that was serviceable for the war. But Demosthenes had received instructions first of all, as he was sailing round, to co-operate with Charicles in his operations on the coast of Laconia.

So he sailed to Aegina and waited there for any part of the armament that had been left behind, and also until Charicles should take on board the Argive hoplites.

In Sicily, during the same spring and at about the same time, Gylippus returned to Syracuse, bringing from each of the cities which he had prevailed upon as large a body of troops as he could secure.

And calling together the Syracusans, he told them that they should man as many ships as possible and try their luck in fighting at sea; for he hoped thereby to accomplish something for the furtherance of the war that would be worth the risk.

And Hermocrates most of all joined in urging them not to be faint-hearted about attacking the Athenians with their ships, saying that with the Athenians also their maritime skill was not a legacy from their fathers or a possession for all time, but that on the contrary they were originally more landsmen than the Syracusans, and had only taken to the sea when forced to do so by the Persians. He added that those who with daring confront daring men like the Athenians appear most formidable to them; for that quality which enables the Athenians to terrorize their neighbours, to whom they are sometimes not superior in power, though they always attack them with confidence—this very quality the Syracusans would likewise exhibit to their opponents.

And lie said that he was well aware that the Syracusans, by daring unexpectedly to make a stand against the Athenian fleet, would have an advantage over them, dismayed as they would be on that account, which would more than outweigh the damage which the Athenians might inflict by their skill on the inexperience of the Syracusans.

He urged them, therefore, to proceed to the trial of their fleet and not to shrink from it. So the Syracusans, under the persuasions of Gylippus, Hermocrates, and perhaps others, were eager for the sea-fight and began to man the slips.