History of the Peloponnesian War

Gylippus, on the other hand, continued to build the wall across Epipolae, using the stones which the Athenians had previously dumped along the line for their own use, and at the same time he continually led out the Syracusans and their allies and drew them up before the wall; and the Athenians would always draw up to meet them.

But when it seemed to Gylippus that the right moment had come, he commenced the onset; and coming to close quarters they fought between the walls, where the cavalry of the Syracusans was of no use.

And when the Syracusans and their allies had been defeated and had taken up their dead under a truce, and the Athenians had set up a trophy, Gylippus called his troops together and said that the mistake was not theirs but his own, for by arranging his line of battle too much between the walls he had deprived them of the benefit of their cavalry and javelin-men. He would therefore now lead them on again, and he urged them to make up their minds to this—that in point of men and equipment they would not be inferior;

and as for their spirit, it was not to be endured if they, being Peloponnesians and Dorians, confronting Ionians and islanders and a mixed rabble, were not going to make it a point of honour to conquer them and drive them out of the country.

After this, when there was a favourable opportunity, he led them on again. Now Nicias and the Athenians thought that, even if the Syracusans were unwilling to begin fighting, they themselves could not possibly look idly on while the wall was being built past their own—for already the enemy's wall had all but passed the end of the Athenians' wall, and if it once got by, from then on it would be all one to them whether they fought and conquered in every battle or did not fight at all— accordingly they advanced against the Syracusans.

And Gylippus, leading forth his hoplites more outside the walls than before, closed with the enemy, having his cavalry and javelin-men posted on the flank of the Athenians, in the open space where the work on both walls ended.

And in the battle his cavalry attacked the left wing of the Athenians, which was opposed to them, and routed it; and in consequence of this the rest of the army also was beaten by the Syracusans and driven headlong within the fortifications.