History of the Peloponnesian War

And so, finding themselves unable either to bring about a change in their form of government,[*](It was the usual policy of Athens to overthrow oligarchies and establish democracies as a means of extending their empire; but this resource was not open to them in democratic Syracuse.) and thus introduce among them that element of discord by which they might have brought them over to the Athenian side, or to subdue them by means of a military force that was greatly superior, and having failed in most of their undertakings, they had even before this been at their wits' end, and now that they had suffered defeat even with their fleet, a thing that they could never have anticipated, they were in far greater perplexity still.

The Syracusans, on the other hand, began at once to sail fearlessly about the harbour and determined to close up the entrance to it, in order that the Athenians might no longer be able, even if they wished, to sail out unobserved.

For the Syracusans were no longer concerned with merely saving themselves, but also with preventing the Athenians from being saved, thinking, as indeed was the case, that in the present circumstances their own position was much superior, and that if they could defeat the Athenians and their allies both by land and by sea the achievement would appear a glorious one for them in the eyes of the Hellenes. All the other Hellenes, they reflected, would immediately be either liberated from subjection or relieved from fear, since the military forces that would remain to the Athenians would not be strong enough to sustain the war that would afterwards be brought against them; and they themselves, being regarded as the authors of all this, would be greatly admired not only by the world at large but also by posterity.

And indeed the struggle was a worthy one, both in these respects and because they were showing themselves superior, not to the Athenians only, but to their numerous allies as well, and that too not standing alone but associated with the friends who had come to their aid, thus taking their place as leaders along with the Corinthians and Lacedaemonians, having also given their own city to bear the brunt of the danger and taken a great step forward in sea-power.

Indeed, a larger number of nations than ever before had gathered together at this one city, if one except the vast throng of those who in this war rallied to the support of the city of Athens and the city of the Lacedaemonians.

For the following nations on either side had entered the war at Syracuse, coming against Sicily or in behalf of Sicily, to aid the Athenians to win the country or the Syracusans to save it; and they chose sides, not so much on the ground of right or even of kinship, but either out of regard for their own advantage or from necessity, according to the circumstances in which they each happened to be placed.[*](Or, by adopting Heilmann's and Boehme's conjecture ὡς ἕκαστοι τῆς ξυντυχίας. . . εἶχον, “severally choosing their side, not so much from a sense of right or from obligations of kinship, as from the accident of compulsion or their own interest.”)