nd of driving them out of the
country.

After this he embraced the first opportunity that offered of again
leading them against the enemy. Now Nicias and the Athenians held the
opinion that even if the Syracusans should not wish to offer battle, it
was necessary for them to prevent the building of the cross wall, as it
already almost overlapped the extreme point of their own, and if it went
any further it would from that moment make no difference whether they
fought ever so many successful actions, or never fought at all. They
accordingly came out to meet the Syracusans. Gylippus led out his heavy
infantry further from the fortifications than on the former occasion,
and so joined battle; posting his horse and darters upon the flank
of the Athenians in the open space, where the works of the two walls
terminated. During the engagement the cavalry attacked and routed the
left wing of the Athenians, which was opposed to them; and the rest
of the Athenian army was in consequence defeated by the Syracusans and
driven headlong within their lines. The night following the Syracusans
carried their wall up to the Athenian works and passed them, thus
putting it out of their power any longer to stop them, and depriving
them, even if victorious in the field, of all chance of investing the
city for the future.

After this the remaining twelve vessels of the Corinthians, Ambraciots,
and Leucadians sailed into the harbour under the command of Erasinides,
a Corinthian, having eluded the Athenian ships on guard, and helped
the Syracusans in completing the remainder of the cross wall. Meanwhile
Gylippus went into the rest of Sicily to raise land and naval forces,
and also to bring over any of the cities that either were lukewarm in
the cause or had hitherto kept out of the war altogether. Syracusan and
Corinthian envoys were also dispatched to Lacedaemon and Corinth to get
a fresh force sent over, in any way that might offer, either in
merchant vessels or transports, or in any other manner likely to prove
successful, as the Athenians too were sending for reinforcements; while
the Syracusans proceeded to man a fleet and to exercise, meaning to
try their fortune in this way also, and generally became exceedingly
confident.

Nicias perceiving this, and seeing the strength of the enemy and his
own difficulties daily increasing, himself also sent to Athens. He had
before sent frequent reports of events as they occurred, and felt it
especial