ers and
archers and everything else upon a corresponding scale. The Syracusans
and their allies were for the moment not a little dismayed at the idea
that there was to be no term or ending to their dangers, seeing, in
spite of the fortification of Decelea, a new army arrive nearly equal to
the former, and the power of Athens proving so great in every quarter.
On the other hand, the first Athenian armament regained a certain
confidence in the midst of its misfortunes. Demosthenes, seeing how
matters stood, felt that he could not drag on and fare as Nicias had
done, who by wintering in Catana instead of at once attacking Syracuse
had allowed the terror of his first arrival to evaporate in contempt,
and had given time to Gylippus to arrive with a force from Peloponnese,
which the Syracusans would never have sent for if he had attacked
immediately; for they fancied that they were a match for him by
themselves, and would not have discovered their inferiority until they
were already invested, and even if they then sent for succours, they
would no longer have been equally able to profit by their arrival.
Recollecting this, and well aware that it was now on the first day
after his arrival that he like Nicias was most formidable to the enemy,
Demosthenes determined to lose no time in drawing the utmost profit from
the consternation at the moment inspired by his army; and seeing that
the counterwall of the Syracusans, which hindered the Athenians from
investing them, was a single one, and that he who should become master
of the way up to Epipolae, and afterwards of the camp there, would find
no difficulty in taking it, as no one would even wait for his attack,
made all haste to attempt the enterprise. This he took to be the
shortest way of ending the war, as he would either succeed and take
Syracuse, or would lead back the armament instead of frittering away the
lives of the Athenians engaged in the expedition and the resources of
the country at large.

First therefore the Athenians went out and laid waste the lands of the
Syracusans about the Anapus and carried all before them as at first by
land and by sea, the Syracusans not offering to oppose them upon
either element, unless it were with their cavalry and darters from the
Olympieum. Next Demosthenes resolved to attempt the counterwall first by
means of engines. As however the engines that he brought up were burnt
by the enemy fighting from the wall, and the rest of the forces