Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/216

188 the rest of the season had to remain on the defensive. In the winter he sent home a despatch detailing the difficulties of his position, the deterioration of his ships, and the diminution of his forces by losses on the field, sickness, and desertion. He begged to be recalled, as being broken in health, and he demanded at any rate to be reinforced by a second armament on the same scale as that originally sent. The people refused to relieve him of his command, but voted a large reinforcement, which sailed in the spring of B.C. 413, under Demosthenes and Eurymedon. But it was too late. Nicias had lost Epipolae: he was encamped on the low ground south of the town open to attacks from the Syracusan cavalry at the Olympieium, though protected on the seaboard by his ships. The Athenians still dominated the Great Harbour; but Gylippus used his successes on land to encourage the Syracusans to send their ships out of their own inner harbour to try conclusions with the Athenian fleet. At first they met with reverses, but these were made up for by the capture of Athenian stores and magazines on Plemmyrium, the headland forming the southern shore of the Great Harbour. They were also strongly reinforced by troops from most of the Sicilian towns. Lastly, just before the arrival of the relieving squadron from Athens the Syracusans, who had now learnt to remedy defects in their ships, gained an important victory at sea. Nicias was therefore in a very dangerous position.

For a brief period the spirits of the Athenians were revived by the arrival of their new armament.