Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/237

219 NIKIAS IN THE IIAKCOK OF SYRACUSE. 219 attached to Athens, yet apparently neutral and on good terms with the other side, as bearer of a pretended message and propo- sition from the friends of Syracuse at Katana. Many of the Athenian soldiers, so the message ran, were in the habit of pass- ing the night within the walls, apart from their camp and arms. It would be easy for the Syracusans by a vigorous attack at daybreak, to surprise them thus unprepared and dispersed ; while the philo-Syracusan party at Katana promised to aid, by closing the gates, assailing the Athenians within, and setting fire to the ships. A numerous body of Katanasans, they added, were eager to cooperate in the plan now proposed. This communication, reaching the Syracusan generals at a moment when they were themselves elate and disposed to an aggressive movement, found such incautious credence, that they sent back the messenger to Katana with cordial assent and agree- ment for a precise day. Accordingly, a day or two before, the- entire Syracusan force was marched out towards Katana, and encamped for the night on the river Symasthus, in the Leontine territory, within about eight miles of Katana. But Nikias, with whom the whole proceeding originated, choosing this same day to put on shipboard his army, together with his Sikel allies present, sailed by night southward along the coast, rounding the island of Ortydia, into the Great Harbor of Syracuse. Arrived thither by break of day, he disembarked his troops unopposed south of the mouth of the Anapus, in the interior of the Great Harbor, near the hamlet which stretched towards the temple of Zeus Olympius. Having broken down the neighboring bridge, where the Helorine road crossed the Anapus, he took up a position protected by various embarrassing obstacles, houses, walls, trees, and standing water, besides the steep ground of the Olympieion itself on his left wing ; so that he could choose his own time for fighting, and was out of the attack of the Syracusan horse. For the protection of his ships on the shore, he provided a palisade work by cutting down the neighboring trees ; and even took precautions for his rear by throwing up a hasty fence of Avood and stones touching the shore at the inner bay called Daskon. lie had full leisure for such defensive works, since the enemy within the walls made no attempt to disturb him, while the Syracusan horse only discovered his irjanrcuvre 01? arriving