Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/309

291 MEASURES OF G1LIPPUS AT SYRACUSE. 21)1 The town of Syracuse had two ports, one on each side of the island of Ortygia. The lesser port as it was called after- wards, the Portus Lakkius lay northward of Ortygia, between that island and the low ground or Nekropolis near the outer city : the other lay on the opposite side of the isthmus of Ortygia within the Great Harbor. Both of them, it appears, were pro- tected against attack from without, by piles and stakes planted in the bottom in front of them. But the lesser port was the more secure of the two, and the principal docks of the Syracusans were situated within it ; the Syracusan fleet, eighty triremes strong, being distributed between them. The entire Athenian fleet was stationed under the fort of Plemmyrium, immediately opposite to the southern point of Ortygia. Gylippus laid his plan with great ability, so as to take the Athenians completely by surprise. Having trained and prepared the naval force as thoroughly as he could, he marched out his land-force secretly by night, over Epi poise and round by the right bank of the Anapus, to the neighborhood of the fort of Plemmy- rium. With the first dawn of morning, the Syracusan fleet sailed out, at one and the same signal, from both the ports ; forty- five triremes out of the lesser port, thirty-five out of the other. Both squadrons tried to round the southern point of Ortygia, so as to unite and to attack the enemy at Plemmyrium in concert. The Athenians, though unprepared and confused, hastened to man sixty ships ; with twenty-five of which, they met the thirty- five Syracusans sailing forth from the Great Harbor, while with the other thirty-five they encountered the forty-five from the lesser port, immediately outside of the mouth of the Great Har- bor. In the former of these two actions the Syracusans were at first victors ; in the second also, the Syracusans from the outside forced their way into the mouth of the Great Harbor, and joined their comrades. But being little accustomed to naval warfare, they presently fell into complete confusion, partly in consequence of their unexpected success : so that the Athenians, recovering from the first shock, attacked them anew and completely defeated them ; sinking or disabling eleven ships, of three of which the sequel proved to be the most important of all, the confined space of the harbor which rendered Athenian sh-ps and tactics nnnvailing.