Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/312

294 294 HISTORY OF GREECE. Corinthians and Lacedaemonians. to visit the cities in the inte- rior of Sicily. They made known everywhere the prodigious improvement in Syracusan affairs arising from the gain of Plem- myrium, as well as the insignificant character of the recent naval defeat. They strenuously pleaded for farther aid to Syracuse without delay, since there were now the best hopes of being able to crush the Athenians in the harbor completely, before the reinforcements about to be despatched could reach them. 1 While these envoys were absent on their mission, the Great Harbor was the scene of much desultory conflict, though not of any comprehensive single battle. Since the loss of Plemmyrium, the Athenian naval station was in the northwest interior corner of that harbor, adjoining the fortified lines occupied by their land-army. It was inclosed and protected by a row of posts or stakes stuck in the bottom and standing out of the water. 2 The Syracusans on their side had also planted a stockade in front of the interior port of Ortygia, to defend their ships, their ship- houses, and their docks within. As the two stations were not far apart, each party watched for opportunities of occasional attack or annoyance by missile weapons to the other ; and daily skir- mishes of this sort took place, in which on the whole the Athe- nians seem to have had the advantage. They even formed the plan of breaking through the outworks of the Syracusan dockyard, and burning the ships within. They brought up a ship of the largest size, with wooden towers and side defences, against the line of posts fronting the dockyard, and tried to force the entrance, either by means of divers, who sawed them through at the bottom, or by boat-crews, who fastened ropes round them and thus unfixed or plucked them out. All this was done under cover of the great vessel with its towers manned by light-armed, who exchanged showers of missiles with the Syracusan bowmen ming near enough to interrupt the operation. The Athenians contrived thus to remove many of the posts planted, even the most dangerous among them, those which did not reach to the surface of the water, and which thsrefore a ship approaching could not see. But they gained little by it, sir.ce the Syracusani 1 Thucyd. vii, 25. 8 Thucyd. vii, 38.