Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/344

326 -526 HISTORY OP GREECE. two or three enemies to contend with at once, sometimes she felJ aboard of one unsought, and became entangled. After a certain time, the fight still obstinately continuing, all sort of battle order became lost ; the skill of the steersman was of little avail, and the voice of the keleustes was drowned amidst the universal din and mingled cries from victors as well as vanquished. On both sides emulous exhortations were poured forth, together with reproach and sarcasm addressed to any ship which appeared flinching from the contest ; though factiti HIS stimulus of this sort was indeed but little needed. Such was the heroic courage on both sides, that for a long time victory was altogether doubtful, and the whole harbor was a scene of partial encounters, wherein sometimes Syracusans, sometimes Athenians, prevailed. According as -success thus fluctuated, so followed the cheers or wailings of the spectators ashore. At one and the same time, every variety of human emotion might be witnessed ; according as attention was turned towards a victorious or a defeated ship. It was among the spectators in the Athenian station above all, whose entire life and liberty were staked in the combat, that this emotion might be seen exaggerated into agony, and overpassing the excitement even of the combatants them- selves. 1 Those among them who looked towards a portion of the harbor where their friends seemed winning, were full of joy and thanksgiving to the gods : such of their neighbors who contem- plated an Athenian ship in difficulty, gave vent to their feelings in shrieks and lamentation ; while a third group, with their eyea fixed on some portion of the combat still disputed, were plunged in all the agitations of doubt, manifested even in the tremulous swing of their bodies, as hope or fear alternately predominated. During all the time that the combat remained undecided, the Athenians ashore were distracted by all these manifold varieties ' of intense sympathy. But at length the moment came, after a long-protracted struggle, when victory began to declare in favor of the Syracusans, who, perceiving that their enemies were slack- ening, redoubled their shouts as well as their efforts, and pushed them all back towards the land. All the Athenian triremes, abandoning farther resistance, were thrust ashore like shipwrecked 1 Thucyd. rii, 71.