Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/347

329 DESPAIR OF THE ATHENIANS 323 mean auxiliary, but because any of their triremes, if compelled to fall back before an Athenian, found protection on the shore, and could return to the fight at leisure ; while an Athenian in the same predicament had no escape, o. The numerous light craft of the Syracusans doubtless rendered great service in this battle, as they had done in the preceding, though Thucydides does not again mention them. 6. Lastly, both in the Athenian and Syracusan characters, the pressure of necessity -was less potent as a stimulus to action, than hopeful confidence and elation, with the idea of a flood-tide yet mounting. In the character of some other races, the Jews for instance, the comparative force of these motives appears to be the other way. About sixty Athenian triremes, little more than half of the fleet which came forth, were saved as the wreck from this terrible conflict. The Syracusans on their part had suffered severely ; only fifty triremes remaining out of seventy-six. The triumph with which, nevertheless, on returning to the city, they erected their trophy, and the exultation which reigned among the vast crowds encircling the harbor, was beyond all measure or prece- dent. Its clamorous manifestations were doubtless but too well heard in the neighboring camp of the Athenians, and increased, if anything could increase, the soul-subduing extremity of dis- tress which paralyzed the vanquished. So utterly did the pressure of suffering, anticipated as well as actual, benumb their minds and extinguish their most sacred associations, that no man among them, not even the ultra-religious Nikias, thought of pick- ing up the floating bodies or asking for a truce to bury the dead. This obligation, usually so serious and imperative upon the sur- vivors after a battle, now passed unheeded amidst the sorrow, terror, and despair, of the living man for himself. Such despair, however, was not shared by the generals, to their honor be it spoken. On the afternoon of this terrible defeat, Demosthenes proposed to Nikias that at daybreak the ensuing morning they should man all the remaining ships even now more in number than the Syracusan and make a fresh attempt to Ifeak out of the harbor. To this Nikias agreed, and both proceeded to try their influence in getting the resolution executed. But so irreparably was the spirit of the seamen bi-oken, thai nothing could prevail upon them to go again on shipboard : they