Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/251

 The Destniction of the Athenian Empire 201 On the advice of Alcibiades the Spartans had sent an able A Spartan commander with a small force to support Syracuse, and the in Syracuse city was confident in its new ally. When Nicias made no prog- ress in the siege, Athens responded to his call for help with a second fleet and more land forces. No Greek state had ever Athenian re- mustered such power and sent it far across the waters. All ^" or^emen b Greece watched the spectacle with amazement. Meantime the Syracusans too had organized a fleet. The Athenians were obliged to give battle in the narrow harbor, where there was no room for maneuvers or for any display of their superior seaman- ship, and the fleet of Syracuse was victorious in several actions. The Athenians were caught as they themselves had caught the Persians at Salamis two generations before. With disaster staring him in the face, the superstitious Nicias Capture of refused to withdraw in time because of an eclipse of the moon, ^^^^ a^d and insisted on waiting another month. The Syracusans then ^^'"y blockaded the channel to the sea and completely shut up the Athenian fleet within the harbor, so that an attempt to break through and escape disastrously failed. The desperate Athenian army, abandoning sick and wounded too late, endeavored to escape into the interior, but was overtaken and forced to sur- render. After executing the commanding generals, the Syracu- sans took the prisoners, seven thousand in number, and sold them into slaveiy or threw them into the stone quarries of the city, where most of them miserably perished. Thus the Athenian expedition was not only defeated, but captured and completely destroyed (413 B.C.). This disaster, together with the earlier ravages of the plague, brought Athens near the end of her resources. Sparta, seeing: the unprotected condition of Athens, now no Decelean . • A • ^ xu war — Sparta longer hesitated to undertake a campaign mto Attica. Un the begins advice of Alcibiades again, thef Spartans occupied the town of hostilities Decelea, almost within sight of Athens. Here they established a permanent fort held by a strong garrison, and thus placed Athens in a state of perpetual siege. All agriculture ceased and