Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/284

 276 THE SYRACUSANS MAN A FLEET [vil Athenian ships and five Chian, twelve hundred heavy- armed Athenians taken from the roll, and as many others as could possibly be obtained from the different islanders; they had also collected from their subject-allies supplies of all sorts for the war. Demosthenes was told first of all to co-operate with Charicles on the coast of Laconia. So he sailed to Aegina, and there waited until the whole of his armament was assembled and until Charicles had taken on board the Argives. 21 In the same spring and about the same time Gylippus Gylippus and Her- returned to Syracuse, bringing from mociatcs incite the cach of the cities which he had per- Syracusans to try the j j ^ • • 1 • •^ ,,, 1,- ; , suaded to lom him as many troops as sea ; they should inutdte •> j r the daring spirit of their he could obtain. He assembled the /"**• Syracusans and told them that they should man as large a fleet as possible and try their fortune at sea ; he hoped to obtain a decisive result which would justify the risk. Hermocrates took the same view, and urged them strongly not to be faint-hearted at the prospect of attacking with their ships. He said that the Athenians had not inherited their maritime skill, » and would not retain it for ever'^; there was a time when they were less of a naval people than the Syracusans themselves ^ but they had been made sailors from necessity by the Persian invasion. To daring men like the Athenians those who emulated their daring were the most formidable foes. The same reckless courage which had often enabled the Athenians, although inferior in power, to strike terror into their adversaries might now be turned against them by the Syracusans. He was quite sure that if they faced the Athenian navy suddenly and unexpectedly, they would gain more than they would lose ; the consternation which they would inspire would more than counterbalance their own inexperience and the superior skill of the Athenians. He told them therefore to try what they could do at sea, and
 * Or, ' or been sailors from all time.' •" Cp. i. 14.