History of The Peloponnesian War - Book VII   

hampering their vessels and falling all into confusion among
themselves through fighting not according to their own tactics. For
they will gain nothing by the number of their ships- I say this to
those of you who may be alarmed by having to fight against odds- as a
quantity of ships in a confined space will only be slower in executing
the movements required, and most exposed to injury from our means of
offence. Indeed, if you would know the plain truth, as we are credibly
informed, the excess of their sufferings and the necessities of
their present distress have made them desperate; they have no
confidence in their force, but wish to try their fortune in the only
way they can, and either to force their passage and sail out, or after
this to retreat by land, it being impossible for them to be worse
off than they are.

"The fortune of our greatest enemies having thus betrayed itself,
and their disorder being what I have described, let us engage in
anger, convinced that, as between adversaries, nothing is more
legitimate than to claim to sate the whole wrath of one's soul in
punishing the aggressor, and nothing more sweet, as the proverb has
it, than the vengeance upon an enemy, which it will now be ours to
take. That enemies they are and mortal enemies you all know, since
they came here to enslave our country, and if successful had in
reserve for our men all that is most dreadful, and for our children
and wives all that is most dishonourable, and for the whole city the
name which conveys the greatest reproach. None should therefore relent
or think it gain if they go away without further danger to us. This
they will do just the same, even if they get the victory; while if
we succeed, as we may expect, in chastising them, and in handing
down to all Sicily her ancient freedom strengthened and confirmed,
we shall have achieved no mean triumph. And the rarest dangers are
those in which failure brings little loss and success the greatest
advantage."
After the above address to the soldiers on their side, the Syracusan
generals and Gylippus now perceived that the Athenians were manning
their ships, and immediately proceeded to man their own also.
Meanwhile Nicias, appalled by the position of affairs, realizing the
greatness and the nearness of the danger now that they were on the
point of putting out from shore, and thinking, as men are apt to think
in great crises, that when all has been done they have still something
left to do, and when all has been said that they have not yet said
enough, again called on the captains one by one, addressing each by
his father's name and by his own, and by that of his tribe, and
adjured them not to belie their own personal renown, or to obscure the
hereditary virtues for which their ancestors were illustrious: he
reminded them of their country, the freest of the free, and of the
unfettered discretion allowed in it to all to live as they pleased;
and added other arguments such as men would use at such a crisis,
and which, with little alteration, are made to serve on all
occasions alike- appeals to wives, children, and national
gods- without caring whether they are thought commonplace, but loudly
invoking them in the belief that they will be of use in the
consternation of the moment. Having thus admonished them, not, he
felt, as he would, but as he could, Nicias withdrew and led the troops
to the sea, and ranged them in as long a line as he was able, in order
to aid as far as possible in sustaining the courage of the men afloat;
while Demosthenes, Menander, and Euthydemus, who took the command on
board, put out from their own camp and sailed straight to the
barrier across the mouth of the harbour and to the passage left
open, to try to force their way out.
The Syracusans and their allies had already put out with about the
same number of ships as before, a part of which kept guard at the
outlet, and the remainder all round the rest of the harbour, in
order to attack the Athenians on all sides at once; while the land
forces held themselves in readiness at the points at which the vessels