Year Nineteen (413/2 BC): Sea Battles in Great Harbour
In the spring Sparta sent 600 neodamodes and helots, Boeotia 300 men, Corinth 500 and Sicyon 200. Their departure was covered by a Corinthian fleet of 25 triremes. Just before this help arrived, Gylippus made simultaneous attacks by land and sea. At dawn the Syracusan fleet sailed out; 45 triremes from the lesser port, 35 from the other. At Plemyrium the Athenians hastened to man 60 ships and at the mouth of the Great Harbour a battle was fought which the Athenians eventually won. Gylippus meanwhile led his land-force by night round the right bank of the Anapus and captured the three forts at Plemyrium, thereby gaining control of the entrance to the harbour. He had one of the forts pulled down and garrisoned the other two. The Athenian fleet fell back to the northern shore at the point where their south wall reached the coast.
Wanting to achieve as much as they could before the Athenian reinforcements arrived the Syracusans again attacked by land against the south wall, where the Athenians had positioned themselves; and with their ships reinforced for ramming, by sea. This time they were unsuccessful by land, but at sea after two days of fighting the Athenians were forced to take refuge behind an improvised harbour of merchantmen.
The Syracusans were about to renew their attack when Demosthenes and Eurymedon (who had left Syracuse and joined his colleague at Acarnania) sailed into the Great Harbour with 73 triremes, 5000 hoplites, and swarms of light-armed troops. Demosthenes decided to regain possession of Epipolae and complete the wall of circumvallation.
He already had possession of the southern slope of Epipolae but his progress was barred by the Syracusans’ third cross-wall which by now almost reached Euryelus; with defenders on its north side, Athenians on its south side and only two ways of capturing it – either a frontal attack, or to turn its western end by marching round to Euryelus.
All attempts at a frontal assault failed. The alternative method required a march up the west bank of the Anapus, during which the troops would be visible to the Syracusan posts, followed by an ascent to Euryelus. Judging it to be reckless to attempt this by day, Demosthenes decided to go at night. Without being discovered he arrived at Euryelus and captured the extreme Syracusan fort on the high ground; but the greater part of the garrison escaped and gave the alarm to the three fortified Syracusan camps that were positioned one below the other behind the cross-wall. A phalanx of Boeotian hoplites emerged from their position and charged the Athenians. Panic set in when the Athenians were unable to tell each other from their foes in the dimly moonlit night. They fell into confusion and were then repulsed with considerable losses.
Demosthenes had tried to strike a decisive blow, but had suffered a humiliating defeat; he now suggested that they should abandon the enterprise and return home. This proposition, though seconded by Eurymedon, was opposed by Nicias who preferred to risk his life in Sicily rather than in the people’s court at Athens. He also advised that they remained at the harbour and continued the siege rather than transfer to the safety of Catana or Thapsus. It appears that Menander and Euthydemus must have voted with him to give him the majority vote because it was his proposals that prevailed.
Nearly a month after the night-battle on Epipolae, Gylippus arrived with considerable reinforcements. Demosthenes again pressed for an immediate departure, and this time Nicias agreed that the army should be made ready to leave. On the 27 August there was an eclipse of the Moon; Nicias consulted the prophets who declared the army should not decamp until thrice nine days, i.e. a full circle of the Moon had passed.
Gylippus brought out his entire land-force and attacked the Athenian line, while his 76 triremes sailed up to the Athenian naval station and the Athenian fleet of 86 triremes sailed out to meet them. The Syracusans first beat the centre division of Athenians, and then the right division under Eurymedon was caught and pinned against the coast in the recess of Dascon. He was killed and his division destroyed. The entire Athenians fleet was beaten and driven ashore.
Nicias and his colleagues then evacuated the upper portion of their lines and confined themselves to a limited fortified space close to the shore. When the Syracusans began to close the mouth of the Great Harbour with an improvised boom of merchantmen and other ships, the Athenians manned every ship that would float and sent them off at full speed towards the gap in the boom. The Syracusans had placed some ships near the gap in the boom, and the rest around the shores of the harbour so that they could attack the flanks and front of the Athenian squadron. For a long time victory for either side was in doubt but eventually the Athenians were forced back to the shore where the army could protect them.
Demosthenes pointed out to the men that their vessels still outnumbered the enemy and that the only real chance for escape was to break through the boom, but the spirit of the sailors was broken and they refused to row again. False reports of the enemy’s intentions delayed the start by two days. The Syracusans used this time to seize passes, break down bridges and plant parties of cavalry on open patches of ground.
With Nicias in front and Demosthenes to the rear, the army set off along the west bank of the Anapos towards Sicel territory. After forcing the passage of the river they reached the foot of a pass called the Acraean Cliff and found it to be strongly held by the enemy. Two days were spent trying to force a way through, during which the rear was being attacked by cavalry and light-armed troops. With the cliff proving impregnable, Nicias and Demosthenes cut their way through the Syracusans to the rear with heavy losses and during the night moved off westwards towards the sea.
The men were dispirited and many of them deserted during the night march. Demosthenes lost his way and was overtaken by the Syracusans. In the conflict that now ensued, many more of his men fell and he eventually surrendered on the condition that the lives of his men would be spared. Nicias was overtaken the following day but he fought his way forward and reached the Assinarus River. As his men rushed towards the water, partly to escape the enemy but chiefly to quench their burning thirst, they were slaughtered by the Syracusans waiting on the other side of the river. Further resistance being hopeless, Nicias surrendered to Gylippus.
Out of the forty thousand who started from the camp, only about ten thousand were left at the end of the eight-day retreat. The prisoners were sent to work in the stone quarries of Achradina and Epipolae. At the end of seventy days all but the Athenians and the Italian and Sicilian Greeks were sold as slaves. Nicias and Demosthenes were put to death despite the efforts of Gylippus and Hermocrates to save them. Athens had lost more than 200 warships, some 40,000 men and an enormous amount of money, weapons and materials.
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