In the spring Nicias received from Athens 250 cavalrymen and 30 horse-archers for whom horses were to be obtained in Sicily. These were obtained from Segesta and Catana, who also provided additional cavalry to give Nicias 650 cavalry in all. Syracuse was to be taken by investment, i.e. the fleet blocking its supplies by sea and a wall of circumvallation built by the Athenians to cut off its supplies by land.
Sailing south from Catana the Athenians disembarked at Leon on Thapsus Bay, northwest of Syracuse. They marched to Euryelus at the west end of Epipolae, where they met and defeated a force sent to defend the area. On the following morning Nicias and Lamachus marched down the ridge and offered battle, which the Syracusans declined.
The Athenians returned to Epipolae and built a fort at Labdalum on the north edge of the plateau. Nearer to the city at a place called Syke they built a circular fort, which Thucydides called the ‘Circle’, of considerable size and was to be the base for their siege. From here Nicias began building his line of circumvallation: one wall southwards to the Great Harbour and second wall northwards to Trogilus at Thapsus Bay.
While the Athenians were busy to the north, the Syracusans attempting to prevent the completion of the south wall built an east-west wall across its path, but after a sharp conflict it was taken and destroyed. The Syracusans then began a second cross-wall (palisade and ditch) further south, across a marsh between the town and the Anapus River.
Lamachus provided his troops with planks to bridge over the marsh and contrived to reach the palisade at dawn. The palisade was taken, but Lamachus was killed during the engagement. While the Athenians were preoccupied in the south, the Syracusans attacked the Circle. They came close to succeeding but Nicias was there and he managed to drive them off. At this point the Athenian fleet, which had been waiting at Thapsus, sailed in the Great Harbour and at this new threat the Syracusans had to withdraw into their city.
After these successes the Athenians appeared to be in a winning position. They were further encouraged by receiving supplies from Italy, three penteconters with reinforcements from Eretria, and the accession of many previously wavering Sicels to their side. When Athenians completed the double wall from the Circle to the harbour to protect them from attacks from the city and from outside, the Syracusans considered surrendering and made overtures to Nicias.
In June, Gylippus was at Leucas waiting for his main squadron to be made ready to sail. Hearing that Syracuse was already fully blockaded he decided to proceed with four ships and the Corinthian captain Pythen. At Epizephyrian Locris he learnt that Syracuse was not completely blockaded and that an army might still reach it from the interior via Euryelus. At Himera he was offered some hoplites and received similar offers from Selinus, Gela and some of the Sicel tribes. He was eventually able to begin his inland march from Himera to Syracuse at the head of some three thousand troops.
Although Nicias heard of Gylippus’ coming he did not take this small force seriously; he neglected to complete the north wall and so the city was not fully protected. At Syracuse, thoughts of capitulation were abandoned when the Corinthian Gongylus arrived in advance and informed the citizens that help was on its way. Gylippus arrived at Euryelus, passed through the gap in the Athenians’ incomplete northern wall and joined forces with the Syracusan army, which had marched out to meet him. After arriving at the city, Gylippus offered the Athenians a five days’ truce on condition they withdrew from the island. Nicias made no reply.
Gylippus captured the fort at Labdalum, and started building a third cross-wall, north of the Circle. In the fighting on Epipolae, Gylippus was defeated in a first battle but was victorious in a second. Nicias decided to move his main base south to Plemyrium, the headland south of the Great Harbour, where he built three forts to protect the ships and stores. The northern cross-wall soon passed the line of the Athenian wall, so Syracuse could not now be cut off; and twelve more Peloponnesian ships arrived and entered the Lesser Harbour.
Gylippus set out to raise extra forces in Sicily and asked for more from Corinth and Sparta. Nicias sent a letter to Athens, asking to be recalled or to be sent reinforcements and relieved of his command. The Assembly did not relieve Nicias but Menander (1) and Euthydemus, officers already in Sicily, were appointed as his assistants; Eurymedon was sent in winter with ten ships to inform Nicias of the approaching aid; and Demosthenes to take the main force in the following spring. During the summer, probably at the time when the Athenians appeared to be winning at Syracuse, the Spartans invaded Argivian territory. The Athenians sent thirty triremes under Pythodorus and two colleagues to aid in its defence. It proceeded to devastate the eastern coast of Laconia and this, taken together with marauding excursions of the garrison of Pylos, satisfied the Spartans that the peace, such as it was, had been broken by Athens. The Spartans decided to send a Peloponnesian force to Syracuse in the spring, and at the same time to invade Attica and fortify Decelea.
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