At the close of this year Cleocritus was archon of the Athenians, and in Rome in place of consuls there were four military tribunes, Aulus Sempronius, Marcus Papirius, Quintus Fabius, and Spurius Nautius. [2] This year the Lacedaemonians together with their allies invaded Attica, under the leadership of Agis and Alcibiades the Athenian. And seizing the stronghold of Deceleia they made it into a fortress for attacks upon Attica, and this, as it turned out, was why this war came to be called the Deceleian War. The Athenians dispatched thirty triremes to lie off Laconia under Charicles as general and voted to send eighty triremes and five thousand hoplites to Sicily. [3] And the Syracusans, having made up their minds to join battle at sea, fitted out eighty triremes and sailed against the enemy. The Athenians put out against them with sixty ships, and when the battle was at its height, all the Athenians in the fortresses went down to the sea; for some were desirous of watching the battle, while others hoped that, in case of some reverse in the sea-battle, they could be of help to those in flight. [4] But the Syracusan generals, foreseeing what really happened, had dispatched the troops in the city against the strongholds of the Athenians, which were filled with money and naval supplies as well as every other kind of equipment; when the Syracusans found the strongholds guarded by a totally inadequate number, they seized them, and slew many of those who came up from the sea to their defence. [5] And since a great uproar arose about the forts and the camp, the Athenians who were engaged in the sea-battle turned about in dismay and fled toward the last remaining fort. The Syracusans pursued them without order, but the Athenians, when they saw themselves unable to find safety on land because the Syracusans controlled two forts, were forced to turn about and renew the sea-battle. [6] And since the Syracusans had broken their battle order and had become scattered in the pursuit, the Athenians, attacking with their ships in a body, sank eleven triremes and pursued the rest as far as the island.2 When the fight was ended, each side set up a trophy, the Athenians for the sea-battle and the Syracusans for their successes on land.
