History of the Peloponnesian War

but the arms taken were more than for the number of the slain. For of such as were forced to quit their bucklers and leap down from the rocks, though some perished, yet some there also were that escaped.

After this, the Syracusians, having by such unlooked-for prosperity recovered their former courage, sent Sicanus with fifteen galleys to Agrigentum, being in sedition, to bring that city, if they could, to their obedience. And Gylippus went again to the Sicilian cities by land to raise yet another army, as being in hope to take the camp of the Athenians by assault, considering how the matter had gone in Epipolae.

In the meantime the Athenian generals went to council upon their late overthrow and present general weakness of the army. For they saw not only that their designs prospered not, but that the soldiers also were weary of staying.

For they were troubled with sickness, proceeding from a double cause, this being the time of the year most obnoxious to diseases, and the place where they lay moorish and noisome; and all things else appeared desperate.