History of the Peloponnesian War

They prepared themselves therefore on all other points severally, and on this also; for they covered over with hides their prows and a considerable space of the upper part of the vessel, so that the grapple, when thrown, might slip off, and not obtain any hold on them.

And now, when every thing was ready, their generals, together with Gylippus, exhorted them by speaking as follows:

"That our former achievements have been glorious ones, Syracusans and allies, and that this struggle will be for glorious results in future, most of you seem to us to be aware, (for you would not else have devoted yourselves so eagerly to it,) and if any one is not as sensible of it as he ought to be, we will prove it to him.

For when the Athenians had come to this country, for the subjugation of Sicily in the first place, and then, if they succeeded, for that of the Peloponnese also, and the rest of Greece; and when they possessed the largest empire enjoyed hitherto, either by Greeks of former times or of the present, you were the first men in the world who withstood their navy, with which they had borne down every thing, and have already conquered them in some sea-fights, and will now, in all probability, conquer them in this.