History of the Peloponnesian War

Demosthenes, Menander, and Euthydemus, who went on board the Athenian fleet to take the command, put out from their own station, and immediately sailed to the bar at the mouth of the harbour, and the passage through it which had been [*](τὸν παραλειφθέντα διέκπουν As some correction of this reading seems necessary, I have preferred that which is adopted by Arnold, καταληφθέντα, to that which Bekker proposes, περιλειφθέντα: because it seems far more probable from the next chapter that no passage at all was left by the Syracusans. If there had been, why should the Athenians, when they had defeated the squadron at the harbour's mouth, have attempted to break the fastenings of the vessels which formed the bar, (sec. 2,) instead of sailing out at once, as some of them probably would have done, under their present circumstances, if the passage had been open for them. Bloomfield indeed thinks that the mere fact of a Syracusan squadron having been posted near the mouth of the harbour proves that there must have been an opening left. But surely this is a very weak proof: for knowing as they did that the Athenians would break down the bar if they possibly could, it was a very natural precaution to defend it with a division of their fleet.) closed up, wishing to force their way to the outside.

The Syracusans and their allies, having previously put out with pretty nearly the same number of ships as before, proceeded to keep guard with part of them at the passage out, and also round the circumference of the whole harbour, that they might fall upon the Athenians on all sides at once, while their troops also at the same time came to their aid at whatever part their vessels might put in to shore. The commanders of the Syracusan fleet were Sicanus and Agatharchus, each occupying a wing of the whole force, with Pythen and the Corinthians in the centre.

When the Athenians came up to the bar, in the first rush with which they charged they got the better of the ships posted at it, and endeavoured to break the fastenings. Afterwards, when the Syracusans and their allies bore down upon them from all quarters, the engagement was going on no longer at the bar alone, but over the harbour also; and an obstinate one it was, such as none of the previous ones had been. For great eagerness for the attack was exhibited by the seamen on both sides, when the command was given;