Sicily from the beginning was the homeland of the Cyclopes, and after them always the nurse of tyrants, often even the captive of slaves; of whom the first fed on the flesh of men, the middle ones on their torments, the last on their deaths — except that in foreign wars it was held either as booty or as prize.
1 Sicilia ab initio patria Cyclopum et post eos semper nutrix tyrannorum fuit, saepe etiam captiua servorum, quorum primi carnibus hominum, medii cruciatibus, postremi mortibus pascebantur, excepto eo, quod externis bellis aut praeda habebatur aut praemium.
This island, to finish as briefly as possible, has never known rest from evils except now; nay rather, so that the differences of the times may be declared more clearly, just as before it alone among all others always endured disturbances either internal or external, so now it alone of them all never does.
2 haec, ut quam breuissime absoluam, requiem malorum nisi nunc nescit, immo, ut euidentius diuersitates temporum declarentur, sicut antea uel intestinos vel externos tumultus perpessa est inter omnes sola semper, ita nunc ex omnibus sola numquam.
For — to say nothing of the long duration either of that calamity by which it was oppressed or, on the contrary, of this peace which it enjoys — Etna itself, which then seethed with frequent eruptions to the destruction of cities and fields, now merely smokes, harmless in appearance, as a witness to the truth of the past.
3 nam etiam - ut sileam de diuturnitate uel illius calamitatis, qua pressa est, uel istius e contrario, qua fruitur, pacis - Aethna ipsa, quae tunc cum excidio urbium atque agrorum crebris eruptionibus aestuabat, nunc tantum innoxia specie ad praeteritorum fidem fumat.
So then — to pass over for the moment the tyrants, of whom each who was an avenger soon became a successor — in the intervening period, that is, in the year 335 from the founding of the City, when the people of Rhegium near Sicily were labouring under discord and the citizenry was split into two parties by dissension, one party called in veterans from Himera, a city of Sicily, to help them.
4 igitur - ut praetermittam interim de tyrannis, quorum mox qui fuit ultor successor effectus est - medio tempore, hoc est anno ab urbe condita CCCXXXV, cum Regini apud Siciliam discordia laborarent ciuitasque per dissensionem diuisa in duas partes esset, pars una ueteranos ab Himera urbe Siciliae in auxilium uocauit.
These men, having first driven out of the city those against whom their aid had been implored, and then soon slaughtered also those whom they had come to help, seized the city together with the wives and children of their allies, daring a crime comparable to that of no tyrant:
5 porro illi, pulsis ciuitate primum his contra quos inplorabantur, deinde mox caesis etiam illis quibus ad auxiliandum conuenerant, urbem cum coniugibus ac liberis sociorum occupauere, ausi facinus nulli tyranno comparandum:
for it would have been better for the people of Rhegium to suffer anything at all rather than of their own accord to invite in those to whom, driven out themselves, they would leave their homeland, wives, children and household gods as plunder.
6 quippe cum Reginis quiduis perpeti satius fuerit, quam ut ultro inuitarent, quibus patriam coniuges liberos ac penates ipsi extorres ad praedam relinquerent.
The people of Catana, too, when they found the Syracusans oppressive and hostile, asked the Athenians for help. But the Athenians sent a fleet fitted out to Sicily more in their own interest than in that of their allies, since they were both striving to extend their own empire and feared that the Syracusan fleet, lately fitted out, might be of service to the Lacedaemonians.
7 At etiam Catinenses cum Syracusanos graues infestosque paterentur, ab Atheniensibus auxilia poposcerunt. Sed Athenienses suo magis quam sociorum studio instructam classem in Siciliam misere, cum et sibi propagare molirentur imperium et Syracusanam classem nuper instructam Lacedaemoniis proficere uererentur.
And since the Athenians who had been sent had made a prosperous beginning by slaughtering the enemy, they brought larger forces and a stronger army back to Sicily under the generals Laches and Charoeades.1
8 et quoniam Athenienses qui missi erant caesis hostibus prospera initia sumpserant, maiores copias robustioremque exercitum cum Lachete et Chariade ducibus in Siciliam reduxerunt.
1Laches and Charoeades (Thucydides 3.86) commanded the first Athenian expedition to Sicily in 427 BC, not a later reinforcement. The Latin text has Chariades.
But the people of Catana, moved by weariness of the war, made a treaty with the Syracusans and spurned the help of the Athenians;
9 sed Catinenses, belli taedio permoti, cum Syracusanis foedus ineunt, auxilia Atheniensium spernunt;
afterwards, however, when the Syracusans, intent on domination, were transgressing the terms of the peace, they again sent envoys to Athens, who, unkempt in hair and beard and clad in mourning, entreated pity and help both by their speech and by their appearance.
10 post autem, Syracusanis condiciones pacis meditatione dominationis transgredientibus, denuo legatos Athenas mittunt, qui capillo barbaque squalidi et lugubribus induti misericordiam atque auxilium et sermone et habitu precarentur.
So a great fleet was fitted out under the generals Nicias and Lamachus, and Sicily was sought again with such great forces that even those who had obtained the aid feared the support they had won.
11 igitur magna classis instruitur ducibus Nicia et Lamacho, tantisque uiribus Sicilia repetitur, ut suffragia sua et hi timerent, qui impetrauissent.
The Athenians at once fought two land battles with favourable success, and, having worn down the enemy within the city and surrounded them with a fleet set against them, shut them in by land and sea.
12 Athenienses duas ilico pedestres pugnas secundis successibus faciunt, confectos in urbe hostes et obiecta classe circumdatos terra marique concludunt.
The Syracusans, their affairs broken and exhausted, sought help from the Lacedaemonians. By them Gylippus was soon sent — alone indeed, but in him was displayed the equivalent of all reinforcements. On arriving, when he heard that the state of the war was already tilting, he gathered auxiliaries partly in Greece and partly in Sicily and occupied positions favourable for the war.
13 at Syracusani fractis fessisque rebus auxilium a Lacedaemoniis petunt. a quibus mox mittitur Gylippus, solus quidem sed in quo omnium praesidiorum instar praeferebatur. qui ueniens ut audiuit inclinatum iam belli statum, auxiliis partim in Graecia partim in Sicilia contractis opportuna bello loca occupauit.
Then, defeated in two battles but not dismayed, in the third engagement he killed Lamachus, put the enemy to flight and freed his allies from the siege.2
14 deinde duobus proeliis uictus nec territus, tertio congressu Lamachum occidit, hostes in fugam uertit, socios obsidione liberauit.
2Lamachus fell in fighting before Syracuse in 414 BC, before Gylippus arrived (Thucydides 6.101–104).
After this the Athenians, defeated in the land battle, turned to trying their fortune at sea and prepared to engage in a naval contest; learning this, Gylippus summoned a fleet fitted out by the Lacedaemonians.
15 hinc Athenienses terrestri proelio uicti, experimenta maris ineunt et nauali certamine congredi parant; quo cognito Gylippus classem instructam a Lacedaemoniis arcessit;
The Athenians likewise sent Demosthenes and Eurymedon, with reinforcements of troops, in place of the general they had lost; the Peloponnesians, too, by the agreement and decree of many cities, sent huge auxiliaries to the Syracusans.
16 aeque Athenienses in locum amissi ducis Demosthenen et Eurymedonta cum supplemento copiarum mittunt; Peloponnesii quoque cum multarum urbium consensu et decreto ingentia Syracusanis auxilia misere.
Thus under the guise of a war on behalf of allies they pursued their own domestic quarrels, and, as though the contest had been transferred from Greece to Sicily by agreement, so on both sides they fought with all their might.
17 ita sub specie socialis belli domesticos motus exsequuntur, et, quasi placito de Graecia translatum certamen in Siciliam fuerit, sic ex utraque parte summis uiribus dimicatur.
The Athenians, then, were defeated in the first engagement, and lost their camp as well, with all their money, both public and private, and with the whole equipment for a long campaign.
18 igitur Athenienses prima congressione uincuntur, castra quoque cum omni pecunia uel publica uel priuata et cum uniuerso instructu diuturnae expeditionis amittunt;
Their resources broken and reduced to straits, Demosthenes urged that, while their affairs were not yet altogether lost, however afflicted they might seem, they should return home and withdraw from Sicily;
19 fractis opibus et in angustum redactis, suadet Demosthenes, dum nondum omnino res perditae sint quamlibet uideantur adflictae domum redeant Siciliaque decedant;
but Nicias, made more desperate by shame at the affairs mismanaged from the beginning, insisted on remaining.
20 Nicias autem, pudore male gestarum rerum ab initio, desperatior redditus, remanere contendit.
They renewed the naval contest and, soon led through inexperience into the narrows of the Syracusan sea, were surrounded by the ambushes of the enemy: the general Eurylochus was the first to be killed, and eleven ships were burned. Demosthenes and Nicias abandoned the fleet, as if they would flee more safely by an expedition overland.3
21 reparant nauale certamen et mox per inscitiam in angustias Syracusani maris deducti insidiis hostium circumueniuntur: Eurylochus dux primus occiditur, undecim naues incenduntur. Demosthenes et Nicias classem dimittunt quasi tutius terrena expeditione fugituri.
3The Athenian general killed in this battle was Eurymedon (Thucydides 7.52), whom Orosius has just named; ‘Eurylochus’ is a slip.
Gylippus, however, first seized their 130 abandoned ships, then set about pursuing the fugitives themselves, and captured and slaughtered as many as possible. Demosthenes escaped the disgrace of slavery by a voluntary death, while Nicias heaped upon an unworthy and shameful life the disgrace of captivity.
22 Gylippus autem primum naues eorum relictas centum triginta inuadit, dehinc ipsos fugientes persequi adgressus capit caeditque quam plurimos. Demosthenes dedecus seruitutis uoluntaria morte declinat, Nicias uero indignam turpemque uitam dedecore captiuitatis accumulat.