Book 7 Summary and Analysis

Book Seven is the shortest book in the entire text, accounting only for approximately ten percent of the page count; it tells of the ultimate destruction of the Athenian navy and army at Syracuse. In 414 BC Gylippus arrives in Syracuse and saves the city from defeat. Syracuse and Athens then fight two battles—in the first Athens is victorious but in the second Gylippus uses cavalry to gain victory. This is another example of evolving military tactics; the Greek hoplite phalanx is no longer considered to be the inviolate and unyielding example of military force, and even the conservative Spartan Gylippus uses cavalry to gain a victory. Syracusan-sapping activities force the Athenians to the defensive. The Syracusan counter-siege extends a wall which meets and then crosses the Athenian's circumvallation wall and thus largely defeats the Athenian siege strategy. This passage...