For could any one have imagined that even when besieged by the Peloponnesians entrenched in Attica, they would still, instead of withdrawing from Sicily, stay on there besieging in like manner Syracuse, a town (taken as a town) in no way inferior to Athens, or would so thoroughly upset the Hellenic estimate of their strength and audacity, as to give the spectacle of a people which, at the beginning of the war, some thought might hold out one year, some two, none more than three, if the Peloponnesians invaded their country, now seventeen years after the first invasion, after having already suffered from all the evils of war, going to Sicily and undertaking a new war nothing inferior to that which they already had with the Peloponnesians?
hain setatsu ziharduten, non, peloponesoarrek Dezeliakoarekin blokeatuta zeuzkaten arren, ez zuten pentsatzen Siziliatik erretiratzea, baizik eta beraiek jasaten zutenaren antzeko setioa ezartzea Sirakusari, hiri hura, bera soilik ere, Atenas baino gutxiago ezertan ez izanagatik;