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.
