Hermocrates and Gylippus, sure that a retreat by land would not be tried, succeeded by a trick in detaining the Athenians till they had themselves sent out detachments to hold the roads.  On the third day the Athenians began their retreat in unspeakable misery, amid the lamentations of the sick and wounded, whom they were forced to leave behind.  For three days they struggled on, short of food and perpetually harassed, cut off from all communications.  On the third day their passage was barred in a pass, and they found themselves in a trap.  On the third night they attempted to break away by a different route, but the van and the rear lost touch.  Overtaken by the Syracusans, Demosthenes attempted to fight a rearguard action, but in vain, and he was forced to surrender at discretion with his whole force.  Next day, Nicias with the van was overtaken, and, after a ghastly scene of confusion and slaughter, the remnants of the vanguard were forced to surrender also.  Nicias and Demosthenes were put to death; great numbers were seized as private spoil by their captors, the rest of the prisoners—­more than 7,000—­were confined for weeks under the most noisome conditions in the quarries, and finally the survivors were sold as slaves.  So pitiably ended that once magnificent enterprise in the nineteenth year of the war.

The terrific disaster filled every enemy of Athens with confident expectation of her immediate and utter ruin.  Lacedaemonians anticipated an unqualified supremacy.  At Athens there was a stubborn determination to prepare for a desperate stand; but half the islanders were intriguing for Lacedaemonian or Persian aid in breaking free, while Alcibiades became extremely busy.

The first Peloponnesian squadron which attempted to move was promptly driven into Piraeus by an Athenian fleet and blockaded.  On the open revolt of some of the states, the Athenians for the first time brought into play their reserve fund and reserve navy—­the emergency had arisen.  While one after another of the subject cities revolted, the Athenians struck hard at Chios, and especially Miletus, and obtained marked successes.  Meanwhile, a revolution in Samos had expelled the oligarchy and re-established the democracy, to which the Athenians accorded freedom, thereby securing an ally.  In Lesbos also they recovered their challenged supremacy.

Phrynicus now came into prominence as a shrewd commander and a crafty politician, while the intricate intrigues of Alcibiades, whose great object was to recover his position at Athens, created perpetual confusion.  These events took place in the twentieth year of the war, and to them must be added a Lacedaemonian treaty with Persia through the satrap Tissaphernes.  All the leading men, however, were engaged in playing fast and loose, each of them having his personal ambitions in view.  Of this labyrinth of plots and counter-plots, the startling outcome was the sudden abrogation of the constitution at Athens and the capture of the government by a committee of five with a council of four hundred and a supplementary assembly of five thousand—­in place of the whole body of citizens as formerly.  The Five and the Four Hundred in effect were the Government, and established a reign of terror.