els, while the Syracusans would easily take the camp by an attack
upon the stockade. In this they would be aided by many of the Catanians,
who were already prepared to act, and from whom he himself came.

The generals of the Syracusans, who did not want confidence, and who had
intended even without this to march on Catana, believed the man without
any sufficient inquiry, fixed at once a day upon which they would be
there, and dismissed him, and the Selinuntines and others of their
allies having now arrived, gave orders for all the Syracusans to march
out in mass. Their preparations completed, and the time fixed for their
arrival being at hand, they set out for Catana, and passed the night
upon the river Symaethus, in the Leontine territory. Meanwhile the
Athenians no sooner knew of their approach than they took all their
forces and such of the Sicels or others as had joined them, put them on
board their ships and boats, and sailed by night to Syracuse. Thus, when
morning broke the Athenians were landing opposite the Olympieum ready
to seize their camping ground, and the Syracusan horse having ridden up
first to Catana and found that all the armament had put to sea, turned
back and told the infantry, and then all turned back together, and went
to the relief of the city.

In the meantime, as the march before the Syracusans was a long one, the
Athenians quietly sat down their army in a convenient position,
where they could begin an engagement when they pleased, and where the
Syracusan cavalry would have least opportunity of annoying them, either
before or during the action, being fenced off on one side by walls,
houses, trees, and by a marsh, and on the other by cliffs. They also
felled the neighbouring trees and carried them down to the sea, and
formed a palisade alongside of their ships, and with stones which they
picked up and wood hastily raised a fort at Daskon, the most vulnerable
point of their position, and broke down the bridge over the Anapus.
These preparations were allowed to go on without any interruption from
the city, the first hostile force to appear being the Syracusan cavalry,
followed afterwards by all the foot together. At first they came close
up to the Athenian army, and then, finding that they did not offer to
engage, crossed the Helorine road and encamped for the night.

The next day the Athenians and their allies prepared for battle, their
dispositions being as follows: Their right wing was occupi