History of the Peloponnesian War

Such was the speech of Hermocrates. But the Syracusan people were at great strife among themselves: some maintained that the Athenians would not come at all and that the reports were not true; others asked, even if they did come, what could they do to them that they would not themselves suffer still more; others quite contemptuously turned the matter into ridicule. There were, however, a few who believed Hermocrates and feared what was coming.

But Athenagoras, who was a popular leader and at the present time most influential with the masses, came forward and addressed them as follows:—