History of the Peloponnesian War

Meanwhile the envoys, who after the capture of Plemmyrium had gone from Syracuse to visit the cities of Sicily,[*](cf. 7.25.9.) had succeeded in their mission, and having raised a body of troops were about to bring them home, when, Nicias, hearing of this in time, sent word to the Sicels[*](Sicels, aboriginal inhabitants of Sicily; Siceliots, Hellenic colonists of Sicily.) who were allies of the Athenians and controlled the territory through which the troops would have to pass—and these were the Centoripes,[*](Centoripa was situated on the Symaethus above Catana and about twenty-five miles south-west of Aetna. It is now Centorbi (Holm, Gesch. Sic. i. 68). A town Alicyae in this region is unknown.) Alicyaeans and others—that they should not allow the enemy to pass, but should get together and prevent their coming through; they would not, he said, attempt it by any other route, since the Agrigentines had refused to give them passage through their territory.

And when the Siceliots were already on the march, the Sicels did as the Athenians requested, and setting an ambush and falling suddenly upon the Siceliots while they were off their guard, destroyed about eight hundred of them and all the envoys except one, the Corinthian; and he conducted those who made their escape, about fifteen hundred in number, to Syracuse.