History of the Peloponnesian War

The Syracusans, on the other hand, immediately began to sail without fear along the harbour, and determined to close up its mouth, that the Athenians might not in future sail out, even if they wished it, unobserved by them.

For they were no longer attending to their own preservation merely, but also to the prevention of the enemy's escape; thinking (as was the fact) that with their present resources their own cause was decidedly the stronger; and that if they could conquer the Athenians and their allies both by land and sea, the victory would appear a glorious one for them in the eyes of the Greeks. For of the rest of the Greeks some in that case were straight way liberated, and others released from fear, (as the remaining power of the Athenians would no longer be able to bear the war that would afterwards be waged against them;) while they themselves also, being regarded as the authors of this, would be greatly admired, both by the rest of the world, and by posterity.