History of the Peloponnesian War

The next day the Athenians and their confederates prepared to fight, and were ordered thus: The Argives and the Mantineans had the right wing, the Athenians were in the middle, and the rest of their confederates in the other wing. That half of the army which stood foremost was ordered by eight in file; the other half towards their tents, ordered likewise by eights, was cast into the form of a long square and commanded to observe diligently where the rest of the army was in distress and to make specially thither. And in the midst of these so arranged were received such as carried the weapons and tools of the army.

The Syracusians arranged their men of arms, who were Syracusians of all conditions and as many of their confederates as were present, by sixteen in file (they that came to aid them, were chiefly the Selinuntians, and then the horsemen of the Geloans, about two hundred, and of the Camarinaeans, about twenty horsemen and fifty archers); the cavalry they placed in the right point of the battle, being in all no less than a thousand two hundred, and with them the darters.

But the Athenians intending to begin the battle, Nicias went up and down the army, from one nation to another, to whom and to all in general he spake to this effect: