History of the Peloponnesian War

The same winter the Megareans took and razed to their foundations the long walls in their country which the Athenians had held; and Brasidas, after the capture of Amphipolis, marched with his allies against the territory called Acte.

This territory runs out from the king's dike on the inner side of the isthmus, Athos, a high mountain which stands in it, being its boundary on the side of the Aegean Sea.

Of the towns it contains, one is Sane, a colony of the Andrians close to the dike, facing the sea towards Euboea; the others are Thyssus, Cleonae, Acrothoi, Olophyxus, and Dium.

These are inhabited by mixed races of men speaking two different languages, a small portion of them being Chalcidians, but the main part Pelasgians—a tribe of those Tyrrhenians who once settled in Lemnos and Athens—Bisaltians, Crestonians, and Edonians; and they live in small towns.

The greater part of them surrendered to Brasidas, but Sane and Dium held out against him; and, accordingly, he stayed with his army in their territory, and laid it waste.

When they did not listen to his proposals, he marched straightway against Torone in Chalcidice, which was held by the Athenians, being invited by a few persons who were prepared to deliver up the town to him. Having arrived while it was yet night, and just about day-break, he sat down with his army near the temple of the Dioscuri, distant from the town about three stades.

Now by the rest of the town of the Toronaeans, and by the Athenians who were in garrison in it, he was not observed; but his partisans, knowing that he would come, and some few of them having privately visited him, were watching for his arrival. And when they found that he was come, they took in to them seven light-armed men with daggers; (for such only was the number, out of twenty who were at first appointed to the work, that were not afraid to enter, their commander being Lysistratus, an Olynthian.) These having passed through the sea-ward wall, and escaped observation, went up and put to the sword the garrison in the highest guard-house, (for the town stands on a hill, and broke open the postern towards Canastraeum.