History of the Peloponnesian War

When they were now being drawn up in battle-array against each other, the Syracusan generals, perceiving that their forces were broken, and did not easily fall into line, led them back again into the city, excepting some part of their cavalry.

These, staying behind, prevented the Athenians from carrying their stones, or dispersing to any great distance; until [*]( We learn from Herodotus, VI. 111. 2, that the soldiers belonging to the different tribes at Athens, were not mixed together in an engagement, but were kept separate; an arrangement which appears from ch. 100. 1, to have been observed by the Syracusans also.) One tribe of the Athenian heavy-armed, with all their cavalry, charged and routed the Syracusan horse, killed some of them, and erected a trophy for this cavalry action.

The next day some of the Athenians were building the wall to the north of the central point, while others were collecting stones and timber, and laying them along the line, to the point called Trogilus; keeping in the direction in which their wall of circumvallation would be completed in the shortest distance from the great harbour to the sea.

The Syracusans meanwhile, at the suggestion of Hermocrates, more than of their other generals, were no longer disposed to run the risk of general actions with the Athenians, but thought it better to build a counterwall in the direction in which they intended to carry their works; thinking that if they anticipated them with this, there would be an interruption to their lines; and that, if at that time they should come to oppose them, they themselves would send a part of their forces against them, and have time to occupy the approaches beforehand with their palisade, while the Athenians would cease from their work, and all turn their attention to them.