History of the Peloponnesian War

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.

They went out, therefore, and proceeded to build, beginning from their city, and carrying a cross wall below the Athenian lines, cutting down the olives of the sacred ground, and erecting wooden towers.

The ships of the Athenians had not yet sailed round from Thapsus into the great harbour, but the Syracusans still commanded the sea-shore, and the Athenians conveyed their provisions from Thapsus by land.

When the Syracusans thought that those parts of their counter-work which had been completed by means of palisades and masonry were sufficient, and when the Athenians did not come out to stop them, as they feared that the enemy would more easily contend with them when they were divided, and at the same time were hurrying to complete their own wall of circumvallation; the Syracusans, having left one tribe to guard the building, returned into the city. The Athenians, in the mean time, destroyed their pipes which ran under ground into the city, carrying water for drinking; and having watched when the rest of the Syracusans were in their tents at mid-day, and some of them had even gone away into the city, while those in [*](ἐν τῷ σταυρώματι] Apparently a stockade in advance of the cross wall, ὑποτείχισμα, and covering the approach to it. —Arnold.) the stockade were keeping but a careless guard, they appointed three hundred picked men of themselves, and a chosen body of the light troops, armed for the purpose, to run suddenly at full speed to the counter-work, while the rest of the army advanced in two divisions, one with one of the generals to the city, in case they should come to the rescue, the other with the other general to the stockade near the postern.