History of the Peloponnesian War

and having stayed there all that night, went the next day towards Syracuse leisurely with the rest of their galleys; but ten they sent before into the great haven, [not to stay, but] to discover if they had launched any fleet there, and to proclaim from their galleys that the Athenians were come to replant the Leontines on their own, according to league and affinity, and that therefore such of the Leontines as were in Syracuse, should without fear go forth to the Athenians as to their friends and benefactors.

And when they had thus proclaimed, and well considered the city and the havens and the region where they were to seat themselves for the war, they returned to Catana.

An assembly being called at Catana, though they refused to receive the army they admitted the generals and willed them to speak their minds. And whilst Alcibiades was in his oration and the citizens at the assembly, the soldiers, having secretly pulled down a little gate which was but weakly built, entered the city and were walking up and down in the market.