and they expected that they would get ahead of the Athenians in occupying the approaches with their stockades, and that they would cease from their work and all turn against them. Accordingly they went out and proceeded to build, starting from the city and carrying a cross-wall below the round fort of the Athenians, chopping down the olive-trees of the precinct and setting up wooden towers.
The Athenian ships had not yet sailed round from Thapsus into the Great Harbour, but the Syracusans were still masters of the parts about the sea, and the Athenians brought their supplies from Thapsus by land.