XXVII. In consequence of this Dionysius only heard of the war in Sicily much later and from other persons, and meanwhile Dion had been joined on his march by the people of Kamarina, and by a considerable number of the Syracusans who lived in the country. The Leontines and Campanians, who formed the garrison of Epipolæ, in consequence of Dion's sending them a false report that he intended to attack their city first, left Timokrates, and went away thither to defend their own property. When news of this reached Dion, who was encamped near Akræ, he aroused his soldiers while it was yet night and marched to the river Anapus, which is ten stadia distant from the city. There he halted and offered sacrifice beside the river, praying to the rising sun, and at the same time the soothsayers declared that the gods would give him the victory. Observing that Dion wore a garland because he was sacrificing, all those who were present at the sacrifice with one impulse crowned themselves with flowers. No less than five thousand men had joined him on his march. They were badly armed in a make-shift fashion, but their zeal supplied the deficiencies of their equipment, and when Dion led the way they all started at a run, shouting for joy, and encouraging one another to recover their freedom. XXVIII. Of the Syracusans within the walls, the chief men and upper classes in their most splendid raiment met Dion at the gates, while the populace attacked the friends of the despot, and seized upon the spies, a wicked and hateful class of men, who used to live among the people of the city and report their opinions and conversations to the despot. These men were the first to suffer for their crimes, as they were beaten to death by any of the citizens who fell in with them. Timokrates, unable to reach the garrison of the citadel, mounted his horse and rode away from the city, spreading alarm and confusion everywhere as he fled by exaggerating the numbers of Dion's army, that he might not be thought to have surrendered the city through fear to a small force. Meanwhile Dion could already be seen plainly, as he marched first of all his men, clad in splendid armour. On one side of him was his brother Megakles, and on the other the Athenian Kallippus, both crowned with garlands. Next marched a hundred of the mercenary soldiers, as a bodyguard for Dion, while the rest of the men were led on by their officers in battle array. The entire procession was looked upon and welcomed as though it were sacred by the citizens of Syracuse, who, after forty-two years of tyranny, saw liberty and a popular constitution restored to their city. XXIX. When Dion had entered by the Temenitid[489] gate, he caused his trumpet to sound to obtain silence; and then a herald made proclamation that Dion and Megakles were come to put down the monarchy, and that they set free from the despot both the Syracusans and the other Sicilian Greeks.