The aim of this note is to review the passage of Polyaenus, Stratagemata 5. 2. 12. The seizure of Amphipolis by the Syracusans, narrated by Polyaenus, may have taken place in 388, when Dionysius I sent a war fleet to the northern Aegean Sea. The presence of Syracusans in the city on river Strymon may have had an impact on the cultural, religious and artistic life of Amphipolis. In particular, the kidnapping of Kore by Hades on a carriage driven by only two horses in the mosaic of tumulus Kasta near Amphipolis may be due to this western influence.