The young men were soon elevated with these hopes, and listened gladly to those of riper years, who talked wonders of the countries they were going to; so that you might see great numbers sitting in the wrestling grounds and public places, drawing on the ground the figure of the island [Sicily] and the situation of Libya and Carthage.
Socrates the philosopher and Meton the astrologer are said, however, never to have hoped for any good to the commonwealth from this war; the one, it is to be supposed, presaging what would ensue, by the intervention of his attendant Genius, and the other, either upon rational consideration of the project or by use of the art of divination, conceived fears for its issue, and, feigning madness, caught up a burning torch, and seemed as if he would have set his own house on fire.
Others report, that he did not take upon him to act the madman, but secretly in the night set his house on fire, and the next morning besought the people, that for his comfort, after such a calamity, they would spare his son from the expedition. By which artifice he deceived his fellow-citizens, and obtained of them what he desired.
Source:
Plutarch, John Dryden, and Arthur Hugh Clough. "Alcibiades." Plutarch's Lives. New York: Modern Library, 2001. 270. Print.
Further Reading:
Μέτων ὁ Ἀθηναῖος (Meton of Athens)
Looking at how that expedition turned out, Meton might have been on the right track for the wrong reasoning.