BOOK Preponderance of Syracuse. the Greeks,' they sent for the first time a considerable army into Sicily, as if they contemplated the conquest of the whole island. This attack on the Greeks in the west happened at the time when there was every prospect of their mother country falling a victim to the Persians. But at the very time when Greek freedom came out victorious from the unequal struggle at Salamis, the Sicilian Greeks, under the command of Gelon, the ruler of Gela and Syracuse, defeated the great Carthaginian army before Himera, and thus put an end for a considerable time to the Carthaginian plans of conquest.2 Syracuse from this time became more and more the head of the Greek cities. The rulers Gelon and Hiero, distinguished not less by their military abilities than by their wise policy, understood how to curb the excitable, active, and restless Greeks in Sicily, and to govern them with that kind of stedfast rule which alone seemed salutary for them. As soon, however, as the firm government of the tyrants gave place to what was called freedom, all wild passions broke loose within every town in the confederacy of the Sicilian Greeks. The empire of Syracuse, which under princes as vigorous as Gelon and Hiero might probably have been extended over the whole of 1 Himera, Selinus, Messana, and Rhegium sided with the Carthaginians. 2 Gelon's victory at Himera was a favourite topic for the vainglorious Greeks. The Sicilian colonists naturally wished to rival the great exploits of the mother country, and they found in the attack of the western barbarians upon Sicily a welcome pendant to that of the Persians upon Greece proper. (Diodorus, xi. 20.) If Mardonius led 300,000 men into battle at Platea, the Carthaginian army at Himera could not amount to less. For the same purpose the fiction was invented that the battle at Himera took place on the same day with that of Thermopyla or of Salamis. In later times it was even alleged that the Persians and Punians made a combined attack in the east and in the west, for the extinction of the Greek nation. The king of Persia, it was said, embraced in his schemes of conquest Sicily as well as Greece, and as sovereign of Phoenicia ordered the Carthaginians, the Phoenician colonists in Africa, to attack the Sicilian Greeks. Herodotus (vii. 165) says nothing of such plans. According to him, the war between Greeks and Carthaginians in Sicily arose from local causes. Moreover, Carthage was far too independent, by her geographical position and by her power, to be determined in her policy by the wishes of her mother country, or by the dictates of the Persian monarch. Compare Dahlmann, Forschungen zu Herodot, 186. II. Sicily, was broken up. Every town again became inde- CHAP. pendent. The arbitrary measures of the Syracusan princes were upset, democracy re-established, the expelled citizens brought back, and the friends of the tyrants banished. In spite of these revolutions, involving confiscation of property and confusion of all kinds, Sicily enjoyed great prosperity' for half a century, and the Carthaginians made no attempt to extend the bounds of their dominion in the island. It was only after the unhappy termination of the Athenian expedition against Syracuse, when this town, victorious but exhausted, and distracted by internal dissensions, continued the war against Athens in the Ægean Sea, that the Carthaginians, seventy years after their great defeat at Himera, again made a vigorous attack on the Greek cities of Sicily. tion of Segesta, which was only partially Greek, and had already Destruccaused the interference of the Athenians in the internal Agrigenaffairs of the island, invoked Carthaginian aid in a dispute tum. with the neighbouring town Selinus. Hamilcar, the grandson of the Hannibal who had fallen at Himera, landed in Sicily with a large army, and conquered in quick succession Selinus and Himera, destroying them with all the horrors of barbarian warfare. But the greatest blow for the Sicilian Greeks was the fall of Akragas or Agrigentum, the second town of the island, whose glorious temples and strong walls were overthrown, and whose rich works of art were carried away to Carthage. Since the taking of Miletus by the Persians, such a dreadful misfortune had happened to no Hellenic town. The Punic conquerors pushed on irresistibly along the southern coast of the island towards the east. The Syracusans had tried in vain to arrest them at Agrigentum. The failure of their undertaking caused an internal revolution, which overthrew the republic and gave monarchical power to the elder Dionysius. But even Dionysius was not capable of stemming the further 1 Curtius, Griech. Gesch. ii. 487 ff. Tyranny of the elder Dionysius. BOOK IV. Victories of Dionysius. Siege of progress of the Carthaginians. Gela fell into their hands and Camarina was forsaken by its inhabitants. The whole of the south coast of the island was now in their power, and it seemed that Syracuse would experience the same fate. At length Dionysius succeeded in concluding a treaty, whereby he gave over to them all the conquered towns, being himself recognised by them as governor of Syracuse. The Carthaginians now permitted the exiled inhabitants and other Greeks to return to the towns that had been destroyed. It seems never to have occurred to them that it was desirable to garrison the fortified places which they had taken, or to colonise them in the manner of the Romans. Probably they fancied that, having entirely broken and humbled their enemies in the field, they would be able, from their maritime stronghold of Motye, to overawe the conquered districts and to keep them in subjection. But they had estimated the energy of the Greeks too low. Dionysius, established in his dominion over Syracuse, prepared himself for a new war against Carthage, and in 397 B.C. suddenly invaded the Carthaginian territory. His attack was irresistible. Even the island town of Motye, in the extreme west of Sicily, the chief stronghold of Carthaginian power, was besieged and finally taken by means of an artificial dam which connected it with the mainland. The conquests of the Greeks, as those of the Carthaginians, in Sicily, were but of short duration. Dionysius retaliated for the destruction of Greek towns by laying waste Motye and severely punishing the surviving inhabitants; but when he had done this he withdrew, to occupy himself with other schemes, as if Carthage had been thoroughly humbled and expelled from Sicily. In the following year, however (396 B.C.), the Carthaginians again, with very little trouble, retook Motye,' and advanced with The dams by which Dionysius had joined the island town with the mainland of Sicily had probably destroyed the advantages of its insular position. Consequently the Carthaginians did not restore Motye. They made Lilybæum II. a large army and fleet towards the east of the island, CHAP. where they conquered Messana, and, after driving Dionysius back, besieged him in Syracuse. So changeable was the fortune of war in Sicily, and so Piratical expeditions dependent on accidental circumstances, that the question of Diony whether the island was to be Greek or Carthaginian was sius. almost within the space of one year decided in two opposite ways, and the hopes of each of the two rivals, after having risen to the highest point, were finally dashed to the ground. The victorious career of Carthage was arrested by the walls of Syracuse, just as, twenty years before, the flower of the Athenian citizens had perished in the same spot. A malignant distemper broke out in the army of the besiegers, compelling Himilco, the Carthaginian general, to a speedy flight and to the disgraceful sacrifice of the greater part of his army, which consisted of foreign mercenaries. Dionysius was now again, as with one blow, undisputed master of the whole of Sicily, and he had leisure to plan the subjection of all the Greek towns to the west of the Ionian Sea. He undertook now his piratical expeditions against Caulonia, Hipponium, Croton, and Rhegium, which brought unspeakable misery on these once-flourishing cities at the very time when they were being pressed by the Italian nations, the Lucanians and the Bruttians. The bloody defeat which the Thurians suffered from the Lucanians, and the conquest of Rhegium by Dionysius,' accompanied with the most atrocious cruelty, were the saddest events of this period, so disastrous to the Greek nation. If Dionysius had pursued a national policy, and, instead of allying himself with the Lucanians to attack the Greek cities, had marshalled the Greeks against Carthage, he would most probably have become master of all Sicily. But the fainthearted manner in which he carried on the war against their chief stronghold, and changed it from an open and insignificant place into a fortress of the first magnitude. See Schubring über Motye-Lilybæum in Philologus, 1866. 1 At the time of the burning of Rome by the Gauls. BOOK IV. The younger leon. the enemies of the Greek race stood out in strong contrast with the perseverance which he exhibited in enslaving his own countrymen. After short hostilities (383 B.C.), he concluded a peace with Carthage, in which he ceded to her the western part of Sicily as far as the river Halycus. Then, after a long pause, he attempted, for the last time, an attack on the Carthaginian towns, conquering Selinus, Entella, and Eryx, and laying siege to Lilybæum, which, after the destruction of Motye, had been strongly fortified by the Carthaginians and was now their principal stronghold in Sicily. After he had been driven back from Lilybæum, the war ceased, without any treaty of peace. Dionysius died shortly afterwards. The Carthaginians took no advantage either of the inDionysius capacity of his son, the younger Dionysius, or of the and Timo- feebleness of Syracuse in the Dionian revolution, to extend their dominion further. It was only when Timoleon of Corinth ventured on the bold scheme of restoring the freedom of Syracuse that we find a Carthaginian army and fleet before the town, with the intention of anticipating Timoleon and of conquering Syracuse for Carthage after the overthrow of the tyrant Dionysius. Never did they seem SO near the accomplishment of their longcherished hope. Being joined with Hiketas, the ruler of Leontini, they had already made themselves masters of the town of Syracuse. Their ships had taken possession of the harbour. Only the small fortified island Ortygia, the key of Syracuse, was still in the hands of Dionysius, who, when he could no longer maintain his ground, had the choice to which of his enemies he would surrender, to Timoleon or to the Carthaginians and Hiketas. The good fortune or the wisdom of Timoleon carried the day. He obtained by agreement the possession of Ortygia and he sent Dionysius, with his treasures, as exile to Corinth. Again the Carthaginians saw the prize of all their efforts snatched from their hands. They feared treason on the 1 The expedition of Timoleon is remarkable for the unusual number of supernatural events. Plutarch's biography is a continuous story of miracles. |