Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
come near to Catana, when a horseman, dispatched from Syracuse,
brought them tidings that Acradina was taken; upon which they
returned, in all haste, with great disorder and confusion, having
neither been able to reduce the city they went against, nor to
preserve that they were masters of.
These successes, indeed, were such as might leave foresight and
courage a pretence still of disputing it with fortune, which
contributed most to the result. But the next following event can
scarcely be ascribed to anything but pure felicity. The Corinthian
soldiers who stayed at Thurii, partly for fear of the Carthaginian
galleys which lay in wait for them under the command of Hanno, and
partly because of tempestuous weather which had lasted for many days,
and rendered the sea dangerous, took a resolution to march by land
over the Bruttian territories, and, what with persuasion and force
together, made good their passage through those barbarians to the
city of Rhegium, the sea being still rough and raging as before. But
Hanno, not expecting the Corinthians would venture out, and supposing
it would be useless to wait there any longer, bethought himself, as
he imagined, of a most ingenious and clever stratagem apt to delude
and ensnare the enemy; in pursuance of which he commanded the seamen
to crown themselves with garlands, and, adorning his galleys with
bucklers both of the Greek and Carthaginian make, he sailed away for
Syracuse in this triumphant equipage, and using all his oars as he
passed under the castle with much shouting and laughter, cried out,
on purpose to dishearten the besieged, that he was come from
vanquishing and taking the Corinthian succors, which he fell upon at
sea as they were passing over into Sicily. While he was thus biding
and playing his tricks before Syracuse, the Corinthians, now come as
far as Rhegium, observing the coast clear, and that the wind was laid
as it were by miracle, to afford them in all appearance a quiet and
smooth passage, went immediately aboard on such little barks and
fishing-boats as were then at hand, and got over to Sicily with such
complete safety and in such an extraordinary calm, that they drew
their horses by the reins, swimming along by them as the vessels went
across.
When they were all landed, Timoleon came to receive them, and by
their means at once obtained possession of Messena, from whence he
marched in good order to Syracuse, trusting more to his late
prosperous achievements than his present strength, as the whole army
he had then with him did not exceed the number of four thousand;
Mago, however, was troubled and fearful at the first notice of his
coming, and grew more apprehensive and jealous still upon the
following occasion. The marshes about Syracuse, that receive a great
deal of fresh water, as well from springs as from lakes and rivers
discharging themselves into the sea, breed abundance of eels, which
may be always taken there in great quantities by any that will fish
for them. The mercenary soldiers that served on both sides, were
wont to follow the sport together at their vacant hours, and upon any
cessation of arms, who being all Greeks, and having no cause of
private enmity to each other, as they would venture bravely in fight,
so in times of truce used to meet and converse amicably together.
And at this present time, while engaged about this common business of
fishing, they fell into talk together; and some expressing their
admiration of the neighboring sea, and others telling how much they
were taken with the convenience and commodiousness of the buildings
and public works, one of the Corinthian party took occasion to demand
of the others: "And is it possible that you who are Grecians born,
should be so forward to reduce a city of this greatness, and enjoying
so many rare advantages, into the state of barbarism; and lend your
assistance to plant Carthaginians, that are the worst and bloodiest
of men, so much the nearer to us? whereas you should rather wish
there were many more Sicilies to lie between them and Greece. Have
you so little sense as to believe, that they come hither with an
army, from the Pillars of Hercules and the Atlantic Sea, to hazard
themselves for the establishment of Hicetes? who, if he had had the
consideration which becomes a general, would never have thrown out
his ancestors and founders to bring in the enemies of his country in
the room of them, when he might have enjoyed all suitable honor and
command, with consent of Timoleon and the rest of Corinth." The
Greeks that were in pay with Hicetes, noising these discourses about
their camp, gave Mago some ground to suspect, as indeed he had long
sought for a pretence to be gone, that there was treachery contrived
against him; so that, although Hicetes entreated him to tarry, and
made it appear how much stronger they were than the enemy, yet,
conceiving they came far more short of Timoleon in respect of courage
and fortune, than they surpassed him in number, he presently went
aboard, and set sail for Africa, letting Sicily escape out of his
hands with dishonor to himself, and for such uncertain causes, that
no human reason could give an account of his departure.
The day after he went away, Timoleon came up before the city, in
array for a battle. But when he and his company heard of this sudden
flight, and saw the docks all empty, they could not forbear laughing
at the cowardice of Mago, and in mockery caused proclamation to be
made through the city, that a reward would be given to any one who
could bring them tidings whither the Carthaginian fleet had conveyed
itself from them. However, Hicetes resolving to fight it out alone,
and not quitting his hold of the city, but sticking close to the
quarters he was in possession of, places that were well fortified and
not easy to be attacked, Timoleon divided his forces into three
parts, and fell himself upon the side where the river Anapus ran,
which was most strong and difficult of access; and he commanded those
that were led by Isias, a Corinthian captain, to make their assault
from the post of Acradina, while Dinarchus and Demaretus, that
brought him the last supply from Corinth, were, with a third
division, to attempt the quarter called Epipolae. A considerable
impression being made from every side at once, the soldiers of
Hicetes were beaten off and put to flight; and this, -- that the city
came to be taken by storm, and fall suddenly into their hands, upon
the defeat and rout of the enemy, -- we must in all justice ascribe
to the valor of the assailants, and the wise conduct of their
general; but that not so much as a man of the Corinthians was either
slain or wounded in the action, this the good fortune of Timoleon
seems to challenge for her own work, as though, in a sort of rivalry
with his own personal exertions, she made it her aim to exceed and
obscure his actions by her favors, that those who heard him commended
for his noble deeds might rather admire the happiness, than the merit
of them. For the fame of what was done not only passed through all
Sicily, and filled Italy with wonder, but even Greece itself, after a
few days, came to ring with the greatness of his exploit; insomuch
that those of Corinth, who had as yet no certainty that their
auxiliaries were landed on the island, had tidings brought them at
the same time that they were safe and were conquerors. In so
prosperous a course did affairs run, and such was the speed and
celerity of execution with which fortune, as with a new ornament, set
off the native lustres of the performance.
Timoleon, being master of the citadel, avoided the error which Dion
had been guilty of. He spared not the place for the beauty and
sumptuousness of its fabric, and, keeping clear of those suspicions
which occasioned first the unpopularity and afterwards the fall of
Dion, made a public crier give notice, that all the Syracusans who
were willing to have a hand in the work, should bring pick-axes and
mattocks, and other instruments, and help him to demolish the
fortifications of the tyrants. When they all came up with one
accord, looking upon that order and that day as the surest foundation
of their liberty, they not only pulled down the castle, but
overturned the palaces and monuments adjoining, and whatever else
might preserve any memory of former tyrants. Having soon leveled and
cleared the place, he there presently erected courts for
administration of justice, gratifying the citizens by this means, and
building popular government on the fall and ruin of tyranny. But
since he had recovered a city destitute of inhabitants, some of
them dead in civil wars and insurrections, and others being fled to
escape tyrants, so that through solitude and want of people the great
marketplace of Syracuse was overgrown with such quantity of rank
herbage that it became a pasture for their horses, the grooms lying
along in the grass as they fed by them; while also other towns, very
few excepted, were become full of stags and wild boars, so that those
who had nothing else to do went frequently a hunting, and found game
in the suburbs and about the walls; and not one of those who had
possessed themselves of castles, or made garrisons in the country,
could be persuaded to quit their present abode, or would accept an
invitation to return back into the city, so much did they all dread
and abhor the very name of assemblies and forms of government and
public speaking, that had produced the greater part of those usurpers
who had successively assumed a dominion over them, -- Timoleon,
therefore, with the Syracusans that remained, considering this vast
desolation, and how little hope there was to have it otherwise
supplied, thought good to write to the Corinthians, requesting that
they would send a colony out of Greece to repeople Syracuse. For
else the land about it would lie unimproved; and besides this, they
expected to be involved in a greater war from Africa, having news
brought them that Mago had killed himself, and that the
Carthaginians, out of rage for his ill conduct in the late
expedition, had caused his body to be nailed upon a cross, and that
they were raising a mighty force, with design to make their descent
upon Sicily the next summer.
These letters from Timoleon being delivered at Corinth, and the
ambassadors of Syracuse beseeching them at the same time, that they
would take upon them the care of their poor city, and once again
become the founders of it, the Corinthians were not tempted by any
feeling of cupidity to lay hold of the advantage. Nor did they seize
and appropriate the city to themselves, but going about first to the
games that are kept as sacred in Greece, and to the most numerously
attended religious assemblages, they made publication by heralds,
that the Corinthians, having destroyed the usurpation at Syracuse and
driven out the tyrant, did thereby invite the Syracusan exiles, and
any other Siceliots, to return and inhabit the city, with full
enjoyment of freedom under their own laws, the land being divided
among them in just and equal proportions. And after this, sending
messengers into Asia and the several islands where they understood
that most of the scattered fugitives were then residing, they bade
them all repair to Corinth, engaging that the Corinthians would
afford them vessels and commanders, and a safe convoy, at their own
charges, to Syracuse. Such generous proposals, being thus spread
about, gained them the just and honorable recompense of general
praise and benediction, for delivering the country from oppressors,
and saving it from barbarians, and restoring it at length to the
rightful owners of the place. These, when they were assembled at
Corinth, and found how insufficient their company was, besought the