in the habit of watching over the interests of their colonies,
especially Syracuse, and who were not at war with any of the Greek
States at that time, but living in peace and leisure, eagerly voted to
help them. A General was now sought for, and while the government was
nominating and proposing those who were eager for an opportunity of
distinguishing themselves, a man of the people stood up and named
Timoleon, the son of Timodemus, one who no longer took any part in
politics, and who had no hope or thought of obtaining the post: but some
god, it seems, put it into the man's mind to name him, such a kind
fortune was at once shown at his election, and such success attended his
actions, illustrating his noble character. He was of a good family, both
his father Timodemus, and his mother Demariste being of rank in the
city. He was a lover of his country, and of a mild temper, except only
that he had a violent hatred for despotism and all that is base. His
nature was so happily constituted, that in his campaigns he showed much
judgment when young, and no less daring when old. He had an elder
brother, Timophanes, who was in no respect like him, but rash, and
inflamed with a passion for monarchy by worthless friends and foreign
soldiers, with whom he spent all his time: he was reckless in a
campaign, and loved danger for its own sake, and by this he won the
hearts of his fellow-citizens, and was given commands, as being a man of
courage and of action. Timoleon assisted him in obtaining these
commands, by concealing his faults or making them appear small, and by
magnifying the clever things which he did.
IV. Now in the battle which the Corinthians fought against the Argives
and Kleoneans, Timoleon was ranked among the hoplites,[A] and his
brother Timophanes, who was in command of the cavalry, fell into great
danger. His horse received a wound, and threw him off among the enemy.
Of his companions, some at once dispersed in panic, while those who
remained by him, being a few against many, with difficulty held their
own. When Timoleon saw what had happened, he ran to the rescue, and held
his shield in front of Timophanes as he lay, and, after receiving many
blows, both from missiles and in hand-to-hand fight, on his arms and
body, with difficulty drove back the enemy and saved his brother.
[Footnote A: Heavy armed foot-soldiers, carrying a spear and shield.]
When the Corinthians, fearing lest they might again suffer what they did
once before when their own allies took their city, decreed that they
would keep four hundred mercenary soldiers, they made Timophanes their
commander.
But he, disdaining truth and honour, immediately took measures to get
the city into his own power, and showed his tyrannical disposition by
putting to death many of the leading citizens without a trial. Timoleon
was grieved at this, and, treating the other's crime as his own
misfortune, endeavoured to argue with him, and begged him to abandon his
foolish and wicked design, and to seek for some means of making amends
to his fellow-citizens. However, as he rejected his brother's advice,
and treated him with contempt, Timoleon took Aeschylus, his kinsman,
brother of the wife of Timophanes, and his friend the seer, whom
Theopompus calls Satyrus, but Ephorus and Timaeus call Orthagoras, and,
after an interval of a few days, again went to his brother. The three
men now stood round him, and besought him even now to listen to reason,
and repent of his ambition; but as Timophanes at first laughed at them,
and then became angry and indignant, Timoleon stepped a little aside,
and covering his face, stood weeping, while the other two drew their
swords and quickly despatched him.
V. When this deed was noised abroad, the more generous of the
Corinthians praised Timoleon for his abhorrence of wickedness and his
greatness of soul, because, though of a kindly disposition, and fond of
his own family, he had nevertheless preferred his country to his family,
and truth and justice to his own advantage. He had distinguished himself
in his country's cause both by saving his brother's life, and by putting
him to death when he plotted to reduce her to slavery. However, those
who could not endure to live in a democracy, and who were accustomed to
look up to those in power, pretended to rejoice in the death of the
tyrant, but by their abuse of Timoleon for having done an unholy and
impious deed, reduced him to a state of great melancholy. Hearing that
his mother took it greatly to heart, and that she used harsh words and
invoked terrible curses upon him, he went to her to try to bring her to
another state of mind, but she would not endure the sight of him, but
shut the door against him. Then indeed he became very dejected, and
disordered in his mind, so as to form an intention of destroying himself
by starvation; but this his friends would not permit, but prevailed on
him by force and entreaty so that he determined to live, but alone by
himself. He gave up all interest in public affairs, and at first did not
even enter the city, but passed his time wandering in the wildest part
of the country in an agony of mind.
VI. Thus our judgments, if they do not borrow from reason and philosophy
a fixity and steadiness of purpose in their acts, are easily swayed and
influenced by the praise or blame of others, which make us distrust our
own opinions.
For not only, it seems, must the deed itself be noble and just, but also
the principle from which we do it must be stable and unchangeable, so
that we may make up our minds and then act from conviction. If we do
not, then like those epicures who most eagerly seize upon the daintiest
food and soonest become satiated and nauseate it, so we become filled
with sorrow and remorse when the deed is done, because the splendid
ideas of virtue and honour which led us to do it fade away in our minds
on account of our own moral weakness. A remorseful change of mind
renders even a noble action base, whereas the determination which is
grounded on knowledge and reason cannot change even if its actions fail.
Wherefore Phokion the Athenian, who opposed the measures of Leosthenes,
when Leosthenes seemed to have succeeded, and he saw the Athenians
sacrificing and priding themselves on their victory, said that he should
have wished that he had himself done what had been done, but he should
wish to have given the same counsel that he did give. Aristeides the
Lokrian, one of the companions of Plato, put this even more strongly
when Dionysius the elder asked for one of his daughters in marriage. "I
had rather," he said, "see the girl a corpse, than the consort of a
despot." A short time afterwards when Dionysius put his sons to death
and insultingly asked him whether he were still of the same mind about
the disposal of his daughter, he answered, that he was grieved at what
had happened, but had not changed his mind about what he had said. And
these words perhaps show a greater and more perfect virtue than
Phokion's.
VII. Now Timoleon's misery, after the deed was done, whether it was
caused by pity for the dead or filial reverence for his mother, so broke
down and humbled his spirit that for nearly twenty years he took no part
in any important public affair. So when he was nominated as General, and
when the people gladly received his name and elected him, Telekleides,
who at that time was the first man in the city for power and reputation,
stood up and spoke encouragingly to Timoleon, bidding him prove himself
brave and noble in the campaign.[A] "If," said he, "you fight well, we
shall think that we slew a tyrant, but if badly, that we murdered your
brother."
[Footnote A: From these words, Grote conjectures that Telekleides was
also present at the death of Timophanes.]
While Timoleon was preparing for his voyage and collecting his soldiers,
letters were brought to the Corinthians from Hiketes plainly showing
that he had changed sides and betrayed them.
For as soon as he had sent off his ambassadors to Corinth, he openly
joined the Carthaginians, and in concert with them attempted to drive
out Dionysius and establish himself as despot of Syracuse.
Fearing that the opportunity would escape him if an army and general
came from Corinth before he had succeeded, he sent a letter to the
Corinthians to say that they need not incur the trouble and expense of
sending an expedition to Sicily and risking their lives, especially as
the Carthaginians would dispute their passage, and were now watching for
their expedition with a numerous fleet; and that, as they had been so
slow, he should be obliged to make these Carthaginians his allies to
attack the despot.
When these letters were read, even if any of the Corinthians had been
lukewarm about the expedition, now their anger against Hiketes stirred
them up to co-operate vigorously with Timoleon and assist him in
equipping his force.
VIII. When the ships were ready, and everything had been provided for
the soldiers, the priestesses of Proserpine had a dream that the two
goddesses appeared dressed for a journey, and said that they were going
to accompany Timoleon on his voyage to Sicily.
Hereupon the Corinthians equipped a sacred trireme, and named it after
the two goddesses. Timoleon himself proceeded to Delphi and sacrificed
to the god, and when he came into the place where oracles were
delivered, a portent occurred to him. From among the various offerings
suspended there, a victor's wreath, embroidered with crowns and symbols
of victory slipped down and was carried by the air so as to alight upon
the head of Timoleon; so that it appeared that the god sent him forth to
his campaign already crowned with success. He started with only seven
ships from Corinth, two from Korkyra, and one from Leukadia; and as he
put to sea at night and was sailing with a fair wind, he suddenly saw
the heavens open above his ship and pour down a flood of brilliant
light. After this a torch like that used at the mysteries rose up before
them, and, proceeding on the same course, alighted on that part of Italy
for which the pilots were steering. The seers explained that this
appearance corroborated the dream of the priestesses, and that the light
from heaven showed that the two goddesses were joining the expedition;
for Sicily is sacred to Proserpine, as the myth tells us that she was
carried off there, and that the island itself was given her as a wedding
present.
The fleet, encouraged by these proofs of divine favour, crossed the open
sea, and proceeded along the Italian coast. But the news from Sicily
gave Timoleon much concern, and dispirited his soldiers. For Hiketes had
conquered Dionysius, and taken the greater part of Syracuse; he had
driven him into the citadel and what is called the island, and was
besieging and blockading him there, and urging the Carthaginians to take
measures to prevent Timoleon from landing in Sicily, in order that, when
the Greeks were driven off, he and his new allies might partition the
island between themselves.
IX. The Carthaginians sent twenty triremes to Rhegium, having on board
ambassadors from Hiketes to Timoleon charged with instructions as bad as
his deeds. For their proposals were plausible, though their plan was
base, being that Timoleon, if he chose, should come as an adviser to
Hiketes and partake of his conquests; but that he should send his ships
and soldiers back to Corinth, as the war was within a little of being
finished, and as the Carthaginians were determined to oppose his passage
by force if he attempted it. So the Corinthians, when they reached
Rhegium, found these ambassadors, and saw the Carthaginian fleet
cruising to intercept them. They were enraged at this treatment, and all
were filled with anger against Hiketes, and with fear for the people of
Sicily, who, they clearly saw, were to be the prize of the treachery of
Hiketes and the ambition of the Carthaginians. Yet it seemed impossible
that they should overcome both the fleet of the barbarians which was
riding there, double their own in number, and also the forces under
Hiketes at Syracuse, of which they had expected to be put in command.
X. Nevertheless Timoleon met the ambassadors and the Carthaginian
admirals, and mildly informed them that "he would accede to their
proposals, for what could he do if he refused them? but that he wished,
before they parted, to listen to them, and to answer them publicly
before the people of Rhegium, a city of Greek origin and friendly to
both parties; as this would conduce to his own safety, and they also
would be the more bound to stand by their proposal about the Syracusans
if they took the people of Rhegium as their witnesses." He made this
overture to help a plot which he had of stealing a march upon them, and
the leading men of the Rhegines assisted him in it, as they wished the
Corinthian influence to prevail in Sicily, and feared to have the
barbarians for neighbours. Accordingly they called together an assembly
and shut the city gates, that the citizens might not attend to anything
else, and then, coming forward, they made speeches of great length, one
man treating the subject after another without coming to any conclusion,
but merely wasting the time, until the Corinthian triremes had put to
sea. The Carthaginians were kept at the assembly without suspecting
anything, because Timoleon himself was present and gave them to
understand that he was just upon the point of rising and making them a
speech. But when news was secretly conveyed to him that the fleet was
under way, and that his ship alone was left behind waiting for him, he
slipped through the crowd, the Rhegines who stood round the bema[A]
helping to conceal him, and, gaining the seashore, sailed off with all
haste.
[Footnote A: Bema, the tribune from which the orators spoke.]
They reached Tauromenium in Sicily, where they were hospitably received
by Andromachus, the ruler and lord of that city, who had long before
invited them thither. This Andromachus was the father of Timaeus, the
historian, and being as he was by far the most powerful of the
legitimate princes of Sicily, ruled his subjects according to law and
justice, and never concealed his dislike and hatred of the despots. For
this reason he permitted Timoleon to make his city his headquarters, and
prevailed on the citizens to cast in their lot with the Syracusans and
free their native land.
XI. At Rhegium meanwhile, the Carthaginians, when the assembly broke up
and Timoleon was gone, were infuriated at being outwitted, and became a
standing joke to the people of Rhegium, because they, although they were
Phoenicians, yet did not seem to enjoy a piece of deceit when it was at
their own expense. They then sent an ambassador in a trireme to
Tauromenium, who made a long speech to Andromachus, threatening him in a
bombastic and barbarian style with their vengeance if he did not at once
turn the Corinthians out of his city. At last he pointed to his
outstretched hand, and turning it over threatened that he would so deal
with the city. Andromachus laughed, and made no other answer than to
hold out his own hand in the same way, now with one side up, and now
with the other, and bade him sail away unless he wished to have his ship
so dealt with.
Hiketes, when he heard of Timoleon's arrival, in his terror sent for
many of the Carthaginian ships of war; and now the Syracusans began
utterly to despair of their safety, seeing the Carthaginians in
possession of the harbour, Hiketes holding the city, and Dionysius still
master of the promontory, while Timoleon was as it were hanging on the
outskirts of Sicily in that little fortress of Tauromenium, with but
little hope and a weak force, for he had no more than one thousand
soldiers and the necessary supplies for them. Nor had the cities of
Sicily any trust in him, as they were in great distress, and greatly
exasperated against those who pretended to lead armies to their succour,
on account of the treachery of Kallippus and Pharax; who, one an
Athenian and the other a Lacedaemonian, but both giving out that they
were come to fight for freedom and to put down despotism, did so
tyrannise themselves, that the reign of the despots in Sicily seemed to
have been a golden age, and those who died in slavery were thought more
happy than those who lived to see liberty.
XII. So thinking that the Corinthian would be no better than these men,
and that the same plausible and specious baits would be held out to lure
them with hopes and pleasant promises under the yoke of a new master,
they all viewed the proposals of the Corinthians with suspicion and
shrank back from them except the Adranites. These were the inhabitants
of a small city, sacred to Adranus, a god whose worship extends
especially throughout Sicily. They were at feud with one another, as one
party invited Hiketes and the Carthaginians, while the other sent for
Timoleon to help them. And by some chance it happened that as each party
strove to get there first, they both arrived at the same time; Hiketes
with five thousand soldiers, whereas Timoleon altogether had no more
than twelve hundred.
Starting with these men from Tauromenium, which is forty-two miles from
Adranum, he made but a short march on the first day, and then encamped.
On the next day he marched steadily forward, passed some difficult
country, and late in the day heard that Hiketas had just reached the
little fortress and was encamping before it. On this the officers halted
the van of the army, thinking that the men would be fresher after taking
food and rest; but Timoleon went to them and begged them not to do so,
but to lead them on as fast as they could, and fall upon the enemy while
they were in disorder, as it was probable they would be, having just
come off their march, and being busy about pitching their tents, and
cooking their supper. Saying this he seized his shield,[A] and led the
way himself as to an assured victory; and the rest, reassured, followed
him confidently. They were distant only about thirty furlongs. These
were soon passed, and they fell headlong upon the enemy, who were in
confusion, and fled as soon as they discovered their attack. For this
reason no more than three hundred of them were slain, but twice as many
were taken prisoners, and their camp was captured. The people of Adranum
now opened their gates, and made their submission to Timoleon, relating
with awe and wonder how, at the outset of the battle, the sacred doors
of the temple flew open of their own accord, and the spear of the god
was seen to quiver at the point, while his face was covered with a thick
sweat.
[Footnote A: The shield of a General was habitually carried for him by
an orderly.]
XIII. These portents, it seems, did not merely presage the victory, but
also the subsequent events, of which this was the prosperous beginning.
Immediately several cities sent ambassadors and joined Timoleon, as did
also Mamercus the despot of Katana, a man of warlike tastes and great
wealth, who made an alliance with him. But the most important thing of
all was that Dionysius himself, who had now lost all hope of success,
and was on the point of being starved out, despising Hiketes for being
so shamefully beaten, but admiring Timoleon, sent to him and offered to
deliver up both himself and the citadel to the Corinthians.
Timoleon, accepting this unexpected piece of good fortune, sent
Eukleides and Telemachus, Corinthian officers, into the citadel, and
four hundred men besides, not all together nor openly, for that was
impossible in the face of the enemy, who were blockading it, but by
stealth, and in small bodies. So these soldiers took possession of the
citadel, and the palace with all its furniture, and all the military
stores. There were a good many horses, and every species of artillery
and missile weapon. Also there were arms and armour for seventy thousand
men, which had been stored up there for a long time, and Dionysius also
had two thousand soldiers, all of whom he handed over to Timoleon with
the rest of the fortress, and then, with his money and a few of his
friends, he put to sea, and passed unnoticed through Hiketes's cruisers.
He proceeded to the camp of Timoleon, appearing for the first time as a
private person in great humility, and was sent to Corinth in one ship,
and with a small allowance of money. He had been born and bred in the
most splendid and greatest of empires, and had reigned over it for ten
years, but for twelve more, since the time that Dion attacked him, he
had constantly been in troubles and wars, during which all the cruelties
which he had exercised on others, were more than avenged upon himself,
by the miserable death of his wife and family, which are more
particularly dwelt upon in the life of Dion.
XIV. Now when Dionysius reached Corinth, there was no one in Greece who
did not wish to see him and speak to him. Some, who rejoiced in his
misfortunes, came to see him out of hatred, in order to trample on him
now that he was down, while others sympathised with him in his change of
fortune, reflecting on the inscrutable ways of the gods, and the
uncertainty of human affairs. For that age produced nothing in nature or
art so remarkable as that change of fortune which showed the man, who
not long before had been supreme ruler of Sicily, now dining at Corinth
at the cook's shop, lounging at the perfumer's, drinking at the taverns,
instructing female singers, and carefully arguing with them about their
songs in the theatre, and about the laws of music. Some thought that
Dionysius acted thus from folly, and indolent love of pleasure, but
others considered that it was in order that he might be looked down
upon, and not be an object of terror or suspicion to the Corinthians, as
he would have been if they thought that he ill brooked his reverse of
fortune, and still nourished ambitious designs, and that his foolish and
licentious mode of life was thus to be accounted for.
XV. But for all that, certain of his sayings are remembered, which
sufficiently prove that he showed real greatness of mind in adapting
himself to his altered circumstances. When he arrived at Leukas, which,
like Syracuse, was a Corinthian colony, he said that he was like a young
man who has got into disgrace. They associate gaily with their brothers,
but are ashamed to meet their fathers, and avoid them: and so he was
ashamed to go to the parent city, but would gladly live there with them.
Another time in Corinth, when some stranger coarsely jeered at the
philosophic studies in which he used to delight when in power, and at
last asked him what good he had obtained from the wisdom of Plato, "Do
you think," answered he, "that I have gained nothing from Plato, when I
bear my reverse of fortune as I do." When Aristoxenus, the musician, and
some others asked him what fault he had found with Plato, and why, he
answered that absolute power, amongst its many evils, was especially
unfortunate in this, that none of a despot's so-called friends dare to
speak their mind openly. And he himself, he said, had been by such men
deprived of the friendship of Plato. A man, who thought himself witty,
once tried to make a joke of Dionysius by shaking out his cloak, when he
came into his presence, as is the custom before despots, to show that
one has no concealed weapons; but he repaid the jest by begging him to
do it when he left him, that he might be sure that he had not stolen any
of his property.
Philip of Macedon once, when they were drinking together, made some
sneering remark about the poetry and tragedies which Dionysius the elder
had written, pretending to be at a loss to know how he found time for
such pursuits; but Dionysius cleverly answered, "He wrote them during
the time which you and I, and all who are thought such lucky fellows,
spend over our wine."