TIMOLEON

It was for the sake of others that I first commenced writing

biographies; but I find myself proceeding and attaching myself to it

for my own; the virtues of these great men serving me as a sort of

looking-glass, in which I may see how to adjust and adorn my own

life. Indeed, it can be compared to nothing but daily living and

associating together; we receive, as it were, in our inquiry, and

entertain each successive guest, view

Their stature and their qualities,

and select from their actions all that is noblest and worthiest to

know.

Ah, and what greater pleasure could one have?

or, what more effective means to one's moral improvement? Democritus

tells us we ought to pray that of the phantasms appearing in the

circumambient air, such may present themselves to us as are

propitious, and that we may rather meet with those that are agreeable

to our natures and are good, than the evil and unfortunate; which is

simply introducing into philosophy a doctrine untrue in itself, and

leading to endless superstitions. My method, on the contrary, is, by

the study of history, and by the familiarity acquired in writing, to

habituate my memory to receive and retain images of the best and

worthiest characters. I thus am enabled to free myself from any

ignoble, base, or vicious impressions, contracted from the contagion

of ill company that I may be unavoidably engaged in, by the remedy of

turning my thoughts in a happy and calm temper to view these noble

examples. Of this kind are those of Timoleon the Corinthian, and

Paulus Aemilius, to write whose lives is my present business; men

equally famous, not only for their virtues, but success; insomuch

that they have left it doubtful whether they owe their greatest

achievements to good fortune, or their own prudence and conduct.

The affairs of the Syracusans, before Timoleon was sent into Sicily,

were in this posture: after Dion had driven out Dionysius the

tyrant, he was slain by treachery, and those that had assisted him in

delivering Syracuse were divided among themselves; and thus the city,

by a continual change of governors, and a train of mischiefs that

succeeded each other, became almost abandoned; while of the rest of

Sicily, part was now utterly depopulated and desolate through long

continuance of war, and most of the cities that had been left

standing were in the hands of barbarians and soldiers out of

employment, that were ready to embrace every turn of government.

Such being the state of things, Dionysius takes the opportunity, and

in the tenth year of his banishment, by the help of some mercenary

troops he had got together, forces out Nysaeus, then master of

Syracuse, recovers all afresh, and is again settled in his dominion;

and as at first he had been strangely deprived of the greatest and

most absolute power that ever was, by a very small party, so now in a

yet stranger manner; when in exile and of mean condition, he became

the sovereign of those who had ejected him. All, therefore, that

remained in Syracuse, had to serve under a tyrant, who at the best

was of an ungentle nature, and exasperated now to a degree of

savageness by the late misfortunes and calamities he had suffered.

The better and more distinguished citizens, having timely retired

thence to Hicetes, ruler of the Leontines, put themselves under his

protection, and chose him for their general in the war; not that he

was much preferable to any open and avowed tyrant; but they had no

other sanctuary at present, and it gave them some ground of

confidence, that he was of a Syracusan family, and had forces able to

encounter those of Dionysius.

In the meantime, the Carthaginians appeared before Sicily with a

great navy, watching when and where they might make a descent upon

the island; and terror at this fleet made the Sicilians incline to

send an embassy into Greece to demand succors from the Corinthians,

whom they confided in rather than others, not only upon the account

of their near kindred, and the great benefits they had often received

by trusting them, but because Corinth had ever shown herself attached

to freedom and averse from tyranny, and had engaged in many noble

wars, not for empire or aggrandizement, but for the sole liberty of

the Greeks. But Hicetes, who made it the business of his command not

so much to deliver the Syracusans from other tyrants, as to enslave

them to himself, had already entered into some secret conferences

with those of Carthage, while in public he commended the design of

his Syracusan clients, and dispatched ambassadors from himself,

together with theirs, into Peloponnesus; not that he really desired

any relief to come from there, but, in case the Corinthians, as was

likely enough, on account of the troubles of Greece and occupation at

home, should refuse their assistance, hoping then he should be able

with less difficulty to dispose and incline things for the

Carthaginian interest, and so make use of these foreign pretenders,

as instruments and auxiliaries for himself, either against the

Syracusans or Dionysius, as occasion served. This was discovered a

while after.

The ambassadors being arrived, and their request known, the

Corinthians, who had always a great concern for all their colonies

and plantations, but especially for Syracuse, since by good fortune

there was nothing to molest them in their own country, where they

were enjoying peace and leisure at that time, readily and with one

accord passed a vote for their assistance. And when they were

deliberating about the choice of a captain for the expedition, and

the magistrates were urging the claims of various aspirants for

reputation, one of the crowd stood up and named Timoleon, son of

Timodemus, who had long absented himself from public business, and

had neither any thoughts of, nor the least pretension to, an

employment of that nature. Some god or other, it might rather seem,

had put it in the man's heart to mention him; such favor and

good-will on the part of Fortune seemed at once to be shown in his

election, and to accompany all his following actions, as though it

were on purpose to commend his worth, and add grace and ornament to

his personal virtues. As regards his parentage, both Timodemus his

father, and his mother Demariste, were of high rank in the city; and

as for himself, he was noted for his love of his country, and his

gentleness of temper, except in his extreme hatred to tyrants and

wicked men. His natural abilities for war were so happily tempered,

that while a rare prudence might be seen in all the enterprises of

his younger years, an equal courage showed itself in the last

exploits of his declining age. He had an elder brother, whose name

was Timophanes, who was every way unlike him, being indiscreet and

rash, and infected by the suggestions of some friends and foreign

soldiers, whom he kept always about him, with a passion for absolute

power. He seemed to have a certain force and vehemence in all

military service, and even to delight in dangers, and thus he took

much with the people, and was advanced to the highest charges, as a

vigorous and effective warrior; in the obtaining of which offices and

promotions, Timoleon much assisted him, helping to conceal or at

least to extenuate his errors, embellishing by his praise whatever

was commendable in him, and setting off his good qualities to the

best advantage.

It happened once in the battle fought by the Corinthians against the

forces of Argos and Cleonae, that Timoleon served among the infantry,

when Timophanes, commanding their cavalry, was brought into extreme

danger; as his horse being wounded fell forward, and threw him

headlong amidst the enemies, while part of his companions dispersed

at once in a panic, and the small number that remained, bearing up

against a great multitude, had much ado to maintain any resistance.

As soon, therefore, as Timoleon was aware of the accident, he ran

hastily in to his brother's rescue, and covering the fallen

Timophanes with his buckler, after having received abundance of

darts, and several strokes by the sword upon his body and his armor,

he at length with much difficulty obliged the enemies to retire, and

brought off his brother alive and safe. But when the Corinthians, for

fear of losing their city a second time, as they had once before, by

admitting their allies, made a decree to maintain four hundred

mercenaries for its security, and gave Timophanes the command over

them, he, abandoning all regard to honor and equity, at once

proceeded to put into execution his plans for making himself

absolute, and bringing the place under his own power; and having cut

off many principal citizens, uncondemned and without trial, who were

most likely to hinder his design, he declared himself tyrant of

Corinth; a procedure that infinitely afflicted Timoleon, to whom the

wickedness of such a brother appeared to be his own reproach and

calamity. He undertook to persuade him by reasoning, that, desisting

from that wild and unhappy ambition, he would bethink himself how he

should make the Corinthians some amends, and find out an expedient to

remedy and correct the evils he had done them. When his single

admonition was rejected and contemned by him, he makes a second

attempt, taking with him Aeschylus his kinsman, brother to the wife

of Timophanes, and a certain diviner, that was his friend, whom

Theopompus in his history calls Satyrus, but Ephorus and Timaeus

mention in theirs by the name of Orthagoras. After a few days, then,

he returns to his brother with this company, all three of them

surrounding and earnestly importuning him upon the same subject, that

now at length he would listen to reason, and be of another mind. But

when Timophanes began first to laugh at the men's simplicity, and

presently broke out into rage and indignation against them, Timoleon

stepped aside from him and stood weeping with his face covered, while

the other two, drawing out their swords, dispatched him in a moment.

On the rumor of this act being soon scattered about, the better and

more generous of the Corinthians highly applauded Timoleon for the

hatred of wrong and the greatness of soul that had made him, though

of a gentle disposition and full of love and kindness for his family,

think the obligations to his country stronger than the ties of

consanguinity, and prefer that which is good and just before gain and

interest and his own particular advantage. For the same brother, who

with so much bravery had been saved by him when he fought valiantly

in the cause of Corinth, he had now as nobly sacrificed for enslaving

her afterward by a base and treacherous usurpation. But then, on the

other side, those that knew not how to live in a democracy, and had

been used to make their humble court to the men of power, though they

openly professed to rejoice at the death of the tyrant, nevertheless,

secretly reviling Timoleon, as one that had committed an impious and

abominable act, drove him into melancholy and dejection. And when he

came to understand how heavily his mother took it, and that she

likewise uttered the saddest complaints and most terrible

imprecations against him, he went to satisfy and comfort her as to

what had happened; and finding that she would not endure so much as

to look upon him, but caused her doors to be shut, that he might have

no admission into her presence, with grief at this he grew so

disordered in his mind and so disconsolate, that he determined to put

an end to his perplexity with his life, by abstaining from all manner

of sustenance. But through the care and diligence of his friends,

who were very instant with him, and added force to their entreaties,

he came to resolve and promise at last, that he would endure living,

provided it might be in solitude, and remote from company; so that,

quitting all civil transactions and commerce with the world, for a

long while after his first retirement he never came into Corinth, but

wandered up and down the fields, full of anxious and tormenting

thoughts, and spent his time in desert places, at the farthest

distance from society and human intercourse. So true it is that the

minds of men are easily shaken and carried off from their own

sentiments through the casual commendation or reproof of others,

unless the judgments that we make, and the purposes we conceive, be

confirmed by reason and philosophy, and thus obtain strength and

steadiness. An action must not only be just and laudable in its own

nature, but it must proceed likewise from solid motives and a lasting

principle, that so we may fully and constantly approve the thing, and

be perfectly satisfied in what we do; for otherwise, after having put

our resolution into practice, we shall out of pure weakness come to

be troubled at the performance, when the grace and goodliness, which

rendered it before so amiable and pleasing to us, begin to decay and

wear out of our fancy; like greedy people, who, seizing on the more

delicious morsels of any dish with a keen appetite, are presently

disgusted when they grow full, and find themselves oppressed and

uneasy now by what they before so greedily desired. For a succeeding

dislike spoils the best of actions, and repentance makes that which

was never so well done, become base and faulty; whereas the choice

that is founded upon knowledge and wise reasoning, does not change by

disappointment, or suffer us to repent, though it happen perchance to

be less prosperous in the issue. And thus Phocion, of Athens, having

always vigorously opposed the measures of Leosthenes, when success

appeared to attend them, and he saw his countrymen rejoicing and

offering sacrifice in honor of their victory, "I should have been as

glad," said he to them, "that I myself had been the author of what

Leosthenes has achieved for you, as I am that I gave you my own

counsel against it." A more vehement reply is recorded to have been

made by Aristides the Locrian, one of Plato's companions, to

Dionysius the elder, who demanded one of his daughters in marriage:

"I had rather," said he to him, "see the virgin in her grave, than in

the palace of a tyrant." And when Dionysius, enraged at the affront,

made his sons be put to death a while after, and then again

insultingly asked, whether he were still in the same mind as to the

disposal of his daughters, his answer was, "I cannot but grieve at

the cruelty of your deeds, but am not sorry for the freedom of my own

words." Such expressions as these may belong perhaps to a more

sublime and accomplished virtue.

The grief, however, of Timoleon at what had been done, whether it

arose from commiseration of his brother's fate, or the reverence he

bore his mother, so shattered and broke his spirits, that for the

space of almost twenty years, he had not offered to concern himself

in any honorable or public action. When, therefore, he was pitched

upon for a general, and joyfully accepted as such by the suffrages of

the people, Teleclides, who was at that time the most powerful and

distinguished man in Corinth, began to exhort him that he would act

now like a man of worth and gallantry: "For," said he, "if you do

bravely in this service, we shall believe that you delivered us from

a tyrant; but if otherwise, that you killed your brother." While he

was yet preparing to set sail, and enlisting soldiers to embark with

him, there came letters to the Corinthians from Hicetes, plainly

disclosing his revolt and treachery. For his ambassadors were no

sooner gone for Corinth, but he openly joined the Carthaginians,

negotiating that they might assist him to throw out Dionysius, and

become master of Syracuse in his room. And fearing he might be

disappointed of his aim, if troops and a commander should come from

Corinth before this were effected, he sent a letter of advice

thither, in all haste, to prevent their setting out, telling them

they need not be at any cost and trouble upon his account, or run the

hazard of a Sicilian voyage, especially since the Carthaginians,

alliance with whom against Dionysius the slowness of their motions

had compelled him to embrace, would dispute their passage, and lay in

wait to attack them with a numerous fleet. This letter being

publicly read, if any had been cold and indifferent before as to the

expedition in hand, the indignation they now conceived against

Hicetes so exasperated and inflamed them all, that they willingly

contributed to supply Timoleon, and endeavored, with one accord, to

hasten his departure.

When the vessels were equipped, and his soldiers every way provided

for, the female priests of Proserpina had a dream or vision, wherein

she and her mother Ceres appeared to them in a traveling garb, and

were heard to say that they were going to sail with Timoleon into

Sicily; whereupon the Corinthians, having built a sacred galley,

devoted it to them, and called it the galley of the goddesses.

Timoleon went in person to Delphi, where he sacrificed to Apollo,

and, descending into the place of prophecy, was surprised with the

following marvelous occurrence. A riband with crowns and figures of

victory embroidered upon it, slipped off from among the gifts that

were there consecrated and hung up in the temple, and fell directly

down upon his head; so that Apollo seemed already to crown him with

success, and send him thence to conquer and triumph. He put to sea

only with seven ships of Corinth, two of Corcyra, and a tenth which

was furnished by the Leucadians; and when he was now entered into the

deep by night, and carried with a prosperous gale, the heaven seemed

all on a sudden to break open, and a bright spreading flame to issue

forth from it, and hover over the ship he was in; and, having formed

itself into a torch, not unlike those that are used in the mysteries,

it began to steer the same course, and run along in their company,

guiding them by its light to that quarter of Italy where they

designed to go ashore. The soothsayers affirmed, that this

apparition agreed with the dream of the holy women, since the

goddesses were now visibly joining in the expedition, and sending

this light from heaven before them: Sicily being thought sacred to

Proserpina, as poets feign that the rape was committed there, and

that the island was given her in dowry when she married Pluto.

These early demonstrations of divine favor greatly encouraged his

whole army; so that, making all the speed they were able, by a voyage

across the open sea, they were soon passing along the coast of Italy.

But the tidings that came from Sicily much perplexed Timoleon, and

disheartened his soldiers. For Hicetes, having already beaten

Dionysius out of the field, and reduced most of the quarters of

Syracuse itself, now hemmed him in and besieged him in the citadel

and what is called the Island, whither he was fled for his last

refuge; while the Carthaginians, by agreement, were to make it their

business to hinder Timoleon from landing in any port of Sicily; so

that he and his party being driven back, they might with ease and at

their own leisure divide the island among themselves. In pursuance

of which design, the Carthaginians sent away twenty of their galleys

to Rhegium, having aboard them certain ambassadors from Hicetes to

Timoleon, who carried instructions suitable to these proceedings,

specious amusements and plausible stories, to color and conceal

dishonest purposes. They had order to propose and demand that

Timoleon himself, if he liked the offer, should come to advise with

Hicetes, and partake of all his conquests, but that he might send

back his ships and forces to Corinth, since the war was in a manner

finished, and the Carthaginians had blocked up the passage,

determined to oppose them if they should try to force their way

towards the shore. When, therefore, the Corinthians met with these

envoys at Rhegium, and received their message, and saw the Phoenician

vessels riding at anchor in the bay, they became keenly sensible of

the abuse that was put upon them, and felt a general indignation

against Hicetes, and great apprehensions for the Siceliots, whom they

now plainly perceived to be as it were a prize and recompense to

Hicetes on one side for his perfidy, and to the Carthaginians on the

other for the sovereign power they secured to him. For it seemed

utterly impossible to force and overbear the Carthaginian ships that

lay before them and were double their number, as also to vanquish the

victorious troops which Hicetes had with him in Syracuse, to take the

lead of which very troops they had undertaken their voyage.

The case being thus, Timoleon, after some conference with the envoys

of Hicetes and the Carthaginian captains, told them he should readily

submit to their proposals (to what purpose would it be to refuse

compliance?): he was desirous only, before his return to Corinth,

that what had passed between them in private might be solemnly

declared before the people of Rhegium, a Greek city, and a common

friend to the parties; this, he said, would very much conduce to his

own security and discharge; and they likewise would more strictly

observe articles of agreement, on behalf of the Syracusans, which

they had obliged themselves to in the presence of so many witnesses.

The design of all which was, only to divert their attention, while he

got an opportunity of slipping away from their fleet: a contrivance

that all the principal Rhegians were privy and assisting to, who had

a great desire that the affairs of Sicily should fall into Corinthian

hands, and dreaded the consequences of having barbarian neighbors.

An assembly was therefore called, and the gates shut, that the

citizens might have no liberty to turn to other business; and a

succession of speakers came forward, addressing the people at great

length, to the same effect, without bringing the subject to any

conclusion, making way each for another and purposely spinning out

the time, till the Corinthian galleys should get clear of the haven;

the Carthaginian commanders being detained there without any

suspicion, as also Timoleon still remained present, and gave signs as

if he were just preparing to make an oration. But upon secret notice

that the rest of the galleys were already gone on, and that his alone

remained waiting for him, by the help and concealment of those

Rhegians that were about the hustings and favored his departure, he

made shift to slip away through the crowd, and, running down to the

port, set sail with all speed; and having reached his other vessels,

they came all safe to Tauromenium in Sicily, whither they had been

formerly invited, and where they were now kindly received by

Andromachus, then ruler of the city. This man was father of Timaeus

the historian, and incomparably the best of all those that bore sway

in Sicily at that time, governing his citizens according to law and

justice, and openly professing an aversion and enmity to all tyrants;

upon which account he gave Timoleon leave to muster up his troops

there, and to make that city the seat of war, persuading the

inhabitants to join their arms with the Corinthian forces, and assist

them in the design of delivering Sicily.

But the Carthaginians who were left in Rhegium perceiving, when the

assembly was dissolved, that Timoleon had given them the go by, were

not a little vexed to see themselves outwitted, much to the amusement

of the Rhegians, who could not but smile to find Phoenicians complain

of being cheated. However, they dispatched a messenger aboard one of

their galleys to Tauromenium, who, after much blustering in the

insolent barbaric way, and many menaces to Andromachus if he did not

forthwith send the Corinthians off, stretched out his hand with the

inside upward, and then turning it down again, threatened he would

handle their city even so, and turn it topsy-turvy in as little time,

and with as much ease. Andromachus, laughing at the man's

confidence, made no other reply, but, imitating his gesture, bid him

hasten his own departure, unless he had a mind to see that kind of

dexterity practiced first upon the galley which brought him thither.

Hicetes, informed that Timoleon had made good his passage, was in

great fear of what might follow, and sent to desire the Carthaginians

that a large number of galleys might be ordered to attend and secure

the coast. And now it was that the Syracusans began wholly to

despair of safety, seeing the Carthaginians possessed of their haven,

Hicetes master of the town, and Dionysius supreme in the citadel;

while Timoleon had as yet but a slender hold of Sicily, as it were by

the fringe or border of it, in the small city of the Tauromenians,

with a feeble hope and a poor company; having but a thousand soldiers

at the most, and no more provisions, either of corn or money, than

were just necessary for the maintenance and the pay of that

inconsiderable number. Nor did the other towns of Sicily confide in

him, overpowered as they were with violence and outrage, and

embittered against all that should offer to lead armies, by the

treacherous conduct chiefly of Callippus, an Athenian, and Pharax, a

Lacedaemonian captain, both of whom, after giving out that the design

of their coming was to introduce liberty and depose tyrants, so

tyrannized themselves, that the reign of former oppressors seemed to

be a golden age in comparison, and the Sicilians began to consider

those more happy who had expired in servitude, than any that had

lived to see such a dismal freedom.

Looking, therefore, for no better usage from the Corinthian general,

but imagining that it was only the same old course of things once

more, specious presences and false professions to allure them by fair

hopes and kind promises into the obedience of a new master, they all,

with one accord, unless it were the people of Adranum, suspected the

exhortations, and rejected the overtures that were made them in his

name. These were inhabitants of a small city, consecrated to

Adranus, a certain god that was in high veneration throughout Sicily,

and, as it happened, they were then at variance among themselves,

insomuch that one party called in Hicetes and the Carthaginians to

assist them, while the other sent proposals to Timoleon. It so fell

out that these auxiliaries, striving which should be soonest, both

arrived at Adranum about the same time; Hicetes bringing with him at

least five thousand fighting men, while all the force Timoleon could

make did not exceed twelve hundred. With these he marched out of

Tauromenium, which was about three hundred and forty furlongs distant

from that city. The first day he moved but slowly, and took up his

quarters betimes after a short journey; but the day following he

quickened his pace, and, having passed through much difficult ground,

towards evening received advice that Hicetes was just approaching

Adranum, and pitching his camp before it; upon which intelligence,

his captains and other officers caused the vanguard to halt, that the

army being refreshed, and having reposed a while, might engage the

enemy with better heart. But Timoleon, coming up in haste, desired

them not to stop for that reason, but rather use all possible

diligence to surprise the enemy, whom probably they would now find in

disorder, as having lately ended their march, and being taken up at

present in erecting tents and preparing supper; which he had no

sooner said, but laying hold of his buckler and putting himself in

the front, he led them on as it were to certain victory. The

braveness of such a leader made them all follow him with like courage

and assurance. They were now within less than thirty furlongs of

Adranum, which they quickly traversed, and immediately fell in upon

the enemy, who were seized with confusion, and began to retire at

their first approaches; one consequence of which was that amidst so

little opposition, and so early and general a flight, there were not

many more than three hundred slain, and about twice the number made

prisoners. Their camp and baggage, however, was all taken. The

fortune of this onset soon induced the Adranitans to unlock their

gates, and embrace the interest of Timoleon, to whom they recounted,

with a mixture of affright and admiration, how, at the very minute of

the encounter, the doors of their temple flew open of their own

accord, that the javelin also, which their god held in his hand, was

observed to tremble at the point, and that drops of sweat had been

seen running down his face: prodigies that not only presaged the

victory then obtained, but were an omen, it seems, of all his future

exploits, to which this first happy action gave the occasion.

For now the neighboring cities and potentates sent deputies, one upon

another, to seek his friendship and make offer of their service.

Among the rest, Mamercus, the tyrant of Catana, an experienced

warrior and a wealthy prince, made proposals of alliance with him,

and, what was of greater importance still, Dionysius himself being

now grown desperate, and wellnigh forced to surrender, despising

Hicetes who had been thus shamefully baffled, and admiring the valor

of Timoleon, found means to advertise him and his Corinthians that he

should be content to deliver up himself and the citadel into their

hands. Timoleon, gladly embracing this unlooked for advantage, sends

away Euclides and Telemachus, two Corinthian captains, with four

hundred men, for the seizure and custody of the castle, with

directions to enter not all at once, or in open view, that being

impracticable so long as the enemy kept guard, but by stealth, and in

small companies. And so they took possession of the fortress, and

the palace of Dionysius, with all the stores and ammunition he had

prepared and laid up to maintain the war. They found a good number

of horses, every variety of engines, a multitude of darts, and

weapons to arm seventy thousand men (a magazine that had been formed

from ancient time), besides two thousand soldiers that were then with

him, whom he gave up with the rest for Timoleon's service. Dionysius

himself, putting his treasure aboard, and taking a few friends,

sailed away unobserved by Hicetes, and being brought to the camp of

Timoleon, there first appeared in the humble dress of a private

person, and was shortly after sent to Corinth with a single ship and

a small sum of money. Born and educated in the most splendid court

and the most absolute monarchy that ever was, which he held and kept

up for the space of ten years succeeding his father's death, he had,

after Dion's expedition, spent twelve other years in a continual

agitation of wars and contests, and great variety of fortune, during

which time all the mischiefs he had committed in his former reign

were more than repaid by the ills he himself then suffered; since he

lived to see the deaths of his sons in the prime and vigor of their

age, and the rape of his daughters in the flower of their virginity,

and the wicked abuse of his sister and his wife, who, after being

first exposed to all the lawless insults of the soldiery, was then

murdered with her children, and cast into the sea; the particulars of

which are more exactly given in the life of Dion.

Upon the news of his landing at Corinth, there was hardly a man in

Greece who had not the curiosity to come and view the late formidable

tyrant, and say some words to him; part, rejoicing at his disasters,

were led thither out of mere spite and hatred, that they might have

the pleasure of trampling, as it were, on the ruins of his broken

fortune; but others, letting their attention and their sympathy turn

rather to the changes and revolutions of his life, could not but see

in them a proof of the strength and potency with which divine and

unseen causes operate amidst the weakness of human and visible

things. For neither art nor nature did in that age produce anything

comparable to this work and wonder of fortune, which showed the very

same man, that was not long before supreme monarch of Sicily,

loitering about perhaps in the fish-market, or sitting in a

perfumer's shop, drinking the diluted wine of taverns, or squabbling

in the street with common women, or pretending to instruct the

singing women of the theater, and seriously disputing with them about

the measure and harmony of pieces of music that were performed there.

Such behavior on his part was variously criticized. He was thought

by many to act thus out of pure compliance with his own natural

indolent and vicious inclinations; while finer judges were of

opinion, that in all this he was playing a politic part, with a

design to be contemned among them, and that the Corinthians might not

feel any apprehension or suspicion of his being uneasy under his

reverse of fortune, or solicitous to retrieve it; to avoid which

dangers, he purposely and against his true nature affected an

appearance of folly and want of spirit in his private life and

amusements.

However it be, there are sayings and repartees of his left still upon

record, which seem to show that he not ignobly accommodated himself

to his present circumstances; as may appear in part from the

ingenuousness of the avowal he made on coming to Leucadia, which, as

well as Syracuse, was a Corinthian colony, where he told the

inhabitants, that he found himself not unlike boys who have been in

fault, who can talk cheerfully with their brothers, but are ashamed

to see their father; so, likewise, he, he said, could gladly reside

with them in that island, whereas he felt a certain awe upon his

mind, which made him averse to the sight of Corinth, that was a

common mother to them both. The thing is further evident from the

reply he once made to a stranger in Corinth, who deriding him in a

rude and scornful manner about the conferences he used to have with

philosophers, whose company had been one of his pleasures while yet a

monarch, and demanding, in fine, what he was the better now for all

those wise and learned discourses of Plato, "Do you think," said he,

"I have made no profit of his philosophy, when you see me bear my

change of fortune as I do?" And when Aristoxenus the musician, and

several others, desired to know how Plato offended him, and what had

been the ground of his displeasure with him, he made answer, that, of

the many evils attaching to the condition of sovereignty, the one

greatest infelicity was that none of those who were accounted friends

would venture to speak freely, or tell the plain truth; and that by

means of such he had been deprived of Plato's kindness. At another

time, when one of those pleasant companions that are desirous to pass

for wits, in mockery to Dionysius, as if he were still the tyrant,

shook out the folds of his cloak, as he was entering into the room

where he was, to show there were no concealed weapons about him,

Dionysius, by way of retort, observed, that he would prefer he would

do so on leaving the room, as a security that he was carrying nothing

off with him. And when Philip of Macedon, at a drinking party, began

to speak in banter about the verses and tragedies which his father,

Dionysius the elder, had left behind him, and pretended to wonder how

he could get any time from his other business to compose such

elaborate and ingenious pieces, he replied, very much to the purpose,

"It was at those leisurable hours, which such as you and I, and those

we call happy men, bestow upon our cups." Plato had not the

opportunity to see Dionysius at Corinth, being already dead before he

came thither; but Diogenes of Sinope, at their first meeting in the

street there, saluted him with the ambiguous expression, "O

Dionysius, how little you deserve your present life!" Upon which

Dionysius stopped and replied, "I thank you, Diogenes, for your

condolence." "Condole with you!" replied Diogenes; "do you not

suppose that, on the contrary, I am indignant that such a slave as

you, who, if you had your due, should have been let alone to grow

old, and die in the state of tyranny, as your father did before you,

should now enjoy the ease of private persons, and be here to sport

and frolic it in our society?" So that when I compare those sad

stories of Philistus, touching the daughters of Leptines, where he

makes pitiful moan on their behalf, as fallen from all the blessings

and advantages of powerful greatness to the miseries of a humble

life, they seem to me like the lamentations of a woman who has lost

her box of ointment, her purple dresses, and her golden trinkets.

Such anecdotes will not, I conceive, be thought either foreign to my

purpose of writing Lives, or unprofitable in themselves, by such

readers as are not in too much haste, or busied and taken up with

other concerns.

But if the misfortune of Dionysius appear strange and extraordinary,

we shall have no less reason to wonder at the good fortune of

Timoleon, who, within fifty days after his landing in Sicily, both

recovered the citadel of Syracuse, and sent Dionysius an exile into

Peloponnesus. This lucky beginning so animated the Corinthians, that

they ordered him a supply of two thousand foot and two hundred horse,

who, reaching Thurii, intended to cross over thence into Sicily; but

finding the whole sea beset with Carthaginian ships, which made their

passage impracticable, they were constrained to stop there, and watch

their opportunity: which time, however, was employed in a noble

action. For the Thurians, going out to war against their Bruttian

enemies, left their city in charge with these Corinthian strangers,

who defended it as carefully as if it had been their own country, and

faithfully resigned it up again.

Hicetes, in the interim, continued still to besiege the castle of

Syracuse, and hindered all provisions from coming in by sea to

relieve the Corinthians that were in it. He had engaged also, and

dispatched towards Adranum, two unknown foreigners to assassinate

Timoleon, who at no time kept any standing guard about his person,

and was then altogether secure, diverting himself, without any

apprehension, among the citizens of the place, it being a festival in

honor of their gods. The two men that were sent, having casually

heard that Timoleon was about to sacrifice, came directly into the

temple with poniards under their cloaks, and pressing in among the

crowd, by little and little got up close to the altar; but, as they

were just looking for a sign from each other to begin the attempt, a

third person struck one of them over the head with a sword, upon

whose sudden fall, neither he that gave the blow, nor the partisan of

him that received it, kept their stations any longer; but the one,

making way with his bloody sword, put no stop to his flight, till he

gained the top of a certain lofty precipice, while the other, laying

hold of the altar, besought Timoleon to spare his life, and he would

reveal to him the whole conspiracy. His pardon being granted, he

confessed that both himself and his dead companion were sent thither

purposely to slay him. While this discovery was made, he that killed

the other conspirator had been fetched down from his sanctuary of the

rock, loudly and often protesting, as he came along, that there was

no injustice in the fact, as he had only taken righteous vengeance

for his father's blood, whom this man had murdered before in the city

of Leontini; the truth of which was attested by several there

present, who could not choose but wonder too at the strange dexterity

of fortune's operations, the facility with which she makes one event

the spring and motion to something wholly different, uniting every

scattered accident and lose particular and remote action, and

interweaving them together to serve her purposes; so that things that

in themselves seem to have no connection or interdependence

whatsoever, become in her hands, so to say, the end and the beginning

of each other. The Corinthians, satisfied as to the innocence of

this seasonable feat, honored and rewarded the author with a present

of ten pounds in their money, since he had, as it were, lent the use

of his just resentment to the tutelar genius that seemed to be

protecting Timoleon, and had not preexpended this anger, so long ago

conceived, but had reserved and deferred, under fortune's guidance,

for his preservation, the revenge of a private quarrel.

But this fortunate escape had effects and consequences beyond the

present, as it inspired the highest hopes and future expectations of

Timoleon, making people reverence and protect him as a sacred person

sent by heaven to avenge and redeem Sicily. Hicetes, having missed

his aim in this enterprise, and perceiving, also, that many went off

and sided with Timoleon, began to chide himself for his foolish

modesty, that, when so considerable a force of the Carthaginians lay

ready to be commanded by him, he had employed them hitherto by

degrees and in small numbers, introducing their reinforcements by

stealth and clandestinely, as if he had been ashamed of the action.

Therefore, now laying aside his former nicety, he calls in Mago,

their admiral, with his whole navy, who presently set sail, and

seized upon the port with a formidable fleet of at least a hundred

and fifty vessels, landing there sixty thousand foot which were all

lodged within the city of Syracuse; so that, in all men's opinion,

the time anciently talked of and long expected, wherein Sicily should

be subjugated by barbarians, was now come to its fatal period. For

in all their preceding wars and many desperate conflicts with Sicily,

the Carthaginians had never been able, before this, to take Syracuse;

whereas Hicetes now receiving them, and putting the city into their

hands, you might see it become now as it were a camp of barbarians.

By this means, the Corinthian soldiers that kept the castle found

themselves brought into great danger and hardship; as, besides that

their provision grew scarce, and they began to be in want, because

the havens were strictly guarded and blocked up, the enemy exercised

them still with skirmishes and combats about their walls, and they

were not only obliged to be continually in arms, but to divide and

prepare themselves for assaults and encounters of every kind, and to

repel every variety of the means of offense employed by a besieging

army.

Timoleon made shift to relieve them in these straits, sending corn

from Catana by small fishing-boats and little skiffs, which commonly

gained a passage through the Carthaginian galleys in times of storm,

stealing up when the blockading ships were driven apart and dispersed

by the stress of weather; which Mago and Hicetes observing, they

agreed to fall upon Catana, from whence these supplies were brought

in to the besieged, and accordingly put off from Syracuse, taking

with them the best soldiers in their whole army. Upon this, Neon the

Corinthian, who was captain of those that kept the citadel, taking

notice that the enemies who stayed there behind were very negligent

and careless in keeping guard, made a sudden sally upon them as they

lay scattered, and, killing some and putting others to flight, he

took and possessed himself of that quarter which they call Acradina,

and was thought to be the strongest and most impregnable part of

Syracuse, a city made up and compacted as it were, of several towns

put together. Having thus stored himself with corn and money, he did

not abandon the place, nor retire again into the castle, but

fortifying the precincts of Acradina, and joining it by works to the

citadel, he undertook the defense of both. Mago and Hicetes were now

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

Corinthians that they might have a supplement of other persons, as

well out of their city as the rest of Greece, to go with them as

joint-colonists; and so raising themselves to the number of ten

thousand, they sailed together to Syracuse. By this time great

multitudes, also, from Italy and Sicily, had flocked in to Timoleon,

so that, as Athanis reports, their entire body amounted now to sixty

thousand men. Among these he divided the whole territory, and sold

the houses for a thousand talents; by which method, he both left it

in the power of the old Syracusans to redeem their own, and made it a

means also for raising a stock for the community, which had been so

much impoverished of late, and was so unable to defray other

expenses, and especially those of a war, that they exposed their very

statues to sale, a regular process being observed, and sentence of

auction passed upon each of them by majority of votes, as if they had

been so many criminals taking their trial: in the course of which it

is said that while condemnation was pronounced upon all other

statues, that of the ancient usurper Gelo was exempted, out of

admiration and honor and for the sake of the victory he gained over

the Carthaginian forces at the river Himera.

Syracuse being thus happily revived, and replenished again by the

general concourse of inhabitants from all parts, Timoleon was

desirous now to rescue other cities from the like bondage, and wholly

and once for all to extirpate arbitrary government out of Sicily.

And for this purpose, marching into the territories of those that

used it, he compelled Hicetes first to renounce the Carthaginian

interest, and, demolishing the fortresses which were held by him, to

live henceforth among the Leontinians as a private person. Leptines,

also, the tyrant of Apollonia and divers other little towns, after

some resistance made, seeing the danger he was in of being taken by

force, surrendered himself; upon which Timoleon spared his life, and

sent him away to Corinth, counting it a glorious thing that the

mother city should expose to the view of other Greeks these Sicilian

tyrants, living now in an exiled and a low condition. After this he

returned to Syracuse, that he might have leisure to attend to the

establishment of the new constitution, and assist Cephalus and

Dionysius, who were sent from Corinth to make laws, in determining

the most important points of it. In the meanwhile, desirous that his

hired soldiers should not want action, but might rather enrich

themselves by some plunder from the enemy, he dispatched Dinarchus

and Demaretus with a portion of them into the part of the island

belonging to the Carthaginians, where they obliged several cities to

revolt from the barbarians, and not only lived in great abundance

themselves, but raised money from their spoil to carry on the war.

Meantime, the Carthaginians landed at the promontory of Lilybaeum,

bringing with them an army of seventy thousand men on board two

hundred galleys, besides a thousand other vessels laden with engines

of battery, chariots, corn, and other military stores, as if they did

not intend to manage the war by piecemeal and in parts as heretofore,

but to drive the Greeks altogether and at once out of all Sicily.

And indeed it was a force sufficient to overpower the Siceliots, even

though they had been at perfect union among themselves, and had never

been enfeebled by intestine quarrels. Hearing that part of their

subject territory was suffering devastation, they forthwith made

toward the Corinthians with great fury, having Asdrubal and Hamilcar

for their generals; the report of whose numbers and strength coming

suddenly to Syracuse, the citizens were so terrified, that hardly

three thousand, among so many myriads of them, had the courage to

take up arms and join Timoleon. The foreigners, serving for pay,

were not above four thousand in all, and about a thousand of these

grew fainthearted by the way, and forsook Timoleon in his march

towards the enemy, looking on him as frantic and distracted,

destitute of the sense which might have been expected from his time

of life, thus to venture out against an army of seventy thousand men,

with no more than five thousand foot and a thousand horse; and, when

he should have kept those forces to defend the city, choosing rather

to remove them eight days' journey from Syracuse, so that if they

were beaten from the field, they would have no retreat, nor any

burial if they fell upon it. Timoleon, however, reckoned it some

kind of advantage, that these had thus discovered themselves before

the battle, and, encouraging the rest, led them with all speed to the

river Crimesus, where it was told him the Carthaginians were drawn

together.

As he was marching up an ascent, from the top of which they expected

to have a view of the army and of the strength of the enemy, there

met him by chance a train of mules loaded with parsley; which his

soldiers conceived to be an ominous occurrence or ill-boding token,

because this is the herb with which we not unfrequently adorn the

sepulchres of the dead; and there is a proverb derived from the

custom, used of one who is dangerously sick, that he has need of

nothing but parsley. So, to ease their minds, and free them from

any superstitious thoughts or forebodings of evil, Timoleon halted,

and concluded an address, suitable to the occasion, by saying, that a

garland of triumph was here luckily brought them, and had fallen into

their hands of its own accord, as an anticipation of victory: the

same with which the Corinthians crown the victors in the Isthmian

games, accounting chaplets of parsley the sacred wreath proper to

their country; parsley being at that time still the emblem of victory

at the Isthmian, as it is now at the Nemean sports; and it is not so

very long ago that the pine first began to be used in its place.

Timoleon, therefore, having thus bespoke his soldiers, took part of

the parsley, and with it made himself a chaplet first, his captains

and their companies all following the example of their leader. The

soothsayers then, observing also two eagles on the wing towards them,

one of which bore a snake struck through with her talons, and the

other, as she flew, uttered a loud cry indicating boldness and

assurance, at once showed them to the soldiers, who with one consent

fell to supplicate the gods, and call them in to their assistance.

It was now about the beginning of summer, and conclusion of the month

called Thargelion, not far from the solstice; and the river sending

up a thick mist, all the adjacent plain was at first darkened with

the fog, so that for a while they could discern nothing from the

enemy's camp; only a confused buzz and undistinguished mixture of

voices came up to the hill from the distant motions and clamors of so

vast a multitude. When the Corinthians had mounted, and stood on the

top, and had laid down their bucklers to take breath and repose

themselves, the sun coming round and drawing up the vapors from

below, the gross foggy air that was now gathered and condensed above

formed in a cloud upon the mountains; and, all the under places being

clear and open, the river Crimesus appeared to them again, and they

could descry the enemies passing over it, first with their formidable

four horse chariots of war, and then ten thousand footmen bearing

white shields, whom they guessed to be all Carthaginians, from the

splendor of their arms, and the slowness and order of their march. And

when now the troops of various other nations, flowing in behind them,

began to throng for passage in a tumultuous and unruly manner,

Timoleon, perceiving that the river gave them opportunity to single

off whatever number of their enemies they had a mind to engage at

once, and bidding his soldiers observe how their forces were divided

into two separate bodies by the intervention of the stream, some

being already over, and others still to ford it, gave Demaretus

command to fall in upon the Carthaginians with his horse, and disturb

their ranks before they should be drawn up into form of battle; and

coming down into the plain himself, forming his right and left wing

of other Sicilians, intermingling only a few strangers in each, he

placed the natives of Syracuse in the middle, with the stoutest

mercenaries he had about his own person; and, waiting a little to

observe the action of his horse, when he saw they were not only

hindered from grappling with the Carthaginians by the armed chariots

that ran to and fro before the army, but forced continually to wheel

about to escape having their ranks broken, and so to repeat their

charges anew, he took his buckler in his hand, and crying out to the

foot that they should follow him with courage and confidence, he

seemed to speak with a more than human accent, and a voice stronger

than ordinary; whether it were that he naturally raised it so high in

the vehemence and ardor of his mind to assault the enemy, or else, as

many then thought, some god or other spoke with him. When his

soldiers quickly gave an echo to it, all besought him to lead them on

without any further delay, he made a sign to the horse, that they

should draw off from the front where the chariots were, and pass

sidewards to attack their enemies in the flank; then, making his

vanguard firm by joining man to man and buckler to buckler, he caused

the trumpet to sound, and so bore in upon the Carthaginians.

They, for their part, stoutly received and sustained his first onset;

and having their bodies armed with breastplates of iron, and helmets

of brass on their heads, besides great bucklers to cover and secure

them, they could easily repel the charge of the Greek spears. But

when the business came to a decision by the sword, where mastery

depends no less upon art than strength, all on a sudden from the

mountain tops violent peals of thunder and vivid dashes of lightning

broke out; following upon which the darkness, that had been hovering

about the higher grounds and the crests of the hills, descending to

the place of battle and bringing a tempest of rain and of wind and

hail along with it, was driven upon the Greeks behind, and fell only

at their backs, but discharged itself in the very faces of the

barbarians, the rain beating on them, and the lightning dazzling them

without cessation; annoyances that in many ways distressed at any

rate the inexperienced, who had not been used to such hardships, and,

in particular, the claps of thunder, and the noise of the rain and

hail beating on their arms, kept them from hearing the commands of

their officers. Besides which, the very mud also was a great

hindrance to the Carthaginians, who were not lightly equipped, but,

as I said before, loaded with heavy armor; and then their shirts

underneath getting drenched, the foldings about the bosom filled with

water, grew unwieldy and cumbersome to them as they fought, and made

it easy for the Greeks to throw them down, and, when they were once

down, impossible for them, under that weight, to disengage themselves

and rise again with weapons in their hand. The river Crimesus, too,

swollen partly by the rain, and partly by the stoppage of its course

with the numbers that were passing through, overflowed its banks; and

the level ground by the side of it, being so situated as to have a

number of small ravines and hollows of the hill-side descending upon

it, was now filled with rivulets and currents that had no certain

channel, in which the Carthaginians stumbled and rolled about, and

found themselves in great difficulty. So that, in fine, the storm

bearing still upon them, and the Greeks having cut in pieces four

hundred men of their first ranks, the whole body of their army began

to fly. Great numbers were overtaken in the plain, and put to the

sword there; and many of them, as they were making their way back

through the river, falling foul upon others that were yet coming

over, were borne away and overwhelmed by the waters; but the major

part, attempting to get up the hills and so make their escape, were

intercepted and destroyed by the light-armed troops. It is said,

that of ten thousand who lay dead after the fight, three thousand, at

least, were Carthaginian citizens; a heavy loss and great grief to

their countrymen; those that fell being men inferior to none among

them as to birth, wealth, or reputation. Nor do their records

mention that so many native Carthaginians were ever cut off before in

any one battle; as they usually employed Africans, Spaniards, and

Numidians in their wars, so that if they chanced to be defeated, it

was still at the cost and damage of other nations.

The Greeks easily discovered of what condition and account the slain

were, by the richness of their spoils; for when they came to collect

the booty, there was little reckoning made either of brass or iron,

so abundant were better metals, and so common were silver and gold

Passing over the river, they became masters of their camp and

carriages. As for captives, a great many of them were stolen away,

and sold privately by the soldiers, but about five thousand were

brought in and delivered up for the benefit of the public; two

hundred of their chariots of war were also taken. The tent of

Timoleon then presented a most glorious and magnificent appearance,

being heaped up and hung round with every variety of spoils and

military ornaments, among which there were a thousand breastplates of

rare workmanship and beauty, and bucklers to the number of ten

thousand. The victors being but few to strip so many that were

vanquished, and having such valuable booty to occupy them, it was the

third day after the fight before they could erect and finish the

trophy of their conquest. Timoleon sent tidings of his victory to

Corinth, with the best and goodliest arms he had taken as a proof of

it; that he thus might render his country an object of emulation to

the whole world, when, of all the cities of Greece, men should there

alone behold the chief temples adorned, not with Grecian spoils, nor

offerings obtained by the bloodshed and plunder of their own

countrymen and kindred, and attended, therefore, with sad and unhappy

remembrances, but with such as had been stripped from barbarians and

enemies to their nation, with the noblest titles inscribed upon them,

titles telling of the justice as well as fortitude of the conquerors;

namely, that the people of Corinth, and Timoleon their general,

having redeemed the Greeks of Sicily from Carthaginian bondage, made

oblation of these to the gods, in grateful acknowledgment of their

favor.

Having done this, he left his hired soldiers in the enemy's country,

to drive and carry away all they could throughout the

subject-territory of Carthage, and so marched with the rest of his

army to Syracuse, where he issued an edict for banishing the thousand

mercenaries who had basely deserted him before the battle, and

obliged them to quit the city before sunset. They, sailing into

Italy, lost their lives there by the hands of the Bruttians, in spite

of a public assurance of safety previously given them; thus

receiving, from the divine power, a just reward of their own

treachery. Mamercus, however, the tyrant of Catana, and Hicetes,

after all, either envying Timoleon the glory of his exploits, or

fearing him as one that would keep no agreement, nor have any peace

with tyrants, made a league with the Carthaginians, and pressed them

much to send a new army and commander into Sicily, unless they would

be content to hazard all, and to be wholly ejected out of that

island. And in consequence of this, Gisco was dispatched with a navy

of seventy sail. He took numerous Greek mercenaries also into pay,

that being the first time they had ever been enlisted for the

Carthaginian service; but then it seems the Carthaginians began to

admire them, as the most irresistible soldiers of all mankind.

Uniting their forces in the territory of Messena, they cut off four

hundred of Timoleon's paid soldiers, and within the dependencies of

Carthage, at a place called Hierae, destroyed, by an ambuscade, the

whole body of mercenaries that served under Euthymus the Leucadian;

which accidents, however, made the good fortune of Timoleon accounted

all the more remarkable, as these were the men that, with Philomelus

of Phocis and Onomarchus, had forcibly broken into the temple of

Apollo at Delphi, and were partakers with them in the sacrilege; so

that, being hated and shunned by all, as persons under a curse, they

were constrained to wander about in Peloponnesus; when, for want of

others, Timoleon was glad to take them into service in his expedition

for Sicily, where they were successful in whatever enterprise they

attempted under his conduct. But now, when all the important dangers

were past, on his sending them out for the relief and defense of his

party in several places, they perished and were destroyed at a

distance from him, not all together, but in small parties; and the

vengeance which was destined for them, so accommodating itself to the

good fortune which guarded Timoleon as not to allow any harm or

prejudice for good men to arise from the punishment of the wicked,

the benevolence and kindness which the gods had for Timoleon was thus

as distinctly recognized in his disasters as in his successes.

What most annoyed the Syracusans was their being insulted and mocked

by the tyrants; as, for example, by Mamercus, who valued himself much

upon his gift for writing poems and tragedies, and took occasion,

when coming to present the gods with the bucklers of the hired

soldiers whom he had killed, to make a boast of his victory in an

insulting elegiac inscription:

These shields, with purple, gold, and ivory wrought,

Were won by us that but with poor ones fought.

After this, while Timoleon marched to Calauria, Hicetes made an

inroad into the borders of Syracuse, where he met with considerable

booty, and having done much mischief and havoc, returned back by

Calauria itself, in contempt of Timoleon, and the slender force he

had then with him. He, suffering Hicetes to pass forward, pursued

him with his horsemen and light infantry, which Hicetes perceiving,

crossed the river Damyrias, and then stood in a posture to receive

him; the difficulty of the passage, and the height and steepness of

the bank on each side, giving advantage enough to make him confident.

A strange contention and dispute, meantime, among the officers of

Timoleon, a little retarded the conflict; no one of them was willing

to let another pass over before him to engage the enemy; each man

claiming it as a right, to venture first and begin the onset; so that

their fording was likely to be tumultuous and without order, a mere

general struggle which should be the foremost. Timoleon, therefore,

desiring to decide the quarrel by lot, took a ring from each of the

pretenders, which he cast into his own cloak, and, after he had

shaken all together, the first he drew out had, by good fortune, the

figure of a trophy engraved as a seal upon it; at the sight of which

the young captains all shouted for joy, and, without waiting any

longer to see how chance would determine it for the rest, took every

man his way through the river with all the speed they could make, and

fell to blows with the enemies, who were not able to bear up against

the violence of their attack, but fled in haste and left their arms

behind them all alike, and a thousand dead upon the place.

Not long after, Timoleon, marching up to the city of the Leontines,

took Hicetes alive, and his son Eupolemus, and Euthymus, the

commander of his horse, who were bound and brought to him by their

own soldiers. Hicetes and the stripling his son were then executed

as tyrants and traitors; and Euthymus, though a brave man, and one of

singular courage, could obtain no mercy, because he was charged with

contemptuous language in disparagement of the Corinthians when they

first sent their forces into Sicily: it is said that he told the

Leontini in a speech, that the news did not sound terrible, nor was

any great danger to be feared because of

Corinthian women coming out of doors.

So true is it that men are usually more stung and galled by

reproachful words than hostile actions; and they bear an affront with

less patience than an injury: to do harm and mischief by deeds is

counted pardonable from enemies, as nothing less can be expected in a

state of war whereas virulent and contumelious words appear to be the

expression of needless hatred, and to proceed from an excess of

rancor.

When Timoleon came back to Syracuse, the citizens brought the wives

and daughters of Hicetes and his son to a public trial, and condemned

and put them to death. This seems to be the least pleasing action of

Timoleon's life; since if he had interposed, the unhappy women would

have been spared. He would appear to have disregarded the thing, and

to have given them up to the citizens, who were eager to take

vengeance for the wrongs done to Dion, who expelled Dionysius; since

it was this very Hicetes, who took Arete the wife, and Aristomache

the sister of Dion, with a son that had not yet passed his childhood,

and threw them all together into the sea alive, as related in the

life of Dion.

After this, he moved towards Catana against Mamercus, who gave him

battle near the river Abolus, and was overthrown and put to flight,

losing above two thousand men, a considerable part of whom were the

Phoenician troops sent by Gisco to his assistance. After this

defeat, the Carthaginians sued for peace; which was granted on the

conditions that they should confine themselves to the country within

the river Lycus,@ that those of the inhabitants who wished to remove

to the Syracusan territories should be allowed to depart with their

whole families and fortunes, and, lastly, that Carthage should

renounce all engagements to the tyrants. Mamercus, now forsaken and

despairing of success, took ship for Italy with the design of

bringing in the Lucanians against Timoleon and the people of

Syracuse; but the men in his galleys turning back and landing again

and delivering up Catana to Timoleon, thus obliged him to fly for his

own safety to Messena, where Hippo was tyrant. Timoleon, however,

coming up against them, and besieging the city both by sea and land,

Hippo, fearful of the event, endeavored to slip away in a vessel;

which the people of Messena surprised as it was putting off, and

seizing on his person, and bringing all their children from school

into the theater, to witness the glorious spectacle of a tyrant

punished, they first publicly scourged and then put him to death.

Mamercus made surrender of himself to Timoleon, with the proviso,

that he should be tried at Syracuse, and Timoleon should take no part

in his accusation. Thither he was brought accordingly, and

presenting himself to plead before the people, he essayed to

pronounce an oration he had long before composed in his own defense;

but finding himself interrupted by noise and clamors, and observing

from their aspect and demeanor that the assembly was inexorable, he

threw off his upper garment, and running across the theater as hard

as he could, dashed his head against one of the stones under the

seats with intention to have killed himself; but he had not the

fortune to perish, as he designed, but was taken up alive, and

suffered the death of a robber.

Thus did Timoleon cut the nerves of tyranny, and put a period to

their wars; and, whereas, at his first entering upon Sicily, the

island was as it were become wild again, and was hateful to the very

natives on account of the evils and miseries they suffered there, he

so civilized and restored it, and rendered it so desirable to all

men, that even strangers now came by sea to inhabit those towns and

places which their own citizens had formerly forsaken and left

desolate. Agrigentum and Gela, two famous cities that had been

ruined and laid waste by the Carthaginians after the Attic war, were

then peopled again, the one by Megellus and Pheristus from Elea, the

other by Gorgus, from the island of Ceos, partly with new settlers,

partly with the old inhabitants whom they collected again from

various parts; to all of whom Timoleon not only afforded a secure and

peaceable abode after so obstinate a war, but was further so zealous

in assisting and providing for them that he was honored among them as

their founder. Similar feelings also possessed to such a degree all

the rest of the Sicilians, that there was no proposal for peace, nor

reformation of laws, nor assignation of land, nor reconstitution of

government, which they could think well of, unless he lent his aid as

a chief architect, to finish and adorn the work, and superadd some

touches from his own hand, which might render it pleasing both to God

and man.

Although Greece had in his time produced several persons of

extraordinary worth, and much renowned for their achievements, such

as Timotheus and Agesilaus and Pelopidas and (Timoleon's chief model)

Epaminondas, yet the lustre of their best actions was obscured by a

degree of violence and labor, insomuch that some of them were matter

of blame and of repentance; whereas there is not any one act of

Timoleon's, setting aside the necessity he was placed under in

reference to his brother, to which, as Timaeus observes, we may not

fitly apply that exclamation of Sophocles:

O gods! what Venus, or what grace divine,

Did here with human workmanship combine?

For as the poetry of Antimachus, and the painting of Dionysius, the

artists of Colophon, though full of force and vigor, yet appeared to

be strained and elaborate in comparison with the pictures of

Nicomachus and the verses of Homer, which, besides their general

strength and beauty, have the peculiar charm of seeming to have been

executed with perfect ease and readiness; so the expeditions and acts

of Epaminondas or Agesilaus, that were full of toil and effort, when

compared with the easy and natural as well as noble and glorious

achievements of Timoleon, compel our fair and unbiased judgment to

pronounce the latter not indeed the effect of fortune, but the

success of fortunate merit. Though he himself indeed ascribed that

success to the sole favor of fortune; and both in the letters which

he wrote to his friends at Corinth, and in the speeches he made to

the people of Syracuse, he would say, that he was thankful unto God,

who, designing to save Sicily, was pleased to honor him with the name

and title of the deliverance he vouchsafed it. And having built a

chapel in his house, he there sacrificed to Good Hap, as a deity

that had favored him, and devoted the house itself to the Sacred

Genius; it being a house which the Syracusans had selected for him,

as a special reward and monument of his brave exploits, granting him

together with it the most agreeable and beautiful piece of land in

the whole country, where he kept his residence for the most part, and

enjoyed a private life with his wife and children, who came to him

from Corinth. For he returned thither no more, unwilling to be

concerned in the broils and tumults of Greece, or to expose himself

to public envy (the fatal mischief which great commanders continually

run into, from the insatiable appetite for honors and authority); but

wisely chose to spend the remainder of his days in Sicily, and there

partake of the blessings he himself had procured, the greatest of

which was, to behold so many cities flourish, and so many thousands

of people live happy through his means.

As, however, not only, as Simonides says, "On every lark must grow a

crest," but also in every democracy there must spring up a false

accuser, so was it at Syracuse: two of their popular spokesmen,

Laphystius and Demaenetus by name, fell to slander Timoleon. The

former of whom requiring him to put in sureties that he would answer

to an indictment that would be brought against him, Timoleon would

not suffer the citizens, who were incensed at this demand, to oppose

it or hinder the proceeding, since he of his own accord had been, he

said, at all that trouble, and run so many dangerous risks for this

very end and purpose, that every one who wished to try matters by law

should freely have recourse to it. And when Demaenetus, in a full

audience of the people, laid several things to his charge which had

been done while he was general, he made no other reply to him, but

only said he was much indebted to the gods for granting the request

he had so often made them, namely, that he might live to see the

Syracusans enjoy that liberty of speech which they now seemed to be

masters of.

Timoleon, therefore, having by confession of all done the greatest

and the noblest things of any Greek of his age, and alone

distinguished himself in those actions to which their orators and

philosophers, in their harangues and panegyrics at their solemn

national assemblies, used to exhort and incite the Greeks, and being

withdrawn beforehand by happy fortune, unspotted and without blood,

from the calamities of civil war, in which ancient Greece was soon

after involved; having also given full proof, as of his sage conduct

and manly courage to the barbarians and tyrants, so of his justice

and gentleness to the Greeks, and his friends in general; having

raised, too, the greater part of those trophies he won in battle,

without any tears shed or any mourning worn by the citizens either of

Syracuse or Corinth, and within less than eight years' space

delivered Sicily from its inveterate grievances and intestine

distempers, and given it up free to the native inhabitants, began, as

he was now growing old, to find his eyes fail, and awhile after

became perfectly blind. Not that he had done anything himself which

might occasion this defect, or was deprived of his sight by any

outrage of fortune; it seems rather to have been some inbred and

hereditary weakness that was founded in natural causes, which by

length of time came to discover itself. For it is said, that several

of his kindred and family were subject to the like gradual decay, and

lost all use of their eyes, as he did, in their declining years.

Athanis the historian tells us, that even during the war against

Hippo and Mamercus, while he was in his camp at Mylae, there appeared

a white speck within his eye, from whence all could foresee the

deprivation that was coming on him; this, however, did not hinder him

then from continuing the siege, and prosecuting the war, till he got

both the tyrants into his power; but upon his coming back to

Syracuse, he presently resigned the authority of sole commander, and

besought the citizens to excuse him from any further service, since

things were already brought to so fair an issue. Nor is it so much

to be wondered, that he himself should bear the misfortune without

any marks of trouble; but the respect and gratitude which the

Syracusans showed him when he was entirely blind, may justly deserve

our admiration. They used to go themselves to visit him in troops,

and brought all the strangers that traveled through their country to

his house and manor, that they also might have the pleasure to see

their noble benefactor; making it the great matter of their joy and

exultation, that when, after so many brave and happy exploits, he

might have returned with triumph into Greece, he should disregard all

the glorious preparations that were there made to receive him, and

choose rather to stay here and end his days among them. Of the

various things decreed and done in honor of Timoleon, I consider one

most signal testimony to have been the vote which they passed, that,

whenever they should be at war with any foreign nation, they should

make use of none but a Corinthian general. The method, also, of

their proceeding in council, was a noble demonstration of the same

deference for his person. For, determining matters of less

consequence themselves, they always called him to advise in the more

difficult cases, and such as were of greater moment. He was, on

these occasions, carried through the market-place in a litter, and

brought in, sitting, into the theater, where the people with one

voice saluted him by his name; and then, after returning the

courtesy, and pausing for a time, till the noise of their

gratulations and blessings began to cease, he heard the business in

debate, and delivered his opinion. This being confirmed by a general

suffrage, his servants went back with the litter through the midst of

the assembly, the people waiting on him out with acclamations and

applauses, and then returning to consider other public matters, which

they could dispatch in his absence. Being thus cherished in his old

age, with all the respect and tenderness due to a common father, he

was seized with a very slight indisposition, which however was

sufficient, with the aid of time, to put a period to his life. There

was an allotment then of certain days given, within the space of

which the Syracusans were to provide whatever should be necessary for

his burial, and all the neighboring country people and strangers were

to make their appearance in a body; so that the funeral pomp was set

out with great splendor and magnificence in all other respects, and

the bier, decked with ornaments and trophies, was borne by a select

body of young men over that ground where the palace and castle of

Dionysius stood, before they were demolished by Timoleon. There

attended on the solemnity several thousands of men and women, all

crowned with flowers, and arrayed in fresh and clean attire, which

made it look like the procession of a public festival; while the

language of all, and their tears mingling with their praise and

benediction of the dead Timoleon, manifestly showed that it was not

any superficial honor, or commanded homage, which they paid him, but

the testimony of a just sorrow for his death, and the expression of

true affection. The bier at length being placed upon the pile of

wood that was kindled to consume his corpse, Demetrius, one of their

loudest criers, proceeded to read a proclamation to the following

purpose: "The people of Syracuse has made a special decree to inter

Timoleon, the son of Timodemus, the Corinthian, at the common expense

of two hundred minas, and to honor his memory forever, by the

establishment of annual prizes to be competed for in music, and horse

races, and all sorts of bodily exercise; and this, because he

suppressed the tyrants, overthrew the barbarians, replenished the

principal cities, that were desolate, with new inhabitants, and then

restored the Sicilian Greeks to the privilege of living by their own

laws." Besides this, they made a tomb for him in the marketplace,

which they afterwards built round with colonnades, and attached to it

places of exercise for the young men, and gave it the name of the

Timoleonteum. And keeping to that form and order of civil policy and

observing those laws and constitutions which he left them, they lived

themselves a long time in great prosperity.