No More Learning

4] L Among many other evils they endured also that of tyranny; 2 for when, on the populace violently clamouring for an abolition of debts, and a division of the lands of the rich, the subject was long discussed in the senate, and no settlement of it was devised, 3 they at last sought assistance against the commons, who were grown riotous by too long idleness, from Timotheus general of the Athenians, and afterwards from Epaminondas general of the Thebans. 4 As both, however, refused their request, they had recourse to Clearchus, whom they themselves had exiled; 5 such being the urgency of their distresses, that they recalled to the guardianship of his country him whom they had forbidden to enter his country. 6 But Clearchus, being rendered more desperate by his banishment, and regarding the dissension among the people as a means of securing to himself the government, 7 first sought a secret interview with Mithridates, the enemy of his countrymen, and made a league with him on the understanding that when he was re-established in his country, he should, on betraying the city into his hands, be made lieutenant-governor of it. 8 But the treachery which he had conceived against his countrymen, he afterwards turned against Mithridates himself; 9 for on returning from banishment, to be as it were the arbiter of the disputes in the city, he, at the time appointed for delivering the town to Mithridates, made Mithridates himself prisoner, with a party of his friends, and released him from captivity only on the receipt of a large sum of money. 10 And as, in this case, he suddenly changed himself from a friend into an enemy, so, in regard to his countrymen, he soon, from a supporter of the senate's cause, became a patron of the common people, 11 and not only inflamed the populace against those who had conferred his power upon him, and by whom he had been recalled into his country and established in the citadel, but even exercised upon his benefactors the most atrocious inflictions of tyrannic cruelty. 12 Summoning the people to an assembly, he declared that "he would no longer support the senate in their proceedings against the populace, but would even interpose his authority, if they persisted in their former severities; 13 and that, if the people thought themselves able to check the tyranny of the senate, he would retire with his soldiers, and take no further part in their dissensions; 14 but that, if they distrusted their ability to make resistance, he would not be wanting to aid them in taking revenge. 15 They might therefore," he added, "determine among themselves; they might bid him withdraw, if they pleased, or might request him to stay as a sharer in the popular cause. " 16 The people, induced by these fair speeches, conferred on him the supreme authority, and, while they were incensed at the power of the senate, surrendered themselves, with their wives and children, as slaves to the power of a single tyrant. 17 Clearchus then apprehended sixty senators (the rest had taken flight), and threw them into prison. 18 The people rejoiced that the senate was overthrown, and especially that it had fallen by means of a leader among the senators, and that, by a reverse of fortune, their support was turned to their destruction. 19 Clearchus, by threatening all his prisoners with death, made the price offered for their ransom the higher; 20 and, after receiving from them large sums of money, as if he would secretly withdraw them from the violence threatened by the people, despoiled those of their lives whom he had previously despoiled of their fortunes.

[16. 5] L Learning, soon after, that war was prepared against him by those who had made their escape (several cities being moved by pity to espouse their cause), he gave freedom to their slaves; 2 and that no affliction might be wanting to distress the most honourable families, he obliged their wives and daughters to marry their slaves, threatening death to such as refused, that he might thus render the slaves more attached to himself, and less reconcileable to their masters. 3 But such marriages were more intolerable to the women than immediate death; 4 and many, in consequence, killed themselves before the nuptial rites were celebrated, and many in the midst of them, first killing their new husbands, and delivering themselves from dishonourable sufferings by a spirit of noble virtue. 5 A battle was then fought, in which the tyrant, being victorious, dragged such of the senators as he took prisoners before the faces of their countrymen in triumph. 6 Returning into the city, he threw some into prison, stretched others on the rack, and put others to death; and not a place in the city was unvisited by the tyrant's cruelty. 7 Arrogance was added to severity, insolence to inhumanity. 8 From a course of continued good fortune, he sometimes forgot that he was a man, sometimes called himself the son of Jupiter. 9 When he appeared in public, a golden eagle, as a token of his parentage, was carried before him; 10 he wore a purple robe, buskins like kings in tragedies, and a crown of gold. 11 His son he named Ceraunos, to mock the gods, not only with false statements, but with impious names. 12 Two noble youths, Chion and Leonides, incensed that he should dare to commit such outrages, and desiring to deliver their country, formed a conspiracy to put him to death. 13 They were disciples of Plato the philosopher, and being desirous to exhibit to their country the virtue in which they were daily instructed by the precepts of their master, placed fifty of their relations, as if they were their attendants, in ambush; 14 while they themselves, in the character of men who had a dispute to be settled, went into the citadel to the tyrant. 15 Gaining admission, as being well known, the tyrant, while he was listening attentively to the one that spoke first, was killed by the other. 16 But as their accomplices were too late in coming to their support, they were overpowered by the guards; 17 and hence it happened that though the tyrant was killed, their country was not liberated. 18 Satyrus, the brother of Clearchus, made himself tyrant in a similar way; and for many years, with various successive changes, the Heracleans continued under the yoke of tyrants.

BOOK 17

[17. 1] L About the same time there was an earthquake in the regions round the Hellespont and the Chersonese; 2 but the chief effect of it was, that the city of Lysimachia, founded two and twenty years before by king Lysimachus, was sunk in ruins; 3 a prodigy which portended disasters to Lysimachus and his family, destruction to his kingdom, and calamity to the disturbed provinces. 4 Nor was fulfilment wanting to these omens; for, in a short time after, conceiving towards his son Agathocles ( whom he had appointed to succeed him on the throne, and through whose exertions he had managed several wars with success), a hatred unnatural in him not only as a father but as a man, he took him off by poison, using as his agent in the affair his step-mother Arsinoe. 5 This was the first commencement of his calamities, the prelude to approaching ruin; 6 for executions of several great men were added to the murder of his son, who were put to death for expressing concern at the young prince's fate; 7 and, in consequence, both those about the court who escaped this cruelty, and those who were in command of the troops, 8 began at once to desert to Seleucus, and incite him to make war upon Lysimachus; an enterprise to which he was already inclined from a desire to emulate his glory. 9 This was the last contest between the fellow soldiers of Alexander; and the two combatants were reserved, as it were, for an example of the influence of fortune. 10 Lysimachus was seventy-four years old; Seleucus seventy-seven. 11 But at this age they both had the fire of youth, and an insatiable desire of power; 12 for though they alone possessed the whole world, they yet thought themselves confined within narrow limits, and measured their course of life, not by their length of years, but by the extent to which they carried their dominion.

[17. 2] L In this war, Lysimachus (who had previously lost, by various chances of fortune, fifteen children) died, with no small bravery, and crowned the ruin of his family. 2 Seleucus, overjoyed at such a triumph, and what he thought greater than the triumph, that he alone survived of all Alexander's staff, the conqueror of conquerors, boasted that " this was not the work of man, but a favour from the gods," 3 little thinking that he himself was shortly after to be an instance of human instability; 4 for in the course of about seven months, he was treacherously surprised by Ptolemy, whose sister Lysimachus had married, and put to death, 5 losing the kingdom of Macedonia, which he had taken from Lysimachus, together with his life.

6 Ptolemy, being ambitious to please his subjects, both for the honour of the memory of the great Ptolemy his father, and for the sake of palliating the revenge which he had taken on behalf of Lysimachus, 7 resolved, in the first place, to conciliate the sons of Lysimachus, and sought a marriage with their mother Arsinoe, his sister, promising to adopt the young men, 8 so that, when he should succeed to the throne of their father, they might not venture, through respect for their mother, or the influence of the name of father, to attempt anything against him. 9 He solicited, too, by letter, the friendship of his brother the king of Egypt, professing that " he laid aside all feelings of resentment at being deprived of his father's kingdom, and that he would no longer ask that from a brother which he had more honourably obtained from his father's enemy. " 10 He also in every way flattered Nicomedes, that as he was about to have a war with Antigonus, the son of Demetrius, and Antiochus the son of Seleucus, he might not come upon him as a third enemy. 11 Nor was Pyrrhus of Epirus neglected by him, a king who would be of great assistance to whichsoever side he attached himself, 12 and who, while he desired to spoil them one by one, sought the favour of all. 13 On going to assist the Tarentines, therefore, against the Romans, he desired of Antigonus the loan of vessels to transport his army into Italy; of Antiochus, who was better provided with wealth than with men, a sum of money; and of Ptolemy, some troops of Macedonian soldiers. 14 Ptolemy, who had no excuse for holding back for want of forces, supplied him with five thousand infantry, four thousand cavalry, and fifty elephants, but for not more than two years' service. 15 In return for this favour, Pyrrhus, after marrying the daughter of Ptolemy, appointed him guardian of his kingdom in his absence; lest, on carrying the flower of his army into Italy, he should leave his dominions a prey to his enemies.

[17. 3] L But since I have come to speak of Epirus, a few particulars should be premised concerning the rise of that kingdom. 2 The first rulers of this country were the Molossians. 3 Afterwards Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, having been deprived of his father's dominions during his absence in the Trojan war, settled in these parts; the inhabitants of which were first called Pyrrhidae, and afterwards Epirots. 4 This Pyrrhus, going to the temple of Jupiter at Dodona to consult the oracle, seized there by force Lanassa, the grand-daughter of Hercules, and by a marriage with her had eight children. 5 Of his daughters he gave some in marriage to the neighbouring princes, and by means of these alliances acquired great power. 6 He gave to Helenus, the son of King Priamus, for his eminent services, the kingdom of the Chaonians, and Andromache the widow of Hector in marriage, after she had been his own wife, he having received her at the division of the Trojan spoil. 7 Shortly after he was slain at Delphi, at the very altar of Apollo, by the treachery of Orestes the son of Agamemnon. 8 His successor was his son Piales. 9 The throne afterwards passed in regular descent to Tharybas, 10 over whom, as he was an orphan, and the only survivor of a noble family, guardians were publicly appointed, the concern of all being so much the greater to preserve and educate him. 11 He was also sent to Athens for the sake of instruction; and, as he was more learned than his predecessors, so he became more popular with his subjects. 12 He was the first, accordingly, that established laws, a senate, annual magistrates, and a regular form of government; 13 and as a settlement was found for the people by Pyrrhus, so a more civilized way of life was introduced by Tharybas. 14 A son of this king was Neoptolemus; the father of Olympias (mother of Alexander the great), 15 and of Alexander, who occupied the throne of Epirus after him, and died in Italy in a war with the Bruttii. 16 On the death of Alexander his brother Aeacides became king, who, by wearying his people with constant wars against the Macedonians, incurred their dislike, 17 and was in consequence driven into exile, leaving his little son Pyrrhus, about two years old, in the kingdom. 18 The child, too, being sought for by the populace to be put to death, through their hatred to the father, was concealed and carried off into Illyricum, 19 and delivered to Beroe, who was the wife of king Glaucias, and of the family of the Aeacidae, to be brought up. 20 This king, moved either by pity for the boy's misfortunes, or by his infantine caresses, protected him for a long time against Cassander, king of Macedonia, who demanded him with menaces of war, having the kindness also to adopt him for his better security. 21 The Epirots, being moved by these acts, and turning their hatred into pity, brought him back, when he was eleven years old, into the kingdom, appointing him guardians to keep the throne for him till he became of age. 22 When he grew up he engaged in many wars, and, by a train of success, attained such eminence as a leader, that he was the only man who was thought capable of defending the Tarentines against the Romans.

BOOK 18

[18. 1] L Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, therefore, being solicited by a second embassy from the Tarentines, to which were added the entreaties of the Samnites and Lucanians, who likewise needed assistance against the Romans, was induced to comply, not so much by the prayers of the suitors, as by the hope of making himself master of Italy, and promised to come to them with an army. 2 When his thoughts, indeed, were once directed to that enterprise, the examples of his predecessors began to impel him violently towards it, in order that he might not appear inferior to his uncle Alexander, whom the Tarentines had had for a defender against the Bruttii, or to have less spirit than Alexander the Great, who had subdued the east in so distant an expedition from his native country. 3 Having left his son Ptolemaeus, therefore, who was but fifteen years old, as guardian of his kingdom, he landed his army in the harbour of Tarentum, taking with him his two younger sons, Alexander and Helenus, as a comfort to him in so long a voyage. 4 The Roman consul, Valerius Laevinus, hearing of his arrival, and hastening to come to battle with him before the forces of his allies were assembled, led forth his army into the field. 5 Nor did the king, although he was inferior in number of forces, hesitate to engage. 6 But as the Romans were getting the advantage, the appearance of the elephants, previously unknown to them, made them at first stand amazed, and afterwards quit the field; and the strange monsters of the Macedonians at once conquered the conquerors. 7 The triumph of the enemy, however, was not bloodless; for Pyrrhus himself was severely wounded, and a great number of his soldiers killed; and he had more glory from his victory than pleasure. 8 Many cities of Italy, moved by the result of this battle, surrendered to Pyrrhus; 9 among others also Locri, betraying the Roman garrison, revolted to him. 10 Of the prisoners, Pyrrhus sent back two hundred to Rome without ransom, that the Romans, after experiencing his valour, might experience also his generosity. 11 Some days after, when the forces of his allies had come up, he fought a second battle with the Romans, of which the event was similar to that of the former.

[18. 2] L In the meantime, Mago, general of the Carthaginians, being sent to the aid of the Romans with a hundred and twenty ships, went to the senate, saying that " the Carthaginians were much concerned that they should be distressed by war in Italy from a foreign prince; 2 and that for this reason he had been despatched to assist them; that, as they were attacked by a foreign enemy, they might be supported by foreign aid. " 3 The thanks of the senate were given to the Carthaginians, and the succours sent back. 4 But Mago, with the cunning of a Carthaginian, went privately, a few days after, to Pyrrhus, as if to be a peacemaker from the people of Carthage, but in reality to discover the king's views with regard to Sicily, to which island it was reported that he was sent for; 5 since the Carthaginians had the same reason for sending assistance to the Romans, namely that Pyrrhus might be detained by a war with that people in Italy, and prevented from crossing over into Sicily. 6 During the course of these transactions, Fabricius Luscinus, being commissioned by the senate of Rome, had made peace with Pyrrhus. 7 To ratify the treaty, Cineas was sent to Rome by Pyrrhus with valuable presents, but found nobody's house open for their reception. 8 To this instance of Roman incorruptibility, another, very similar, happened about the same time. 9 Certain ambassadors, who were sent by the senate into Egypt, haying refused some costly presents offered them by Ptolemy, and being invited to supper some days after, golden crowns were sent to them, which, from respect to the king, they accepted, but placed them the next day on the king's statues. 10 Cineas, bringing word that " the treaty with the Romans was broken off by Appius Claudius," and being asked by Pyrrhus "what sort of city Rome was," replied that " it appeared to him a city of kings. " 11 Soon after, ambassadors from the Sicilians arrived, to offer Pyrrhus the dominion of the whole island, which was harassed by constant wars with the Carthaginians. 12 Leaving his son Alexander, therefore, at Locri, and securing the cities of his allies with strong garrisons, Pyrrhus transported his army into Sicily.

[18. 3] L Since I come to speak of the Carthaginians, a short account shall be given of their origin, tracing back, to some extent, the history of the Tyrians, whose misfortunes were much to be pitied. 2 The nation of the Tyrians was founded by the Phoenicians, 3 who, suffering from an earthquake, and abandoning their country, settled at first near the Syrian lake, and afterwards on the coast near the sea, 4 where they built a city, which, from the abundance of fish, they named Sidon, for so the Phoenicians call a fish in their language. 5 Many years after, their city being stormed by the king of the Ascalonians, sailing away to the place where Tyre stands, they built that city the year before the fall of Troy. 6 Here, harassed for a long time, and in various ways, by attacks from the Persians, they resisted, indeed, successfully, but, as their strength was exhausted, they suffered the most cruel treatment from their slaves, who were then extraordinarily numerous. 7 These traitors, having entered into a conspiracy, killed their masters and all the free people of the city, and thus, becoming masters of the place, took possession of the houses of their owners, assumed the government, appropriated wives to themselves, and begot, what they themselves were not, freemen. 8 Out of so many thousands of slaves, there was one who was moved to compassion by the mild disposition of his aged master and the hard fortune of his little son, and looked upon them, not with savage fierceness, but with humanity, affection, and pity. 9 He put them out of the way, therefore, as if they had been killed; and when the slaves came to deliberate about the condition of their government, and had resolved that a king should be elected from their own body, and that he should be preferred, as most acceptable to the gods, who should first see the rising sun, he mentioned the matter to Strato (for that was the name of his master), who was then in concealment. 10 Being instructed by him, and proceeding with the rest, about the middle of the night, to a certain plain, he alone, when they were all looking towards the east, kept his eye directed towards the west. 11 This at first seemed madness to the others, to look in the west for the rising sun; 12 but when day began to advance, and the rising luminary to shine on the highest eminences of the city, he, while all the rest were watching to see the sun itself, was the first to point out to them the sunshine on the loftiest pinnacle of the town. 13 This thought seemed above the wit of a slave; and when they asked him who had put it into his head, he confessed that it was his master. 14 It was then seen how far the abilities of freemen surpass those of slaves, who, though they may be first in viciousness, are not first in wisdom. 15 The old man and his son were therefore spared; and the slaves, thinking that they had been preserved by the interposition of some deity, made Strato king. 16 After his death, the throne descended to his son, and subsequently to his grandsons. 17 This atrocity of these slaves was much noticed, and was a terrible example to the whole world. 18 Alexander the Great, when he was prosecuting his wars, some time after, in the east, having taking the city, crucified, as an avenger of the general safety, and in memory of the former massacre, all those who survived the siege; 19 preserving from injury only the family of Strato, and restoring the throne to his descendants; and sending to the island, at the same time, inhabitants that were free-born and guiltless, that, as the race of slaves was extirpated, an entirely new generation might be established in the city.

[18. 4] L The Tyrians, being thus settled under the auspices of Alexander, quickly grew powerful by frugality and industry.

2 Before the massacre of the masters by the slaves, when they abounded in wealth and population, they sent a portion of their youth into Africa, and founded Utica. 3 Meanwhile their king (? ) Mutto died at Tyre, appointing his son Pygmalion and his daughter Elissa, a maiden of extraordinary beauty, his heirs. 4 But the people gave the throne to Pygmalion, who was quite a boy. 5 Elissa married Acerbas, her uncle, who was priest of Hercules, a dignity next to that of the king. 6 Acerbas had great but concealed riches, having laid up his gold, for fear of the king, not in his house, but in the earth; 7 a fact of which, though people had no certain knowledge of it, report was not silent. 8 Pygmalion, excited by the account, and forgetful of the laws of humanity, murdered his uncle, who was also his brother-in-law, without the least regard to natural affection. 9 Elissa long entertained a hatred to her brother for his crime, but at last, dissembling her detestation, and assuming mild looks for the time, she secretly contrived a mode of flight, admitting into her confidence some of the leading men of the city, in whom she saw that there was a similar hatred of the king, and an equal desire to escape. 10 She then addressed her brother in such a way as to deceive him; pretending that "she had a desire to remove to his house, in order that the home of her husband might no longer revive in her, when she was desirous to forget him, the oppressive recollection of her sorrows, and that the sad remembrances of him might no more present themselves to her eyes. " 11 To these words of his sister, Pygmalion was no unwilling listener, thinking that with her the gold of Acerbas would come to him. 12 But Elissa put the attendants, who were sent by the king to assist in her removal, on board some vessels in the early part of the evening, and sailing out into the deep, made them throw some loads of sand, put up in sacks as if it was money, into the sea. 13 Then, with tears and mournful ejaculations, she invoked Acerbas, entreating that "he would favourably receive his wealth which he had left behind him, and accept that as an offering to his shade, which he had found to be the cause of his death. " 14 Next she addressed the attendants, and said that "death had long been desired by her, but as for them, cruel torments and a direful end awaited them, for having disappointed the tyrant's avarice of those treasures, in the hopes of obtaining which he had committed fratricide. " 15 Having thus struck terror into them all, she took them with her as companions of her flight. Some bodies of senators, too, who were ready against that night, came to join her, and having offered a sacrifice to Hercules, whose priest Acerbas had been, proceeded to seek a settlement in exile.

[18. 5] L Their first landing place was the isle of Cyprus, 2 where the priest of Jupiter, with his wife and children, offered himself to Elissa, at the instigation of the gods, as her companion and the sharer of her fortunes, stipulating for the perpetual honour of the priesthood for himself and his descendants. 3 The stipulation was received as a manifest omen of good fortune. 4 It was a custom among the Cyprians to send their daughters, on stated days before their marriage, to the sea-shore, to prostitute themselves, and thus procure money for their marriage portions, and to pay, at the same time, offerings to Venus for the preservation of their chastity in time to come. 5 Of these Elissa ordered about eighty to be seized and taken on board, that her men might have wives, and her city a population. 6 During the course of these transactions, Pygmalion, having heard of his sister's flight, and preparing to pursue her with unfeeling hostility, was scarcely induced by the prayers of his mother and the menaces of the gods to remain quiet; 7 the inspired augurs warning him that "he would not escape with impunity, if he interrupted the founding of a city that was to become the most prosperous in the world. " By this means some respite was given to the fugitives; 8 and Elissa, arriving in a gulf of Africa, attached the inhabitants of the coast, who rejoiced at the arrival of foreigners, and the opportunity of bartering commodities with them, to her interest. 9 Having then bargained for a piece of ground, as much as could be covered with an ox-hide, where she might refresh her companions, wearied with their long voyage, until she could conveniently resume her progress, she directed the hide to be cut into the thinnest possible strips, and thus acquired a greater portion of ground than she had apparently demanded; whence the place had afterwards the name of Byrsa. 10 The people of the neighbourhood subsequently gathering about her, bringing, in hopes of gain, many articles to the strangers for sale, 11 and gradually fixing their abodes there, some resemblance of a city arose from the concourse. 12 Ambassadors from the people of Utica, too, brought them presents as relatives, and exhorted them "to build a city where they had chanced to obtain a settlement. " 13 An inclination to detain the strangers was felt also by the Africans; 14 and, accordingly, with the consent of all, Carthage was founded, an annual tribute being fixed for the ground which it was to occupy. 15 At the commencement of digging the foundations an ox's head was found, which was an omen that the city would be wealthy, indeed, but laborious and always enslaved. It was therefore removed to another place, 16 where the head of a horse was found, which, indicating that the people would be warlike and powerful, portended an auspicious site. 17 In a short time, as the surrounding people came together at the report, the inhabitants became numerous, and the city itself extensive.

[18. 6] L When the power of the Carthaginians, from success in their proceedings, had risen to some height, Hiarbas, king of the Maxitani, desiring an interview with ten of the chief men of Carthage, demanded Elissa in marriage, denouncing war in case of a refusal. 2 The deputies, fearing to report this message to the queen, acted towards her with Carthaginian artifice, saying that "the king asked for some person to teach him and his Africans a more civilized way of life, 3 but who could be found that would leave his relations and go to barbarians, and people that were living like wild beasts? " 4 Being then reproached by the queen, "in case they refused a hard life for the benefit of their country, to which, should circumstances require, their life itself was due," they disclosed the king's message, saying that "she herself, if she wished her city to be secure, must do what she required of others. " 5 Being caught by this subtlety, she at last said (after calling for a long time with many tears and mournful lamentations on the name of her husband Acerbas), that "she would go whither the fate of her city called her. " 6 Taking three months for the accomplishment of her resolution, and having raised a funeral pile at the extremity of the city, she sacrificed many victims, as if she would appease the shade of her husband, and make her offerings to him before her marriage; and then, taking a sword, she ascended the pile, 7 and, looking towards the people, said, that "she would go to her husband as they had desired her," and put an end to her life with the sword. 8 As long as Carthage remained unconquered, she was worshipped as a goddess. 9 This city was founded seventy-two years before Rome; 10 but while the bravery of its inhabitants made it famous in war, it was internally disturbed with various troubles, arising from civil differences. 11 Being afflicted, among other calamities, with a pestilence, they adopted a cruel religious ceremony, an execrable abomination, as a remedy for it; 12 for they immolated human beings as victims, and brought children (whose age excites pity even in enemies) to the altars, entreating favour of the gods by shedding the blood of those for whose life the gods are generally wont to be entreated.

[18. 7] L In consequence of the gods, therefore, being rendered adverse by such atrocities, after they had long fought unsuccessfully in Sicily, and had transferred the war into Sardinia, they were defeated in a great battle with the loss of the greater part of their army; 2 a disaster for which they sentenced their general Malchus, under whose conduct they had both conquered a part of Sicily and achieved great exploits against the Africans, to remain in exile with the portion of his army that survived. 3 The soldiers, indignant at this sentence, sent deputies to Carthage, to beg, in the first place, permission for them to return, and pardon for their ill success in the field; and, in the second place, to announce that "what they could not obtain by entreaty, they would obtain by force of arms. " 4 The prayers and threats of the deputies being alike slighted, the troops, after some days, went on board ship, and came under arms to the city, 5 when they called gods and men to witness that "they were not come to overthrow, but to recover their country; and that they would show their countrymen that it was not valour, but fortune, that had failed them in the preceding war. " 6 By stopping the supplies, and besieging the city, they reduced the Carthaginians to the greatest despair. 7 At this time Cartalo, the son of Malchus the exiled general, returning by his father's camp from Tyre (whither he had been sent by the Carthaginians, to carry the tenth of the plunder of Sicily, which his father had taken, to Hercules), and being desired by his father to wait on him, replied that "he would discharge his religious duties to the public, before those of merely private obligation. " 8 His father, though he was indignant at his conduct, was nevertheless afraid to obstruct him in the performance of his religious offices. 9 Some days after, Cartalo, having obtained leave of absence from the people, and returning to his father, presented himself before all the people, dressed in the purple and fillets of his sacerdotal dignity, 10 when his father took him aside, and said, "Hast thou dared, most unnatural wretch, to appear before so many of thy miserable countrymen, thus arrayed in purple and gold, and to enter, with all the marks of peaceful prosperity about thee, and exulting as it were in triumph, into this sad and mournful camp? Couldst thou display thyself nowhere else to thy fellow creatures? 12 Was no place fitter for it than where the misery of thy father, and the distress of his unhappy banishment, were to be seen? 13 I have to add, too, that when thou wast summoned a short time ago, thou proudly despisedst, I do not say thy father, but certain]y the general of thy countrymen. And what else dost thou exhibit in that purple and those crowns, but the titles of my victories? 14 Since thou, therefore, acknowledgest nothing in thy father but the name of an exile, I also will assume the character, not of a father, but of a general, and will make such an example of thee, that no one may hereafter dare to sport with the miseries and sorrows of a parent. " 15 He accordingly ordered him to be nailed, in all his finery, on a high cross within view of the city. 16 A few days after he took Carthage, and assembling the people, complained of the injustice of his banishment, pleaded necessity as his excuse for making war upon them, and added that "being content with his victory, and the punishment of the authors of their country's misery, he granted a free pardon for his unjust banishment to all the rest. " 17 Having accordingly put ten senators to death, he left the city to the government of its laws. 18 But being accused himself, shortly after, of aspiring to be king, he paid the penalty of his twofold cruelty to his son and his country. 19 He was succeeded, as commander-in-chief, by Mago, by whose exertions the power of Carthage, the extent of its territories, and its military glory, was much increased.

BOOK 19

[19. 1] L Mago, the general of the Carthaginians, after having been the first, by regulating their military discipline, to lay the foundations of the Punic power, and after establishing the strength of the state, not less by his skill in the art of war than by his personal prowess, died, leaving behind him two sons, Hasdrubal and Hamilcar, 2 who, pursuing the honourable course of their father, were heirs to his greatness as well as to his name. 3 Under these generals war was made upon Sardinia; and a contest was also maintained against the Africans, who demanded tribute for many years for the ground on which the city stood. 4 But as the cause of the Africans was the more just, their fortune was likewise superior, 5 and the struggle with them was ended - not by exertions in the field - by the payment of a sum of money. 6 In Sardinia Hasdrubal was severely wounded, and died there, leaving the command to his brother Hamilcar; 7 and not only the mourning throughout his country, but the fact that he had held eleven dictatorships and enjoyed four triumphs, rendered his death an object of general notice. 8 The courage of the enemy, too, was raised by it, as if the power of the Carthaginians had expired with their general. 9 The people of Sicily, therefore, applying, in consequence of the perpetual depredations of the Carthaginians, to Leonidas, the brother of the king of Sparta, for aid, a grievous war broke out, which continued, with various success, for a long period.

10 During the course of these transactions, ambassadors came to Carthage from Darius king of Persia, bringing an edict, by which the Carthaginians were forbidden to offer human sacrifices, and to eat dog's flesh, 11 and were commanded to burn the bodies of the dead rather than bury them in the earth; 12 and requesting, at the same time, assistance against Greece, on which Darius was about to make war. 13 The Carthaginians declined giving him aid, on account of their continual wars with their neighbours, but, that they might not appear uncompliant in everything, willingly submitted to the decree.

[19. 2] L Hamilcar, meanwhile, was killed in battle in Sicily, leaving three sons, Himilco, Hanno, and Gisco. 2 Hasdrubal also had the same number of sons, Hannibal, Hasdrubal, and Sapho. 3 By these the affairs of the Carthaginians were managed at this period. 4 War was made upon the Moors, a contest was maintained with the Numidians, and the Africans were compelled to remit the tribute paid for the building of the city. 5 At length, however, as so numerous a family of commanders was dangerous to the liberty of the state, since they themselves managed and decided everything, a hundred judges were chosen out of the senate, 6 who were to demand of the generals, when they returned from war, an account of their proceedings, in order that, under this control, they might exercise their command in war with a regard to the judicature and laws at home.

7 In Sicily, Himilco succeeded as general in place of Hamilcar, but, after fighting several successful battles, both by land and sea, and taking many towns, he suddenly lost his army by the influence of a seasonal epidemic. 8 When the news of this arrived at Carthage, the country was overwhelmed with grief, and all places rung with lamentations, as if the city had been taken by an enemy; 9 private houses were closed, the temples of the gods were shut, all religious ceremonies were intermitted, and all private business suspended. 10 They all then crowded to the harbour, and inquired of the few that came out of their ships, survivors of the calamity, respecting their relatives. 11 But when, after wavering hope, dread attended with suspense, and uncertain apprehensions of bereavement, the loss of their relatives became known to the unhappy inquirers, the groans of mourners, and the cries and sorrowful lamentations of unhappy mothers, were heard along the whole shore.

[19. 3] L In this state of things, the bereaved general came out of his ship, with his belt removed, and in a mean dress like that of a slave, at the sight of whom the troops of mourners gathered into one body. 2 He, lifting up his hands to heaven, sometimes bewailed his own lot, sometimes the misfortune of the state, 3 and sometimes complained of "the gods, who had deprived him of such honours obtained in the field, and the glory of so many victories, who, after he had taken so many cities, and had defeated the enemy by land and sea, had destroyed his victorious army, not by war, but by a pestilence. 4 Yet he brought," he said, "this important consolation to his countrymen, that though the enemy might rejoice at their ill-success, they could assume no glory from it, 5 as they could neither say that those who had died were slain by them, nor that those who had returned had been put to flight. 6 That the plunder which they had taken in their deserted camp was not what they could exhibit as the spoils of a conquered enemy, but what they had seized, as falling to them for want of owners, through the accidental deaths of its possessors. 7 That, as far as the enemy was concerned, they had come off conquerors; as to the pestilence, they were certainly conquered; 8 but that, for himself, he took nothing more to heart than that he could not die among the brave, and was reserved, not to enjoy life, but to be the sport of calamity. 9 However, as he had brought the wretched remains of his army to Carthage, he would follow his fellow soldiers, 10 and prove to his country that he had not prolonged his life to that day because he was desirous to live, but that he might not desert by his death, and abandon to the army of the enemy, those whom the horrible disease had spared. " 11 When he had walked, with such lamentations, through the city, and had arrived at the entrance to his own house, he dismissed the crowd that followed him, as if it were the last time that he should speak to them, and then, locking his door and admitting no one, not even his sons, to his presence, he put an end to his life.

BOOK 20

[20. 1] L Dionysius, after expelling the Carthaginians from Sicily, and making himself master of the whole island, thinking that peace might be dangerous to his power, and idleness in so great an army fatal to it, transported his forces into Italy; 2 with a wish, at the same time, that the strength of his soldiers might be invigorated by constant employment, and his dominions enlarged. 3 His first contest was with the Greeks, who occupied the nearest parts of the coast on the Italian sea; 4 and, having conquered them, he attacked their neighbours, looking upon all of Grecian origin who were inhabitants of Italy, as his enemies; 5 and these settlers had then spread, not merely through a part of Italy, but through almost the whole of it. 6 Many Italian cities, indeed, after so long a lapse of time, still exhibit some traces of Greek manners; 7 for the Etrurians, who occupy the shore of the Tuscan sea, came from Lydia; 8 and Troy, after it was taken and overthrown, sent thither the Veneti (whom we see on the coast of the Adriatic), under the leadership of Antenor. 9 Adria, too, which is near the Illyrian sea, and which gave name also to the Adriatic, is a Greek city; 10 and Diomedes, being driven by shipwreck, after the destruction of Troy, into those parts, built Arpi. 11 Pisae, likewise, in Liguria, had Grecian founders; and Tarquinii, in Etruria, as well as Spina in Umbria, has its origin from the Thessalians; Perusia was founded by the Achaeans. 12 Need I mention Caere? Or the people of Latium, who were settled by Aeneas? 13 Are not the Falisci, are not Nola and Abella, colonies of the Chalcidians? 14 What is all the country of Campania? What are the Bruttii and Sabines? What are the Samnites? 15 What are the Tarentines, whom we understand to have come from Lacedaemon, and to have been called Spurii? 16 The city of Thurii they say that Philoctetes built; and his monument is seen there to this day, as well as the arrows of Hercules, on which the fate of Troy depended, laid up in the temple of Apollo.

[20. 2] L The people of Metapontum, too, show in their temple of Minerva, the iron tools with which Epeus, by whom their city was founded, built the Trojan horse. 2 Hence all that part of Italy was called Greater Greece.
3 But soon after they were settled, the Metapontines, joining with the Sybarites and Crotonians, formed a design to drive the rest of the Greeks from Italy. 4 Capturing, in the first place, the city Siris, they slew, as they were storming it, fifty young men that were embracing the statue of Minerva, and the priest of the goddess dressed in his robes, between the very altars; 5 suffering, on this account, from pestilence and civil discord, the Crotonians, first of all, consulted the oracle at Delphi, 6 and answer was made to them, that "there would be an end of their troubles, if they appeased the offended deity of Minerva, and the manes of the slain. " 7 After they had begun, accordingly, to make statues of proper size for the young men, and especially for Minerva, the Metapontines, learning what the oracle was, and thinking it expedient to anticipate them in pacifying the manes of the goddess, erected to the young men smaller images of stone, and propitiated the goddess with offerings of bread. 8 The plague was thus ended in both places, one people showing their zeal by their magnificence, and the other by their expedition. 9 After they had recovered their health, the Crotonians were not long disposed to be quiet; 10 and being indignant that, at the siege of Siris, assistance had been sent against them by the Locrians, they made war on that people. 11 The Locrians, seized with alarm, had recourse to the Spartans, begging their assistance with humble entreaties. 12 But the Spartans, disliking so distant an expedition, told them "to ask assistance from Castor and Pollux. " 13 This answer, from a city in alliance with them, the deputies did not despise, but going into the nearest temple, and offering sacrifice, they implored aid from those gods. 14 The signs from the victims appearing favourable, and their request, as they supposed, being granted, they were no less rejoiced than if they were to carry the gods with them; and, spreading couches for them in the vessel, and setting out with happy omens, they brought their countrymen comfort though not assistance.

[20. 3] L This affair becoming known, the Crotonians themselves also sent deputies to the oracle at Delphi, asking the way to victory and a prosperous termination of the war. 2 The answer given was, that "the enemies must be conquered by vows, before they could be conquered by arms. " 3 They accordingly vowed the tenth of the spoil to Apollo, but the Locrians, getting information of this vow, and the god's answer, vowed a ninth part, keeping the matter however secret, that they might not be outdone in vows. 4 When they came into the field, therefore, and a hundred and twenty thousand Crotonians stood in arms against them, the Locrians, contemplating the smallness of their own force (for they had only fifteen thousand men), and abandoning all hope of victory, devoted themselves to certain death; 5 and such courage, arising out of despair, was felt by each, that they thought they would be as conquerors, if they did not fall without avenging themselves. 6 But while they sought only to die with honour, they had the good fortune to gain the victory; nor was there any other cause of their success but their desperation. 7 While the Locrians were fighting, an eagle constantly attended on their army, and continued flying about them till they were conquerors. 8 On the wings, also, were seen two young men fighting in armour different from that of the rest, of an extraordinary stature, on white horses and in scarlet cloaks; nor were they visible longer than the battle lasted. 9 The incredible swiftness of the report of the battle made this wonderful appearance more remarkable; for on the same day on which it was fought in Italy, the victory was published at Corinth, Athens, and Lacedaemon.

[20. 4] L After this event the Crotonians ceased to exercise their valour, or to care for distinction in the field. 2 They hated the arms which they had unsuccessfully taken up, and would have abandoned their former way of life for one of luxury, had not Pythagoras arisen among them. 3 This philosopher was born at Samos, the son of Demaratus, a rich merchant, and after being greatly advanced in wisdom, went first to Egypt, and afterwards to Babylon, to learn the motions of the stars and study the origin of the universe, and acquired very great knowledge. 4 Returning from thence, he went to Crete and Lacedaemon, to instruct himself in the laws of Minos and Lycurgus, which at that time were in high repute. 5 Furnished with all these attainments, he came to Croton, and, by his influence, recalled the people, when they were giving themselves up to luxury, to the observance of frugality. 6 He used daily to recommend virtue, and to enumerate the ill effects of luxury, and the misfortunes of states that had been ruined by its pestilential influence; 7 and he thus produced in the people such a love of temperance, that it was at length thought incredible that any of them should be extravagant. 8 He frequently gave instruction to the women apart from the men, and to the children apart from their parents. 9 He impressed on the female sex the observance of chastity, and submission to their husbands; on the rising generation, modesty and devotion to learning. 10 Through his whole course of instruction he exhorted all to love temperance, as the mother of every virtue; 11 and he produced such an effect upon them by the constancy of his lectures, that the women laid aside their vestments embroidered with gold, and other ornaments and distinctions, as instruments of luxury, and, bringing them into the temple of Juno, consecrated them to the goddess, 12 declaring that modesty, and not fine apparel, was the true adornment of their sex. 13 How much he gained upon the young men, his victory over the stubborn minds of the women may serve to indicate. 14 Three hundred of the young men, however, being united by an oath of fraternity, and living apart from the other citizens, drew the attention of the city upon them, as if they met for some secret conspiracy; 15 and the people, when they were all collected in one building, proceeded to burn them in it. 16 In the tumult about sixty lost their lives; the rest went into exile.

17 Pythagoras, after living twenty years at Croton, removed to Metapontum, where he died; 18 and such was the admiration of the people for his character, that they made a temple of his house, and worshipped him as a god.

[20. 5] L Dionysius the tyrant, who, we have said, had transported an army from Sicily into Italy, and made war upon the Greeks there, proceeded, after taking Locri by storm, to attack the Crotonians, who, in consequence of their losses in the former war, were scarcely recovering their strength in a long peace. 2 With their small force, however, they resisted the great army of Dionysius more valiantly than they had before, with so many thousands, resisted the smaller number of the Locrians. 3 So much spirit has weakness in withstanding insolent power; and so much more sure, at times, is an unexpected than an expected victory. 4 But as Dionysius was prosecuting the war, ambassadors from the Gauls, who had burned Rome some months before, came to him to desire an alliance and friendship with him; 5 observing that "their country lay in the midst of his enemies, and could be of great service to him, either by supporting him in the field, or by annoying his enemies in the rear when they were engaged with him. " 6 The embassy was well received by Dionysius, who, having made an alliance with them, and being reinforced with assistance from Gaul, renewed the war as it were afresh.

7 The causes of the Gauls' coming into Italy, in quest of new settlements, were civil discords and perpetual contentions at home; 8 and when, from impatience of those feuds, they had sought refuge in Italy, they expelled the Etruscans from their country, and founded Mediolanum, Comum, Brixia, Verona, Bergamum, Tridentum, and Vicentia. 9 The Etruscans, too, when they were driven from their old settlements, betook themselves, under a captain named Rhaetus, towards the Alps, where they founded the nation of Rhaetia, so named from their leader.

10 An invasion of Sicily by the Carthaginians obliged Dionysius to return thither; for that people, having rebuilt their army, had resumed the war, which they had broken off in consequence of the plague, with increased spirit. 11 The leader in the expedition was Hanno the Carthaginian, 12 whose enemy Juniatus, the most powerful of the Carthaginians at that time, having, from hatred to him, given friendly notice to Dionysius, in a letter written in Greek, of the approach of the army and the inactivity of its leader, was found, through the letter being intercepted, guilty of treason; 13 and a decree of the senate was made, "that no Carthaginian should thenceforward study the Greek literature or language, so that no one might be able to speak with the enemy, or write to him, without an interpreter. " 14 Not long after, Dionysius, whom a little before neither Sicily nor Italy could hold, being reduced and weakened by continual wars, was at last killed by a conspiracy among his own subjects.

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Justinus: Epitome of Pompeius Trogus' Philippic Histories
- books 21 to 24
Translated by Rev. J. S. Watson (1853). See key to translations for an explanation of the format.

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BOOK 21

[21. 1] L When Dionysius the tyrant was cut off in Sicily, the army elected in his room Dionysius the eldest of his sons, 2 both in accordance with the law of nature, and because they thought the power would be more secure, if it continued in the hands of one son, than if it were divided among several. 3 Dionysius, at the commencement of his reign, was eager to remove the uncles of his brothers, as being his rivals in the government, and as having encouraged the young men to ask for a division of power. 4 But concealing his inclinations for a while, he applied himself first to gain the favour of his subjects, as being likely to cause the atrocity, which he had resolved on committing, to be regarded with more indulgence, if he previously made himself popular. 5 He therefore released three thousand prisoners from the gaols, remitted the people the taxes for three years, and sought the affection of all by whatever blandishments he could use. 6 Then, proceeding to execute his determination, he put to death, not only the relatives of his brothers, but his brothers themselves; 7 so that he left to those, to whom he owed a share of power, not even a share of life, and commenced cruelty upon his kindred before he exercised it upon strangers.

[21. 2] L When his rivals were removed, he fell into indolence, and contracted, from excessive indulgence at table, great corpulence of body, and a disease in his eyes, so that he could not bear the sunshine, or dust, or even the brightness of ordinary daylight. 2 Suspecting that, for these weaknesses, he was despised by his subjects, he proceeded to inflict cruelties upon them; not filling the gaols, like his father, with prisoners, but the whole city with dead bodies. 3 Hence he became an object of hatred, rather than contempt, to everyone. 4 When the Syracusans, in consequence, resolved to rebel against him, he long hesitated whether he should lay down the government or oppose them in arms; 5 but he was compelled by the soldiery, who hoped for plunder from sacking the city, to march into the field. 6 Being defeated, and trying his fortune again with no better success, he sent deputies to the people of Syracuse, with promises that "he would resign the government, if they would send persons to him with whom he might settle terms of peace. " 7 Some of the principal citizens being accordingly sent for that purpose, he put them in close confinement, and then, when all were off their guard, having no fear of hostilities, he despatched his army to devastate the city. 8 A contest, in consequence, which was long doubtful, took place in the town itself, but the townsmen overpowering the soldiery by their numbers, Dionysius was obliged to retire, and fearing that he should be besieged in the citadel, fled away secretly, with all his royal paraphernalia, to Italy. 9 Being received, in his exile, by his allies the Locrians, he took possession of the citadel as if he were their rightful sovereign, and exercised his usual outrages upon them. 10 He ordered the wives of the principal men to be seized and violated; he took away maidens on the point of marriage, polluted them, and then restored them to their betrothed husbands; and as for the wealthiest men, he either banished them or put them to death, and confiscated their property.

[21. 3] L In process of time, when a pretext for plunder was wanting, he conquered the whole city by an artful stratagem. 2 The Locrians, being harassed in war by Leophron the tyrant of Rhegium, had vowed, if they were victorious, to prostitute their maidens on the festal day of Venus; 3 and as, on neglecting to perform the vow, they were unsuccessful in another war with the Lucanians, Dionysius called them to an assembly, and advised them "to send their wives and daughters, as richly dressed as possible, to the temple of Venus; 4 out of whom a hundred, chosen by lot, should fulfil the public vow, and, for religion's sake, offer themselves for prostitution during the space of a month, the men previously taking an oath not to touch any one of them; 5 and, in order that this should be no detriment to the women who released the state from its vow, they should make a decree, that no other maiden should be married till these were provided with husbands. " 6 This proposal, by which regard was shown both to their superstitious observances and to the honour of their virgins, being received with approbation, the whole of the women, in most expensive dresses, assembled in the temple of Venus, 7 when Dionysius, sending in his soldiers, took off their finery, and made the ornaments of the matrons a spoil for himself. 8 The husbands of some of them too, who were of the richer class, he put to death; others he tortured to make them reveal their husbands' wealth. 9 After reigning in this manner for six years, he was driven from Locri by a conspiracy of the people, and returned to Sicily; 10 where, while all, after so long an interval of peace, were free from apprehension, he possessed himself of Syracuse by surprise.

[21. 4] L While this affair occurred in Sicily, Hanno, a leading man among the Carthaginians, in Africa, employed his power, which surpassed that of the government, to secure the sovereignty for himself, and endeavoured to establish himself as king by killing the senate. 2 For the execution of this atrocity he fixed on the day of his daughter's marriage, in order that his nefarious plot might be the better concealed in the pomp of religious ceremonies. 3 He accordingly prepared a banquet for the common people in the public porticoes, and another for the senate in his own house, so that, by poisoning the cups, he might take off the senate privately and without witnesses, and then more easily seize the government, when none were left to prevent him. 4 The plot being disclosed to the magistrates by his agents, his destructive intentions were frustrated, but not punished, lest the matter, if publicly known, should occasion more trouble, in the case of so powerful a man, than the mere design of it had caused. 5 Satisfied, therefore, with putting a stop to it, they merely set bounds by a decree to the expenses of marriage entertainments, and ordered the decree to be obeyed, not by him alone, but universally, that nothing personal to him, but the general correction of an abuse, might seem to be intended. 6 Prevented by this measure, he, for a second attempt, raised the slaves, and appointing another day for the massacre of the senate, but finding himself again betrayed, he threw himself, for fear of being brought to trial, into a strong fortress with a body of twenty thousand armed slaves. 7 Here, while he was soliciting the Africans, and the king of the Moors, to join him, he was captured, and after being scourged, having his eyes put out, and his arms and legs broken, as if atonement was to be exacted from every limb, he was put to death in the sight of the people, and his body, mangled with stripes, was nailed to a cross. 8 All his children and relations, too, though guiltless, were delivered to the executioner, that no member of so nefarious a family might survive either to imitate his villainy, or to revenge his death.

[21. 5] L Dionysius, in the meantime, being re-established in Syracuse, and becoming every day more oppressive and cruel to the people, was assailed by a new band of conspirators. 2 Laying down the government, therefore, he delivered up the city and army to the Syracusans, and, being allowed to take his private property with him, went to live in exile at Corinth; 3 where, looking on the lowest station as the safest, he humbled himself to the very meanest condition of life. 4 He was not content with strolling about the streets, but would even stand drinking in them; he was not satisfied with being seen in taverns and impure houses, but would sit in them for whole days. 5 He would dispute with the most abandoned fellows about the merest trifles, walk about in rags and dirt, and afford laughter to others more readily than he would laugh at them. 6 He would stand in the market, devouring with his eyes what he was not able to purchase; he would wrangle with the dealers before the aediles, 7 and do everything in such a manner as to appear an object of contempt rather than of fear. 8 At last he assumed the profession of a schoolmaster, and taught children in the open streets, either that he might continually be seen in public by those who feared him, or might be more readily despised by those who did not fear him; 9 for though he had still plenty of the vices peculiar to tyrants, yet his present conduct was an affectation of vices, and not the effect of nature, and he adopted it rather from cunning than from having lost the self-respect becoming a sovereign, having experienced how odious the names of tyrants are, even when they are deprived of power. 10 He strove, therefore, to diminish the odium incurred from his past by the contemptibleness of his present life, not looking to honourable but to safe practices. 11 Yet amidst all these arts of dissimulation, he was accused of aspiring to the sovereignty, and was left at liberty only because he was despised.

[21. 6] L During these proceedings, the Carthaginians, alarmed at the rapid successes of Alexander the Great, and fearing that he might resolve to annex Africa to his Persian empire, sent Hamilcar, surnamed Rhodanus, a man remarkable for wit and eloquence beyond others, to sound his intentions; 2 for, indeed, the capture of Tyre, their own parent city, 3 and the founding of Alexandria, as a rival to Carthage, on the confines of Africa and Egypt, 4 as well as the good fortune of the king, whose ambition and success seemed to know no limit, raised their apprehensions to an extreme height. 5 Hamilcar, obtaining access to the king through the favour of Parmenion, represented himself to Alexander as having been banished from his country, and as having fled to him for refuge, offering, at the same time, to serve as a soldier in the expedition against Carthage. 6 Having thus ascertained his views, he sent a full account of them to his countrymen, inscribed on wooden tablets, with blank wax spread over the writing. 7 The Carthaginians, however, when he returned home after the death of Alexander, put him to death, not only ungratefully but cruelly, on pretence that he had offered to sell their city to the king.

BOOK 22

[22. 1] L Agathocles, tyrant of Sicily, who attained greatness equal to that of the elder Dionysius, rose to royal dignity from the lowest and meanest origin. 2 He was born in Sicily, his father being a potter, and spent a youth not more honourable than his birth; 3 for, being remarkable for beauty and gracefulness of person, he supported himself a considerable time by submitting to the infamous lust of others. 4 When he had passed the years of puberty, he transferred his services from men to women. 5 Having thus become infamous with both sexes, he next changed his way of life for that of a robber. 6 Some time after, having gone to Syracuse and been received as a citizen among the other inhabitants, 7 he was long without credit, appearing to have as little of property to lose as he had of character to blacken. 8 At last, enlisting in the army as a common soldier, he showed himself ready for every kind of audacity, his life being then not less distinguished by restlessness than it had previously been by infamy. 9 He was noted for activity in the field, and for eloquence in making harangues. 10 In a short time, accordingly, he became a centurion, and soon after a tribune. 11 In his first campaign against the people of Aetna, he gave the Syracusans great proofs of what he could do: 12 in the next, against the Campanians, he excited such hopes of himself throughout the army, that he was chosen to fill the place of the deceased general, Damascon, 13 whose wife, after the death of her husband, he married, having previously had a criminal connection with her. 14 And, not content, that from being poor he was suddenly made rich, he engaged in piracy against his own country. 15 He was saved from death by his companions, who, when apprehended and put to the torture, denied his guilt. 16 Twice he attempted to make himself sovereign of Syracuse; and twice he was driven into exile.

[22. 2] L By the Murgantines, with whom he took refuge in his banishment, he was first, from hatred to the Syracusans, made praetor, and afterwards general-in-chief: 2 in the war which he conducted for them, he both took the city of the Leontines, and proceeded to besiege his native city, Syracuse: 3 when Hamilcar, general of the Carthaginians, being entreated to aid it, laid aside his hatred as an enemy, and sent a body of troops thither. 4 Thus, at one and the same time, Syracuse was both defended by an enemy with the love of a citizen, and attacked by a citizen with the hatred of an enemy. 5 But Agathocles, seeing that the city was defended with more vigour than it was assailed, entreated Hamilcar, through his deputies, to undertake the settlement of a peace between him and the Syracusans, promising him particular services in return for the favour. 6 Hamilcar, induced by such hopes, and by dread of his power, made an alliance with him, on condition that whatever assistance he furnished Agathocles against the Syracusans, he himself should receive as much for the augmentation of his power at home. 7 Not only peace, in consequence, was procured for Agathocles, but he was also appointed praetor at Syracuse; 8 and he then swore to Hamilcar that he would be faithful to the Carthaginians, the [sacred] fires, at the same time, being set forth, and touched by him. 9 Some time after, having received from Hamilcar five thousand African troops, he put to death the most powerful of the leading citizens; 10 and then, as if intending to re-model the constitution, he ordered the people to be summoned to an assembly in the theatre, convoking the senate, in the meantime, in the Gymnasium, as though he designed to make some previous arrangements with them. 11 His measures being thus taken, he sent his troops to surround the people, and caused the senate to be massacred, 12 and, when he had finished the slaughter of them, cut off the richest and boldest of the commoners.

[22. 3] L These things being done, he made choice of troops, and embodied a regular army; with which, he suddenly attacked several of the neighbouring cities when they were under no apprehension of hostilities. 2 He also disgracefully harassed, with the connivance of Hamilcar, certain allies of the Carthaginians, who, in consequence, sent complaints to Carthage, not so much against Agathocles as against Hamilcar, 3 accusing " the former, indeed, as an oppressor and tyrant, but the latter as a traitor, by whom the possessions of their allies, under a settled compact, were betrayed to the bitterest of enemies; 4 for as, at first, Syracuse (a city always hostile to the Carthaginians, and a competitor with Carthage for the dominion of Sicily) was delivered to Agathocles as a bond of union with Hamilcar, so, at the present time, the cities of the allies of Carthage were given up to the same tyrant under pretence of making peace. 5 They warned them, therefore, that these proceedings would shortly come home to themselves, and that they would feel what mischief they had brought, not more upon Sicily than upon Africa itself. " 6 At these complaints the senate was incensed against Hamilcar, but as he was in command of the army, they gave their votes concerning him secretly, and caused their several opinions, before they were openly read, to be put in an urn, and sealed up, until the other Hamilcar, the son of Gisco, should return from Sicily. 7 But the death of Hamilcar prevented all effects from these subtle contrivances and suppressed judgments, and he, whom his fellow citizens had unjustly condemned unheard, was freed from danger of punishment by the kindness of destiny. 8 The proceeding furnished Agathocles with a pretext for making war on the Carthaginians. 9 His first engagement was with Hamilcar, the son of Gisco, by whom he was defeated, and retired to Syracuse to prepare himself for war with fresh vigour. 10 But the result of his second encounter was the same as that of the first.

[22. 4] L The victorious Carthaginians, in consequence, having invested Syracuse with a close siege, Agathocles, perceiving that he was neither a match for them in the field, nor provided for enduring a blockade, and being deserted, moreover, by his allies, who were disgusted at his cruelties, resolved to transfer the war into Africa; 2 a resolution formed with wonderful audacity, that he should make war on the city of a people for whom he was not a match in his own city; that he who could not defend his own country should invade that of others; and that one who had been conquered should brave his conquerors. 3 Nor was the secrecy of his plan less striking than the contrivance of it. Stating merely to the people, that " he had found out a way to victory, and that they had only to prepare their minds to endure a short siege, or that, if any of them were dissatisfied with their present circumstances, he gave them full liberty to depart," 4 he proceeded, after one thousand six hundred had left him, to furnish the rest with provisions and money for the necessities of a blockade, taking away with him only fifty talents for present use, and intending to get further supplies rather from his enemies than his friends. 5 He then obliged all the slaves that were of age for war, after receiving their freedom, to take the military oath, and put them and the greater part of the soldiers, on ship-board, supposing that, as the condition of both was made equal, there would be a mutual emulation in bravery between them.

[22. 5] L In the seventh year of his reign, therefore, accompanied by his two grown-up sons, Archagathus and Heracleides, 2 he directed his course towards Africa, not one of his men knowing whither he was sailing; but while they all supposed that they were going to Italy or Sardinia for plunder, he landed his army on the coast of Africa, and then for the first time made known his intentions to them all. 3 He reminded them in what condition Syracuse was, " for which there was no other remedy but that they should inflict on the enemy the distresses that they themselves were suffering. 4 Wars," he said, " were conducted in one way at home and in another abroad; at home, a people's only support was what the resources of their country supplied; but abroad, the enemy might be beaten by their own strength, while their allies fell off, and from hatred of their long tyranny, looked about for foreign aid. 5 To this was added, that the cities and fortresses of Africa were not secured with walls, or situated on eminences, but lay in level plains without any fortifications, and might all be induced, by the fear of destruction, to join in the war against Carthage. 6 A greater war, in consequence, would blaze forth against the Carthaginians from Africa itself than from Sicily, as the forces of the whole region would combine against a city greater in name than in power, and he himself would thus gain from the country the strength which he had not brought into it. 7 Nor would victory be only in a small degree promoted by the sudden terror of the Carthaginians, who, astonished at such daring on the part of their enemies, would be in utter consternation. 8 Besides, there would be the burning of country houses, the plundering of fortresses and towns that offered resistance, and siege laid to Carthage itself; 9 from all which disasters they would learn that wars were practicable not only for them against others, but for others against them. 10 By these means the Carthaginians might not only be conquered, but Sicily might be delivered from them; for they would not continue to besiege Syracuse, when they were suffering from a siege of their own city. 11 Nowhere else, therefore, could war be found more easy, or plunder more abundant, for, if Carthage were taken, all Africa and Sicily would be the prize of the victors. 12 The glory, too, of so honourable an enterprise, would be so celebrated through all ages, that it could never be buried in oblivion; for it would be said that they were the only men in the world who had carried abroad against their enemies a war which they could not withstand at home; who, when defeated, had pursued their conquerors, and besieged the besiegers of their own city. 13 They ought all accordingly, to prosecute, with equal courage and cheerfulness, an enterprise, than which none could offer them a more noble reward if they were victorious, or greater honour to their memory if they were conquered. "

[22. 6] L By these exhortations the courage of the soldiers was excited; but the superstitious influence of an omen had spread some dismay among them; for the sun had been eclipsed during their voyage. 2 But with regard to this phenomenon Agathocles was at no less pains to satisfy them than he had been with regard to the war; alleging that, " if it had happened before they set out, he should have thought it a portent unfavourable to their departure, but since it had occurred after they had set sail, its signification was directed against those to whom they were going. 3 Besides," he said, " the eclipses of the heavenly bodies always presaged a change in the present state of things, and it was therefore certain that an alteration was foretold in the flourishing condition of the Carthaginians and in their own adverse circumstances. " 4 Having thus pacified his soldiers, he ordered all the ships, with the consent of the army, to be set on fire, in order that, the means of flight being taken away, they might understand that they must either conquer or die.

5 While they were devastating the country wherever they went, and laying farm-houses and fortresses in ashes, Hanno advanced to meet them with thirty thousand Carthaginians. 6 When they came to a battle, two thousand of the Sicilians, and three thousand of the Carthaginians, with their general himself, were left on the field. 7 By this victory the spirits of the Sicilians were elated, and those of the Carthaginians depressed. 8 Agathocles, taking advantage of his success, stormed several towns and forts, took a vast quantity of plunder, and killed many thousands of the enemy. 9 He then pitched his camp at the distance of five miles from Carthage, that they might view from the walls of the city the destruction of their most valuable possessions, the devastation of their lands, and the burning of their houses. 10 At the same time a great rumour of the destruction of the Carthaginian army, and of the capture of their cities, was spread through all Africa, 11 and astonishment fell upon every one, wondering how so sudden a war could have surprised so great an empire, especially from an enemy already conquered. This wonder was gradually changed into a contempt for the Carthaginians; 12 and not long after, not only the populace of Africa, but the most eminent cities, out of fondness for change, revolted to Agathocles, and furnished the victorious army with corn and money.

[22. 7] L To these disasters of the Carthaginians, and as if to crown their evil fortune, was added the destruction of their army and its general in Sicily. 2 For after the departure of Agathocles from the island, the Carthaginians, prosecuting the siege of Syracuse with less vigour, were reported to have been utterly cut off by Antander, the brother of Agathocles. 3 The fortune of the Carthaginians, therefore, being similar at home and abroad, not only their tributary towns, but even princes that were in alliance with them, began to fall off, estimating the obligations of confederacy not by the standard of honour but by that of fortune. 4 Among these was Ophellas, king of Cyrene, who, grasping, with extravagant hopes, at the dominion of all Africa, made an alliance with Agathocles through ambassadors, arranging that, when the Carthaginians were subdued, the government of Sicily should fall to Agathocles, and that of Africa to himself. 5 But when he came, accordingly, with a numerous army, to take a share in the war, Agathocles, after throwing him off his guard by the affability of his address and the abjectness of his flattery, and after they had supped together several times, and he had been adopted by Ophellas as a son, 6 put him to death, and taking the command of his forces, defeated the Carthaginians, who were renewing the war with all their might, in a second great battle, but with much loss to both armies. 7 At this result of the contest, such despair was felt by the Carthaginians, that, had not a mutiny occurred among the troops of Agathocles, Bomilcar, the Carthaginian general, would have gone over to him with his army. 8 For this treachery he was nailed to a cross by the Carthaginians in the middle of the forum, that the place which had formerly been the distinguished scene of his honours might also bear testimony to his punishment. 9 Bomilcar, however, bore the cruelty of his countrymen with such fortitude, that from his cross, as if he had been on a judgment-seat, he inveighed against the injustice of the Carthaginians, 10 upbraiding them sometimes with " having cut off Hanno, on a false charge of aspiring to sovereignty; " sometimes with " having banished the innocent Gisco;" and sometimes with " having secretly condemned his uncle Hamilcar, merely because he wished to make Agathocles their ally rather than their enemy. " 11 After uttering these charges with a loud voice, in a numerous assembly of the people, he expired.

[22. 8] L Agathocles, meanwhile, having overcome all opposition in Africa, left the command of his army to his son Archagathus, and went back to Sicily, thinking that all he had done in Africa was as nothing, if Syracuse was still to be besieged; 2 for after the death of Hamilcar the son of Gisco, a fresh army had been sent thither by the Carthaginians. 3 Immediately on his arrival, all the cities of Sicily, having previously heard of his achievements in Africa, unanimously submitted to him; and being thus enabled to drive the Carthaginians from Sicily, he made himself master of the whole island. 4 Returning afterwards to Africa, he was received by his army in a state of mutiny; for the discharge of their arrears of pay had been deferred by the son till the arrival of his father. 5 Summoning them, therefore, to a general assembly, he proceeded to pacify them with soothing words, saying that " pay was not to be asked of him, but to be taken from the enemy; that they must gain a common victory, and common spoil; 6 and that they must continue to support him for a short time, till what remained of the war was finished, as they were certain that the capture of Carthage would satisfy all their desires. " 7 The mutiny being thus allayed, he led the army, after an interval of some days, against the camp of the enemy, but commencing an engagement too rashly, lost the greater part of his force. 8 Retreating to his camp, therefore, and finding the odium of his rash engagement affecting his character, and dreading, at the same time, a revival of the former murmurs at his failure in paying the arrears, he fled from his camp at midnight, attended only by his son Archagathus. 9 When the soldiers heard of his departure, they were in no less consternation than if they had been captured by the enemy, exclaiming that " they had been twice deserted by their leader in the midst of the enemy's country, and that the care of their lives had been abandoned by him by whom not even their burial should have been neglected. " 10 As they were going to pursue Agathocles, they were met by some Numidians, and returned to the camp, but not without having seized and brought back Archagathus, who, through mistaking his way in the night, had been separated from his father. 11 Agathocles, with the ships in which he had returned from Sicily, and the men that he had left to guard them, arrived safe at Syracuse; affording a signal instance of dishonourable conduct, 12 a prince deserting his army, and a father abandoning his children. 13 In Africa, meanwhile, after the flight of Agathocles, his soldiers, making a capitulation with the enemy, and putting to death the sons of Agathocles, surrendered themselves to the Carthaginians. 14 Archagathus, when he was going to be killed by Arcesilaus, a former friend of his father, asked him " what he thought Agathocles would do to the children of him by whom he was rendered childless? " Arcesilaus replied, that " he felt no concern, since he knew that his children would certainly survive those of Agathocles. " 15 Some time after, the Carthaginians sent new commanders into Sicily, to terminate what remained of the war there, and Agathocles made peace with them on equal terms.

BOOK 23

[23. 1] L Agathocles, sovereign of Sicily, having concluded a peace with the Carthaginians, reduced, by force of arms, a part of the cities which, presuming upon their strength, had thrown off their allegiance to him. 2 Then, as if he were confined within too narrow limits in an island (a part of the dominion of which, even when he first began to rise, he could scarcely have hoped to obtain), he proceeded, after the example of Dionysius, who had subdued many cities of Italy, to cross over into that country. 3 His first enemies there were the Bruttii, who, at that period, seem to have been the bravest and most powerful people of the country, and to have been extremely ready to attack their neighbours; 4 for they had driven the inhabitants of many of the Greek cities from Italy, 5 and had conquered in war the Lucanians their founders, and made peace with them on equal terms; 6 such being the fierceness of their nature, that they had no respect even for those to whom they owed their origin. 7 The Lucanians were accustomed to breed up their children with the same kind of education as the Spartans; 8 for, from their earliest boyhood, they were kept in the wilds among the shepherds, without any slaves to attend them, and even without clothes to wear or to sleep upon, that, from their first years, they might be accustomed to hardiness and spare diet; having no intercourse with the city. 9 Their food was what they took in hunting, and their drink milk or water. Thus were they prepared for the toils of war.

10 Fifty of these people, who, at first, used to plunder the lands of their neighbours, but who, as numbers flocked to join them, increased in strength, and were tempted by hopes of greater booty, disturbed the whole of the neighbouring country; 11 and Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, being wearied with complaints from his allies, had sent six hundred Africans to put a stop to their ravages. 12 But the marauders, having seized a fort which the Africans had built, and which was betrayed into their hands by a woman named Bruttia, proceeded to build a city there for the shepherds, who, at the report of a new settlement, came in numbers to join them; and, from the name of the woman, they called themselves Bruttii. 13 Their first war was with the Lucanians, from whom they sprung. 14 Encouraged by a victory over them, and making peace on equal terms, they subdued the rest of their neighbours by force of arms, and acquired, in a short time, such extraordinary strength, that they were thought formidable even by princes. 15 After some time, Alexander, king of Epirus, coming into Italy with a great army to the aid of the Greek cities, was cut off by them with all his force; 16 and their natural fierceness, increased by this success, was for a long time terrible to all around them. 17 At last Agathocles, being importuned to come over, set sail, with the hope of enlarging his dominions, from Sicily to Italy.

[23. 2] L At the first news of his arrival, the Bruttii, alarmed at his name, sent ambassadors to solicit alliance and friendship with him. 2 Agathocles, inviting them to an entertainment, that they might not see his army shipped over, and appointing the next day for giving them audience, went off immediately after the banquet in a vessel, and left them in the lurch. 3 But what followed this deceit was unhappy for him; for the violence of a disease which he contracted obliged him a few days after to return to Sicily. 4 Being affected by the distemper through his whole body, and a pestilential humour spreading through all his nerves and joints, he was tormented, as it were, by an intestine war among all his members. 5 As his life was despaired of, a contention arose between his son and grandson, each claiming the right of succession to his power as if he were already dead; and the grandson, after killing the son, got possession of the supreme dignity. 6 Agathocles, therefore, when the pain of his disease and his anxiety of mind were grown intolerable, the one being increased by the severity of the other, resolved on embarking his wife Texena, and two infant sons that he had by her, with all his treasure, and servants, and regal furniture (in which no king at that time was richer), and sending her back to Egypt, from whence he had received her, fearing that they would find the usurper of his power their enemy. 7 His wife, however, long entreated that she might not be separated from her sick husband, that the affliction of her departure might not be added to the atrocities of his grandson, and that she might not be made to appear as cruel in forsaking her husband as he in attacking his grandfather; 8 saying that, " by marrying him, she not only engaged to share his good fortune, but all his fortune ; nor would she unwillingly purchase, with the hazard of her own life, the privilege of receiving her husband's last breath, and of performing, with all the care of conjugal duty and affection, the last offices at his funeral; which, when she was gone, no one would take upon himself to discharge. " 9 The little children, at parting, embraced and clung to their father with doleful lamentations; while the wife, who was to see her husband no more, could not desist from kissing him.