which by a new eruption had set the country about it on fire, and covered it with ashes. He ordered his fleet to wait his coming up at Catana. Dionysius, apprised of this, thought the opportunity favourable for attacking it, while separate from the land forces, and while his own, drawn up in battle upon the shore, might be of service to animate and support his fleet. The scheme was wisely concerted, but the success not answerable to it. Leptinus, bis admiral, having advanced inconsiderately with thirty galleys, contrary to the opinion of Dionysius, who had particularly recommended to him not to divide his forces, at first sunk several of the enemy's ships; but upon being surrounded by a greater number, was forced to fly. His whole fleet followed his example, and was eagerly pursued by the Carthaginians. Mago detached boats full of soldiers, with orders to kill all who endeavoured to save themselves by swimming to shore. The land army, drawn up there, saw them perish miserably, without being able to give them any assistance. The loss on the side of the Sicilians was very great; more than one hundred galleys being either taken or sunk, and twenty thousand men perishing either in the battle or the pursuit. The Sicilians, who were afraid to shut themselves up in Syracuse, where they could not fail of being besieged very soon, solicited Dionysius to lead them against Imilcar, whom so bold an enterprise might disconcert; besides which, they should find his troops fatigued with their long and hasty march. The proposal pleased him at first; but upon reflecting, that Mago, with the victorious fleet, might, notwithstanding, advance and take Syracuse, he thought it more advisable to return thither which caused him the loss of many of his troops, who deserted in numbers on all sides. Imilcar, after a march of two days, arrived at Catana, where he halted some days to refresh his army, and refit his fleet, which had suffered exceedingly in a violent storm.

He then marched to Syracuse, and made his fleet enter the port in triumph. More than two hundred galleys, adorned with the spoils of their victory, made a noble appearance as they advanced; the crews forming a kind of concert by the uniform and regular order they observed in the motion of their oars. They were followed by a great number of smaller barks; so that the port, although very large, was scarcely capable of containing them; the whole sea being in a manner covered with sails. At the same time, on the other side appeared the land ariny, consisting of three hundred thousand foot, and four thousand horse. Imilcar pitched his tent in the temple of Jupiter, and the army encamped around, at somewhat more than half a league's distance from the city. It is easy to judge the consternation and alarm which such a prospect must have given the Syracusans. The Carthaginian general advanced with his troops to the walls to offer the city battle, and at the same time seized upon the two remaining ports* by a detachment of one hundred galleys. As he saw no motion on the side of the Syracusans, he retired contented, for that time, with the enemy's confessing their inequality. For thirty days together he laid waste the country, cutting down all the trees, and destroying all before him. He then made himself master of the suburb called Achradina, and plundered the temples of Ceres and Proserpina. Foreseeing that the siege would be of long duration, he intrenched his camp, and enclosed it with strong walls, after having demolished for that purpose all the tombs, and among others that of Gelon and his wife Demarate, which was a monument of great magnificence. He built three forts at some distance from each other; the first at Pemmyra; the second towards the middle of the port; the third near the temple of Jupiter, for the security of his magazines of corn and wine. He sent also a great number of small vessels to Sardinia and Africa to fetch provisions.†

At the same time arrived Polyxenus, whom his brother-in-law Dionysius had despatched before into Italy and Greece for all the aid he could obtain, and brought with him a fleet of thirty ships, commanded by Pharacides the Lacedæmonian. This reinforcement came in very good time, and gave the Syra

* The little port, and that of Troilua

↑ Died, p. 285-290

Cusans new spirit. Upon seeing a bark laden with provisions for the enemy, they detached five galleys and took it. The Carthaginians gave them chase with forty sail, to which they advanced with their whole fleet; and in the bat tle carried the admiral's galley, damaged many others, took twenty-four, pursued the rest to the place where their whole fleet rode, and offered them battle a second time, which the Carthaginians, discouraged by the check they had received, were afraid to accept.

The Syracusans, emboldened by so unexpected a victory, returned to the city with the galieys they had taken, and entered it in a kind of triumph. Ani mated by this success, which could only be ascribed to their valour, (for Dionysius was then absent with a small detachment of the fleet to procure provi sions, attended by Leptinus,) they encouraged each other; and seeing they did not want arms, they reproached themselves with cowardice, ardently exclaiming, that the time was come for throwing off the shameful yoke of servi tude, and resuming their ancient liberty.

While they were in the midst of these discourses, dispersed in small parties, the tyrant arrived, and having summoned an assembly, he congratulated the Syracusans upon their late victory, and promised in a short time to put an end to the war, and to deliver them from the enemy. He was about to dismiss the assembly, when Theodorus, one of the most illustrious of the citizens, a person of sense and valour, took upon him to speak, and to declare boldly for liberty. "We are told," said he, "of restoring peace, terminating the war, and of being delivered from the enemy. What signifies such language from Dionysius? Can we have peace in the wretched state of slavery imposed upon us? Have we any enemy more to be dreaded than the enemy who subverts our liberty, or a war more cruel than that which he has made upon us for so many years? Let Imilcar conquer, while he contents himself with laying a tribute upon us, and leaves us the exercise of our laws! The tyrant that enslaves us, knows no other but his avarice, his cruelty, his ambition! The temples of the gods, robbed by his sacrilegious hands, our goods made a prey, and our lands abandoned to his instruments, our persons daily exposed to the most shameful and cruel treatment, the blood of so many citizens shed in the midst of us, and before our eyes: these are the fruits of his reign, and the peace which he obtains for us! Was it for the support of our liberties he built yon citadel, that he has enclosed it with such strong walls and high towers, and has called in for his guard that tribe of strangers and barbarians who insult us with impunity? How long, Syracusans! shall we suffer such indignities, more insupportable to the brave and generous than death itself? Bold and intrepid abroad against the enemy, shall we always tremble like cowards in the presence of a tyrant? Providence, which has again put arms into our hands, directs us in the use of them! Sparta, and the other cities in our alliance, who hold it their glory to be free and independent, would deem us unworthy of the Grecian name if we had any other sentiments. Let us show that we do not degenerate from our ancestors. If Dionysius consents to retire from among us, let us open him our gates, and let him take along with him whatever he pleases: but if he persists in tyranny, let him experience what effects the love of liberty has upon the brave and resolute.

After this speech, all the Syracusans, in suspense between hope and fear, looked earnestly upon their allies, and particularly upon the Spartans. Pharacides, who commanded their fleet, rose up to speak. It was expected that a citizen of Sparta would declare in favour of liberty: but he did quite the reverse; and told them, that his republic had sent him to the aid of the Syracusans and Dionysius, and not to make war upon Dionysius, or to subvert his authority. This answer confounded the Syracusans; and the tyrant's guard arriving at the same time, the assembly broke up. Dionysius perceiv ing more than ever what he had to fear, used all his endeavours to ingratiate himself with the people, and to attach the citizens to his interests; making presents to some, inviting others to eat with him, and affecting upon all occa sions to treat them with kindness and familiarity.

It must have been about this time that Polyxenus, brother-in-law to Dio nysius, who had married his sister Thesta, having without doubt declared against him in this conspiracy, fled from Sicily for the preservation of his hte, and to avoid falling into the tyrant's hands. Dionysius sent for his sister, and reproached her very bitterly for not apprising him of her husband's intended flight, as she could not be ignorant of it. She replied, without expressing the least surprise or fear, "have I then appeared so bad a wife to you, and of so mean a soul, as to have abandoned my husband in his flight, and not to have desired to share in his dangers and misfortunes? No! I knew nothing of it, or I should have been much happier in being called the wife of Polyxenus the exile, in all places, than to be called in Syracuse, the sister of the tyrant." Dionysius could not but admire an answer so full of spirit and generosity; and the Syracusans in general were so charmed with her virtue, that after the tyranny was suppressed, the same honours, equipage, and train of a queen, which she had before enjoyed, were continued to her during her life; and after her death the whole people attended her body to the tomb, and honoured her funeral with an extraordinary appearance.*

On the side of the Carthaginians, affairs began suddenly to take a new face. They had committed an irretrievable error in not attacking Syracuse upon their arrival, and in not taking advantage of the consternation which the sight of a fleet and army, equally formidable had occasioned. The plague, which was looked upon as a punishment sent from heaven for the plundering of temples and demolishing of tombs, had destroyed great numbers of their army in a short time. I have described the extraordinary symptoms of it in the history of the Carthaginians. To add to that misfortune, the Syracusans, being informed of their unhappy condition, attacked them in the night by sea and land. The surprise, terror, and even haste they were in, to put themselves into a posture of defence, threw them into new difficulty and confusion. They knew not on which side to send relief, all being equally in danger. Many of their vessels were sunk, and others almost entirely disabled, and a much greater number destroyed by fire. The old men, women, and children, ran in crowds to the walls, to be witnesses of that scene of horror, and lifted up their hands towards heaven, returning thanks to the gods for so signal a protection of their city. The slaughter within and without the camp, and on board the vessels, was great and dreadful, and ended only with the day.

Imilcar, reduced to despair, offered Dionysius secretly three hundred ta lents for permission to retire in the night with the remains of his army and fleet. The tyrant, who was not displeased with leaving the Carthaginians some resource, to keep his subjects in continual awe, gave his consent; but only for the citizens of Carthage. Upon which Imilcar set out with the Carthaginians, and only forty ships, leaving the rest of his troops behind. The Corinthians, discovering from the noise and motion of the galleys, that Imilcar was making his escape, sent to inform Dionysius of his flight, who affected ignorance of it, and gave immediate orders to pursue him : but as these orders were slowly executed, they followed the enemy themselves, and sunk several vessels of their rear-guard.

Dionysius then marched out with his troops; but before their arrival, the Sicilians in the Carthaginian service had retired to their several countries. Having first posted his troops in the passes, he advanced directly to the enemy's camp, though it was not quite day. The barbarians, who saw themselves cruelly abandoned and betrayed by Imilcar and the Sicilians, lost courage and fled. Some of them were taken by the troops in the passes; others laid down their arms, and asked for quarter. Only the Iberians drew up, and sent a herald to capitulate with Dionysius, who incorporated them into his guards. The rest were all made prisoners.

Such was the fate of the Carthagirians, which shows, says the historian, Diodorus Siculus, that humiliation succeeds pride, and that those who are too

• Plut, in Dion. p. 966.

much puffed up with power and success, are soon obliged to confess their weakness and vanity. These haughty victors, masters of almost all Sicily, who looked upon Syracuse as already their own, and who entered at first triumphant into the great port, insulting the citizens, were now reduced to fly shamefully under the covert of the night, dragging away with them the sad ruins and miserable remains of their fleet and army, and trembling for the fate of their native country. Imilcar, who had neither regarded the sacred refuge of temples, nor the inviolable sanctity of tombs, after having left one hundred and fifty thousand men unburied in the enemy's country, returned to perish miserably at Carthage, avenging upon himself by his death, the contempt which he had expressed for gods and men.

Dionysius, who was suspicious of the strangers in his service, removed ten thousand of thein, and, under the pretence of rewarding their merit, gave them the city of Leontium, which was in reality very commodiously situated, and an advantageous settlement. He confided the guard of his person to other foreigners, and the slaves whom he had made free. He made several attempts upon places in Sicily, and in the neighbouring country, especially against Rhegium. The people of Italy, seeing themselves in danger, entered into a powerful alliance to put a stop to his conquests. The success was nearly equal on both sides.

*

About this time, the Gauls, who some months before had burned Rome, sent deputies to Dionysius, who was at that time in Italy, to make an alliance with him. The advices he had received of the great preparations making by the Carthaginians for war, obliged him to return to Sicily.†

The Carthaginians having set on foot a numerous army under the conduct of Mago, made new efforts against Syracuse, but with no better success than the former. They terminated in an accommodation with Dionysius.

He again attacked Rhegium, and at first received no inconsiderable check. But having gained a great victory over the Greeks of Italy, in which he took more than ten thousand prisoners, he dismissed them all without ransom, contrary to their expectation; with a view of dividing the Italians from the interests of Rhegium, and of dissolving a powerful league, which might have defeated his designs. Having by this action of favour and generosity acquired the good opinion of all the inhabitants of the country, and from enemies made them his friends and allies, he returned against Rhegium. He was extremely incensed against that city on account of their refusing to give him one of their citizens in marriage, and the insolent answer with which that refusal was attended. The besieged, finding themselves incapable of resisting so numerous an army as that of Dionysius, and expecting no quarter if the city should be taken by assault, began to talk of capitulating; to which he hearkened not unwillingly. He made them pay three hundred talents, deliver up all their vessels, to the number of seventy, and put one hundred hostages into his hands; after which he raised the siege. It was not out of favour and clemency that he acted in this manner, but to make their destruction sure, after having first reduced their power.‡

Accordingly, the next year, under the false pretext, and with the reproach of their having violated the treaty, he besieged them again with all his forces, first sending back their hostages. Both parties acted with the utmost vigour. The desire of revenge on one side, and the fear of the greatest cruelties on the :ther, animated the troops. Those of the city were commanded by Phyto, a brave and intrepid man, whom the danger of his country rendered more courageous. He inade frequent and destructive sallies. In one of them, Dionysius received a wound from which he recovered with great difficulty. The sege went on slowly, and had already continued eleven months, when a cruel famine reduced the city to the last extremities. A measure of wheat, of about six bushels, was sold for five minæ. After having consumed all their horses Diod. 1. xiv. p. 304–310.

t Justin. 1. xx. c. 5.

A. M. 3615. Ant. J. C. 389.

and beasts of carriage, they were obliged to support themselves with leather and hides, which they boiled; and at last to feed upon the grass of the fields like beasts; a resource of which Dionysius soon deprived them, by making his horse eat up all the herbage around the city. Necessity at length reduced them to surrender at discretion; and Dionysius entered the place, which be found covered with dead bodies. Those who survived were rather skeletons than men. He took about six thousand prisoners, whom he sent to Syracuse. Such as could pay one minæ he dismissed, and sold the rest for slaves.

Dionysius let the whole weight of his resentment and revenge fall upon Phyto. He began with ordering his son to be thrown into the sea. The next day he ordered the father to be fastened to the extremity of the highest of his egines, for a spectacle to the whole army, and in that condition he sent to tell him that his son had been thrown into the sea. "Then he is happier than me by a day," replied that unfortunate parent. He afterwards caused him to be led through the whole city, to be scourged with rods, and to suffer a thousand other indignities, while a herald proclaimed "that the perfidious traitor was treated in that manner, for having inspired the people of Rhegium with rebellion." "Say rather," answered that generous defender of his country's liberty, "that a faithful citizen is so used, for having refused to sacrifice his country to a tyrant." Such an object and such a discourse drew tears from all eyes, and even from the soldiers of Dionysius. He was afraid that his prisoner would be taken from him before he had satiated his revenge, and ordered him to be thrown into the sea directly.

SECTION IV.-VIOLENT PASSION OF DIONYSIUS FOR POETRY. HIS DEATH AND BAD QUALITIES.

Ar an interval which the success against Rhegium bad left, Dionysius the tyrant, who was fond of all kinds of glory, and prided himself upon the excellence of his genius, sent his brother Thearides to Olympia, to dispute in his name the prizes of the chariot-race and poetry.*

The circumstance of which I am about to treat, and which regards the taste, or rather passion of Dionysius for poetry and polite learning, being one of his peculiar characteristics, and having besides a mixture of good and bad in itself, makes it requisite, for a right understanding of it, to distinguish wherein this taste of his is either laudable or worthy of blame.

I shall say much upon the tyrant's general character, with whose vices of ambition and tyranny many great qualities were united, which ought not to be disguised or misrepresented; the veracity of history requiring, that justice should be done even to the most wicked, when they are not so in every respect. We have seen several things in his character that certainly deserve praise; I mean in regard to his manners and behaviour; the mildness with which he suffered the freedom of young Dion; the admiration he expressed of the bold and generous answer of his sister Thesta upon account of her busband's flight; his gracious and insinuating deportment upon several other occasions to the Syracusans; the familiarity of his discourse with the meanest citizens, and even workmen; the equality he observed between his two wives, and his kindness and respect for them; all which imply that Dionysius had more equity, moderation, affability, and generosity, than is commonly ascribed to him. He is not such a tyrant as Phalaris, Alexander of Pheræ, Caligula, Nero, or Caracalla.

But, to return to the taste of Dionysius for poetry. In his intervals of leisure, he indulged in the conversation of persons of wit, and in the study of arts and sciences. He was particularly fond of versifying, and employed himself in the composition of poems, especially of tragedies. Thus far this passion of his may be excused, having something undoubtedly laudable in it; I mean in the taste for polite learning, the esteem he expressed for learned men, his in

Diod. I. xiv. p. 318.