希腊罗马名人传(Timoleon)

it was for the sake of others that i first commenced writing biographies；but i find myself proceeding and attaching myself to it for my own；the virtues of these great men serving me as a sort of looking-glass,in which i may see how to adjust and adorn my own life. indeed, itcan be compared to nothing but daily living and associating together；we receive, as it were, in our inquiry, and entertain each successiveguest, view-

"their stature and their qualities," and select from their actionsall that is noblest and worthiest to know.

"ah, and what greater pleasure can one have？" or what more effectivemeans to one's moral improvement？ democritus tells us we ought topray that of the phantasms appearing in the circumambient air, suchmay present themselves to us as are propitious, and that we may rathermeet with those that are agreeable to our natures and are good thanthe evil and unfortunate； which is simply introducing into philosophya doctrine untrue in itself, and leading to endless superstitions.my method, on the contrary, is, by the study of history, and by thefamiliarity acquired in writing, to habituate my memory to receiveand retain images of the best and worthiest characters. i thus amenabled to free myself from any ignoble, base, or vicious impressions,contracted from the contagion of ill company that i may be unavoidablyengaged in； by the remedy of turning my thoughts in a happy and calmtemper to view these noble examples. of this kind are those of timoleonthe corinthian and paulus aemilius, to write whose lives is my presentbusiness； men equally famous, not only for their virtues, but success；insomuch that they have left it doubtful whether they owe their greatestachievements to good fortune, or their own prudence and conduct.

the affairs of the syracusans, before timoleon was sent into sicily,were in this posture； after dion had driven out dionysius the tyrant,he was slain by treachery, and those that had assisted him in deliveringsyracuse were divided among themselves； and thus the city by a continualchange of governors, and a train of mischiefs that succeeded eachother, became almost abandoned； while of the rest of sicily, partwas now utterly depopulated and desolate through long continuanceof war, and most of the cities that had been left standing were inthe hands of barbarians and soldiers out of employment, that wereready to embrace every turn of government. such being the state ofthings, dionysius takes the opportunity, and in the tenth year ofhis banishment, by the help of some mercenary troops he had got together,forces out nysaeus, then master of syracuse, recovers all afresh,and is again settled in his dominion； and as at first he had beenstrangely deprived of the greatest and most absolute power that everwas by a very small party, so now, in a yet stranger manner, whenin exile and of mean condition, he became the sovereign of those whohad ejected him. all therefore that remained in syracuse had to serveunder a tyrant, who at the best was of an ungentle nature, and exasperatednow to a degree of savageness by the late misfortunes and calamitieshe had suffered. the better and more distinguished citizens, havingtimely retired thence to hicetes, ruler of the leontines, put themselvesunder his protection, and chose him for their general in the war；not that he was much preferable to any open and avowed tyrant, butthey had no other sanctuary at present, and it gave them some groundof confidence he was of a syracusan family, and had forces able toencounter those of dionysius.

in the meantime the carthaginians appeared before sicily with a greatnavy, watching when and where they might make a descent upon the island；and terror at this fleet made the sicilians incline to send an embassyinto greece to demand succours from the corinthians, whom they confidedin rather than others, not only upon the account of their near kindred,and the great benefits they had often received by trusting them, butbecause corinth had ever shown herself attached to freedom and aversefrom tyranny and had engaged in many noble wars, not for empire oraggrandizement, but for the sole liberty of the greeks, but hicetes,who made it the business of his command not so much to deliver thesyracusans from other tyrants, as to enslave them to himself, hadalready entered into some secret conferences with those of carthage,while in public he commended the design of his syracusan clients,and despatched ambassadors from himself, together with theirs, intopeloponnesus； not that he really desired any relief to come from there,but in case the corinthians, as was likely enough, on account of thetroubles of greece and occupation at home, should refuse their assistance,hoping then he should be able with less difficulty to dispose andincline things for the carthaginian interest, and so make use of theseforeign pretenders, as instruments and auxiliaries for himself, eitheragainst the syracusans or dionysius, as occasion served. this wasdiscovered a while after.

the ambassadors being arrived, and their request known, the corinthians,who had always a great concern for all their colonies and plantations,but especially for syracuse, since by good fortune there was nothingto molest them in their own country, where they were enjoying peaceand leisure at that time, readily and with one accord passed a votefor their assistance. and when they were deliberating about the choiceof a captain for the expedition, and the magistrates were urging theclaims of various aspirants for reputation, one of the crowd stoodup and named timoleon, son of timodemus, who had long absented himselffrom public business, and had neither any thoughts of nor the leastpretensions to, an employment of that nature. some god or other, itmight rather seem, had put it in the man's heart to mention him； suchfavour and good-will on the part of fortune seemed at once to be shownin his election, and to accompany all his following actions, as thoughit were on purpose to commend his worth, and add grace and ornamentto his personal virtues. as regards his parentage, both timodemushis father, and his mother demariste, were of high rank in the city；and as for himself, he was noted for his love of his country, andhis gentleness of temper, except in his extreme hatred to tyrantsand wicked men. his natural abilities for war were so happily tempered,that while a rare prudence might be seen in all the enterprises ofhis younger years, an equal courage showed itself in the last exploitsof his declining age. he had an elder brother, whose name was timophanes,who was every way unlike him, being indiscreet and rash, and infectedby the suggestions of some friends and foreign soldiers, whom he keptalways about him, with a passion for absolute power. he seemed tohave a certain force and vehemence in all military service, and evento delight in dangers, and thus he took much with the people, andwas advanced to the highest charges, as a vigorous and effective warrior；in the obtaining of which offices and promotions, timoleon much assistedhim, helping to conceal or at least to extenuate his errors, embellishingby his praise whatever was commendable in him, and setting off hisgood qualities to the best advantage.

it happened once in the battle fought by the corinthians against theforces of argos and cleonae, that timoleon served among the infantry,when timophanes, commanding their cavalry, was brought into extremedanger； as his horse being wounded fell forward and threw him headlongamidst the enemies, while part of his companions dispersed at oncein a panic, and the small number that remained, bearing up againsta great multitude, had much ado to maintain any resistance. as soon,therefore, as timoleon was aware of the accident, he ran hastily into his brother's rescue, and covering the fallen timophanes with hisbuckler, after having received abundance of darts, and several strokesby the sword upon his body and his armour, he at length with muchdifficulty obliged the enemies to retire, and brought off his brotheralive and safe. but when the corinthians, for fear of losing theircity a second time, as they had once before, by admitting their allies,made a decree to maintain four hundred mercenaries for its security,and gave timophanes the command over them, he, abandoning all regardto honour and equity, at once proceeded to put into execution hisplans for making himself absolute, and bringing the place under hisown power； and having cut off many principal citizens, uncondemnedand without trial, who were most likely to hinder his designs, hedeclared himself tyrant of corinth； a procedure that infinitely afflictedtimoleon, to whom the wickedness of such a brother appeared to behis own reproach and calamity. he undertook to persuade him by reasoning,that desisting from that wild and unhappy ambition, he would bethinkhimself how he should make the corinthians some amends, and find outan expedient to remedy and correct the evils he had done them. whenhis single admonition was rejected and contemned by him, he makesa second attempt, taking with him aeschylus his kinsman, brother tothe wife of timophanes, and a certain diviner, that was his friend,whom theopompus in his history calls satyrus, but ephorus and timaeusmention in theirs by the name of orthagoras. after a few days, then,he returns to his brother with this company, all three of them surroundingand earnestly importuning him upon the same subject, that now at lengthhe would listen to reason, and be of another mind. but when timophanesbegan first to laugh at the men's simplicity, and presently brokeout into rage and indignation against them, timoleon stepped asidefrom him and stood weeping with his face covered, while the othertwo, drawing out their swords, despatched him in a moment.

on the rumour of this act being soon scattered about, the better andmore generous of the corinthians highly applauded timoleon for thehatred of wrong and the greatness of soul that had made him, thoughof a gentle disposition and full of love and kindness for his family,think the obligations to his country stronger than the ties of consanguinity,and prefer that which is good and just before gain and interest andhis own particular advantage. for the same brother, who with so muchbravery had been saved by him when he fought valiantly in the causeof corinth, he had now as nobly sacrificed for enslaving her afterwardsby a base usurpation. but then, on the other side, those that knewnot how to live in a democracy, and had been used to make their humblecourt to the men of power, though they openly professed to rejoiceat the death of the tyrant, nevertheless, secretly reviling timoleon,as one that had committed an impious and abominable act, drove himinto melancholy and dejection. and when he came to understand howheavily his mother took it, and that she likewise uttered the saddestcomplaints and most terrible imprecations against him, he went tosatisfy and comfort her as to what had happened； and finding thatshe would not endure so much as to look upon him, but caused her doorsto be shut, that he might have no admission into her presence, withgrief at this he grew so disordered in his mind and so disconsolate,that he determined to put an end to his perplexity with his life,by abstaining from all manner of sustenance. but through the careand diligence of his friends, who were very instant with him, andadded force to their entreaties, he came to resolve and promise atlast, that he would endure living, provided it might be in solitude,and remote from company； so that, quitting all civil transactionsand commerce with the world for a long while after his first retirement,he never came into corinth, but wandered up and down the fields, fullof anxious and tormenting thoughts, and spent his time in desert places,at the farthest distance from society and human intercourse. so trueit is that the minds of men are easily shaken and carried off fromtheir own sentiments through the casual commendation or reproof ofothers, unless the judgments that we make, and the purposes we conceive,be confirmed by reason and philosophy, and thus obtain strength andsteadiness. an action must not only be just and laudable in its ownnature, but it must proceed likewise from motives and a lasting principle,that so we may fully and constantly approve the thing, and be perfectlysatisfied in what we do； for otherwise, after having put our resolutioninto practice, we shall out of pure weakness come to be troubled atthe performance, when the grace and godliness, which rendered it beforeso amiable and pleasing to us, begin to decay and wear out of ourfancy； like greedy people, who, seizing on the more delicious morselsof any dish with a keen appetite, are presently disgusted when theygrow full, and find themselves oppressed and uneasy now by what theybefore so greedily desired. for a succeeding dislike spoils the bestof actions, and repentance makes that which was never so well donebecome base and faulty； whereas the choice that is founded upon knowledgeand wise reasoning does not change by disappointment, or suffer usto repent, though it happen perchance to be less prosperous in theissue. and thus, phocion, of athens, having always vigorously opposedthe measures of leosthenes, when success appeared to attend them,and he saw his countrymen rejoicing and offering sacrifice in honourof their victory, "i should have been as glad," said he to them, "thati myself had been the author of what leosthenes has achieved for you,as i am that i gave you my own counsel against it." a more vehementreply is record to have been made by aristides the locrian, one ofplato's companions, to dionysius the elder, who demanded one of hisdaughters in marriage： "i had rather," said he to him, "see the virginin her grave than in the palace of a tyrant." and when dionysius,enraged at the affront, made his sons be put to death a while after,and then again insultingly asked, whether he were still in the samemind as to the disposal of his daughters, his answer was, "i cannotbut grieve at the cruelty of your deeds, but am not sorry for thefreedom of my own words." such expressions as these may belong perhapsto a more sublime and accomplished virtue.

the grief, however, of timoleon at what had been done, whether itarose from commiseration of his brother's fate or the reverence hebore his mother, so shattered and broke his spirits, that for thespace of almost twenty years he had not offered to concern himselfin any honourable or public action. when, therefore, he was pitchedupon for a general, and, joyfully accepted as such by the suffragesof the people, teleclides, who was at that time the most powerfuland distinguished man in corinth, began to exhort him that he wouldact now like a man of worth and gallantry： "for," said he, "if youdo bravely in this service we shall believe that you delivered usfrom a tyrant； but if otherwise that you killed your brother." whilehe was yet preparing to set sail, and enlisting soldiers to embarkwith him, there came letters to the corinthians from hicetes, plainlydisclosing his revolt and treachery. for his ambassadors had no soonergone for corinth, but he openly joined the carthaginians, negotiatingthat they might assist him to throw out dionysius, and become masterof syracuse in his room. and fearing he might be disappointed of hisaim if troops and a commander should come from corinth before thiswere effected, he sent a letter of advice thither, in all haste, toprevent their setting out, telling them they need not be at any costand trouble upon his account, or run the hazard of a sicilian voyage,especially since the carthaginians, alliance with whom against dionysiusthe slowness of their motions had compelled him to embrace, woulddispute their passage, and lay in wait to attack them with a numerousfleet. this letter being publicly read, if any had been cold and indifferentbefore as to the expedition in hand, the indignation they now conceivedagainst hicetes so exasperated and inflamed them all that they willinglycontributed to supply timoleon, and endeavoured with one accord tohasten his departure.

when the vessels were equipped, and his soldiers every way providedfor, the female priest of proserpina had a dream or vision whereinshe and her mother ceres appeared to them in a travelling garb, andwere heard to say that they were going to sail with timoleon intosicily； whereupon the corinthians, having built a sacred galley, devotedit to them, and called it the galley of the goddesses. timoleon wentin person to delphi, where he sacrificed to apollo, and, descendinginto the place of prophecy, was surprised with the following marvellousoccurrence. a riband, with crowns and figures of victory embroideredupon it, slipped off from among the gifts that were there consecratedand hung up in the temple, and fell directly down upon his head； sothat apollo seemed already to crown him with success, and send himthence to conquer and triumph. he put to sea only with seven shipsof corinth, two of corcyra, and a tenth which was furnished by theleucadians； and when he was now entered into the deep by night, andcarried with a prosperous gale, the heaven seemed all on a suddento break open, and a bright spreading flame to issue forth from it,and hover over the ship he was in； and, having formed itself intoa torch, not unlike those that are used in the mysteries, it beganto steer the same course, and run along in their company, guidingthem by its light to that quarter of italy where they designed togo ashore. the soothsayers affirmed that this apparition agreed withthe dream of the holy woman, since the goddesses were now visiblyjoining in the expedition, and sending this light from heaven beforethem： sicily being thought sacred to proserpina, as poets feign thatthe rape was committed there, and that the island was given her indowry when she married pluto.

these early demonstrations of divine favour greatly encouraged hiswhole army； so that making all the speed they were able, by a voyageacross the open sea, they were soon passing along the coast of italy.but the tidings that came from sicily much perplexed timoleon, anddisheartened his soldiers. for hicetes, having already beaten dionysiusout of the field, and reduced most of the quarters of syracuse itself,now hemmed him in and besieged him in the citadel and what is calledthe island, whither he was fled for his last refuge； while the carthaginians,by agreement, were to make it their business to hinder timoleon fromlanding in any port of sicily； so that he and his party being drivenback, they might with ease and at their own leisure divide the islandamong themselves. in pursuance of which design the carthaginians sentaway twenty of their galleys to rhegium, having aboard them certainambassadors from hicetes to timoleon, who carried instructions suitableto these proceedings, specious amusements, and plausible stories,to colour and conceal dishonest purposes. they had order to proposeand demand that timoleon himself, if he liked the offer, should comeand advise with hicetes and partake of all his conquests, but thathe might send back his ships and forces to corinth, since the warwas in a manner finished, and the carthaginians had blocked up thepassage, determined to oppose them if they should try to force theirway towards the shore. when, therefore, the corinthians met with theseenvoys at rhegium, and received their message, and saw the phoenicianvessels riding at anchor in the bay, they became keenly sensible ofthe abuse that was put upon them, and felt a general indignation againsthicetes, and great apprehensions for the siceliots, whom they nowplainly perceived to be as it were a prize and recompense to hiceteson one side for his perfidy, and to the carthaginians on the otherfor the sovereign power they secured to him. for it seemed utterlyimpossible to force and overbear the carthaginian ships that lay beforethem and were double their number, as also to vanquish the victorioustroops which hicetes had with him in syracuse, to take the lead ofwhich very troops they had undertaken their voyage.

the case being thus, timoleon, after some conference with the envoysof hicetes and the carthaginian captains, told them he should readilysubmit to their proposals （to what purpose would it be to refuse compliance？）：he was desirous only, before his return to corinth, that what hadpassed between them in private might be solemnly declared before thepeople of rhegium, a greek city, and a common friend to the parties；this, he said, would very much conduce to his own security and discharge；and they likewise would more strictly observe articles of agreement,on behalf of the syracusans, which they had obliged themselves toin the presence of so many witnesses. the design of all which wasonly to divert their attention, while he got an opportunity of slippingaway from their fleet； a contrivance that all the principal rhegianswere privy and assisting to, who had a great desire that the affairsof sicily should fall into corinthian hands, and dreaded the consequencesof having barbarian neighbours. an assembly was therefore called,and the gates shut, that the citizens might have no liberty to turnto other business； and a succession of speakers came forward, addressingthe people at great length, to the same effect, without bringing thesubject to any conclusion, making way each for another and purposelyspinning out the time, till the corinthian galleys should get clearof the haven； the carthaginian commanders being detained there withoutany suspicion, as also timoleon still remained present, and gave signsas if he were just preparing to make an oration. but upon secret noticethat the rest of the galleys were already gone off, and that his aloneremained waiting for him, by the help and concealment of those rhegiansthat were about the hustings and favoured his departure, he made shiftto slip away through the crowd, and running down to the port, setsail with all speed； and having reached his other vessels, they cameall safe to tauromenium in sicily, whither they had been formerlyinvited, and where they were now kindly received by andromachus, thenruler of the city. this man was father of timaeus the historian, andincomparably the best of all those that bore sway in sicily at thattime, governing his citizens according to law and justice and openlyprofessing an aversion and enmity to all tyrants； upon which accounthe gave timoleon leave to muster up his troops there, and to makethat city the seat of war, persuading the inhabitants to join theirarms with the corinthian forces, and assist them in the design ofdelivering sicily.

but the carthaginians who were left in rhegium perceiving, when theassembly was dissolved, that timoleon had given them the go-by, werenot a little vexed to see themselves out-witted, much to the amusementof the rhegians, who could not but smile to find phoenicians complainof being cheated. however, they despatched a messenger aboard oneof their galleys to tauromenium, who, after much blustering in theinsolent barbaric way, and many menaces to andromachus if he did notforthwith send the corinthians off, stretched out his hand with theinside upward, and then turning it down again, threatened he wouldhandle their city even so, and turn it topsy-turvy in as little time,and with as much ease. andromachus, laughing at the man's confidence,made no other reply, but, imitating his gesture, bid him hasten hisown departure, unless he had a mind to see that kind of dexteritypractised first upon the galley which brought him hither.

hicetes, informed that timoleon had made good his passage, was ingreat fear of what might follow, and sent to desire the carthaginiansthat a large number of galleys might be ordered to attend and securethe coast. and now it was that the syracusans began wholly to despairof safety, seeing the carthaginians possessed of their haven, hicetesmaster of the town, and dionysius supreme in the citadel； while timoleonhad as yet but a slender hold of sicily, as it were by the fringeor border of it, in the small city of the tauromenians, with a feeblehope and a poor company； having but a thousand soldiers at the most,and no more provisions, either of corn or money, than were just necessaryfor the maintenance and the pay of that inconsiderable number. nordid the other towns of sicily confide in him, overpowered as theywere with violence and outrage, and embittered against all that shouldoffer to lead armies by the treacherous conduct chiefly of callipus,an athenian, and pharax, a lacedaemonian captain, both of whom, aftergiving out that the design of their coming was to introduce libertyand to depose tyrants, so tyrannized themselves, that the reign offormer oppressors seemed to be a golden age in comparison, and thesicilians began to consider those more happy who had expired in servitude,than any that had lived to see such a dismal freedom.

looking, therefore, for no better usage from the corinthian general,but imagining that it was only the same old course of things oncemore, specious pretences and false professions to allure them by fairhopes and kind promises into the obedience of a new master, they all,with one accord, unless it were the people of adranum, suspected theexhortations, and rejected the overtures that were made them in hisname. these were inhabitants of a small city, consecrated to adranus,a certain god that was in high veneration throughout sicily, and,as it happened, they were then at variance among themselves, insomuchthat one party called in hicetes and the carthaginians to assist them,while the other sent proposals to timoleon. it so fell out that theseauxiliaries, striving which should be soonest, both arrived at adranumabout the same time； hicetes bringing with him at least five thousandmen, while all the force timoleon could make did not exceed twelvehundred. with these he marched out of tauromenium, which was aboutthree hundred and forty furlongs distant from that city. the firstday he moved but slowly, and took up his quarters betimes after ashort journey； but the day following he quickened his pace, and, havingpassed through much difficult ground, towards evening received advicethat hicetes was just approaching adranum, and pitching his camp beforeit； upon which intelligence, his captains and other officers causedthe vanguard to halt, that the army being refreshed, and having reposeda while, might engage the enemy with better heart. but timoleon, comingup in haste, desired them not to stop for that reason, but ratheruse all possible diligence to surprise the enemy, whom probably theywould now find in disorder, as having lately ended their march andbeing taken up at present in erecting tents and preparing supper；which he had no sooner said, but laying hold of his buckler and puttinghimself in the front, he led them on as it were to certain victory.the braveness of such a leader made them all follow him with likecourage and assurance. they were now within less than thirty furlongsof adranum, which they quickly traversed, and immediately fell inupon the enemy, who were seized with confusion, and began to retireat their first approaches； one consequence of which was that, amidstso little opposition, and so early and general a flight, there werenot many more than three hundred slain, and about twice the numbermade prisoners. their camp and baggage, however, was all taken. thefortune of this onset soon induced the adranitans to unlock theirgates, and to embrace the interest of timoleon, to whom they recounted,with a mixture of affright and admiration, how, at the very minuteof the encounter, the doors of their temple flew open of their ownaccord, that the javelin also, which their god held in his band, wasobserved to tremble at the point, and that drops of sweat had beenseen running down his face； prodigies that not only presaged the victorythen obtained, but were an omen, it seemed, of all his future exploits,to which this first happy action gave the occasion.

for now the neighbouring cities and potentates sent deputies, oneupon another, to seek his friendship and make offer of their service.among the rest mamercus, the tyrant of catana, an experienced warriorand a wealthy prince, made proposals of alliance with him, and whatwas of greater importance still, dionysius himself, being now growndesperate, and well-nigh forced to surrender, despising hicetes whohad been thus shamefully baffled, and admiring the valour of timoleon,found means to advertise him and his corinthians that he should becontent to deliver up himself and the citadel into their hands. timoleon,gladly embracing this unlooked-for advantage, sends away euclidesand telemachus, two corinthian captains, with four hundred men, forthe seizure and custody of the castle, with directions to enter notall at once, or in open view, that being impracticable so long asthe enemy kept guard, but by stealth, and in small companies. andso they took possession of the fortress and the palace of dionysius,with all the stores and ammunition he had prepared and laid up tomaintain the war. they found a good number of horses, every varietyof engines, a multitude of darts, and weapons to arm seventy thousandmen （a magazine that had been formed from ancient time）, besides twothousand soldiers that were then with him, whom he gave up with therest for timoleon's service. dionysius himself, putting his treasureaboard, and taking a few friends, sailed away unobserved by hicetes,and being brought to the camp of timoleon, there first appeared inthe humble dress of a private person, and was shortly after sent tocorinth with a single ship and a small sum of money. born and educatedin the most splendid court and the most absolute monarchy that everwas, which he held and kept up for the space of ten years succeedinghis father's death, he had, after dion's expedition, spent twelveother years in a continual agitation of wars and contests, and greatvariety of fortune, during which time all the mischiefs he had committedin his former reign were more than repaid by the ills he himself thensuffered, since he lived to see the deaths of his sons in the primeand vigour of their age, and the rape of his daughters in the flowerof their virginity, and the wicked abuse of his sister and his wife,who, after being first exposed to all the lawless insults of the soldiery,was then murdered with her children, and cast into the sea； the particularsof which are more exactly given in the life of dion.

upon the news of his landing at corinth, there was hardly a man ingreece who had not the curiosity to come and view the late formidabletyrant, and say some words to him； part, rejoicing at his disasters,were led thither out of mere spite and hatred, that they might havethe pleasure of trampling, as it were, on the ruins of his brokenfortune； but others, letting their attention and their sympathy turnrather to the changes and revolutions of his life, could not but seein them a proof of the strength and potency with which divine andunseen causes operate amidst the weakness of human and visible things.for neither art nor nature did in that age produce anything comparableto this work and wonder of fortune which showed the very same man,that was not long before supreme monarch of sicily, loitering aboutperhaps in the fish-market, or sitting in a perfumer's shop drinkingthe diluted wine of taverns, or squabbling in the street with commonwomen, or pretending to instruct the singing women of the theatre,and seriously disputing with them about the measure and harmony ofpieces of music that were performed there. such behaviour on his partwas variously criticized. he was thought by many to act thus out ofpure compliance with his own natural indolent and vicious inclinations；while finer judges were of the opinion, that in all this he was playinga politic part, with a design to be contemned among them, and thatthe corinthians might not feel any apprehension or suspicion of hisbeing uneasy under his reverse of fortune, or solicitous to retrieveit； to avoid which danger, he purposely and against his true natureaffected an appearance of folly and want of spirit in his privatelife and amusements.

however it be, there are sayings and repartees of his left still uponrecord, which seem to show that he not ignobly accommodated himselfto his present circumstances； as may appear in part from the ingenuousnessof the avowal he made on coming to leucadia, which, as well as syracuse,was a corinthian colony, where he told the inhabitants that he foundhimself not unlike boys who had been in fault, who can talk cheerfullywith their brothers, but are ashamed to see their father； so likewisehe, he said, could gladly reside with them in that island, whereashe felt a certain awe upon his mind which made him averse to the sightof corinth, that was a common mother to them both. the thing is furtherevident from the reply he once made to a stranger in corinth, whoderiding him in a rude and scornful manner about the conferences heused to have with philosophers, whose company had been one of hispleasures while yet a monarch, and demanding, in fine, what he wasthe better now for all those wise and learned discourses of plato,"do you think," said he, "i have made no profit of his philosophywhen you see me bear my change of fortune as i do？" and when aristoxenusthe musician, and several others, desired to know how plato offendedhim, and what had been the ground of his displeasure with him, hemade answer that, of the many evils attaching to the condition ofsovereignty, the one greatest infelicity was that none of those whowere accounted friends would venture to speak freely, or tell theplain truth； and that by means of such he had been deprived of plato'skindness. at another time, when one of those pleasant companions thatare desirous to pass for wits, in mockery to dionysius, as if he werestill the tyrant, shook out the folds of his cloak, as he was enteringinto a room where he was, to show there were no concealed weaponsabout him, dionysius, by way of retort, observed, that he would preferhe would do so on leaving the room, as a security that he was carryingnothing off with him. and when philip of macedon, at a drinking party,began to speak in banter about the verses and tragedies which hisfather, dionysius the elder, had left behind him, and pretended towonder how he could get any time from his other business to composesuch elaborate and ingenious pieces, he replied, very much to thepurpose, "it was at those leisurable hours, which such as you andi, and those we call happy men, bestow upon our cups." plato had notthe opportunity to see dionysius at corinth, being already dead beforehe came thither； but diogenes of sinope, at their first meeting inthe street there, saluted him with the ambiguous expression, "o dionysius,how little you deserve your present life！ upon which dionysius stoppedand replied, "i thank you, diogenes, for your condolence." "condolewith you！" replied diogenes； "do you not suppose that, on the contrary,i am indignant that such a slave as you, who, if you had your due,should have been let alone to grow old and die in the state of tyranny,as your father did before you, should now enjoy the ease of privatepersons, and be here to sport and frolic in our society？" so thatwhen i compare those sad stories of philistus, touching the daughtersof leptines, where he makes pitiful moan on their behalf, as fallenfrom all the blessings and advantages of powerful greatness to themiseries of an humble life, they seem to me like the lamentationsof a woman who has lost her box of ointment, her purple dresses, andher golden trinkets. such anecdotes will not, i conceive, be thoughteither foreign to my purpose of writing lives, or unprofitable inthemselves, by such readers as are not in too much haste, or busiedand taken up with other concerns.

but if the misfortune of dionysius appears strange and extraordinary,we shall have no less reason to wonder at the good fortune of timoleon,who, within fifty days after his landing in sicily, both recoveredthe citadel of syracuse and sent dionysius an exile into peloponnesus.this lucky beginning so animated the corinthians, that they orderedhim a supply of two thousand foot and two hundred horse, who, reachingthurii, intended to cross over thence into sicily； but finding thewhole sea beset with carthaginian ships, which made their passageimpracticable, they were constrained to stop there, and watch theiropportunity： which time, however, was employed in a noble action.for the thurians, going out to war against their bruttian enemies,left their city in charge with these corinthian strangers, who defendedit as carefully as if it had been their own country, and faithfullyresigned it up again.

hicetes, in the interim, continued still to besiege the castle ofsyracuse, and hindered all provisions from coming in by sea to relievethe corinthians that were in it. he had engaged also, and despatchedtowards adranum, two unknown foreigners to assassinate timoleon, whoat no time kept any standing guard about his person, and was thenaltogether secure, diverting himself, without any apprehension, amongthe citizens of the place, it being a festival in honour of theirgods. the two men that were sent, having casually heard that timoleonwas about to sacrifice, came directly into the temple with poniardsunder their cloaks, and pressing in among the crowd, by little andlittle got up close to the altar； but, as they were just looking fora sign from each other to begin the attempt, a third person struckone of them over the head with a sword, upon whose sudden fall, neitherhe that gave the blow, nor the partisan of him that received it, kepttheir stations any longer； but the one, making way with his bloodysword, put no stop to his flight, till he gained the top of a certainlofty precipice, while the other, laying hold of the altar, besoughttimoleon to spare his life, and he would reveal to him the whole conspiracy.his pardon being granted, he confessed that both himself and his deadcompanion were sent thither purposely to slay him. while this discoverywas made, he that killed the other conspirator had been fetched downfrom his sanctuary of the rock, loudly and often protesting, as hecame along, that there was no injustice in the fact, as he had onlytaken righteous vengeance for his father's blood, whom this man hadmurdered before in the city of leontini； the truth of which was attestedby several there present, who could not choose but wonder too at thestrange dexterity of fortune's operations, the facility with whichshe makes one event the spring and motion to something wholly different,uniting every scattered accident and loose particular and remote action,and interweaving them together to serve her purpose； so that thingsthat in themselves seem to have no connection or interdependence whatsoever,become in her hands, so to say, the end and the beginning of eachother. the corinthians, satisfied as to the innocence of this seasonablefeat, honoured and rewarded the author with a present of ten poundsin their money, since he had, as it were, lent the use of his justresentment to the tutelar genius that seemed to be protecting timoleon,and had not pre-expended this anger, so long ago conceived, but hadreserved and deferred, under fortune's guidance, for his preservation,the revenge of a private quarrel.

but this fortunate escape had effects and consequences beyond thepresent, as it inspired the highest hopes and future expectationsof timoleon, making people reverence and protect him as a sacred personsent by heaven to revenge and redeem sicily. hicetes, having missedhis aim in this enterprise, and perceiving, also, that many went offand sided with timoleon, began to chide himself for his foolish modesty,that, when so considerable a force of the carthaginians lay readyto be commanded by him, he had employed them hitherto by degrees andin small numbers, introducing their reinforcements by stealth andclandestinely, as if he had been ashamed of the action. therefore,now laying aside his former nicety, he calls in mago, their admiral,with his whole navy, who presently set sail, and seized upon the portwith a formidable fleet of at least a hundred and fifty vessels, landingthere sixty thousand foot, which were all lodged within the city ofsyracuse； so that, in all men's opinion, the time anciently talkedof and long expected, wherein sicily should be subjugated by barbarians,was now come to its fatal period. for in all their preceding warsand many desperate conflicts with sicily, the carthaginians had neverbeen able, before this, to take syracuse； whereas hicetes now receivingthem and putting them into their hands, you might see it become nowas it were a camp of barbarians. by this means, the corinthian soldiersthat kept the castle found themselves brought into great danger andhardship； as, besides that their provision grew scarce, and they beganto be in want, because the havens were strictly guarded and blockedup, the enemy exercised them still with skirmishes and combats abouttheir walls, and they were not only obliged to be continually in arms,but to divide and prepare themselves for assaults and encounters ofevery kind, and to repel every variety of the means of offence employedby a besieging army.

timoleon made shift to relieve them in these straits, sending cornfrom catana by small fishing-boats and little skiffs, which commonlygained a passage through the carthaginian galleys in times of storm,stealing up when the blockading ships were driven apart and dispersedby the stress of weather； which mago and hicetes observing, they agreedto fall upon catana, from whence these supplies were brought in tothe besieged, and accordingly put off from syracuse, taking with themthe best soldiers in their whole army. upon this neon the corinthian,who was captain of those that kept the citadel, taking notice thatthe enemies who stayed there behind were very negligent and carelessin keeping guard, made a sudden sally upon them as they lay scattered,and, killing some and putting others to flight, he took and possessedhimself of that quarter which they call acradina, and was thoughtto be the strongest and most impregnable part of syracuse, a citymade up and compacted, as it were, of several towns put together.having thus stored himself with corn and money, he did not abandonthe place, nor retire again into the castle, but fortifying the precinctsof acradina, and joining it by works to the citadel, he undertookthe defence of both. mago and hicetes were now come near to catana,when a horseman, despatched from syracuse, brought them tidings thatacradina was taken； upon which they returned, in all haste, with greatdisorder and confusion, having neither been able to reduce the citythey went against, nor to preserve that they were masters of.

these successes, indeed, were such as might leave foresight and couragea pretence still of disputing it with fortune, which contributed mostto the result. but the next following event can scarcely be ascribedto anything but pure felicity. the corinthian soldiers who stayedat thurii, partly for fear of the carthaginian galleys which lay inwait for them under the command of hanno, and partly because of tempestuousweather which had lasted for many days, and rendered the sea dangerous,took a resolution to march by land over the bruttian territories,and what with persuasion and force together, made good their passagethrough those barbarians to the city of rhegium, the sea being stillrough and raging as before. but hanno, not expecting the corinthianswould venture out, and supposing it would be useless to wait thereany longer, bethought himself, as he imagined, of a most ingeniousand clever stratagem apt to delude and ensnare the enemy； in pursuanceof which he commanded the seamen to crown themselves with garlands,and adorning his galleys with bucklers both of the greek and carthaginianmake, he sailed away for syracuse in this triumphant equipage, andusing all his oars as he passed under the castle with much shoutingand laughter, cried out, on purpose to dishearten the besieged, thathe was come from vanquishing and taking the corinthian succours, whichhe fell upon at sea as they were passing over into sicily. while hewas thus trifling and playing his tricks before syracuse, the corinthians,now come as far as rhegium, observing the coast clear, and that thewind was laid, as it were by miracle, to afford them in all appearancea quiet and smooth passage, went immediately aboard on such littlebarks and fishing-boats as were then at hand, and got over to sicilywith such complete safety and in such an extraordinary calm, thatthey drew their horses by the reins, swimming along by them as thevessels went across.

when they were all landed, timoleon came to receive them, and by theirmeans at once obtained possession of messena, from whence he marchedin good order to syracuse, trusting more to his late prosperous achievementsthan his present strength, as the whole army he had then with himdid not exceed the number of four thousand： mago, however, was troubledand fearful at the first notice of his coming, and grew more apprehensiveand jealous still upon the following occasion. the marshes about syracuse,that receive a great deal of fresh water, as well from springs asfrom lakes and rivers discharging themselves into the sea, breed abundanceof eels, which may be always taken there in great quantities by anythat will fish for them. the mercenary soldiers that served on bothsides were wont to follow the sport together at their vacant hours,and upon any cessation of arms； who being all greeks, and having nocause of private enmity to each other, as they would venture bravelyin fight, so in times of truce used to meet and converse amicablytogether. and at this present time, while engaged about this commonbusiness of fishing, they fell into talk together； and some expressingtheir admiration of the neighbouring sea, and others telling how muchthey were taken with the convenience and commodiousness of the buildingsand public works, one of the corinthian party took occasion to demandof the others： "and is it possible that you who are grecians bornshould be so forward to reduce a city of this greatness, and enjoyingso many rare advantages, into the state of barbarism； and lend yourassistance to plant carthaginans, that are the worst and bloodiestof men, so much the nearer to us？ whereas you should rather wish therewere many more sicilies to lie between them and greece. have you solittle sense as to believe, that they come hither with an army, fromthe pillars of hercules and the atlantic sea, to hazard themselvesfor the establishment of hicetes？ who, if he had had the considerationwhich becomes a general, would never have thrown out his ancestorsand founders to bring in the enemies of his country in the room ofthem, when he might have enjoyed all suitable honour and command,with consent of timoleon and the rest of corinth." the greeks thatwere in pay with hicetes, noising these discourses about their camp,gave mago some ground to suspect, as indeed he had long sought fora pretence to be gone, that there was treachery contrived againsthim； so that, although hicetes entreated him to tarry, and made itappear how much stronger they were than the enemy, yet, conceivingthey came far more short of timoleon in respect of courage and fortunethan they surpassed him in number, he presently went aboard and setsail for africa, letting sicily escape out of his hands with dishonourto himself, and for such uncertain causes, that no human reason couldgive an account of his departure.

the day after he went away, timoleon came up before the city in arrayfor a battle. but when he and his company heard of this sudden flight；and saw the docks all empty, they could not forbear laughing at thecowardice of mago, and in mockery caused proclamation to be made throughthe city that a reward would be given to any one who could bring themtidings whither the carthaginian fleet had conveyed itself from them.however, hicetes resolving to fight it out alone, and not quittinghis hold of the city, but sticking close to the quarters he was inpossession of, places that were well fortified and not easy to beattacked, timoleon divided his forces into three parts, and fell himselfupon the side where the river anapas ran, which was most strong anddifficult of access； and he commanded those that were led by isias,a corinthian captain, to make their assault from the post of acradina,while dinarchus and demaretus, that brought him the last supply fromcorinth, were, with a third division, to attempt the quarter calledepipolae. a considerable impression being made from every side atonce, the soldiers of hicetes were beaten off and put to flight； andthis- that the city came to be taken by storm, and fall suddenly intotheir hands, upon the defeat and rout of the enemy- we must in alljustice ascribe to the valour of the assailants and the wise conductof their general； but that not so much as a man of the corinthianswas either slain or wounded in the action, this the good fortune oftimoleon seems to challenge for her own work, as though, in a sortof rivalry with his own personal exertions, she made it her aim toexceed and obscure his actions by her favours, that those who heardhim commended for his noble deeds might rather admire the happinessthan the merit of them. for the fame of what was done not only passedthrough all sicily, and filled italy with wonder, but even greeceitself, after a few days, came to ring with the greatness of his exploit；insomuch that those of corinth, who had as yet no certainty that theirauxiliaries were landed on the island, had tidings brought them atthe same time that they were safe and were conquerors. in so prosperousa course did affairs run, and such was the speed and celerity of executionwith which fortune, as with a new ornament, set off the native lustresof the performance.

timoleon, being master of the citadel, avoided the error which dionhad been guilty of. he spared not the place for the beauty and sumptuousnessof its fabric, and, keeping clear of those suspicions which occasionedfirst the unpopularity and afterwards the fall of dion, made a publiccrier give notice that all the syracusans who were willing to havea hand in the work should bring pick-axes and mattocks, and otherinstruments, and help him to demolish the fortifications of the tyrants.when they all came up with one accord, looking upon that order andthat day as the surest foundation of their liberty, they not onlypulled down the castle, but overturned the palaces and monuments adjoining,and whatever else might preserve any memory of former tyrants. havingsoon levelled and cleared the place, he there presently erected courtsfor administration of justice, ratifying the citizens by this means,and building popular government on the fall and ruin of tyranny. butsince he had recovered a city destitute of inhabitants, some of themdead in civil wars and insurrections, and others being fled to escapetyrants, so that through solitude and want of people the great market-placeof syracuse was overgrown with such quantity of rank herbage thatit became a pasture for their horses, the grooms lying along in thegrass as they fed by them； while also other towns, very few excepted,were become full of stags and wild boars, so that those who had nothingelse to do went frequently a-hunting, and found game in the suburbsand about the walls； and not one of those who possessed themselvesof castles, or made garrisons in the country, could be persuaded toquit their present abode, or would accept an invitation to returnback into the city, so much did they all dread and abhor the veryname of assemblies and forms of government and public speaking, thathad produced the greater part of those usurpers who had successivelyassumed a dominion over them- timoleon, therefore, with the syracusansthat remained, considering this vast desolation, and how little hopethere was to have it otherwise supplied, thought good to write tothe corinthians, requesting that they would send a colony out of greeceto repeople syracuse. for else the land about it would lie unimproved；and besides this, they expected to be involved in a greater war fromafrica, having news brought them that mago had killed himself, andthat the carthaginians, out of rage for his ill-conduct in the lateexpedition, had caused his body to be nailed upon a cross, and thatthey were raising a mighty force, with design to make their descentupon sicily the next summer.

these letters from timoleon being delivered at corinth, and the ambassadorsof syracuse beseeching them at the same time that they would takeupon them the care of their poor city, and once again become the foundersof it, the corinthians were not tempted by any feeling of cupidityto lay hold of the advantage. nor did they seize and appropriate thecity to themselves, but going about first to the games that are keptas sacred in greece, and to the most numerously attended religiousassemblages, they made publication by heralds, that the corinthians,having destroyed the usurpation at syracuse and driven out the tyrant,did thereby invite the syracusan exiles, and any other siceliots,to return and inhabit the city, with full enjoyment of freedom undertheir own laws, the land being divided among them in just and equalproportions. and after this, sending messengers into asia and theseveral islands where they understood that most of the scattered fugitiveswere then residing, they bade them all repair to corinth, engagingthat the corinthians would afford them vessels and commanders, anda safe convoy, at their own charges, to syracuse. such generous proposals,being thus spread about, gained them the just and honourable recompenseof general praise and benediction, for delivering the country fromoppressors, and saving it from barbarians, and restoring it at lengthto the rightful owners of the place. these, when they were assembledat corinth, and found how insufficient their company was, besoughtthe corinthians that they might have a supplement of other persons,as well out of their city as the rest of greece, to go with them asjoint colonists； and so raising themselves to the number of ten thousand,they sailed together to syracuse. by this time great multitudes, also,from italy and sicily had flocked in to timoleon, so that, as athanisreports, their entire body amounted now to sixty thousand men. amongthese he divided the whole territory, and sold the houses for a thousandtalents； by which method he both left it in the power of the old syracusansto redeem their own, and made it a means also for raising a stockfor the community, which had been so much impoverished of late andwas so unable to defray other expenses, and especially those of awar, that they exposed their very statues to sale, a regular processbeing observed, and sentence of auction passed upon each of them bymajority of votes, as if they had been so many criminals taking theirtrial； in the course of which it is said that while condemnation waspronounced upon all other statues, that of the ancient usurper gelowas exempted, out of admiration and honour and for the sake of thevictory he gained over the carthaginian forces at the river himera.

syracuse being thus happily revived, and replenished again by thegeneral concourse of inhabitants from all parts, timoleon was desirousnow to rescue other cities from the like bondage, and wholly and oncefor all to extirpate arbitrary government out of sicily. and for thispurpose, marching in to the territories of those that used it, hecompelled hicetes first to renounce the carthaginian interest, and,demolishing the fortresses which were held by him, to live henceforthamong the leontinians as a private person. leptines, also, the tyrantof apollonia and divers other little towns, after some resistancemade, seeing the danger he was in of being taken by force, surrenderedhimself； upon which timoleon spared his life, and sent him away tocorinth, counting it a glorious thing that the mother city shouldexpose to the view of other greeks these sicilian tyrants, livingnow in an exiled and a low condition. after this he returned to syracuse,that he might have leisure to attend to the establishment of the newconstitution, and assist cephalus and dionysius, who were sent fromcorinth to make laws, in determining the most important points ofit. in the meanwhile, desirous that his hired soldiers should notwant action, but might rather enrich themselves by some plunder fromthe enemy, he despatched dinarchus and demaretus with a portion ofthem into the part of the island belonging to the carthaginians, wherethey obliged several cities to revolt from the barbarians, and notonly lived in great abundance themselves, but raised money from theirspoil to carry on the war.

meantime, the carthaginians landed at the promontory of lilybaeum,bringing with them an army of seventy thousand men on board two hundredgalleys, besides a thousand other vessels laden with engines of battery,chariots, corn, and other military stores, as if they did not intendto manage the war by piecemeal and in parts as heretofore, but todrive the greeks altogether and at once out of all sicily. and indeedit was a force sufficient to overpower the siceliots, even thoughthey had been at perfect union among themselves, and had never beenenfeebled by intestine quarrels. hearing that part of their subjectterritory was suffering devastation, they forthwith made toward thecorinthians with great fury, having asdrubal and hamilcar for theirgenerals； the report of whose number and strength coming suddenlyto syracuse, the citizens were so terrified, that hardly three thousand,among so many myriads of them, had the courage to take up arms andjoin timoleon. the foreigners, serving for pay, were not above fourthousand in all, and about a thousand of these grew faint-heartedby the way, and forsook timoleon in his march towards the enemy, lookingon him as frantic and distracted, destitute of the sense which mighthave been expected from his time of life, thus to venture out againstan army of seventy thousand men, with no more than five thousand footand a thousand horse； and, when he should have kept those forces todefend the city, choosing rather to remove them eight days' journeyfrom syracuse, so that if they were beaten from the field, they wouldhave no retreat, nor any burial if they fell upon it. timoleon, however,reckoned it some kind of advantage, that these had thus discoveredthemselves before the battle, and encouraging the rest, led them withall speed to the river crimesus, where it was told him the carthaginianswere drawn together.

as he was marching up an ascent, from the top of which they expectedto have a view of the army and of the strength of the enemy, theremet him by chance a train of mules loaded with parsley； which hissoldiers conceived to be an ominous occurrence or ill-boding token,because this is the herb with which we not unfrequently adorn thesepulchres of the dead； and there is a proverb derived from the custom,used of one who is dangerously sick, that he has need of nothing butparsley. so to ease their minds, and free them from any superstitiousthoughts or forebodings of evil, timoleon halted, and concluded anaddress suitable to the occasion, by saying, that a garland of triumphwas here luckily brought them, and had fallen into their hands ofits own accord, as an anticipation of victory： the same with whichthe corinthians crown the victors in the isthmian games, accountingchaplets of parsley the sacred wreath proper to their country； parsleybeing at that time still the emblem of victory at the isthmian, asit is now at the nemean sports； and it is not so very long ago thatthe pine first began to be used in its place.

timoleon, therefore, having thus bespoke his soldiers, took part ofthe parsley, and with it made himself a chaplet first, his captainsand their companies all following the example of their leader. thesoothsayers then, observing also two eagles on the wing towards them,one of which bore a snake struck through with her talons, and theother, as she flew, uttered a loud cry indicating boldness and assurance,at once showed them to the soldiers, who with one consent fell tosupplicate the gods, and call them in to their assistance. it wasnow about the beginning of summer, and conclusion of the month calledthargelion, not far from the solstice； and the river sending up athick mist, all the adjacent plain was at first darkened with thefog, so that for a while they could discern nothing from the enemy'scamp； only a confused buzz and undistinguished mixture of voices cameup to the hill from the distant motions and clamours of so vast amultitude. when the corinthians had mounted, and stood on the top,and had laid down their bucklers to take breath and repose themselves,the sun coming round and drawing up the vapours from below, the grossfoggy air that was now gathered and condensed above formed in a cloudupon the mountains； and, all the under places being clear and open,the river crimesus appeared to them again, and they could descry theenemies passing over it, first with their formidable four-horse chariotsof war, and then ten thousand footmen bearing white shields, whomthey guessed to be all carthaginians, from the splendour of theirarms, and the slowness and order of their march. and when now thetroops of various other nations, flowing in behind them, began tothrong for passage in a tumultuous and unruly manner, timoleon, perceivingthat the river gave them opportunity to single off whatever numberof their enemies they had a mind to engage at and bidding his soldiersobserve how their forces were divided into two separate bodies bythe intervention of the stream, some being already over, and othersstill to ford it, gave demaretus command to fall in upon the carthaginianswith his horse, and disturb their ranks before they should be drawnup into form of battle； and coming down into the plain himself forminghis right and left wing of other sicilians, intermingling only a fewstrangers in each, he placed the natives of syracuse in the middle,with the stoutest mercenaries he had about his own person； and waitinga little to observe the action of his horse, when they saw they werenot only hindered from grappling with the carthaginians by the armedchariots that ran to and fro before the army, but forced continuallyto wheel about to escape having their ranks broken, and so to repeattheir charges anew, he took his buckler in his hand, and crying outto the foot that they should follow him with courage and confidence,he seemed to speak with a more than human accent, and a voice strongerthan ordinary； whether it were that he naturally raised it so highin the vehemence and ardour with his mind to assault the enemy, orelse, as many then thought, some god or other spoke with him. whenhis soldiers quickly gave an echo to it, and besought him to leadthem on without any further delay, he made a sign to the horse, thatthey should draw off from the front where the chariots were, and passsidewards to attack their enemies in the flank； then, making his vanguardfirm by joining man to man and buckler to buckler, he caused the trumpetto sound, and so bore in upon the carthaginians.

they, for their part, stoutly received and sustained his first onset；and having their bodies armed with breast-plates of iron, and helmetsof brass on their heads, besides great bucklers to cover and securethem, they could easily repel the charge of the greek spears. butwhen the business came to a decision by the sword, where mastery dependsno less upon art than strength, all on a sudden from the mountain-topsviolent peals of thunder and vivid flashes of lightning broke out；following upon which the darkness, that had been hovering about thehigher grounds and the crests of the hills, descending to the placeof battle and bringing a tempest of rain and of wind and hail alongwith it, was driven upon the greeks behind, and fell only at theirbacks, but discharged itself in the very faces of the barbarians,the rain beating on them, and the lightning dazzling them withoutcessation； annoyances that in many ways distressed at any rate theinexperienced, who had not been used to such hardships, and, in particular,the claps of thunder, and the noise of the rain and hail beating ontheir arms, kept them from hearing the commands of their officers.besides which, the very mud also was a great hindrance to the carthaginans,who were not lightly equipped, but, as i said before, loaded withheavy armour； and then their shirts underneath getting drenched, thefoldings about the bosom filled with water, grew unwieldy and cumbersometo them as they fought, and made it easy for the greeks to throw themdown, and, when they were once down, impossible for them, under thatweight, to disengage themselves and rise again with weapons in theirhands. the river crimesus, too, swollen partly by the rain, and partlyby the stoppage of its course with the numbers that were passing through,overflowed its banks； and the level ground by the side of it, beingso situated as to have a number of small ravines and hollows of thehillside descending upon it, was now filled with rivulets and currentsthat had no certain channel, in which the carthaginians stumbled androlled about, and found themselves in great difficulty. so that, infine, the storm bearing still upon them, and the greeks having cutin pieces four hundred men of their first ranks, the whole body oftheir army began to fly. great numbers were overtaken in the plain,and put to the sword there； and many of them, as they were makingtheir way back through the river, falling foul upon others that wereyet coming over, were borne away and overwhelmed by the waters； butthe major part, attempting to get up the hill so as to make theirescape, were intercepted and destroyed by the light-armed troops.it is said that, of ten thousand who lay dead after the fight, threethousand, at least, were carthaginian citizens； a heavy loss and greatgrief to their countrymen； those that fell being men inferior to noneamong them as to birth, wealth, or reputation. nor do their recordsmention that so many native carthaginians were ever cut off beforein any one battle； as they usually employed africans, spaniards, andnumidians in their wars, so that if they chanced to be defeated, itwas still at the cost and damage of other nations.

the greeks easily discovered of what condition and account the slainwere by the richness of their spoils； for when they came to collectthe booty, there was little reckoning made either of brass or iron,so abundant were better metals, and so common were silver and gold.passing over the river they became masters of their camp and carriages.as for captives, a great many of them were stolen away and sold privatelyby the soldiers but about five thousand were brought in and deliveredup for the benefit of the public； two hundred of their chariots ofwar were also taken. the tent of timoleon then presented a most gloriousand magnificent appearance, being heaped up and hung round with everyvariety of spoils and military ornaments, among which there were athousand breastplates of rare workmanship and beauty, and bucklersto the number of ten thousand. the victors being but few to stripso many that were vanquished, and having such valuable booty to occupythem, it was the third day after the fight before they could erectand finish the trophy of their conquest. timoleon sent tidings ofhis victory to corinth, with the best and goodliest arms he had takenas a proof of it； that he thus might render his country an objectof emulation to the whole world, when, of all the cities of greece,men should there alone behold the chief temples adorned, not withgrecian spoils, nor offerings obtained by the bloodshed and plunderof their own countrymen and kindred, and attended, therefore, withsad and unhappy remembrances, but with such as had been stripped frombarbarians and enemies to their nation, with the noblest titles inscribedupon them, titles telling of the justice as well as fortitude of theconquerors； namely, that the people of corinth, and timoleon theirgeneral, having redeemed the greeks of sicily from carthaginian bondage,made oblation of these to the gods, in grateful acknowledgment oftheir favour.

having done this, he left his hired soldiers in the enemy's countryto drive and carry away all they could throughout the subject-territoryof carthage, and so marched with the rest of his army to syracuse,where he issued an edict for banishing the thousand mercenaries whohad basely deserted him before the battle, and obliged them to quitthe city before sunset. they, sailing into italy, lost their livesthere by the hands of the bruttians, in spite of a public assuranceof safety previously given them； thus receiving, from the divine power,a just reward of their own treachery. mamercus, however, the tyrantof catana, and hicetes, after all, either envying timoleon the gloryof his exploits, or fearing him as one that would keep no agreement,or having any peace with tyrants, made a league with the carthaginians,and pressed them much to send a new army and commander into sicily,unless they would be content to hazard all and to be wholly ejectedout of that island. and in consequence of this, gisco was despatchedwith a navy of seventy sail. he took numerous greek mercenaries alsointo pay, that being the first time they had ever been enlisted forthe carthaginian service； but then it seems the carthaginians beganto admire them, as the most irresistible soldiers of all mankind.uniting their forces in the territory of messena, they cut off fourhundred of timoleon's paid soldiers, and within the dependencies ofcarthage, at a place called hierae, destroyed, by an ambuscade, thewhole body of mercenaries that served under euthymus the leucadian；which accidents, however, made the good fortune of timoleon accountedall the more remarkable, as these were the men that, with philomelusof phocis and onomarchus, had forcibly broken into the temple of apolloat delphi, and were partakers with them in the sacrilege； so thatbeing hated and shunned by all, as persons under a curse, they wereconstrained to wander about in peloponnesus； when, for want of others,timoleon was glad to take them into service in his expedition forsicily, where they were successful in whatever enterprise they attemptedunder his conduct. but now, when all the important dangers were past,on his sending them out for the relief and defence of his party inseveral places, they perished and were destroyed at a distance fromhim, not all together, but in small parties； and the vengeance whichwas destined for them, so accommodating itself to the good fortunewhich guarded timoleon as not to allow any harm or prejudice for goodmen to arise from the punishment of the wicked, the benevolence andkindness which the gods had for timoleon was thus as distinctly recognizedin his disasters as in his successes.

what most annoyed the syracusans was their being insulted and mockedby the tyrants； as, for example, by mamercus, who valued himself muchupon his gift for writing poems and tragedies, and took occasion,when coming to present the gods with the bucklers of the hired soldierswhom he had killed, to make a boast of his victory in an insultingelegiac inscription：-

"these shields with purple, gold, and ivory wrought, were won by us that but with poor ones fought."

after this, while timoleon marched to calauria, hicetes made an inroadinto the borders of syracuse, where he met with considerable booty,and having done much mischief and havoc, returned back to calauriaitself, in contempt of timoleon and the slender force he had thenwith him. he, suffering hicetes to pass forward, pursued him withhis horsemen and light infantry, which hicetes perceiving, crossedthe river damyrias, and then stood in a posture to receive him； thedifficulty of the passage, and the height and steepness of the bankon each side, giving advantage enough to make him confident. a strangecontention and dispute, meantime, among the officers of timoleon alittle retarded the conflict； no one of them was willing to let anotherpass over before him to engage the enemy； each man claiming it asa right to venture first and begin the onset； so that their fordingwas likely to be tumultuous and without order, a mere general strugglewhich should be the foremost. timoleon, therefore, desiring to decidethe quarrel by lot, took a ring from each of the pretenders, whichhe cast into his own cloak, and, after he had shaken all together,the first he drew out had, by good fortune, the figure of a trophyengraved as a seal upon it； at the sight of which the young captainsall shouted for joy, and, without waiting any longer to see how chancewould determine it for the rest, took every man his way through theriver with all the speed they could make, and fell to blows with theenemies, who were not able to bear up against the violence of theirattack, but fled in haste and left their arms behind them all alike,and a thousand dead upon the place.

not long after, timoleon, marching up to the city of the leontines,took hicetes alive, and his son eupolemus, and euthymus, the commanderof his horse, who were bound and brought to him by their own soldiers.hicetes and the stripling his son were then executed as tyrants andtraitors； and euthymus, though a brave man, and one of singular courage,could obtain no mercy, because he was charged with contemptuous languagein disparagement of the corinthians when they first sent their forcesinto sicily； it is said that he told the leontini in a speech thatthe news did not sound terrible, nor was any great danger to be fearedbecause of-

"corinthian women coming out of doors." so true it is that men areusually more stung and galled by reproachful words than hostile actions：and they bear an affront with less patience than an injury； to doharm and mischief by deeds is counted pardonable from the enemies,as nothing less can be expected in a state of war； whereas virulentand contumelious words appear to be the expression of needless hatred,and to proceed from an excess of rancour.

when timoleon came back to syracuse, the citizens brought the wivesand daughters of hicetes and his son to a public trial, and condemnedand put them to death. this seems to be the least pleasing actionof timoleon's life； since if he had interposed, the unhappy womenwould have been spared. he would appear to have disregarded the thing,and to have given them up to the citizens, who were eager to takevengeance for the wrongs done to dion, who expelled dionysius； sinceit was this very hicetes who took arete the wife and aristomache thesister of dion, with a son that had not yet passed his childhood,and threw them all together into the sea alive, as related in thelife of dion.

after this, he moved towards catana against mamercus, who gave himbattle near the river abolus, and was overthrown and put to flight,losing above two thousand men, a considerable part of whom were thephoenician troops sent by gisco to his assistance. after this defeatthe carthaginians sued for peace； which was granted on the conditionsthat they should confine themselves to the country within the riverlycus, that those of the inhabitants who wished to remove to the syracusanterritories should be allowed to depart with their whole familiesand fortunes, and, lastly, that carthage should renounce all engagementsto the tyrants. mamercus, now forsaken and despairing of success,took ship for italy with the design of bringing in the lucanians againsttimoleon and the people of syracuse； but the men in his galleys turningback and landing again and delivering up catana to timoleon, thusobliged him to fly for his own safety to messena, where hippo wastyrant. timoleon, however, coming up against them, and besieging thecity both by sea and land, hippo, fearful of the event, endeavouredto slip away in a vessel； which the people of messena surprised asit was putting off, and seizing on his person, and bringing all theirchildren from school into the theatre, to witness the glorious spectacleof a tyrant punished, they first publicly scourged and then put himto death. mamercus made surrender of himself to timoleon, with theproviso that he should be tried at syracuse and timoleon should takeno part in his accusation. thither he was brought accordingly, andpresenting himself to plead before the people, he essayed to pronouncean oration he had long before composed in his own defence； but findinghimself interrupted by noise and clamours, and observing from theiraspect and demeanour that the assembly was inexorable, he threw offhis upper garment, and running across the theatre as hard as he could,dashed his head against one of the stones under the seats with intentionto have killed himself； but he had not the fortune to perish as hedesigned, but was taken up alive, and suffered the death of a robber.

thus did timoleon cut the nerves of tyranny and put a period to thewars； and, whereas, at his first entering upon sicily, the islandwas as it were become wild again, and was hateful to the very nativeson account of the evils and miseries they suffered there, he so civilizedand restored it, and rendered it so desirable to all men, that evenstrangers now came by sea to inhabit those towns and places whichtheir own citizens had formerly forsaken and left desolate. agrigentumand gela, two famous cities that had been ruined and laid waste bythe carthaginians after the attic war, were then peopled again, theone by megellus and pheristus from elea, the other by gorgus, fromthe island of ceos, partly with new settlers, partly with the oldinhabitants whom they collected again from various parts； to all ofwhom timoleon not only afforded a secure and peaceful abode afterso obstinate a war, but was further so zealous in assisting and providingfor them that he was honoured among them as their founder. similarfeelings also possessed to such a degree all the rest of the siciliansthat there was no proposal for peace, nor reformation of laws, norassignation of land, nor reconstruction of government, which theycould think well of, unless he lent his aid as a chief architect,to finish and adorn the work, and superadd some touches from his ownhand, which might render it pleasing both to god and man.

although greece had in his time produced several persons of extraordinaryworth, and much renowned for their achievements, such as timotheusand agesilaus and pelopidas and （timoleon's chief model） epaminondas,yet the lustre of their best actions was obscured by a degree of violenceand labour, insomuch that some of them were matter of blame and ofrepentance； whereas there is not any one act of timoleon's, settingaside the necessity he was placed under in reference to his brother,to which, as timaeus observes, we may not fitly apply that exclamationof sophocles-

"o gods！ what venus, or what grace divine, did here with human workmanship combine？" for as the poetry of antimachus,and the painting of dionysius, the artists of colophon, though fullof force and vigour, yet appeared to be strained and elaborate incomparison with the pictures of nicomachus and the verses of homer,which, besides their general strength and beauty, have the peculiarcharm of seeming to have been executed with perfect ease and readiness；so the expeditions and acts of epaminondas or agesilaus, that werefull of toil and effort, when compared with the easy and natural aswell as noble and glorious achievements of timoleon, compel our fairand unbiased judgment to pronounce the latter not indeed the effectof fortune, but the success of fortunate merit. though he himselfindeed ascribed that success to the sole favour of fortune； and bothin the letters which he wrote to his friends at corinth, and in thespeeches he made to the people of syracuse, he would say, that hewas thankful unto god, who, designing to save sicily, was pleasedto honour him with the name and title of the deliverance he vouchsafedit. and having built a chapel in his house, he there sacrificed togood hap, as a deity that had favoured him, and devoted the houseitself to the sacred genius； it being a house which the syracusanshad selected for him, as a special reward and monument of his braveexploits, granting him together with it the most agreeable and beautifulpiece of land in the whole country, where he kept his residence forthe most part, and enjoyed a private life with his wife and children,who came to him from corinth. for he returned thither no more, unwillingto be concerned in the broils and tumults of greece, or to exposehimself to public envy （the fatal mischief which great commanderscontinually run into, from the insatiable appetite for honours andauthority）； but wisely chose to spend the remainder of his days insicily, and there partake of the blessings he himself had procured,the greatest of which was to behold so many cities flourish, and somany thousands of people live happy through his means.

as, however, not only, as simonides says, "on every lark must growa crest," but also in every democracy there must spring up a falseaccuser, so was it at syracuse： two of their popular spokesmen, laphystiusand demaenetus by name, fell to slander timoleon. the former of whomrequiring him to put in sureties that he would answer to an indictmentthat would be brought against him, timoleon would not suffer the citizens,who were incensed at this demand, to oppose it or hinder the proceeding,since he of his own accord had been, he said, at all that trouble,and run so many dangerous risks for this very end and purpose, thatevery one who wished to try matters by law should freely have recourseto it. and when demaenetus, in a full audience of the people, laidseveral things to his charge which had been done while he was general,he made no reply to him, but only said he was much indebted to thegods for granting the request he had so often made them, namely, thathe might live to see the syracusans enjoy that liberty of speech whichthey now seemed to be masters of.

timoleon, therefore, having by confession of all done the greatestand the noblest things of any greek of his age, and alone distinguishedhimself in those actions to which their orators and philosophers,in their harangues and panegyrics at their solemn national assemblies,used to exhort and incite the greeks, and being withdrawn beforehandby happy fortune, unspotted and without blood, from the calamitiesof civil war, in which ancient greece was soon after involved； havingalso given full proof, as of his sage conduct and manly courage tothe barbarians and tyrants, so of his justice and gentleness to thegreeks, and his friends in general； having raised, too, the greaterpart of those trophies he won in battle without any tears shed orany mourning worn by the citizens either of syracuse or corinth, andwithin less than eight years' space delivered sicily from its inveterategrievances and intestine distempers, and given it up free to the nativeinhabitants, began, as he was now growing old, to find his eyes fail,and awhile after became perfectly blind. not that he had done anythinghimself which might occasion this defect, or was deprived of his sightby any outrage of fortune； it seems rather to have been some inbredand hereditary weakness that was founded in natural causes, whichby length of time came to discover itself. for it is said, that severalof his kindred and family were subject to the like gradual decay,and lost all use of their eyes, as he did, in their declining years.athanis the historian tells us that even during the war against hippoand mamercus, while he was in his camp at mylae, there appeared awhite speck within his eye, from whence all could foresee the deprivationthat was coming on him； this, however, did not hinder him then fromcontinuing the siege, and prosecuting the war, till he got both thetyrants into his power； but upon his coming back to syracuse, he presentlyresigned the authority of sole commander, and besought the citizensto excuse him from any further service, since things were alreadybrought to so fair an issue. nor is it so much to be wondered thathe himself should bear the misfortune without any marks of trouble；but the respect and gratitude which the syracusans showed him whenhe was entirely blind may justly deserve our admiration. they usedto go themselves to visit him in troops and brought all the strangersthat travelled through their country to his house and manor, thatthey also might have the pleasure to see their noble benefactor； makingit the great matter of their joy and exultation, that when, afterso many brave and happy exploits, he might have returned with triumphinto greece, he should disregard all the glorious preparations thatwere there made to receive him, and choose rather to stay here andend his days among them. of the various things decreed and done inhonour of timoleon, i consider one most signal testimony to have beenthe vote which they passed, that, whenever they should be at war withany foreign nation, they should make use of none but a corinthiangeneral. the method, also, of their proceeding in council was a nobledemonstration of the same deference for his person. for, determiningmatters of less consequence themselves, they always called him toadvise in the more difficult cases, and such as were of greater moment.he was, on these occasions, carried through the market-place in alitter, and brought in, sitting, into the theatre, where the peoplewith one voice saluted him by his name； and then, after returningthe courtesy, and pausing for a time, till the noise of their gratulationsand blessings began to cease, he heard the business in debate, anddelivered his opinion. this being confirmed by a general suffrage,his servants went back with the litter through the midst of the assembly,the people waiting on him out with acclamations and applauses, andthen returning to consider other public matters, which they coulddespatch in his absence. being thus cherished in his old age, withall the respect and tenderness due to a common father, he was seizedwith a very slight indisposition, which, however, was sufficient,with the aid of time, to put a period to his life. there was an allotmentthen of certain days given, within the space of which the syracusanswere to provide whatever should be necessary for his burial, and allthe neighbouring country people and strangers were to make their appearancein a body； so that the funeral pomp was set out with great splendourand magnificence in all other respects, and the bier, decked withornaments and trophies, was borne by a select body of young men overthat ground where the palace and castle of dionysius stood beforethey were demolished by timoleon. there attended on the solemnityseveral thousands of men and women, all crowned with flowers, andarrayed in fresh and clean attire, which made it look like the processionof a public festival； while the language of all, and their tears minglingwith their praise and benediction of the dead timoleon, manifestlyshowed that it was not any superficial honour, or commanded homage,which they paid him, but the testimony of a just sorrow for his death,and the expression of true affection. the bier at length being placedupon the pile of wood that was kindled to consume his corpse, demetrius,one of their loudest criers, proceeded to read a proclamation to thefollowing purpose： "the people of syracuse have made a special decreeto inter timoleon, the son of timodemus, the corinthian, at the commonexpense of two hundred minas, and to honour his memory for ever, bythe establishment of annual prizes to be competed for in music, andhorse-races, and all sorts of bodily exercise； and this, because hesuppressed the tyrants, overthrew the barbarians, replenished theprincipal cities, that were desolate, with new inhabitants, and thenrestored the sicilian greeks to the privilege of living by their ownlaws." besides this, they made a tomb for him in the market-place,which they afterwards built round with colonnades, and attached toit places of exercise for the young men, and gave it the name of thetimoleonteum. and keeping to that form and order of civil policy andobserving those laws and constitutions which he left them, they livedthemselves a long time in great prosperity.

the end