They invite the Spartan Akrotatus to com bad conduct and failure. so effectively, that the leaders at Agrigentum, instigated by the Syracusan exiles there harboured, became convinced of the danger of leaving such encroachments unresisted'. The people of Agrigentum came to the resolution of taking up arms on behalf of the liberties of Sicily, and allied themselves with Gela and Messênê for the purpose. But the fearful example of Agathokles himself rendered them so apprehensive of the dangers from mand his any military leader, at once native and energetic, that they resolved to invite a foreigner. Some Syracusan exiles were sent to Sparta, to choose and invoke some Spartan of eminence and ability, as Archidamus had recently been called to Tarentumand even more, as Timoleon had been brought from Corinth, with results so signally beneficent. The old Spartan king Kleomenes (of the Eurysthenid race) had a son Akrotatus, then unpopular at home2, and well disposed towards foreign warfare. This prince, without even consulting the Ephors, listened at once to the envoys, and left Peloponnesus with a small squadron, intending to cross by Korkyra and the coast of Italy to Agrigentum. Unfavourable winds drove him as far north as Apol 1 Diodor. xix. 70. μὴ περιορᾷν ̓Αγαθοκλέα συσκευαζόμενον τὰς πόλεις. 2 Diodor. xix. 70. After the defeat of Agis by Antipater, the severe Lacedæmonian laws against those who fled from battle had been suspended for the occasion; as had been done before, after the defeat of Leuktra. Akrotatus had been the only person (μóvos) who opposed this suspension; whereby he incurred the most violent odium generally, but most especially from the citizens who profited by the suspension. These men carried their hatred so far, that they even attacked, beat him, and conspired against his life (οὗτοι γὰρ συστραφέντες πληγάς τε ἐνεφόρησαν αὐτῷ καὶ διετέλουν ἐπιβουλεύοντες). This is a curious indication of Spartan manners. CHAP. XCVII.] AKROTATUS IN SICILY. 547 lonia, and delayed his arrival at Tarentum; in which city, originally a Spartan colony, he met with a cordial reception, and obtained a vote of twenty vessels to assist his enterprize of liberating Syracuse from Agathokles. He reached Agrigentum with favourable hopes, was received with all the honours due to a Spartan prince, and undertook the command. Bitterly did he disappoint his party. He was incompetent as a general; he dissipated in presents or luxuries the money intended. for the campaign, emulating Asiatic despots; his conduct was arrogant, tyrannical, and even sanguinary. The disgust which he inspired was brought to a height, when he caused Sosistratus, the leader of the Syracusan exiles, to be assassinated at a banquet. Immediately the exiles rose in a body to avenge this murder; while Akrotatus, deposed by the Agrigentines, only found safety in flight'. only place Hellenic open. To this young Spartan prince, had he possessed Sicily the a noble heart and energetic qualities, there was in which a here presented a career of equal grandeur with glorious that of Timoleon-against an enemy able indeed career was and formidable, yet not so superior in force as to render success impossible. It is melancholy to see Akrotatus, from simple worthlessness of character, throwing away such an opportunity; at a time when Sicily was the only soil on which a glorious Hellenic career was still open-when no similar exploits were practicable by any Hellenic leader in Central Greece, from the overwhelming superiority of force possessed by the surrounding kings. The misconduct of Akrotatus broke up all hopes 1 Diodor. xix. 71. Peace concluded by with the Agrigen great power in Sicily. of active operations against Agathokles. Peace was Agathokles presently concluded with the latter by the Agrigentines and their allies, under the mediation of the tines-his Carthaginian general Hamilkar. By the terms of this convention, all the Greek cities in Sicily were declared autonomous, yet under the hegemony of Agathokles; excepting only Himera, Selinus, and Herakleia, which were actually, and were declared still to continue, under Carthage. Messênê was the only Grecian city standing aloof from this convention; as such, therefore still remaining open to the Syracusan exiles. The terms were so favourable to Agathokles, that they were much disapproved at Carthage'. Agathokles, recognized as chief and having no enemy in the field, employed himself actively in strengthening his hold on the other cities, and in enlarging his military means at home. He sent a force against Messênê, to require the expulsion of the Syracusan exiles from that city, and to procure at the same time the recall of the Messenian exiles, partisans of his own, and companions of his army. His generals extorted these two points from the Messenians. Agathokles, having thus broken the force of Messênê, secured to himself the town still more completely, by sending for those Messenian citizens who had chiefly opposed him, and putting them all to death, as well as his leading opponents at Tauromenium. 1 Diodor. xix. 71, 72, 102. When the convention specifies Herakleia, Selinus, and Himera, as being under the Carthaginians, this is to be understood as in addition to the primitive Carthaginian settlements of Solus, Panormus, Lilybæum, &c., about which no question could arise. CHAP. XCVII.] WAR WITH THE CARTHAGINIANS. 549 The number thus massacred was not less than six hundred1. pulsed from -the Car send an armament against It only remained for Agathokles to seize Agri- He is regentum. Thither he accordingly marched. But Agrigentum Deinokrates and the Syracusan exiles, expelled thaginians from Messênê, had made themselves heard at Carthage, insisting on the perils to that city from the to Sicily encroachments of Agathokles. The Carthaginians him. alarmed sent a fleet of sixty sail, whereby alone Agrigentum, already under siege by Agathokles, was preserved. The recent convention was now broken on all sides, and Agathokles kept no farther measures with the Carthaginians. He ravaged all their Sicilian territory, and destroyed some of their forts; while the Carthaginians on their side made a sudden descent with their fleet on the harbour of Syracuse. They could achieve nothing more, however, than the capture of one Athenian merchantvessel, out of two there riding. They disgraced their acquisition by the cruel act (not uncommon in Carthaginian warfare) of cutting off the hands of the captive crew; for which, in a few days, retaliation was exercised upon the crews of some of their own ships, taken by the cruisers of Agathokles2. The defence of Agrigentum now rested prin- B.c. 310. cipally on the Carthaginians in Sicily, who took up a position on the hill called Eknomus-in the territory of Gela, a little to the west of the Agrigentine border. Here Agathokles approached to 1 Diodor. xix. 72: compare a different narrative-Polyænus, v. 15. 2 Diodor. xix. 103. It must be noticed, however, that even Julius Cæsar, in his wars in Gaul, sometimes cut off the hands of his Gallic prisoners taken in arms, whom he called rebels (Bell. Gall. viii. 44). Position of the Cartha ginians be tween Gela and Agri gentumtheir army reinforced from home. Operations of Agatho offer them battle-having been emboldened by two important successes obtained over Deinokrates and the Syracusan exiles, near Kentoripa and Gallaria'. So superior was his force, however, that the Carthaginians thought it prudent to remain in their camp; and Agathokles returned in triumph to Syracuse, where he adorned the temples with his recently acquired spoils. The balance of force was soon altered by the despatch of a large armament from Carthage under Hamilkar, consisting of 130 ships of war, with numerous other transport ships, carrying many soldiers-2000 native Carthaginians, partly men of rank-10,000 Africans-1000 Campanian heavy-armed and 1000 Balearic slingers. The fleet underwent in its passage so terrific a storm, that many of the vessels sunk with all on board, and it arrived with very diminished numbers in Sicily. The loss fell upon the native Carthaginian soldiers with peculiar severity; insomuch that when the news reached Carthage, a public mourning was proclaimed, and the city walls were hung with black serge. Those who reached Sicily, however, were quite kles against sufficient to place Hamilkar in an imposing supemassacre of riority of number as compared with Agathokles. citizens at He encamped on or near Eknomus, summoned all them-his Gela. the reinforcements that his Sicilian allies could furnish, and collected additional mercenaries; so that he was soon at the head of 40,000 infantry and 5000 cavalry. At the same time, a Carthaginian armed squadron, detached to the strait of Messênê, fell in with twenty armed ships belonging 1 Diodor. xix. 103, 104. * Diodor. xix. 106. |