16
These words at length kindled their courage so effectually, and renewing the shout, as if suddenly changed into other men, they bore down upon the enemy with such impetuosity that they could not longer be withstood. First, of the Carthaginians who stood before the standards; then the standards were thrown into disorder; and lastly the whole line was compelled to give way. They then turned their backs downright, and fled precipitately to their camp with such terror and consternation, that not a man made stand in the gates or on the rampart; while the Romans, who pursued them so close as to form almost a part of their body commenced the battle anew, enclosed within the rampart of the enemy. Here the battle was more bloody as the combatants had less room to move, from the narrowness of the place in which they fought. The prisoners too assisted; for snatching up swords in the confusion, and forming themselves into a body, they slew the Carthaginians in the rear and prevented their flight. Thus less than two thousand men out of so large an army, and those principally cavalry, effected their escape with their commander, all the rest were slain or taken prisoners. Thirty-eight standards were taken. Of the victors about two thousand fell. All the booty except that of the prisoners was given up to the soldiery. Such cattle also as the owners should identify within thirty days was excepted. When they returned to their camp loaded with spoil, about four thousand of the volunteer slaves who had fought with less spirit, and had not joined in breaking into the enemy's camp, through fear of punishment, took possession of a hill not far from the camp. Being brought down thence the next day by a military tribune, it happened that they arrived during an assembly of the soldiers which Gracchus had called. At this assembly the proconsul, having first rewarded the veteran soldiers with military presents, according to the valour displayed, and the service rendered by each man in the engagement, then observed, with respect to the volunteer slaves, that he would rather that all should be praised by him whether deserving it or not, than that any one should be chastised on that day. I bid you, said he, all be free, and may the event be attended with advantage, happiness, and prosperity to the state and to yourselves. These words were followed by the most cordial acclamations, the soldiers sometimes embracing and congratulating one another, at other times lifting up their hands to heaven, and praying that every blessing might attend the Roman people, and Gracchus in particular; when Gracchus addressed them thus: "Before I had placed you all on an equal footing with respect to the enjoyment of liberty, I was unwilling to affix any marks by which the brave and dastardly soldier might be distinguished. But now the pledge given by the state being redeemed, lest all distinction between courage and cowardice should disappear, I shall order that the names of those persons be laid before me, who, conscious of their dastardly conduct in the battle, have lately seceded. I shall have them cited before me, when I shall bind them by an oath, that none of them, except such as shall have the plea of sickness, will, so long as they serve, take either meat or drink in any other posture than standing. This penalty you will bear with patience when you reflect that it is impossible your cowardice could be marked with a slighter stigma." He then gave the signal for packing up the baggage; and the soldiers, sporting and jesting as they drove and carried their booty, returned to Beneventum in so playful a mood, that they appeared to be returning, not from the field of battle, but from a feast celebrated on some remarkable holiday. All the Beneventans pouring out in crowds to meet them at the gate, embraced, congratulated, and invited the troops to entertainments. They had all prepared banquets in the courts of their houses, to which they invited the soldiers, and of which they entreated Gracchus to allow them to partake. Gracchus gave permission, with the proviso that they should feast in the public street. Each person brought every thing out before his door. The volunteers feasted with caps of liberty on their heads, or filletted with white wool; some reclining at the tables, others standing, who at once partook of the repast, and waited upon the rest. It even seemed a fitting occasion that Gracchus, on his return to Rome, should order a picture representing the festivities of that day to be executed in the temple of Liberty, which his father caused to be built on the Aventine out of money arising from fines, and which his father also dedicated.
17
While these events occurred at Beneventum, Hannibal having laid waste the territory of Naples, moved his camp to Nola. The consul, as soon as he was aware of his approach, sent for Pemponius the propraetor, with the troops he had in the camp above Suessula; and then prepared to meet the enemy and to make no delay in fighting. He sent out Caius Claudius Nero in the dead of night with the main strength of the cavalry, through the gate which was farthest removed from the enemy, with orders to make a circuit so as not to be observed, and then slowly to follow the enemy as they moved along, and as soon as he perceived the battle begun, to charge them on the rear. Whether Nero was prevented from executing these orders by mistaking the route, or from the shortness of the time, is doubtful. Though he was absent when the battle was fought, the Romans had unquestionably the advantage; but as the cavalry did not come up in time, the plan of the battle which had been agreed upon was disconcerted and Marcellus, not daring to follow the retiring enemy, gave the signal for retreat when his soldiers were conquering More than two thousand of the enemy are said, however, to have fallen on that day; of the Romans, less than four hundred. Nero, after having fruitlessly wearied both men and horses, through the day and night, without even having seen the enemy, returned about sunset; when the consul went so far in reprimanding him as to assert, that he had been the only obstacle to their retorting on the enemy the disaster sustained at Cannae. The following day the Roman came into the field, but the Carthaginian, beaten even by his own tacit confession, kept within his camp. Giving up all hope of getting possession of Nola, a thing never attempted without loss, during the silence of the night of the third day he set out for Tarentum, which he had better hopes of having betrayed to him.
18
Nor were the Roman affairs administered with less spirit at home than in the field. The censors being freed from the care of letting out the erection of public works, from the low state of the treasury, turned their attention to the regulation of men's morals, and the chastisement of vices which sprung up during the war, in the same manner as constitutions broken down by protracted disease, generate other maladies. In the first place, they cited those persons who, after the battle of Cannae, were said to have formed a design of abandoning the commonwealth, and leaving Italy. The chief of these was Lucius Caecilius Metellus, who happened to be then quaestor. In the next place, as neither he nor the other persons concerned were able to exculpate themselves on being ordered to make their defence, they pronounced them guilty of having used words and discourse prejudicial to the state, that a conspiracy might be formed for the abandonment of Italy. After them were cited those persons who showed too much ingenuity in inventing a method of discharging the obligation of their oath, namely, such of the prisoners as concluded that the oath which they had sworn to return, would be fulfilled by their going back privately to Hannibal's camp, after setting out on their journey. Such of these and of the above-mentioned as had horses at the public expense were deprived of them, and all were degraded from their tribes and disfranchised. Nor was the attention of the censors confined to the regulation of the senate and the equestrian order. They erased from the lists of the junior centuries the names of all who had not served during the last four years, unless they were regularly exempted, or were prevented by sickness. Those too, amounting to more than two thousand names, were numbered among the disfranchised, and were all degraded. To this more gentle stigma affixed by the censors, a severe decree of the senate was added, to the effect that all those whom the censor had stigmatized, should serve on foot, and be sent into Sicily to join the remains of the army of Cannae, a class of soldiers whose time of service was not to terminate till the enemy was driven out of Italy. The censors, in consequence of the poverty of the treasury, having abstained from receiving contracts for the repairs of the sacred edifices, the furnishing of curule horses, and similar matters, the persons who had been accustomed to attend auctions of this description, came to the censors in great numbers, and exhorted them to "transact all their business and let out the contracts in the same manner as if there were money in the treasury. That none of them would ask for money out of the treasury before the war was concluded." Afterwards the owners of those slaves whom Tiberius Sempronius had manumitted at Beneventum, came to them, stating that they were sent for by the public bankers, to receive the price of their slaves, but that they would not accept of it till the war was concluded. This disposition on the part of the commons to sustain the impoverished treasury having manifested itself, the property of minors first, and then the portions of widows, began to be brought in; the persons who brought them being persuaded, that their deposit would no where be more secure and inviolable than under the public faith. If any thing was bought or laid in for the widows and minors, an order upon the quaestor was given for it. This liberality in individuals flowed from the city into the camp also, insomuch that no horseman or centurion would accept of his pay, and those who would accept it were reproached with the appellation of mercenary men.
19
Quintus Fabius, the consul, was encamped before Casilinum, which was occupied by a garrison of two thousand Campanians and seven hundred of the soldiers of Hannibal. The commander was Statius Metius, who was sent there by Cneius Magius Atellanus, who was that year Medixtuticus and was arming the slaves and people without distinction, in order to assault the Roman camp, while the consul was intently occupied in the siege of Casilinum. None of these things escaped Fabius. He therefore sent to his colleague at Nola, "That another army was requisite, which might be opposed to the Campanians, while the siege of Casilinum was going on; that either he should come himself, leaving a force sufficient for the protection of Nola, or if the state of Nola required him to stay there, in consequence of its not being yet secure against the attempts of Hannibal, that he should summon Tiberius Gracchus, the proconsul, from Beneventum." On this message, Marcellus, leaving two thousand troops in garrison at Nola, came to Casilinum with the rest of his forces; and at his arrival the Campanians, who were already in motion, desisted from their operations. Thus the siege of Casilinum was commenced by the two consuls. But as the Roman soldiers received many wounds as they rashly approached the walls, and as they did not succeed satisfactorily in their attempts. Fabius gave it as his opinion that this, which was a small matter, though as difficult as more important ones, should be abandoned, and that they should retire from the place, as affairs of greater moment were pressing. Marcellus, however, succeeded in persuading him that they should not go away with their object unaccomplished, observing that as there were many objects which great generals should not attempt, so when once attempted they should not be abandoned, because the mere report in either case would have important consequences. Upon this the vineae and all kinds of military works and engines were applied; in consequence of which, the Campanians entreated Fabius to allow them to retire to Capua in safety; when a few of them having come out of the town, Marcellus took possession of the gate through which they passed, and first slew all indiscriminately who were near the gate, and then rushing in, the slaughter commenced in the town also. About fifty of the Campanians, who at first came out of the city, having fled for refuge to Fabius, arrived safe at Capua under his protection. Thus Casilinum was captured on an accidental opportunity which occurred during the conferences and delay of those who were soliciting protection. The prisoners, both those who were Campanians and those who were Hannibal's soldiers, were sent to Rome, where they were shut up in a prison. The crowd of townsmen was distributed among the neighbouring people to be kept in custody.
20
At the same time that the consuls retired from Casilinum, their object having been accomplished, Gracchus, who was in Lucania, sent, under a prefect of the allies, some cohorts which he had levied in that country to ravage the lands of the enemy. These, as they were straggling in a careless manner, Hanno surprising, retorted upon his enemy a defeat not much less disastrous than he had himself received at Beneventum, and then hastily retired to the territory of the Bruttians, lest Gracchus should overtake him. Of the consuls, Marcellus returned to Nola, whence he had come, Fabius proceeded to Samnium to waste the lands, and recover by force the cities which had revolted. The Samnites of Caudium suffered the severest devastation; their fields were laid waste by fire for a wide extent, and both men and cattle were conveyed away as booty. The towns of Compulteria, Telesia, Compsa, Melae, Fulfulae, and Orbitanium, were taken by storm. Blandae, belonging to the Lucanians, and Aecae to the Apulians, were taken after a siege. Twenty-five thousand of the enemy were captured or slain in these towns, and three hundred and seventy deserters recovered; who, being sent to Rome by the consul, were all of them beaten with rods in the comitium, and thrown down from the rock. Such were the achievements of Fabius within the space of a few days. Ill health detained Marcellus from active operations at Nola. The town of Accua also was taken by storm, during the same period, by the praetor Quintus Fabius, whose province was the neighbourhood of Luceria; he also fortified a stationary camp at Ardonea. While the Romans were thus employed in different quarters, Hannibal had reached Tarentum, utterly destroying every thing whichsoever way he went. In the territory of Tarentum, the troops at length began to march in a peaceable manner. There nothing was violated, nor did they ever go out of the road; it was evident that this was done not from the moderation of the soldiery, or their general, but to conciliate the affections of the Tarentines. However, on advancing almost close to the walls without perceiving any movement, which he expected would occur on the sight of his vanguard, he pitched his camp about a mile off the city. Three days before the arrival of Hannibal, Marcus Livius, who had been sent by Marcus Valerius, the propraetor, commanding the fleet at Brundusium, had enlisted the young nobility of Tarentum, and stationing guards at every gate, and round the walls, wherever circumstances made it necessary, had kept such a strict watch both by day and night, as to give no opportunity for making any attempt either to the enemy or doubtful allies. On this account several days were consumed there to no purpose, when Hannibal, as none of those who had come to him at the lake Avernus, either came themselves or sent any letter or message, perceiving that he had carelessly followed delusive promises, moved his camp thence. Even after this he did not offer any violence to the Tarentine territory, not quitting the hope of shaking their allegiance to the Romans, though his simulated lenity had hitherto been of no advantage to him; but as soon as he came to Salapia he collected stores of corn there from the Metapontine and Heraclean lands; for midsummer was now past, and the situation pleased him as a place for winter quarters. From hence the Moors and Numidians were detached to plunder the territory of Sallentum, and the neighbouring woods of Apulia, from which not much booty of any other sort was obtained, but principally droves of horses, four thousand of which were distributed among his horsemen to be broken.
21
The Romans, since a war by no means to be despised was springing up in Sicily, and the death of the tyrant had furnished the Syracusans with more enterprising leaders, rather than changed their attachment to the Carthaginian cause, or the state of their minds, decreed that province to Marcus Marcellus, one of their consuls. After the assassination of Hieronymus, at first a tumult had taken place among the soldiery in the territory of the Leontines. They exclaimed furiously that the manes of the king should be appeased with the blood of the conspirators. Afterwards the frequent repetition of the word liberty, which was restored to them, a word so delightful to the ear, the hopes they had conceived of largesses from the royal treasury, and of serving in future under better generals, the relation of the horrid crimes and more horrid lusts of the tyrant, effected such an alteration in their sentiments, that they suffered to lie unburied the corpse of the king, whom a little before they regretted. As the rest of the conspirators remained behind, in order to keep the army on their side, Theodotus and Sosis, mounted on the king's horses, rode off to Syracuse with all possible speed, that they might surprise the king's party, while unacquainted with all that had occurred. But they were anticipated not only by report, than which nothing is swifter in such affairs, but also by a messenger who was one of the royal servants. In consequence, Andranodorus had occupied with strong garrisons the Insula and the citadel, and every other convenient part which he could. After sunset, when it was now growing dark, Theodotus and Sosis rode in by the Hexapylum, and displayed the royal vest stained with blood, and the ornament of the king's head; then passing through the Tycha, and calling the people at once to liberty and arms, bid them assemble in the Achradina. Some of the multitude ran out into the streets, some stood in the porches of their houses, while others looked out from the roofs and windows, and inquired what was the matter. Every part of the city was filled with lights and noises of various kinds. Assemblies of armed men were formed in the open spaces. Those who had no arms tore down from the temple of the Olympian Jupiter the spoils of the Gauls and Illyrians, which had been presented to Hiero by the Roman people, and hung up there by him; at the same time offering up prayers to Jupiter, that he would willingly, and without feeling offence, lend those consecrated weapons to those who were arming themselves in defence of their country, of the temples of their gods, and their liberty. This multitude was also joined by the watches which were stationed through the principal quarters of the city. In the island, Andranodorus, among other places, secured the public granaries by a garrison. This place, which was enclosed by a wall of stones hewn square, and built up on high, after the manner of a citadel, was occupied by a body of youth, who had been appointed to garrison it, and these sent messengers to the Achradina, to give information that the granaries and the corn were in the power of the senate.
22
At break of day the whole populace, armed and unarmed, assembled at the senate-house in the Achradina: where from the altar of Concord, which stood there, one of the nobles, named Polyaenus, delivered a liberal and temperate address. He said, that "men who had experienced servitude and contumely, were enraged against an evil which was well known, but that the Syracusans had rather heard from their fathers than seen with their own eyes the disasters which civil discord introduces." He said, "he commended them for the alacrity with which they had taken arms; but that he should commend them more if they should abstain from using them unless compelled by extreme necessity. At present he advised that ambassadors should be sent to Andranodorus, to charge him to submit to the direction of the senate and the people, to throw open the gates of the island, and withdraw the garrison. If he resolved to usurp the sovereignty of which he had been appointed guardian, that he would recommend that their liberty be recovered more energetically from Andranodorus than it had been from Hieronymus." From this assembly ambassadors were despatched. The senate began now to meet, which though during the reign of Hiero it had continued to be the public council of the state, from the time of his death up to the present had never been assembled or consulted upon any subject. When the ambassadors came to Andranodorus, he was himself moved by the unanimous opinion of his countrymen, by their having possession of other parts of the city, and by the fact that the strongest part of the island was betrayed and placed in the hands of others; but his wife, Demarata, the daughter of Hiero, still swelling with the pride of royalty and female presumption, called him out from the presence of the ambassadors, and reminded him of the expression so often repeated by the tyrant Dionysius, "that a man ought only to relinquish sovereign power when dragged by the feet, and not while sitting on horseback. That it was an easy thing, at any moment one pleased, to give up possession of grandeur, but that to create and obtain them was difficult and arduous. That he should obtain from the ambassadors a little time to deliberate, and to employ it in fetching the soldiers from the Leontines; to whom, if he promised the royal treasure, every thing would be at his disposal." This advice, suggested by a woman, Andranodorus neither entirely rejected nor immediately adopted, considering it the safer way to the attainment of power to temporize for the present. Accordingly he told the ambassadors to carry word back, that he should act subserviently to the senate and the people. The next day, as soon as it was light, he threw open the gates of the island, and came into the forum of the Achradina; then mounting the altar of Concord, from which Polyaenus had delivered his harangue the day before, he commenced a speech by soliciting pardon for his delay. "He had kept the gates closed," he said, "not as separating his own from the public interest, but from fear as to where the carnage would stop when once the sword was drawn; whether they would be satisfied with the blood of the tyrant, which was sufficient for their liberty, or whether all who were connected with the court, by consanguinity, affinity, or any offices, would, as implicated in another's guilt, be butchered. After he perceived that those who had liberated their country were desirous of preserving it when liberated, and that the counsels of all were directed towards the public good, he had not hesitated to restore to his country his own person and every thing else which had been committed to his honour and guardianship, since the person who had intrusted him with them had fallen a victim to his own madness." Then turning to the persons who had killed the tyrant, and calling on Theodotus and Sosis by name, he said, "You have performed a memorable deed, but believe me, your glory is only beginning, not yet perfected; and there still remains great danger lest the enfranchised state should be destroyed, if you do not provide for its tranquillity and harmony."
23
At the conclusion of this speech, he laid the keys of the gates and of the royal treasure at their feet; and on that day, retiring from the assembly in the highest spirits, they made supplication with their wives and children at all the temples of the gods. On the following day an assembly was held for the election of praetors. Andranodorus was created among the first; the rest consisted for the most part of the destroyers of the tyrant; two of these, Sopater and Dinomenes, they appointed in their absence. These, on hearing of what had passed at Syracuse, conveyed thither the royal treasure which was at Leontini, and put it into the hands of quaestors appointed for that purpose. The treasure also in the island and the Achradina was delivered to them, and that part of the wall which formed too strong a separation between the island and the other parts of the city, was demolished by general consent. Every thing else which was done was in conformity with this inclination of their minds to liberty. Hippocrates and Epicydes, on hearing of the death of the tyrant, which Hippocrates had wished to conceal even by putting the messenger to death, being deserted by the soldiery, returned to Syracuse, as that appeared the safest course under present circumstances; but lest if they appeared there in common they should become objects of suspicion, and looked upon as persons who were seeking an opportunity of effecting some change, they in the first place addressed themselves to the praetors and then through them to the senate. They declared, that "they were sent by Hannibal to Hieronymus, as to a friend and ally; that they had obeyed the orders of that man whom their general wished them to obey; that they desired to return to Hannibal; but as the journey would not be safe, as armed Romans were ranging at large through the whole of Sicily, that they requested to be furnished with some escort which might convey them in safety to Locri in Italy; and that thus they would confer a great obligation upon Hannibal, with little trouble." The request was easily obtained, for they were desirous of getting rid of these generals of the king, who were skilled in war, and at once necessitous and enterprising. But they did not exert themselves so as to effect what they desired with the requisite speed. Meanwhile these young men, who were of a military turn and accustomed to the soldiers, employed themselves in circulating charges against the senate and nobles, sometimes in the minds of the soldiers themselves, sometimes of the deserters, of which the greater part were Roman sailors, at other times of men belonging to the lowest order of the populace, insinuating, that "what they were secretly labouring and contriving to effect, was to place Syracuse under the dominion of the Romans with the pretence of a renewed alliance, and then that faction and the few promoters of the alliance would be supreme."
24
The crowds of persons disposed to hear and credit these insinuations which flowed into Syracuse from every quarter increased daily, and afforded hopes, not only to Epicydes but to Andranodorus also, of effecting a revolution. The latter, wearied at length by the importunities of his wife, who warned him, "that now was the favourable time for seizing the government, while every thing was in confusion in consequence of liberty being recent and not yet regularly established; while a soldiery supported by the royal pay was to be met with, and while generals sent by Hannibal and accustomed to the soldiery might forward the attempt;" he communicated his design with Themistus, who had married the daughter of Gelon, and a few days afterwards incautiously disclosed it to a certain tragic actor, named Ariston, to whom he was in the habit of committing other secrets. He was a man of reputable birth and fortune, nor did his profession disgrace them, for among the Greeks no pursuit of that kind was considered dishonourable. He therefore discovered the plot to the praetors, from a conviction that his country had a superior claim upon his fidelity. These having satisfied themselves that his statement was not false by indubitable proofs, took the advice of the elder senators, and with their sanction, having placed a guard at the doors, slew Themistus and Andranodorus as soon as they had entered the senate-house. A disturbance arising in consequence of this act, which, as none but the praetors knew the cause of it, wore an appearance of atrocity, the praetors, having at length procured silence, introduced the informer into the senate-house; and after he had in a regular manner detailed to the senate every particular, showing that the conspiracy owed its origin to the marriage of Harmonia, the daughter of Gelon, with Themistus; that the African and Spanish auxiliaries had been prepared to murder the praetors and others of the nobility; that it had been given out that their goods were to be the booty of the assassins; that already a band of mercenaries accustomed to obey the command of Andranodorus had been procured for the reoccupation of the island; and having then distinctly represented to them the several parts which the persons implicated in the transaction were performing, and having brought under their view the entire plot prepared for execution with men and arms; it seemed to the senate that they had fallen as justly as Hieronymus had. A shout was raised before the senate-house by a crowd of people variously disposed and uncertain of the facts; but as they were conducting themselves in a furious and menacing manner, the bodies of the conspirators in the vestibule of the senate-house restrained them with such alarm, that they silently followed the more discreet part of the commons to an assembly. Sopater was the person commissioned by the senate and his colleague to explain the affair.
25
Treating them as if they stood upon their trial, he began with their past lives; and insisted that Andranodorus and Themistus were the authors of every act of iniquity and impiety which had been perpetrated since the death of Hiero. "For what," said he, "did the boy Hieronymus ever do of his own accord? What could he do who had scarce as yet arrived at puberty? His tutors and guardians had ruled, while the odium rested on another. Therefore they ought to have been put to death either before Hieronymus or with him. Nevertheless those men, deservedly marked out for death, had attempted fresh crimes after the decease of the tyrant; first openly, when, closing the gates of the island, Andranodorus declared himself heir to the throne, and kept that as proprietor which he had held only in the capacity of guardian; afterwards, when betrayed by those who were in the island and blockaded by the whole body of the citizens who held the Achradina, he endeavoured to obtain, by secret and artful means, that sovereignty which he had in vain attempted openly; whom not even benefits and honorary distinction could move, for even this conspirator against the liberty of his country was created praetor among her liberators. But that wives of royal blood had infected them with this thirst for royalty, one having married the daughter of Hiero, the other the daughter of Gelon." On hearing these words, a shout arose from every part of the assembly, that "none of these women ought to live, and that not one of the royal family should be left alive." Such is the nature of the populace; they are either cringing slaves or haughty tyrants. They know not how with moderation to spurn or to enjoy that liberty which holds the middle place; nor are there generally wanting ministers, the panders to their resentment, who incite their eager and intemperate minds to blood and carnage. Thus, on the present occasion, the praetors instantly proposed the passing of a decree, which was consented to almost before it was proposed, that all the royal family should be put to death; and persons despatched for the purpose by the praetors, put to death Demarata, the daughter of Hiero, and Harmonia, the daughter of Gelon, the wives of Andranodorus and Themistus.
26
There was a daughter of Hiero, named Heraclea, the wife of Zoippus, who, having been sent by Hieronymus as ambassador to king Ptolemy, had become a voluntary exile. As soon as she was apprized that they were coming to her also, she fled for refuge into the chapel to the household gods, accompanied by her two virgin daughters, with dishevelled hair, and other marks of wretchedness. In addition to this, she had recourse to prayers also; she implored them "by the memory of her father, Hiero, and her brother, Gelon, that they would not suffer her, a guiltless person, to be consumed by their hatred of Hieronymus. That all that she had derived from his reign was the exile of her husband. That neither did she enjoy the same advantages as her sister while Hieronymus was alive, nor was her cause the same as hers now he was dead. What? Though her sister would have shared the throne with Andranodorus, had he succeeded in his designs, she must have been in servitude with the rest. Can any one doubt, that if information should be conveyed to Zoippus that Hieronymus had been put to death, and that Syracuse was free, he would instantly embark and return to his native land. But how are all human hopes deceived! His wife and children are struggling for their lives in his native land, now blessed with liberty! In what manner standing in the way of liberty or the laws? What danger could arise to any one from them, from a solitary, and in a manner, widowed woman and girls living in a state of orphanage? But perhaps it will be granted that no danger is to be apprehended from them, but alleged that the whole royal family is detested. If this were the case, she entreated that they would banish them far from Syracuse and Sicily, and order them to be conveyed to Alexandria, the wife to her husband, the daughters to their father." Seeing that their ears and minds were unimpressed, and that certain of them were drawing their swords to prevent a fruitless consumption of time, she gave over entreating for herself, and began to implore them to "spare, at least, her daughters, at an age which even exasperated enemies spared." She entreated them "that they would not, in their revenge on tyrants, themselves imitate the crimes which were odious to them." While thus employed, they dragged her from the sanctuary and murdered her; and after that they fell upon the virgins, who were sprinkled with the blood of their mother; who, distracted alike by fear and grief, and as if seized with madness, rushed out of the chapel with such rapidity, that had there been an opening by which they might have escaped into the street, they would have filled the city with confusion. As it was, they several times made their escape through the midst of so many armed men with their persons uninjured in the contracted space which the house afforded, and extricated themselves from their grasp, though they had to disengage themselves from so many and such strong hands; but at length enfeebled by wounds, and after covering every place with blood, they fell down lifeless. This murder, piteous as it was in itself, was rendered still more so by its happening that a short time after it a message arrived that they should not be killed, as the minds of the people were now turned to compassion. This compassion then gave rise to a feeling of anger, because so much haste had been shown in carrying the punishment into effect, and because no opportunity was left for relenting or retracing the steps of their passion. The multitude therefore gave vent to their indignation, and demanded an election to supply the places of Andranodorus and Themistus, for both of them had been praetors; an election by no means likely to be agreeable to the praetors.
27
The day was fixed for the election, when, to the surprise of all, one person from the extremity of the crowd nominated Epicydes, and then another from the same quarter nominated Hippocrates. Afterwards the voices in favour of these persons increased with the manifest approbation of the multitude. The assembly was one of a heterogeneous character, consisting not only of the commons, but a crowd of soldiers, with a large admixture even of deserters, who were desirous of innovation in every thing. The praetors, at first, concealed their feelings, and were for protracting the business; but at length, overcome by the general opinion, and apprehensive of a sedition, they declared them the praetors. These did not, however, immediately openly avow their sentiments, though they were chagrined that ambassadors had been sent to Appius Claudius to negotiate a ten days' truce, and that on obtaining this, others were sent to treat for the renewal of the old alliance. The Romans, with a fleet of a hundred ships, were then stationed at Murgantia, waiting the issue of the commotion raised at Syracuse by the death of the tyrants, and to what their recent acquisition of liberty would impel the people. Meanwhile, the Syracusan ambassadors were sent by Appius Claudius to Marcellus on his coming into Sicily, and Marcellus having heard the conditions of peace, and being of opinion that matters might be brought to a settlement, himself also sent ambassadors to Syracuse to treat with the praetors in person on the renewal of the alliance. But now by no means the same state of quiet and tranquillity existed there. Hippocrates and Epicydes, their fears being removed, after that intelligence had arrived that a Carthaginian fleet had put in at Pachynum, complained sometimes to the mercenary soldiers, at other times to the deserters, that Syracuse was being betrayed to the Romans. And when Appius began to station his ships at the mouth of the port, in order to inspire the other party with courage, their false insinuations appeared to receive great corroboration; and on the first impulse, the populace had even run down in a disorderly manner to prevent them from disembarking.
28
While affairs were in this unsettled state, it was resolved to call an assembly; in which, when some leaned to one side and some to the other, and an insurrection being on the point of breaking out, Apollonides, one of the nobles, delivered a speech fraught with salutary advice, considering the critical state of affairs: "Never," he said, "had a state a nearer prospect of safety and annihilation. For if they would all unanimously espouse the cause either of the Romans or the Carthaginians, there could be no state whose condition would be more prosperous and happy; but if they pulled different ways, the war between the Romans and Carthaginians would not be more bloody than that which would take place between the Syracusans themselves, in which both the contending parties would have their forces, their troops, and their generals, within the same walls. Every exertion ought therefore to be made that all might think alike. Which alliance would be productive of the greater advantages, was a question of quite a secondary nature, and of less moment; though the authority of Hiero ought to be followed in preference to that of Hieronymus in the selection of allies, and a friendship of which they had had a happy experience through a space of fifty years, ought to be chosen rather than one now untried and formerly unfaithful. That it ought also to have some weight in their deliberations, that peace with the Carthaginians might be refused in such a manner as not immediately, at least, to have a war with them, while with the Romans they must forthwith have either peace or war." The less of party spirit and warmth appeared in this speech the greater weight it had. A military council also was united with the praetors and a chosen body of senators; the commanders of companies also, and the praefects of the allies, were ordered to consult conjointly. After the question had been agitated with great warmth, at length, as there appeared to be no means of carrying on a war with the Romans, it was resolved that a treaty of peace should be formed, and that ambassadors should be sent with those from Rome to ratify the same.
29
Not many days intervened before ambassadors came from the Leontines, requesting troops to protect their frontiers; an embassy which appeared to afford a very favourable opportunity for disencumbering the city of a turbulent and disorderly rabble, and for removing their leaders to a distance. The praetor, Hippocrates, was ordered to lead the deserters thither. Many of the mercenary auxiliaries accompanying them made them number four thousand armed men. This expedition gave great delight both to those who were sent and those who sent them, for to the former an opportunity was afforded of change which they had long desired, while the latter were rejoiced because they considered that a kind of sink of the city had been drained off. But they had, as it were, only relieved a sick body for a time, that it might afterwards fall into a more aggravated disease. For Hippocrates began to ravage the adjoining parts of the Roman province, at first by stealthy excursions, but afterwards, when Appies had sent a body of troops to protect the lands of the allies, he made an attack with all his forces upon the guard posted over against him, and slew many. Marcellus, when informed of this, immediately sent ambassadors to Syracuse, who said that the faith of the treaty had been broken, and that there would never be wanting a cause for hostilities, unless Hippocrates and Epicydes were removed not only from Syracuse, but far from all Sicily. Epicydes, lest by being present he should be arraigned for the offence committed by his absent brother, or should be wanting on his own part in stirring up a war, proceeded himself also to the Leontines; and seeing that they were already sufficiently exasperated against the Romans, he endeavoured to detach them from the Syracusans also. His argument was, that the terms on which they had formed a treaty of peace with the Romans were, that whatever people had been subject to their kings should be placed under their dominion; and that now they were not satisfied with liberty unless they could also exercise kingly power and dominion over others. The answer, therefore, he said, which they ought to send back was, that the Leontines also considered themselves entitled to liberty, either on the ground that the tyrant fell in the streets of their city, or that there the shout was first raised for liberty; and that they were the persons who, abandoning the king's generals, flocked to Syracuse. That, therefore, either that article must be expunged from the treaty, or that that term of it would not be admitted. They easily persuaded the multitude; and when the ambassadors of Syracuse complained of the slaughter of the Roman guard, and ordered that Hippocrates and Epicydes should depart either to Locri or any other place they pleased, provided they quitted Sicily, a reply was made to them in a haughty manner, "that they had neither placed themselves at the disposal of the Syracusans to make a peace for them with the Romans, nor were they bound by the treaties of other people." This answer the Syracusans laid before the Romans, declaring at the same time that "the Leontines were not under their control, and that, therefore, the Romans might make war on them without violating the treaty subsisting between them; that they would also not be wanting in the war, provided that when brought again under subjection, they should form a part of their dominion, agreeably to the conditions of the peace."
30
Marcellus marched with his entire forces against Leontini, having sent for Appius also, in order that he might attack it in another quarter; when, such was the ardour of the troops in consequence of the indignation they felt at the Roman guards being put to the sword during the negotiations for a peace, that they took the town by storm on the first assault. Hippocrates and Epicydes, perceiving that the enemy were getting possession of the walls and breaking open the gates, retired with a few others into the citadel, from which they fled unobserved during the night to Herbessus. The Syracusans, who had marched from home with eight thousand troops, were met at the river Myla by a messenger, who informed them that the city was taken. The rest which he stated was a mixture of truth and falsehood; he said that there had been an indiscriminate massacre of the soldiers and the townsmen, and that he did not think that one person who had arrived at puberty had survived; that the town had been pillaged, and the property of the rich men given to the troops. On receiving such direful news the army halted; and while all were under violent excitement, the generals, Sosis and Dinomenes, consulted together as to the course to be taken. The scourging and beheading of two thousand deserters had given to this false statement a plausibility which excited alarm; but no violence was offered to any of the Leontine or other soldiers after the city was taken; and every man's property was restored to him, with the exception only of such as was destroyed in the first confusion which attended the capture of the city. The troops, who complained of their fellow-soldiers having been betrayed and butchered, could neither be induced to proceed to Leontini, nor wait where they were for more certain intelligence. The praetors, perceiving their minds disposed to mutiny, but concluding that their violence would not be of long continuance, if those who had led them on to such folly were removed, led the troops to Megara, whence they themselves with a few horsemen proceeded to Herbessus, under the expectation of having the city betrayed to them in the general consternation; but being disappointed in this attempt, they resolved to resort to force, and moved their camp from Megara on the following day, in order to attack Herbessus with all their forces. Hippocrates and Epicydes having formed the design of putting themselves into the hands of the soldiers, who were for the most part accustomed to them, and were now incensed at the report of the massacre of their comrades, not so much as a safe measure on the first view of it as that it was their only course, now that all hope was cut off, went out to meet the army. It happened that the troops which marched in the van were six hundred Cretans, who had been engaged in the service of Hieronymus under their command, and were under obligation to Hannibal, having been captured at the Trasimenus among the Roman auxiliaries, and dismissed by him. Hippocrates and Epicydes, recognising them by their standards and the fashion of their armour, held out olive branches, and the fillets usually worn by suppliants, and implored them to receive them into their ranks, protect them when received, and not betray them to the Syracusans, by whom they themselves would soon be delivered up to the Romans to be butchered.