the most dreadful curses and imprecations against | country might not accuse him of having disobeyed its him; and when he came to console her, not being able orders, and betrayed its interests. There was a seto bear the sight of her son's murderer, she thrust him cret understanding between him and the governor and away with indignation, and shut her doors against him. magistrates of Rhegium. They desired nothing more He was then struck with all the horror of his guilt, than to see the Corinthians in possession of Sicily, and giving himself up to the most bitter remorse, con- and apprehended nothing so much as the neighbour sidered Timophanes no longer as a tyrant, but as a hood of the barbarians. They summoned therefore an brother, and resolved to put an end to his life, by ab-assembly, and shut the gates of the city, upon prestaining from all nourishment. It was with great dif- tence of preventing the citizens from going abroad, in ficulty his friends dissuaded him from that fatal reso-order that they might devote their attention solely to lution. Overcome by their prayers and entreaties, he the present affair. was at length prevailed upon to live; but he condemned himself to pass the rest of his days in solitude. From that moment he renounced all public affairs, and for several years never came to the city, but wandered about in the most solitary and desert places, abandoned to excess of grief and melancholy. So true it is, that neither the praises of flatterers, nor the false reasonings of politicians, can suppress the cries of conscience, which is at once the witness, judge, and executioner of those who dare to violate the most sacred rights and ties of nature!

He passed twenty years in this condition. He did indeed return to Corinth at the latter part of that time, but lived there always private and retired, without concerning himself with the administration of the government. It was not without great repugnance that he accepted the employment of general, but he did not think it allowable to refuse the service of his country, and his duty prevailed against his inclination. Whilst Timoleon assembled his troops, and was preparing to sail, the Corinthians received letters from Icetas, in which he told them, "That it was not necessary for them to make any further levies, nor to exhaust themselves in great expenses to come to Sicily, and expose themselves to evident danger; that the Carthaginians, apprised of their design, were waiting to intercept their squadron in its passage with a great fleet; and that their slowness in sending their troops, had obliged him to call in the Carthaginians themselves to his aid, and to make use of them against the tyrant." He had made a secret treaty with them, by which it was stipulated, that after the expulsion of Dionysius from Syracuse, he should take possession of it in his place.

The people being assembled, long speeches were made of little or no tendency, every body treating the same subject, and repeating the same reasons, or adding new ones, only to protract the council, and to gain time. Whilst this was doing, nine of the Corinthian galleys went off, and were suffered by the Carthaginian vessels to pass, believing that their depar ture had been concerted with their own officers who were in the city, and that those nine galleys were to return to Corinth, the tenth remaining to carry Timo leon to Icetas's army at Syracuse. When Timoleon was informed in a whisper, that his galleys were at sea, he slipped gently through the crowd, which, to favour his going off, thronged exceedingly around the tribunal. He got to the sea-side, embarked directly; and having rejoined his galleys, they arrived together at Tauromenium, a city of Sicily, where they were received with open arms by Andromachus, who com manded it, and who joined his citizens with the Corinthian troops, to reinstate the Sicilians in their liberties. It is easy to comprehend how much the Carthagi nians were surprised and ashamed of being so deceiv ed: but, as somebody told them, being Phoenicians (who passed for the greatest cheats in the world,) fraud and artifice ought not to give them so much astonishment and displeasure.

Upon the news of Timoleon's arrival, Icetas was terrified, and made the greatest part of the Carthaginian galleys advance. They had 150 long ships, 50,000 foot, and 300 armed chariots. The Syracusans lost all hope when they saw the Carthaginians in pos session of the port, Icetas master of the city, Diony sius blocked up in the citadel, and Timoleon without any other hold in Sicily than a nook of its coast, the The reading of these letters, far from cooling the small city of Tauromenium, with little hope and less zeal of the Corinthians, only incensed them still more, force; for his troops did not amount in all to more than and hastened the departure of Timoleon. He em- 1000 soldiers, and he had scarce provision for their barked with ten galleys, and arrived safe upon the coast subsistence. Besides which, the cities placed no conof Italy: here the news that came from Sicily extremely fidence in him. The ills they had lately suffered from perplexed him, and discouraged his troops. An ac- the extortion and cruelty that had been practised count was brought, that Icetas had defeated Diony- amongst them, had exasperated them against all sius; and having made himself master of the greatest commanders of troops, especially after the horrid part of Syracuse, had obliged the tyrant to shut him- treachery of Callippus and Pharax; who being both self up in the citadel, and in that quarter called the sent, the one from Athens, and the other from Sparta, Isle, where he besieged him; and that he had given to free Sicily and expel the tyrants, made them conorders to the Carthaginians to prevent Timoleon's ap-ceive the tyranny gentle and desirable, so severe were proach and landing, that they might make a peaceable partition of Sicily between them, when they should have compelled that general to retire.

And indeed the Carthaginians had sent twenty galleys to Rhegium. The Corinthians upon their arrival at that port, found ambassadors from Icetas, who declared to Timoleon, that he might come to Syracuse, and would be well received there, provided he dismissed his troops. The proposal was an absolute insult, and at the same time more perplexing. It seemed impossible to beat the vessels which the barbarians had caused to advance to intercept them in their passage, being twice their force; and to retire, was to abandon to extreme distress the whole of Sicily, which could not avoid being the reward of Icetas's treachery, and of the support which the Carthaginians should give the tyranny.

In this delicate conjuncture, Timoleon demanded a conference with the ambassadors, and the principal officers of the Carthaginian squadron, in the presence of the people of Rhegium. It was only, he said, to exonerate himself, and for his own security, that his

the vexations with which they had oppressed them. They were afraid of experiencing the same treatment from Timoleon.

The inhabitants of Adranon, a small city below mount Ætna, being divided amongst themselves, one party had called in Icetas and the Carthaginians, and the other had applied to Timoleon. The two chiefs arrived almost at the same time in the neighbourhood of Adranon; the former with near 5000 men, and the other with only 1200. Notwithstanding this inequal ity, Timoleon, who justly conceived that he should find the Carthaginians in disorder, and employed in taking up their quarters and pitching their tents, made his troops advance, and without losing time to rest them, as the officers advised him, he marched directly to charge the enemy, who no sooner saw him than they took to flight. This occasioned their killing only 300, and taking twice as many prisoners; but the Carthaginians lost their camp, and all their baggage. The Adranites opened their gates at the same time, and received Timoleon. Other cities sent their depu ties to him soon after, and made their submission.

Dionysius himself, who renounced his vain hopes, | dæmonians some time after gave Philip. That prince, and saw himself at the point of being reduced, as full having written to them in very haughty and menacing of contempt for Icetas, who had suffered himself to be terms, they made him no other answer, than Dionyso shamefully defeated, as of admiration and esteem sius at Corinth. for Timoleon, sent ambassadors to the latter, to treat of surrendering himself and the citadel to the Corinthians. Timoleon, taking advantage of so unexpected a good fortune, made Euclid and Telemachus, two Corinthian officers, with 400 soldiers, file off into the castle; not all at once, nor in the day-time, that being impossible, the Carthaginians being masters of the harbour, but in small bodies, and by stealth. Those troops, having got successfully into the citadel, took possession of it with all the tyrant's effects, and all the stores he had laid up there. For he had a considerable number of horse, all sorts of warlike engines-"Can you believe, then," replied he, "that I have and darts, besides 70,000 suits of armour, which had been laid up there long before. Dionysius had also 2000 regular troops, which with the rest he surrendered to Timoleon. And for himself, taking with him his money and some few of his friends, he embarked unperceived by the troops of Icetas, and repaired to the camp of Timoleon.

When he had made himself master of it, he did not act like Dion, in sparing the forts and public edifices on account of their beauty and magnificence. To avoid giving the same cause of suspicion, which at first had raised distrust, though without foundation, against that great man, and at length had ruined him, he caused proclamation to be made by sound of trumpet, that all Syracusans, who would come with their tools, might employ themselves in demolishing the forts of the tyrants. In consequence of which the Syracusans, considering that proclamation and day as the happy commencement of their liberty, ran in multitudes, and not only demolished the citadel, but the palaces of the tyrants; breaking open their tombs at the same time, which they also threw down and destroyed.

The citadel being raised, and the ground made level, Timoleon caused tribunals to be erected upon it, for the dispensation of justice in the name of the people; that the same place from whence, under the tyrants, every day some bloody edict had issued, might become the asylum and bulwark of liberty and innocence.

from all parts of Italy and Sicily had already joined Timoleon. It is said their number amounted to 60,000 and upwards. Timoleon distributed the lands amongst them gratis; but sold the houses, with which he raised a very great sum; leaving to the old inhabitants the power of redeeming their own; and by this means he collected a considerable fund for such of the people as were poor, and unable to support either their own necessities or the charges of the war.

The statues of the tyrants, and of all the princes who had governed Sicily were put up to sale; but first they were cited to trial, and regularly proceeded against in due form of law. One alone escaped the rigour of this inquiry, and was preserved; which was that of Gelon, who had gained a celebrated victory over the Carthaginians near Himera, and had governed the people with lenity and justice; for which his memory was still cherished and honoured. If all sta tues were made to undergo the same scrutiny, I do not know whether many would continue in being.

History has preserved another sentence passed also in regard to a statue, but of a very different kind. The fact is curious, and will excuse the digression. Nicon, a champion of Thasos, had been crowned 1400 times victor in the solemn games of Greece. A man of such merit could not fail of being envied. After his death, one of his competitors insulted his statue, and gave it several blows; to revenge, perhaps, those he had formerly received from him it represented. But the statue, as if sensible of that outrage, fell from its height upon the person that insulted it, and killed him. The son of him who had been crushed to death proceeded juridically against the statue, as guilty of homicide, and punishable by the law of Draco. That famous legislator of Athens, to inspire a greater horror for the guilt of murder, had ordained that even inanimate things should be destroyed, whose fall should occasion the death of a man. The Thasians, conformably to this law, decreed that the statue should be thrown into the sea. But some years after, being afflicted with a great famine, and having consulted the oracle of Delphi, they caused it to be taken out of the sea, and rendered new honours to it.

Timoleon was master of the city; but it wanted people to inhabit it: for some having perished in the wars and seditions, and others having fled to avoid the power of the tyrants, Syracuse was become a desert, and the grass was grown so high in the streets, that horses grazed in them. Almost all the cities of Sicily were in the same condition. Timoleon and the Syracusans therefore found it necessary to write to Corinth, to desire that people might be sent from Greece to inhabit Syracuse; that otherwise the country could never recover itself, especially as it was moreover threatened with a new war. For they had received advice that Mago having killed himself, the Carthaginians, enraged at his having acquitted himself so ill of his commission, had hung up his body upon a cross, and were making great levies to return into Sicily with a more numerous army at the beginning of the year. Those letters being arrived with the ambassadors from Syracuse, who conjured the Corinthians to take compassion of their city, and to be a second time the founders of it; the Corinthians did not consider the calamity of that people as an occasion of aggrandizing themselves, and of making themselves masters of the Syracuse being thus raised in a manner from the city, according to the maxims of a base and infamous grave, and people flocking from all parts to inhabit it, policy; but sending to all the sacred games of Greece, Timoleon, desirous of freeing the other cities of Sicily, and to all public assemblies, they caused proclamation and of finally extirpating tyranny and tyrants out of to be made in them by heralds, that the Corinthians it, began his march with his army. He compelled having abolished the tyranny in Syracuse, and expelled | Icetas to renounce his alliance with the Carthaginians, the tyrants, declared free and independent the Syra-obliged him to demolish his forts, and to live as a pricusans, and all the people of Sicily, who should return vate person in the city of the Leontines. Leptines, into their own country; and exhorted them to repair thither, to partake of an equal and just distribution of the lands amongst them. At the same time they despatched couriers into Asia, and into all the isles, whither great numbers of fugitives had retired, to invite them to come as soon as possible to Corinth, which would provide them vessels, commanders, and a safe convoy, to transport them into their country at its own expense.

Upon this proclamation Corinth received universal praises and blessings, as it justly deserved. It was every where proclaimed, that Corinth had delivered Syracuse from the tyrants, had preserved it from falling into the hands of the barbarians, and restored it to its citizens. It is not necessary to insist here upon the grandeur of so noble and generous an action: the mere relation of it must make upon the mind of every one that impression that always results from what is great and noble; and every body must own, that never conquest or triumph equalled the glory which the Corinthians then acquired by so perfect and magnanimous a disinterestedness.

Those who came to Corinth, not being sufficiently numerous, demanded an addition of inhabitants from that city and from all Greece, to augment this new kind of colony. Having obtained their request, and finding themselves increased to at least 10,000, they embarked for Syracuse, where a multitude of people

tyrant of Apollonia and of several other cities and fortresses, seeing himself in danger of being taken by force, surrendered himself. Timoleon spared his life, and sent him to Corinth. For he thought nothing more great and honourable, than to let all Greece see the tyrants of Sicily in a state of humiliation and living like exiles.

He returned afterwards to Syracuse, to regulate the government, and to institute such laws as should be most important and necessary, in conjunction with Cephalus and Dionysius, two legislators sent to him by the Corinthians; for he had not the weakness to desire unlimited power, and the sole administration. But on his departure, that the troops in his pay might get something for themselves, and to keep them in exercise at the same time, he sent them, under the command of Dinarchus and Demaratus, into all the places subject to the Carthaginians. Those troops brought over several cities from the barbarians, lived always in abundance, made much booty, and returned with considerable sums of money, which was of great service in the support of the war.

About this time, the Carthaginians arrived at Lilybæum, under Asdrubal and Amilcar, with an army of

1 Suidas in Níkov. Pausan. l. 6. p. 364.
An island in the gean sea.
Plut. in Timol. p. 248. 255.

70,000 men, 200 ships of war, and 1000 transports, | spected, and consulted as the common oracle of Sicily. laden with machines, armed chariots, horses, ammu- Neither treaty of peace, institution of law, division of nition, and provisions. They proposed no less than land, nor regulation of government, seemed well done, the entire expulsion of the Greeks out of Sicily. Ti- if Timoleon had not been consulted, and put the last moleon did not think fit to wait their advancing; and hand to it. though he could raise only 6 or 7000 men, so great was the people's terror, he marched with that small body of troops against the formidable army of the enemy, and obtained a celebrated victory near the river Crimesus; an account of which may be found in the history of the Carthaginians. Timoleon returned to Syracuse amidst shouts of joy and universal applauses.

He had before effected the conquest and reduction of the Sicilian tyrants, but had not changed them, nor taken from them their tyrannical disposition. They united together, and formed a powerful league against him. Timoleon immediately took the field, and soon put a final end to their hopes. He made them all suffer the just punishment their revolt deserved. Icetas, amongst others, with his son, were put to death as tyrants and traitors. His wife and daughters, having been sent to Syracuse and brought before the assembly of the people, were also sentenced to die, and executed accordingly. The people, without doubt, designed to avenge Dion, their first deliverer, by that decree. For it was the same Icetas who had caused Arete, Dion's wife, his sister Aristomache, and his son an infant, to be thrown into the sea.

Virtue is seldom or never without those who envy it. Two accusers summoned Timoleon to answer for his conduct before the judges; and having assigned him a certain day for his appearance, demanded sureties of him. The people expressed great indignation against such a proceeding, and would have dispensed with so great a man's observing the usual formalities; this, however, he strongly opposed, giving for his reason, that all he had undertaken had no other principle, than that the laws might have their due course. He was accused of malversation during his command of the army. Timoleon, without giving himself the trouble to refute those calumnies, only replied: "That he thanked the gods, for that they had heard his prayers, and that he at length saw the Syracusans enjoy an entire liberty of saying every thing; a liberty absolutely unknown to them under the tyrants, but which it was just to confine within due bounds."

His age was tried with a very sensible affliction, which he supported with astonishing patience; it was the loss of sight. That accident, far from lessening the consideration and regard of the people towards him, served only to augment them. The Syracusans did not content themselves with paying him frequent visits, they conducted all strangers, both in town and country, to see their benefactor and deliverer. When they had any important affair to deliberate upon in the assembly of the people, they called him in to their assistance; he came thither in a chariot drawn by two horses, went through the public square to the theatre; and in that manner was introduced into the assembly, amidst the shouts and acclamations of joy of the whole people. After he had given his opinion, which was always religiously observed, his domestics reconducted him across the theatre, and he was escorted by all the citizens beyond the gates, with continual shouts of joy and clapping of hands.

He had still greater honours paid to him after his death. Nothing was wanting that could add to the magnificence of the procession which followed his bier of which the noblest ornaments were the tears that were shed, and the blessings uttered by every body in honour of his memory. Those tears were neither the effect of custom and the formality of mourning, nor exacted by a public decree, but flowed from a native source, and sprung from sincere affection, lively gratitude, and inconsolable sorrow. A law was also made, that, annually, for the future, upon the day of his death, musical and gymnastic games should be celebrated, and horse-races run in honour of him. But what was still more honourable for the memory of that great man, was the decree of the Syracusan people; that whenever Sicily should be engaged in a war with foreigners, they should send to Corinth for a general.

I do not know that we discover in history any thing more great and accomplished than what we are told of Timoleon. I speak not only of his military exploits and the happy success of all his undertakings. Plutarch observes a characteristic in them, which distinThat great man had given Syracuse wise laws, had guishes Timoleon from all the great men of his times; purged all Sicily of the tyrants which had so long in- and he makes use, upon that occasion, of a very refested it, had re-established peace and security uni-markable comparison. There are, says he, in paintversally, and supplied the cities ruined by the war with the means of reinstating themselves. After such glorious actions, which had acquired him an unbounded credit, he voluntarily quitted his authority to live in retirement. The Syracusans had given him the best house in the city, in gratitude for his great services, and another very fine and agreeable one in the country, where he generally resided with his wife and children, whom he had sent for from Corinth; for he did not return thither, and Syracuse was become his country. He had the prudence by resigning every thing to shelter himself also entirely from envy, which never fails to attend exalted stations, and pays no respect to merit, however great and substantial. He shunned the rock on which the greatest men, through an insatiate lust of honours and power, are often shipwrecked; that is, by engaging to the end of their lives in new cares and troubles, of which age renders them incapable, and by choosing rather to sink under, than to lay down, the weight of them."

Timoleon, who knew all the value of a noble and glorious leisure, acted in a different manner. He passed the rest of his life as a private person, enjoying the grateful satisfaction of seeing so many cities, and such a numerous people, indebted to him for their happiness and tranquillity. But he was always re

1 Malunt deficere, quàm desinere. Quintil. 2 Otium cum dignitate. Cic.

VOL. I.-56

ing and poetry, pieces which are excellent in themselves, and which at the first view may be known to be the works of a master; but some of them denote their having cost abundance of pains and application; whereas in others, an easy and native grace is seen, which adds exceedingly to their value; and amongst the latter he places the poems of Homer. Something of this sort occurs, he goes on, when we compare the great actions of Epaminondas and Agesilaus with those of Timoleon. In the former, we find them executed with force and innumerable difficulties; but in the latter there is an easiness and facility, which distinguishes them as the work, not of fortune, but o. virtue, which fortune seems to have taken pleasure in seconding. It is Plutarch who still speaks.

But not to mention the military actions of Timoleon, what I admire most in him, is his warm and disin. terested passion for the public good, reserving for himself only the pleasure of seeing others happy by his services; his extreme remoteness from ambition and haughtiness; his honourable retirement into the country; his modesty, moderation, and indifference for the honours paid him; and, what is still more uncommon, his aversion for all flattery, and even just praises. When somebody extolled, in his presence, his wisdom, valour, and the glory he had acquired in having expelled the tyrants, he made no answer, but that he thought himself obliged to express his gratitude to the gods, in that, having decreed to restore peace and

liberty to Sicily, they had vouchsafed to make choice | people: but what a difference do we perceive under of him in preference to all others for so honourable an the different governments we speak of! The two office: for he was fully persuaded, that all human tyrants had no thoughts but of making themselves events are guided and disposed by the secret decrees feared, and of depressing their subjects to render them of Divine Providence. What a treasure, what a more submissive. They were in fact dreaded, as they happiness for a state, is such a minister ! desired to be, but at the same time detested and ab horred, and had more to fear from their subjects, than their subjects from them. Timoleon, on the contrary, who looked upon himself as the father of the Syracusan people, and who had no thoughts but of making them happy, enjoyed the refined pleasure of being beloved and revered as a parent by his children: and he was remembered amongst them with blessings, because they could not reflect upon the peace and feli

i Cùm suas laudes audiret prædicari, nunquam aliud dixit, quàm se in eâ re maximas diis gratias agere et habere, quòd cùm Siciliam recreare constituissent, tum se potissimùm ducem esse voluissent. Nihil enim rerum human-city they enjoyed, without calling to mind, at the same arum sine deorum numine agi putabat. Cor. Nep. in time, the wise legislator to whom they were indebted for those inestimable blessings.

THE HISTORY

OF THE

PERSIANS AND GRECIANS.

BOOK XII.