Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/434

 416 HISTOnV OF GREECE. western portion cf Sicily, where he and nearly all his companions perished in a battle with the Carthaginians and Egestaeans, though the oracle had promised him that he should acquire and occupy permanently the neighboring territory near Mount Eryx. Now the Sybarites deduced from this fatal disaster of Dorieus nnd his expedition, combined with the favorable promise of the oracle beforehand, a confident proof of the correctness of their own statement that he had fought at Sybaris. For if he had gone straight to the territory marked out by the oracle, they argued, without turning aside for any other object, the prophecy on which his hopes were founded would have been unquestionably realized, and he would have succeeded ; but the ruinous disap- pointment which actually overtook him was at once explained, and the truth of prophecy vindicated, when it was recollected that he had turned aside to help the Krotoniates against Sybaris, and thus set at nought the conditions prescribed to him. Upon this argument, Herodotus tells us, the Sybarites of his day especially insisted. 1 And while we note their pious and literal faith in the communications of an inspired prophet, we must at the same time observe how perfectly that faith supplied the place of historical premises, how scanty their stock was of such legitimate evidence, and how little they had yet learned to appreciate its value. It is to be remarked, that Herodotus, in his brief mention of the fatal war between Sybaris and Kroton, does not make the least allusion to Pythagoras or his brotherhood. The least which we can infer from such silence is, that the part which they played in reference to the war, and their general ascen- dency in Magna Gracia, was in reality less conspicuous and overruling than the Pythagorean historians set forth. Even making such allowance, however, the absence of all allusion in Herodotus, to the commotions which accompanied the subversion of the Pythagoreans, is a surprising circumstance. Nor can I pass over a perplexing statement in Polybius, which seems to Ilerodot v, 45. TOVTO df, avrov Aupieor rbv davarov fiaprvpiov rov naievvrat CZvpaplrat), on Trapu ru fitfiavrevfiEva irotiuv Ei }' 6e kcriikT) iiroise, elXe uv T?/V fp?i xal &uv KUTfcrxe, ovff uv avrof re Kdl i) arparirj