Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/250

 226 HISTORY OF GREECE. island ; while Thero governed in Agrigentum, and his son Thrasydffius in Himera. In power as well as in reputation, Gelo was unquestionably the chief person in the island ; moreover, he was connected by marriage, and lived on terms of uninterrupted friendship, with Thero. His conduct both at Syracuse and towards the cities dependent upon him, was mild and conciliating. But his subsequent career was very short : he died of a dropsical complaint, not much more than a year after the battle of Himera, while the glories of that day were fresh in every one's recollec- tion. As the Syracusan law rigorously interdicted expensive funerals, Gelo had commanded that his own obsequies should be conducted in strict conformity to the law : nevertheless, the zeal of his successor as well as the attachment of the people disobeyed these commands. The great mass of citizens followed his funeral procession from the city to the estate of his wife, fifteen miles distant: nine massive towers w^ere erected to distinguish the sj)ot ; and the solemnities of heroic worship were rendered to him. Nor did the respectful recollections of the conqueror of Himera ever afterwards die out among the Syracusan people, though his tomb was defaced, first by the Carthaginians, and afterwards by the despot Agathokles.i And when we recollect the destructive effects caused by the subsequent Carthaginian invasions, we shall be sensible how great was the debt of grati- tude owing to Gelo by his contemporaries. It was not merely as conqueror of Himera, but as a sort of second founder of Syracuse,^ that Gelo was thus solemnly wor- shipped. The size, the strength, and the population of the town were all greatly increased under him. Besides the number of new inhabitants which he brought from Gela, the Hybloean Megara, and the Sicilian Euboea, we are informed that he also inscribed on the roll of citizens no less than ten thousand mer- cenary soldiers. It will, moreovei*, appear that these new-made citizens were in possession of the islet of Ortygia, and the portion of the city closely bordering on it, which bore the name of Achradina,3 — the interior strongholds of Syracuse. It has ' Diodor. xi, 38, 67 ;■ Plutarch. Timoleon, c. 29 ; Aristotle, TeWuv UoXc- TEia ; Fragm. p. 106, ed. Neumann. ' Diodor. xi, 49. ' Diodor. xi, 72 7."?