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122 i22 HISTORY OF GREECE. open to abuse, so that we have no reason to wonder that abuse occurred, especially at a period of great violence and discord. The wonder rather is, that it was so little abused at Athens. Although the ostracism, or pet&lism, at Syracuse was speedily discontinued, it may probably have left a salutary impression behind, as far as we can judge from the fact that new pretenders to despotism are not hereafter mentioned. The republic increases in wealth, and manifests an energetic action in foreign affairs. The Syracusan admiral Phayllus was despatched with a power- ful fleet to repress the piracies of the Tyrrhenian maritime towns, and after ravaging the island of Elba, returned home, under the suspicion of having been bought off by bribes from the enemy ; on which accusation he was tried and banished, a second fleet of sixty triremes under Apelles being sent to the same regions. The new admiral not only plundered many parts of the Tyrrhe- nian coast, but also carried hrs ravages into the island of Corsica, at that time a Tyrrhenian possession, and reduced the island of Elba completely. His return was signalized by a large number of captives and a rich booty. 1 Meanwhile the great antecedent revolutions, among the Gre- cian cities in Sicily had raised a new spirit among the Sikels of the interior, and inspired the Sikel prince Duketitis, a man of spirit and ability, with large ideas of aggrandizement. Many exiled Greeks having probably sought service with him, it was either by their suggestion, or from having himself caught the spirit of Hellenic improvement, that he commenced the plan of bringing the petty Sikel communities into something like city life and collective cooperation. Having acquired glory by the capture of the Grecian town of Morgantina, he induced all the Sikel communities, with the exception of Hybla, to enter into a sort of federative compact. Next, in order to obtain a central point for the new organization, he transferred his own little town from the hill-top, called Mence, down to a convenient spot of the neighboring plain, near to the sacred precinct of the gods called Paliki. 2 As the veneration paid to these gods, determined in 1 Diodor. xi, 87, 88. 2 Diodor. xi, 78, 88, 90. The proceeding of Duketius is illustrated by the description of Dardamis in the Iliad, xx, 216 :