Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/413

 INVASION FROM CARTHAGE. 39] that the persons actually in leading function still continued to be rich men. The war carried on by the Syracusans against Naxos and Kat- ana, after continuing more than three years, 1 was brought to a close by an enemy from without, even more formidable than Athens. This time, the invader was not Hellenic, but Phoenician the an- cient foe of Hellas, Carthage. It has been already recounted, how in the same eventful year (480 B. c.) which transported Xerxes across the Hellespont to meet his defeat at Salamis, the Carthaginians had poured into Sicily a vast mercenary host under Hamilkar, for the purpose of reinstating in Himera the despot Terillus, who had been expelled by Theron of Agrigentum. On that occasion, Hamilkar had been slain, and his large army defeated, by the Syracusan despot Gelon, in the memorable battle of Himera. So deep had been the im- pression left by this defeat, that for the seventy years which inter- vened between 480-410 B. c., the Carthaginians had never again invaded the island. They resumed their aggressions shortly after the destruction of the Athenian power before Syracuse ; which same event had also stimulated the Persians, who had been kept in restraint while the Athenian empire remained unimpaired, again to act offensively for the recovery of their dominion over the Asiatic Greeks. The great naval power of Athens, inspiring not merely reserve but even alarm to Carthage, 2 had been a safe- guard to the Hellenic world both at its eastern and its western extremity. No sooner was that safeguard overthrown, than the hostile pressure of the foreigner began to be felt, as well upon West ^rn Sicily as on the eastern coast of the .ZEgean. From this time forward for two centuries, down to the conclusion of the second Punic war, the Carthaginians will be found frequent in their aggressive interventions in Sicily, and upon an extensive T7J VlKJjf TOV 7TO/{flOV TOV TTpdf 'Atf^VCtOUf, &K. 7rO/UraC ELC tyf v, 4, 4, 5. Kat Aioviwof Karrj-yopuv Aa^vafou Kal TUV nhovaiuv i^f Tvpavvldof, fiiu. rrjv e$pav maTev&Ei? wf SrjfioTiicbf uv. 1 Diodor. xiii, 56. cuse doKel (5e UOL Kal if Kapxr/dova apeivov elvat 7ff / ui/;at. Ov yap tivtX- maTov,avTolf, U.AA' uei 6i.il fyofiov elai fir} TTOTC ' P&T]valoi aiirolt; kttl TTJV iroluv i".i9<j(Ttv, etc.
 * Thucyd. vi, 34. Speech of Hermokrates to his countrymen at Syra-