Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/423

 EGESTA AND SELINUS. 4QJ still remained at Carthage, the most powerful citizens in the state; carrying on hostilities against the Moors and other indigenous Af- ricans, whom they compelled to relinquish the tribute which Car- thage had paid, down to that time, for the ground whereon the city was situated. This family are said indeed to have been so pow- erful, that a check upon their ascendency was supposed to be neces- sary ; and for that purpose the select One Hundred Senators sitting as judges were now nominated for the first time. 1 Such wars in Africa doubtless tended to prevent the Carthaginians from farther interference in Sicily, during the interval between 480-410 B. c. There were probably other causes also, not known to us, and down to the year 413 B. c., the formidable naval power of Ath- ens (as has been already remarked) kept them on the wa*<:h even for themselves. But now, after the great Athenian catastrophe before Syracuse, apprehensions from that quarter were dissipated; so that Carthage again found leisure, as well as inclination, to seek in Sicily both aggrandizement and revenge. It is remarkable that the same persons, acting in the same quar- rel, who furnished the pretext or the motive for the recent invasion by Athens, now served in the like capacity as prompters to Car- thage. The inhabitants of Egesta, engaged in an unequal war with rival neighbors at Selinus, were in both cases the soliciting parties. They had applied to Carthage first, without success, 2 be- fore they thought of sending to invoke aid from Athens. This war indeed had been for the time merged and forgotten in the larger Athenian enterprise against Syracuse ; but it revived after that catastrophe, wherein Athens and her armament were shipwrecked. The Egestoeans had not only lost their protectors, but had incurred aggravated hostility from their neighbors, for having brought upon Sicily so formidable an ultramarine enemy. Their original quar- rel with Selinus had related to a disputed portion of border terri- tory. This point they no longer felt competent to maintain, under 1 Justin, xix, 2. 2 Diodor. xii, 82. It seems probable that the war which Diodorus mentions to have taken place in 452 B. c., between the Egestteans and Lilybaoans was really a war between Egesta and Selinus (see Diodor. xi, 86 with Wesseling's note) Lilybaeum as a town attained no importance until after the capture of Mo tye by the elder Bionysius in 393 B. C. VOT.. x. 26oc.