Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/431

 ANSWER OF HANNIBAL. 409 the like elaborate siege, and not reflecting that he was at the head of a vast host of miscellaneous foreigners hired for the occa- sion, of whose lives he could afford to be prodigal, while Nikias commanded citizens of Athens and other Grecian states, whom he could not expose to the murderous but thorough-going process of ever-renewed assault against strong walls recently erected, they were thunderstruck on being informed that nine days of carnage had sufficed for the capture. The Syracusan soldiers, a select body of three thousand, who at length joined the Geloans and Agrigentines at Agrigentum, only arrived in time to partake in the general dismay everywhere diffused. A joint embassy was sent by three cities to Hannibal, entreating him to permit the ran- som of the captives, and to spare the temples of the gods ; while Empedion went at the same time to sue for compassion on behalf of his own fugitive fellow-citizens. To the former demand the victorious Carthaginian returned an answer at once haughty aad characteristic, " The Selinuntines have not been able to preserve their freedom, and must now submit to a trial of slavery. The gods have become offended with them, and have taken their de- parture from the town." l To Empedion, an ancient friend and pronounced partisan of the Carthaginians, his reply was more indulgent. All the relatives of Empedion, found alive among the captives, were at once given up ; moreover permission was grant- ed to the fugitive Selinuntines to return, if they pleased, and reoccupy the town with its lands, as tributary subjects of Car- thage. At the same time that he granted such permission, how- ever, Hannibal at once caused the walls to be razed, and even the town with its temples to be destroyed. 9 What was done about the proposed ransom, we do not hear. 1 Dio/Ior. xiii, 59. 'O 6e 'Avvi/3ae u-rreKpidi}, roi>f psv Zehivovvriovf fir) JivafiEvov; rjjpelv TTJV ihevdepiav, irelpav rfc dovfaiaf /ti^pnTtfat; roi)f 6e tfeovf iKTbf ZehivovvTOC ot^eatfcu, TrpocfKoipavraf role ivoiKovaiv. 2 Diodor. xiii, 59. The ruins, yet remaining, of the ancient temples of Selinus, are vast and imposing ; characteristic as specimens of Doric art, during the fifth and sixth centuries B. c. From the great magnitude of the fallen columns, it has been supposed that they were overthrown by an earth- quake. But the ruins afford distinct evidence, that these columns hare been first undermined, and then overthrown by crow-bars. This impressive fact, demonstrating the agency of the Carthaginian de- itroyers, is stated by Niebuhr, Vortrage iibcr alte Geschichte, vol. iii, p. 207 VOL. X. 18