Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/443

 SECOND INVASION FROM CARTHAGE. 421 not, we do not know. 1 It is highly probable that he was a man of literary ability and instruction, since we read of him in after-days as a composer of odes and tragedies ; and it is certain that he stood distinguished in all the talents for military action, bravery, force of will, and quickness of discernment. On the present occa- sion, he espoused strenuously the party of Hermokrates, and was one of those who took arms in the city on his behalf. Having distinguished himself in the battle, and received several wounds, he was among those given out for dead by his relations. 2 In thia manner he escaped the sentence of banishment passed against the survivors. And when, in the course of a certain time, after recov- ering from his wounds, he was produced as unexpectedly living, we may presume that his opponents and the leading men in the city left him unmolested, not thinking it worth while to reopen political inquisition in reference to matters already passed and fin- ished. He thus remained in the city, marked out by his daring and address to the Hermokratsean party, as the person most fit to take up the mantle, and resume the anti-popular designs, of their late leader. It will presently be seen how the chiefs of this party lent their aid to exalt him. Meanwhile the internal condition of Syracuse was greatly en- feebled by this division. Though the three several attempts of Hermokrates to penetrate by force or fraud into the city had all failed, yet they had left a formidable body of malcontents behind ; while the opponents also, the popular government and its leaders, had been materially reduced in power and consideration by the banishment of Diokles. This magistrate was succeeded by Daph- naeus and others, of whom we know nothing, except that they are spoken of as rich men and representing the sentiments of the rich, and that they seem to have manifested but little ability. Nothing could be more unfortunate than the weakness of Syracuse at this particular juncture : for the Carthaginians, elate with their successes at Selinus and Himera, and doubtless also piqued by the subsequent retaliation of Hermokrates upon their dependen- cies at Motye and Panormus, were just now meditating a second invasion of Sicily on a still larger scale. Not uninformed of their Xenonh. Hellen. ii, 2, 24. Aiovvaioc 6 'Fouo/cparcwf Diodor. xiii, 91. 8 Diodor. xiii, 75.