Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/452

 430 HISTORY OF GREECE. the preservation of property or cherished pos. sessions, Happy were they who could save their lives ; for not a few, through per- sonal weakness or the immobility of despair, were left behind. Perhaps here and there a citizen, combining the personal strength with the filial piety of JEneas, might carry away his aged father with the household gods on his shoulders ; but for the most part, the old, the sick, and the impotent, all whose years were either too tender or too decrepit to keep up with a hurried flight, were of necessity abandoned. Some remained and slew themselves, refusing even to survive the loss of their homes and the destruc- tion of their city ; others, among whom was the wealthy Gellias, consigned themselves to the protection of the temples, but with little hope that it would procure them safety. The morning's dawn exhibited to Imilkon unguarded walls, a deserted city, and a miserable population of exiles huddled together in disorderly flight on the road to Gela. For those fugitives, however, the Syracusan and Agrigentine soldiers formed a rear-guard sufficient to keep off" the aggravated torture of a pursuit. But the Carthaginian army found enough to occupy them in the undefended prey which was before their eyes. They rushed upon the town with the fury of men who had been struggling and suffering before it for eight months. They ran- sacked the houses, slew every living person that was left, and found plunder enough to satiate even a ravenous appetite. Tem- ples as well as private dwellings were alike stripped, so that those who had taken sanctuary in them became victims like the rest : a fate which Gellius only avoided by setting fire to the temple in which he stood and perishing in its ruins. The great public orna- ments and trophies of the city, the bull of Phalaris, togethei with the most precious statues and pictures, were preserved by Imilkon and sent home as decorations to Carthage. 1 While he gave up the houses of Agrigentum to be thus gutted, he still kept them standing, and caused them to serve as winter-quarters for the repose of his soldiers, after the hardships of an eight months' siege. The unhappy Agrigentine fugitives first found shelter and kind hospitality at Gela ; from whence they were afterwards, by per- mission of the Syracusans, transferred to LeontinL 1 Diodor. xiii, 89, 90.