Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/477

 PEACE WITH CARTHAGE. 455 hazard and alarm of this sort he was speedily relieved, by propo- sitions for peace, which came spontaneously tendered by the Car thaginian general. Peace was concluded between them, on the following terms : 1 . The Carthaginians shall retain all their previous possessions, and all their Sikanian dependencies, in Sicily. They shall keep, besides, Selinus, Himera, Agrigentum. The towns of Gela and Kamarina may be reoccupied by their present fugitive inhabitants ; but on condition of paying tribute to Carthage, and destroying their walls and fortifications. 2. The inhabitants of Leontini and Messene, as well as all the Sikel inhabitants, shall be independent and autonomous. 3. The Syracusans shall be subject to Dionysius. 1 4. All the captives, and all the ships, taken on both sides, shall be mutually restored. Such were the conditions upon which peace was now concluded. Though they were extremely advantageous to Carthage, assign- ing to her, either as subject or as tributary, the whole of the south- ern shore of Sicily, yet as Syracuse was, after all, the great prize to be obtained, the conquest of which was essential to the security of all the remainder, we are astonished that Imilkon did not push forward to attack it, at a moment so obviously promising. It appears that immediately after the conquest of Gela and Ka- marina, the Carthaginian army was visited by a pestilential dis- temper, which is said to have destroyed nearly the half of it, and to have forbidden future operations. The announcement of this event however, though doubtless substantially exact, comes to us in a way somewhat confused. 2 And when we read, as one of the 1 Diodor. xiii, 114. KO.L ZvpaKOVolovf IJ.EV VTTO Aiovvaiov -ertixdai, etc 8 Diodor. xiii, 114. Diodorus begins this chapter with the words, AIOTT e p inrb ruv irpay fiuruv dvayKa6/Ltevof 'I/uiAfcuv, EirEfi^Ev elf "Zvpr/Kovaa^ Kjjpvica, irapaKcihuv TOI> TjTTTj/ievovf diahvaaafiai. 'Ac/iEvuf 6' viraKovaavrof TOV Aiovvaiov, ~t/v Etprjvjjv CTU rolaSs E&EVTO, etc. Now there is not the smallest matter of fact either mentioned or indicated before, to which the word diontp can have reference. Nothirgis mentioned but success on the part of the Carthaginians, and disaster on the part of the Greeks ; the repulse of the attack made by Dionysius upon the Cartha- ginian camp. Ms retreat and evacuation of Gela and Kamarina, the occupation of Gela by the Carthaginians, the disorder, mutiny, and par-