Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/507

 DIONYSIUS BESIEGES MOTYE. 43? tain, that such interchange of cruelties with less humanised neigh bors, contributed to lower in the Sicilian Greeks that measure of comparative forbearance Avhich characterized the Hellenic rac* in its own home. Elate with this fury of revenge, the citizens of Kamarina, Gela, Agrigentum, and Selinus joined Dionysius on his march along the coast. He was enabled, from his abundant stock of recently fabricated arms, to furnish them with panoplies and wea- pons ; for it is probable that as subjects of Carthage they had been disarmed. Strengthened by all these reinforcements, he mustered a force of eighty thousand men, besides more than three thousand cavalry ; while the ships of war which accompanied him along the coast were nearly two hundred, and the transports, with stores and battering machines, not less than five hundred. With this prodigious army, the most powerful hitherto assembled under Grecian command, he appeared before the Carthaginian settle- ment of Motye. a fortified seaport in a little bay immediately north of Cape Lilybseum. l Of the three principal establishments of Carthage in Sicily, Motye, Panormus (Palermo), and Soloeis, Motye was at once the nearest to the mother-city, 2 the most important, and the most devoted. It was situated (like the original Syracuse in Ortygia) upon a little islet, separated from Sicily by a narrow strait about two-thirds of a mile in breadth, which its citizens had bridged over by means of a mole, so as to form a regular, though narrow, footpath. It was populous, wealthy, flourishing, and distinguished for the excellence both of its private houses and its fortifications. Perceiving the approach of Dionysius, and not intimidated by the surrender of their neighbors and allies, the Elymi at Eryx, who did not dare to resist so powerful a force, the Motyenes put themselves in the best condition of defence. They broke up their mole, and again insulated themselves from Sicily, in the hope of holding out until relief should be sent from Carthage. Resolved to avenge upon Motye the sufferings of Agrigentum and Selinus, Dionysius took a survey of the place in conjunction with his prin- cipal engineers. It deserves notice, that this is among the ear- liest sieges recorded in Grecian history wherein we read of a pro- 1 Diodor. xiv, 47. * Thucyd. vi, 2 ; Pausan. v, 25, 3.