Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/525

 SPEECH AGAINST DION Y SI US. 503 " If. the conduct of Dionysius towards Syracuse has been thus infamous, it has been no better towards the Sicilian Greeks gen- erally. He betrayed Gela and Kamarina, for his own purposes, to the Carthaginians. He suffered Messene to fall into their hands without the least help. He reduced to slavery, by gross treach- ery, our Grecian brethren and neighbors of Naxus and Katana; transferring the latter to the non-Hellenic Campanians, and de- stroying the former. He might have attacked the Carthaginians immediately after their landing from Africa at Panormus, before they had recovered from the fatigue of the voyage. He might have fought the recent naval combat near the port of Katana, instead of near the beach north of that town ; so as to ensure to our fleet, if worsted, an easy and sure retreat. Had he chosen to keep his land-force on the spot, he might have prevented the vic- torious Carthaginian fleet from approaching land, when the storm came on shortly after the battle ; or he might have attacked them, if they tried to land, at the greatest advantage. He has conducted the war, altogether, with disgraceful incompetence ; not wishing sincerely, indeed, to get rid of them as enemies, but preserving the terrors of Carthage, as an indirect engine to keep Syracuse in subjection to himself. As long as we fought with him, we have been constantly unsuccessful; now that we have come to fight without him, recent experience tells us that we can beat the Car- thaginians, even with inferior numbers. " Let us look out for another leader (concluded Theodorus), in place of a sacrilegious temple-robber whom the gods have now abandoned. If Dionysius will consent to relinquish his dominion, let him retire from the city with his property unmolested ; if he will not, we are here all assembled, we are possessed of our arms, and we have both Italian and Peloponnesian allies by our side. The assembly will determine whether it will choose leaders from our own citizens, or from our metropolis Corinth, or from the Spartans, the presidents of all Greece." Sevuv Se rnvf Tai$ ovaiaif Trpof^oriraf KO.I rtif uiv ruv jWiyckJut yvvaiKat olKeratf nal /.uydaiv dv&piJTroic OWOIK%UV, T&V 6e TCO^ITIKUV bn't.uv (3ap[3d- povf Kal fefouf TTOIUV Kvpiovf c. 67. OVK aia%in 'ifie'&a rbv Tro^eftiov e%ovTer 7]j>e/j.uva, rbv TO. KUTU rf/i Kohiv lepu aeavTiTjKora ; c. 69. AjoTTf/o erepov rjyefiova &TTITEOV, oiruf fi?j rbv A7?6ra rof-{ rut $ii vnoiif OTparnvov e^ovref kv