Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/531

 VICTORY OF DIONYSIUS. 509 of the Carthaginians, must at the same time have driven off the assailing Syracusan ships of war, and probably also the assailants by land. But to those who contemplated it from the city of Syra- cuse, across the breadth of the Great Harbor, : t presented a spec- tacle grand and stimulating in the highest degree ; especially when the fire was seen towering aloft amidst the masts, yards, and sails of the merchantmen. The walls of the city were crowded with spectators, women, children, and aged men, testifying their exulta- tion by loud shouts, and stretching their hands to heaven, as oil the memorable day, near twenty years before, when they gained their final victory in the same harbor, over the Athenian fleet. Many lads and elders, too much excited to remain stationary, rushed into such small craft as they could find, and rowed across the harbor to the scene of action, where they rendered much ser- vice by preserving part of the cargoes, and towing away some of the enemy's vessels deserted but not yet on fire. The evening of this memorable day left Dionysius and the Syracusans victorious by land as well as by sea ; encamped near the temple of Olympian Zeus which had so recently been occupied by Imilkon. Though they had succeeded in forcing the defences of the latter both at Polichne and at Daskon, and in inflicting upon him a destructive defeat, yet they would not aim at occupying his camp, in its in- fected and deplorable condition. On two former occasions during the last few years, we have seen the Carthaginian armies decimated by pestilence, near Agrigentum and near Gela, previous to this last and worst ca- lamity. Imilkon, copying the weakness of Nikias rather than the resolute prudence of Demosthenes, had clung to his insalubrious camp near the Great Harbor, long after all hope of reducing Sy- racuse had ceased, and while suffering and death to the most awful extent were daily accumulating around him. But the recent de- feat satisfied even him that his position was no longer tenable. Retreat was indispensable ; yet nowise impracticable, with the brave men. Iberians and others, in his army, and with the Sikels of the interior on his side, had he possessed the good qualities as well as the defects of Nikias, or been capable of anything like that unconquerable energy which ennobled the closing days of the latter. Instead of taking the best measures available for a retir- ing march, Imilkon despatched a secret envoy to Dionysius, un known to the Syracusans generally ; tendering to him the sum of