Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/171

 S TEATAGEM AT RHEGIUM. 145 possible to cross the strait in opposition to an enemy's fleet of dou- ble force. Accordingly Timoleon resorted to a stratagem, in which the leaders and people of Rhegium, eagerly sympathizing with his projects of Sicilian emancipation, cooperated. In an in- terview with the envoys of Hiketas as well as with the Cartha- ginian commanders, he affected to accept the conditions prescribed by Hiketas ; admitting at once that it was useless to stand out. But he at the same time reminded them, that he had been in- trusted with the command of the armament for Sicilian purposes, and that he should be a disgraced man, if he now conducted it back without touching the island ; except under the pressure of some necessity not merely real, but demonstrable to all and at- tested by unexceptionable witnesses. He therefore desired them to appear, along with him, before the public assembly of Rhegium, a neutral city and common friend of both parties. They would then publicly repeat the communication which they had already made to him, and they would enter into formal engagement for the good treatment of the Syracusans, as soon as Dionysius should be expelled. Such proceeding would make the people of Ehegium witnesses on both points. They would testify on his (Timoleon's) behalf, when he came to defend himself at Corinth, that he had turned his back only before invincible necessity, and that he had exacted everything in his power in the way of guarantee for Syracuse ; they would testify also on behalf of the Syracusans, in ',-ase the guarantee now given should be hereafter evaded. 1 Neither the envoys of Hiketas, nor the Carthaginian comman- ders, had any motive to decline what seemed to them an unmean- ing ceremony. Both of them accordingly attended, along with Timoleon, before the public assembly of Rhegium formally con- vened. The gates of the city were closed (a practice usual during the time of a public assembly) : the Carthaginian meu-cf-war lay as usual near at hand, but in no state for immediate movement, and perhaps with many of the crews ashore ; since all chance of hostility seemed to be past. What had been already communi- cated to Timoleon from Hiketas and the Carthaginians, was now- repeated in formal deposition before the assembly ; the envoys of Hiketas probably going into the case more at length, with certain 1 Hutaxh, Timolcon, c. 10. VOL. XI. 13