Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/173

 1IMOLEON IN SICILr. 147 to cooperate with him, and returned a spirited reply to the menaces sent over from Rhegium by the Carthaginians, after they had vainly pursued the Corinthian squadron to Tauromenium. But Andromachus and Tauromenium were but petty auxiliaries compared with the enemies against whom Timoleon had to con- tend ; enemies now more formidable than ever. For Hiketas, incensed with the stratagem practised at Rhegium, and apprehen sive of interruption to the blockade which he was carrying on against Ortygia, sent for an additional squadron of Carthaginiar men-of-war to Syracuse ; the harbor of which place was presently completely beset. 1 A large Carthaginian land force was also acting under Hanno in the western regions of the island, with considerable success against the Campanians of Entella and others.- The Sicilian towns had their native despots, Mamerkus at Katana Leptines at Apollonia 3 Nikodemus at Kentoripa Apollo- niades at Agyrium 4 from whom Timoleon could expect no aid, except in so far as they might feel predominant fear of the Car- thaginians. And the Syracusans, even when they heard of his arrival at Tauromenium, scarcely ventured to indulge hopes of serious relief from such a handful of men, against the formidable array of Hiketas and the Carthaginians under their walls. More- over, what guarantee had they that Timoleon would turn out bet- ter than Dion, Kallippus, and others before him ? seductive promisers of emancipation, who, if they succeeded, forgot the words by which they had won men's hearts, and thought only of appro- priating to themselves the sceptre of the previous despot, perhaps even aggravating all that was bad in his rule ? Such was the question asked by many a suffering citizen of Syracuse, amidst that despair and sickness of heart which made the name of an armed liberator sound only like a new deceiver and a new scourge. 5 It was by acts alone that Timoleon could refute such well- grounded suspicions. But at first, no one believed in him ; nor could he escape the baneful effects of that mistrust which his pre- decessors had everywhere inspired. The messengers whori he 1 Plutarch, Timoleon, c. 11. 2 Diodor. xvi. C7. 3 Plutarch, Timoleon, c. 13-24; Diodor. xvi. 72. 4 Diodor. xvi. 82. 1 Piuturch, Timoleon, c. 11.