Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/203

 VICTORY OF TIMOLEON. 17J rimoleon, not very effective during the battle, rendered excellent service; pressing the fugitive Carthaginians one over another in mass, and driving them, overloaded with their armor, into mud and water, from whence they could not get clear. 1 No victory in Grecian history was ever more complete than that of Timoleon at the Krimesus. Ten thousand Carthaginians are saii to have been slain, and fifteen thousand made prisoners. Upon these numbers no stress is to be laid ; but it is certain that ile total of both must have been very great. Of the war-chariots, many were broken during the action, and all that remained, two hundred in number, fell into the hands of the victors. But that which rendered the loss most serious, and most painfully felt at Carthage, was, that it fell chiefly upon the native Carthaginian troops, and much less upon the foreign mercenaries. It is even said that the Sacred Battalion of Carthage, comprising twenty- live hundred soldiers belonging to the most considerable families in Carthage, were all slain to a man ; a statement, doubtless, ex- aggerated, yet implying a fearful real destruction. Many of these soldiers purchased safe escape by throwing away their ornament- ed shields and costly breast-plates, which the victors picked up in great numbers one thousand breast-plates, and not less than ten thousand shields. Altogether, the spoil collected was immense in arms, in baggage, and in gold and silver from the plundered camp ; occupying the Greeks so long in the work of pursuit and capture, that they did not find time to erect their trophy until the third day after the battle. Timoleon left the chief part of the plunder, 9 as well as most part of the prisoners, in the hands of the individual captors, who enriched themselves amply by the day's work. Yet there still remained a large total for the public Syra- cusan chest ; five thousand prisoners, and a miscellaneous spoil of armor and precious articles, piled up in imposing magnificence around the general's tent. The Carthaginian fugitives did not rest until they reached Lily- basum. And even there, such was their discouragement so profound their conviction that the wrath of the gods was upon them that they could scarcely be induced to go on shipboard 1 Plutarch, Tijnoleoi}, c. 27, 28; Diodor. xyi. 79. 80
 * Plutarch.. Timoleon, c. 29 ; Diodor. xvi. 80, 8J