Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/211

 TIMOLEON RESIGNS. 18o mits us to say but little. But the grat purpose with which he had started from Corinth was now achieved. After Laving put down all the other despotisms in Sicily, there remained for him but one farther triumph the noblest and rarest of all to lay down his own. This he performed without any delay, immediate- ly on returning to Syracuse from his military proceedings. Con- gratulating the Syracusans on the triumphant consummation al- ready attained, he entreated them to dispense with his farther services as sole commander ; the rather as his eyesight was now failing. 1 It is probable enough that this demand was at first re- fused, and that he was warmly requested to retain his functions but if such was the fact, he did not the less persist, and the peo- ple, willing or not, acceded. "We ought farther to note, that not only did he resign his generalship, but he resigned it at once and immediately, after the complete execution of his proclaimed pur- pose, to emancipate the Sicilian Greeks from foreign enemies as well as from despot-enemies ; just as, on first acquiring possession of Syracuse, he had begun his authoritative career, without a mo- ment's delay, by ordering the demolition of the Dionysian strong- hold, and the construction of a court of justice in its place. 2 By this instantaneous proceeding he forestalled the growth of that suspicion which delay would assuredly have raised, and for which the free communities of Greece had in general such ample rea- son. And it is not the least of his many merits, that while con- scious of good intentions himself, he had also the good sense to see that others could not look into his bosom ; that all their pre- sumptions, except what were created by his own conduct, would be dsrived from men worse than him and therefore unfavora- ble. Hence it was necessary for him to be prompt and forward, even to a sort of ostentation, in exhibiting the amplest positive proof of his real purposes, so as to stifle beforehand the growth of suspicion. He was now a private citizen of Syracuse, having neither paiil soldiers under his command nor any other public function. As a 1 Plutarch, Timoleon, c. 37. 'Qf tie Iiravfi7.$v elf SvpaKovaa?, ei. 3 ij &Tro&ea&at. TTJV [tovapxiav nal napaLreia&ai TO&; Tro/Urctf, ruv rrpay[i.uTuv tl rb KIM.LOTOV jjKovruv re/lof. 16*
 * Plutarch, l.c.ei&ilf unodtadat TTJV fiova:i'iav: compare c. 22.