Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/216

 j90 HISTORY OF GREECE. tions of qualification which are not made known to us, 1 ) and in. tended, like the Archon Eponymus at Athens, as the recognized name to distinguish each Syracusan year. In this work of cop- stitutional reform, as well as in all the labors and adjustments con- nected with the new settlers, Timoleon took a prominent part. But so soon as the new constitution was consummated and set at work, he declined undertaking any specific duties or exercising any powers under it. Enjoying the highest measure of public esteem, and loaded with honorary and grateful votes from the people, he had the wisdom as well as the virtue to prefer living as a private citizen ; a resolution doubtless promoted by his increasing failure of eyesight, which presently became total blindness. 2 He dwelt in the house assigned to him by public vote of the people, which he had consecrated to the Holy God, and within which he had set apart a chapel to the goddess Automatia, the goddess under whose auspices blessings and glory came as it were of themselves. 3 To this goddess he offered sacrifice, as the great and constant patroness who had accompanied him from Corinth through all his proceedings in Sicily. By refusing the official prominence tendered to him, and by keeping away from the details of public life, Timoleon escaped the jealousy sure to attend upon influence so prodigious as his. But in truth, for all great and important matters, this very modes- ty increased instead of diminishing his real ascendency. Here as elsewhere, the goddess Automatia worked for him, and brought to him docile listeners without his own seeking. Though the Syra- ousans transacted their ordinary business through others, yet when any matter of serious difficulty occurred, the presence of Timo- leon was specially invoked in the discussion. During the later months of his life, when he had become blind, his arrival in the 1 Diodor. xvi. 70; Cicero in Verrem, ii. 51. uarlaf t~&vasv, avr-ijv 6e TTJV oiKcav 'Iep> Aaijiovi naftiepuaev. Cornelius Nepos, Timoleon, c. 4 ; Plutarch, Reip. Gerend. Prcecept. p. The idea of Av-ofzaria is not the same as that of Ti>xi), though tho rcrd is sometimes translated as if it were. It is more nearly the same af ? though still, as it seems to me, not exactly Uic same.
 * Plutarch, Timoleon, c. 38.
 * Plutarch, Timoleon, c. 38. 'Enl de rf/f owfaf iepbv I6pvau.ij.svof Avru