Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/67

 WAR WITH CARTHAGE. 41 the Syracusan people for the loss of their freedom. And they were further designed to serve as fuller preparations for the war against Carthage, which he was now bent upon renewing. He was obliged to look about for a pretext, since the Carthaginians had given him no just cause. But this, though an aggression, was a Pan-hellenic aggression, 1 calculated to win for him the sympa- thies of all Greeks, philosophers as well as the multitude. And as the war was begun in the year immediately succeeding the in- sult cast upon him at Olympia, we may ascribe it in part to a wish to perform exploits such as might rescue his name from the like opprobrium in future. The sum of fifteen hundred talents, recently pillaged from the temple at Agylla, 2 enabled Dionysius to fit out a large army for his projected war. Entering into intrigues with some of the dis- affected dependencies of Carthage in Sicily, he encouraged them to revolt, and received them into his alliance. The Carthagin- ians sent envoys to remonstrate, but could obtain no redress ; upon which they on their side prepared for war, accumulated a large force of hired foreign mercenaries under Magon, and contracted alliance with some of the Italiot Greeks hostile to Dionysius Both parties distributed their forces so as to act partly in Sicily, partly in the adjoining peninsula of Italy ; but the great stress of war fell on Sicily, where Dionysius and Magon both com- manded in person. After several combats partial and indecisive, a general battle was joined at a place called Kabala. The contest was murderous, and the bravery great on both sides; but at length Dionysius gained a complete victory. Magon himself and ten thousand men of his army were slain ; five thousand were made prisoners ; while the remainder were driven to retreat to a neigh- boring eminence, strong, but destitute of water. They were forced to send envoys entreating peace ; which Dionysius consented to grant, but only on condition that every Carthaginian should be immediately withdrawn from all the cities in the island, and that bo should be reimbursed for the costs of the var. 3 Se Plato, Epist. vii. p. 333, 336 also s;me striking lines, addressed by tht poet Theokritus to Hiero II. despot at Syracuse in the succeeding pntury: Theokrit. xvi. 75-85. Dionysius l^ret l.afieiv TrpoQaaiv evXoyov TOV TO%E/J.OV, etc,
 * Diodor. xv. 15, 3 Diodor. xv, 1ft-