Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/472

 440 HISTORY OF GREECK. of Leptines, animated and fortified by the recent arrival of his master Agathokles. That despot landed at Selinus — subdued Herakleia, Therma, and Kephaloidion, on or near the hortliern coast of Sicily — then crossed the interior of the island to Syra- cuse. In his march he assaulted Kentoripa, having some parti- sans within, but was repulsed with loss. At Apollonia,^ he was also unsuccessful in his first attempt ; but being stung with mor- tification, he resumed the assault next day, and at length, by great efforts, carried the town. To avenge his loss, which had been severe, he massacred most of the citizens, and abandoned the town to plunder.^ From hence he ^Jroceeded to Syracuse, which he now revisited after an absence of (apparently) more than two years in Africa. During all this interval, the Syracusan harbor had been watched by a Carthaginian fleet, obstructing the entry of provisions, and causing partial scarcity." But there was no blockading army on land ; nor had the dominion cf Agathokles, u^^held as it was by his brother Antander and his mercenary force, been at all sha- ken. His arrival inspired his partisans and soldiers with new courage, while it spread terror throughout most parts of Sicily. To contend with the Carthaginian blockading squadron, he made efforts to procure maritime aid from the Tyrrhenian ports i.j Italy;* while on land, his forces were now preponderant — ow- ing to the recent defeat, and broken spirit, of the AgrigentineS: But his prospects were suddenly checked by the enterprising move of his old enemy — the Syracusan exile Deinokrates ; who made profession of taking up that generous policy which the Agrigentines had tacitly let fall — announcing himself as the champion of autonomous city-government, and equal confederacy, throughout Sicily. Deinokrates received ready adhesion from most of the cities belonging to the Agrigentine confederacy — all of them who were alarmed by finding that the weakness or fears okles. He was soon at the head of a powerful army — 20,000 foot, and 1500 horse. Moreover a large proportion of his army ^ Apollonia was a town in tlie interior of the isii-nd. somewhat to th*' north-east of Enna (Cicero, Verr. iii. 43).
 * of their presiding city had left them unprotected against Agath-
 * Diodor. XX. 56. * Diodor. xx. £2. •• Diodor. xx. 61