Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/480

 448 HISTORY OF GREKCK. with a great extent of dominion in Sicily. The remainder of hia restless existence was spent in operations of hostility or plunder against more northerly enemies — the Liparaean isles* — the Italian cities and the Bruttians — the island of Korkyra. We are unable to follow his proceedings in detail. He was threat- ened with a formidable attack^ by the Spartan prince Kleony- mus, who was invited by the Tarentines to aid them against the Lucanians and Romans. But Kleonymus found enough to occu- py him elsewhere, without visiting Sicily. He collected a con- siderable force on the coast of Italy, undertook operations with success against the Lucanians, and even captured the town of Thurii. But the Romans, now pushing their intervention even to the Tarentine Gulf, drove him off and retook the town ; more- over his own behavior was so tyrannical and profligate, as to draw upon him universal hatred. Returning from Italy to Kor- kyra, Kleonymus made himself master of that important island, intending to employ it as a base of operations both against Greece and against Italy .^ He failed however in various expe- ditions both in the Tarentine Gulf and the Adriatic. Demetrius Poliorketes and Kassander alike tried to conclude an alUance with him ; but in vain.* At a subsequent period, Korkyra was besieged by Kassander with a large naval and military force ; Kleonymus then retired (or perhaps had previously retired) to Sparta. Kassander, having reduced the island to great straits, ^ Diodor. XX. 101. This expedition of Agatliokles against the Lypa raean isles seems to have been described in detail by his contemporary his- torian, the Syracusan Kallias : see the Fragments of that author, in Didot"? Fragment. Hist. Graec. vol. ii. p. 38.3. Fragni. 4. '^ Diodor. XX. 104. ^ Diodor. xx. 104; Livy, x. 2. A curious anecdote appears in the Pseudo- Aristotle, De Mirabilibus (78) respecting two native Italians, Aulas and Caius, who tried to poison Kleonymus at Tarentum, but were detected and put to death by the Tarentines. That Agathokles, in his operations on the coast of southern Italy, found himself in conflict with the Romans, and that their importance was now strongly felt — we may judge by the fact, that the Syracusan Kallias (con- temporary and historian of Agathokles) appears to have given details respecting the origin and history of Rome. See the Fragments of Kallias. ap. Didot, Hist. Graec. Frag. vol. ii. p. 383 : Fragm. 5 — and Dionys. Hal Ant. Rom. i. 72. * Diodor. xx. 10.5.