Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/482

 450 HISTORY OF GREECK. gotten, and had always been anxious to avenge, the bloody out- I'agc on his fellow-citizens. To accomplish this purpose, the op- portunity was now opened to him, together with a promise of protection, through Archagathus. He accordingly poisoned Agathokles, as we are told, by means of a medicated quill, hand- ed to him for cleaning his teeth after dinner.^ Combining to- gether the various accounts, it seems probable that Agathokles was at the time sick — that this sickness may have been the rea- son why he was so anxious to strengthen the position of his in- tended successor — and that his death was as much the effect of his malady as of the poison. Archagathus, after murdering his uncle, seems by means of his army to have made himself real master of the Syracusan power ; while the old despot, defence- less on a sick bed, could do no more than provide for the safety of his Egyptian wife Theoxeua and his two young cliildrcn, by despatching them on shipboard with all his rich movable trea- sures to Alexandria. Having secured this object, amidst ex- treme grief on the part of those around, he expired.'- The great lines in the character of Agathokles are well mark- ed. He was of the stamp of Gelon and the elder Dionysius — a soldier of fortune, who raised liimself from the meanest begin- nings to the summit of poUtical power — and who, in the acqui- sition as well as maintenance of that power, displayed an extent of energy, perseverance, and military resource, not surpassed by any one, even of the generals formed in Alexander's school. He was an adept in that art at which all aspiring men of his age aimed — the handling of mercenary soldiers for the extinction of political liberty and security at home, and for predatory aggran- dizement abroad. I have already noticed the opinion delivered by Scipio Africanus — that the elder Dionysius and Agathokles were the most daring, sagacious, and capable men of action 1 Diodor. xxi. Fragm. 12. p. 276-278. Neither Justin (.x.xiii. 2) nor Tro- gus before him, (as it seems from the Prologue) alludes to poison. lie represents Agathokles as having died by a violent distemper. He notices iiowcver the bloody family feud, and the murder of the uncle by the nephew. ^ Justin (xxiii. 2) dwells pathetically on this last parting between Agathokles and Theoxena. It is difficult to reconcile Justin's narrative with that of Diodorus ; but on this point, as far as we can judge, I think bim more credible than Diodorus.