Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/279

 DION. 271 weariness forced to take a little rest, he laid himself down in the next convenient place he came to, which was in a wood near the road. A wolf, scenting the flesh, came and seized it as it lay fastened to the letter-bag, and with the flesh carried aAvay the bag also, in which were the letters to Dionysius. The man, awaking and missing his bag, sought for it up and down a great while, and, not finding it, resolved not to go to the king without his let- ters, but to conceal himself, and keep out of the way. Dion^-sius, therefore, came to hear of the war in Sicily from other hands, and that a good while after. In the mean time, as Dion proceeded in his march, the Cama- rineans joined his forces, and the country people in the territory of Syracuse rose and joined him in a large body. The Leontines and Campanians,* who, with Timocrates, guarded the Epipola3, receiving a false alarm which was spread on purjaose by Dion, as if he intended to attack their cities first, left Timocrates, and hastened ofi" to carry succor to their own homes. News of which being brought to Dion, where he lay near Macri»,-j- he raised his camp by night, and came to the river Anapus, which is distant from the city about ten furlongs ; there he made a halt, and sacrificed by the rivei', offering vows to the rising sun. The soothsayers declared that the gods promised him victory ; and they that wei'e present, seeing liim assisting at the sacrifice with a garland on his head, one and all crowned themselves with garlands. There were about five thousand that had joined his forces in their march ; who, though but ill-provided, with such weapons as came next to hand, made up by zeal and courage for cenaries of the native Italian popu- in Leontini. lation, whom the elder Dionysius f Maera; is an unknown name ; had settled on Sicilian lands and the real name is prohablj' AcriB, in Sicilian-Greek cities. Perhaps which is a place mentioned by by the Leontines and Campanians, Thucydidco.
 * The Campanians were nieu- he means the Campanians settled