The Historical Library of Diodorus the Sicilian/Book XIII/Chapter VII

Chapter VII

 * Hannibal the Carthaginian invades Sicily.  The miserable destruction of Selinus. The ruin, likewise, of Himera. The acts of Hermocrates in Sicily.

THE affairs of this year thus ended, Diocles was chosen magistrate of Athens, and at Rome, Quintus Fabius and Caius Furius were consuls. Al that time Hannibal the Carthaginian general musters an army out of Spain and Africa, and puts them on board threescore long gallies, and provides fifteen hundred transport ships, to convey provisions, engines, weapons, and all other things necessary for a siege. Passing over the African sea with his navy, he arrived at Lilybæum, a promontory in Sicily, over against Africa. About the same time, some Selinuntine horsemen being in those parts, when they saw so great a fleet make towards them, speedily rode off in all haste, to give intelligence to their countrymen of the approach of the enemy; upon which the Selinuntines despatched messengers to Syracuse, to desire aid. In the mean time Hannibal landed his army, and marked out his camp, beginning at a pond called at that time Lilybæum; but many years after, it gave name to a town built in that place.

Hannibal's whole army (as Ephorus relates) consisted of two hundred thousand foot, and four thousand horse. Timeus says there were not much above an hundred thousand. He drew up all his ships into the creek near Motya, intending the Syracusans should hereby be assured that he invaded not Sicily with a design to make war upon them either by sea or land. Then being joined by the Egesteans and other confederates, he raised his camp from Lilybæum, and marched towards Selinus. When he came to the river Mazarus, he takes the Emporium at the first assault. Approaching afterwards nearer to the city, he divides his army into two parts, and encamping round the city, raises his engines and batteries, and begins to assault the town with great vigour: for be built six high towers, and brought as many battering rams to the walls, and with the multitude of his darters and slingers forced the citizens from the forts and bulwarks. The Selinuntines had been now a long time unused to sieges; and in regard they were the only people of Sicily that sided with the Carthaginians against Gelon, they little expected they should have been brought into such dangers by them whom they had so far engaged; and therefore were in great consternation and amazement seeing the abundance of engines, the greatness of the army, and imminent danger wherewith they were environed. Yet they were not altogether without hope; but expecting speedy aid from Syracuse, and other confederate cities, all the people as one man joined together and drove the enemy from the walls. The young men courageously slighted all hazards; the old men ran from place to place upon the walls, to furnish the others from time to time with all things necessary for the defence, beseeching them not to suffer the enemy to enter. The women and children brought meat and weapons to them who were fighting for their country, not regarding that modesty and sobriety which in times of peace they were commendable for: the fear was so great, that even women were regardless of the dangers.

Hannibal promised the plunder of the town to his soldiers, applied his engines to the walls, and with the best of his men (whom he relieved from time to time with fresh supplies) began the assault. At the first word of command, at one instant ihe trumpets sounded to battle, and the whole army with a great shout ran up to their several posts; the walls were battered by the rams, and the soldiers from the high towers galled the Selinuntines with their darts: for the Selinuntines enjoying a long peace, their hands were not inured to action, and therefore were easily driven from thence, the wooden towers being far higher than they. In the mean time, part of the wall being battered down, the Campanians, willing to make themselves remarkable, on a sudden rushed into the city, and at the first greatly terrified those that were in that part of it; but presently many coming in to assist them, the enemy was repulsed with great loss; for the rubbish lying in the way where they entered, when they were driven back to the breach, they were so encumbered, that many were cut off. Night approaching, the Carthaginians drew off.

In the mean time the Selinuntines sent forth some horsemen in the night to Agrigentum, Gela, and Syracuse, to desire aid with all speed, for that they were not able any longer to stand out against so great an army. The Gelians and Agrigentines thought it best to wait for the aids from Syracuse, that with conjoint forces they might set upon the Carthaginians. But the Syracusans having certain intelligence that Selinus was besieged, without delay made peace with the Chalcedonians, (with whom they were then at war), and gathered all their forces together from every place. But because they supposed that the city was only besieged, and not in any danger to be suddenly taken, they protracted the time, to make the greater preparation. In the mean time, Hannibal, as soon as it was light, renewed the assault on every side of the town, and presently possessed himself of that part of the wall where the breach was made, and of another breach made in another part adjoining; and when he had removed the rubbish, with the choicest of his fresh men he sets upon the Selinuntines, and forces them by degrees to give ground, but was not able quite to break them, who now had all at stake. Many fell on both sides. The Carthaginians were still supplied with fresh men, but the Selinuntines had none to reinforce them: and thus the assault was renewed every day, for the space of nine days, with great resolution and courage, and much loss on both sides. At length, when the Iberians began to enter at the breaches, the women from the tops of the houses filled all places with cries and lamentations: and the Selinuntines now judging the town to be lost, endeavoured to block up all the narrow passages and streets, and by that means the contest continued a long time. But while the Carthaginians were making their way by force, the women and children from the tops of the houses mauled them with tiles and stones; so that the Carthaginians for a long time were sorely galled, not being able to come up together in those narrow passages, the walls on both sides being strongly manned; and besides, being so vexed with those that cast down stones from the tops of the houses. This throwing down of darts and other things from the roofs of the houses, continued till evening: but the Carthaginians still renewing the fight, by pouring fresh men into the city, the others were tired out, their number decreasing, and their enemies still increasing, so that the Selinuntines were at last forced to desert the street.

The city thus taken, nothing was to be seen but weeping and wailing among the Grecians; and on the other side, among the barbarians, exultations and shouts of victory: those were terrified with the greatness of their misery every where before their eyes; those now victorious commanded to kill and destroy where and whom they pleased. At length the Selinuntines got in a body together at the market-place, and there fought it out to the last man. The barbarians raging in all parts of the city, rifled all the houses: the persons they found there, they either burnt them and their houses together, or dragging them into the streets, without any respect to age or sex, whether they were women or children, young or old, without the least pity or commiseration, they put them all to the sword, and after the barbarous manner of their country, they mangled their carcases; some carried about multitudes of hands tied round their bodies; others, in ostentation, bore about the heads of the slain upon the points of their swords and spears. They only spared wives who fled with their children to the temples; and to these only was favour shewn, not out of any compassion to the miserable, but out of a fear they had lest the women being desparate, witkout any hopes of mercy, should burn the temples, and by that means they should lose the riches and treasures that were laid up in those places. For these barbarians so far exceed all other men in impiety, that whereas other (lest they should offend the deity) always spare them who fly to their temples, the Carthaginians on the contrary moderate their cruelty towards their enemies, for that very end and purpose that they may have a better opportunity sacrilegiously to rob the temples. The razing and ruining of the city continued till late in the night; all the houses were burnt or pulled down, every place was full of blood and dead bodies, sixteen thousand being there put to the sword, and more than five thousand carried away captives. The Grecians who sided with the Carthaginians, seeing the inconstancy of the things of this life, greatly commiserated the condition of these miserable people; for the matrons in want of food and sustenance, amongst the flouts and jeers of an insulting enemy, passed all that night in sorrow and sadness. Some of them were forced to be eye-witnesses of the sufferings of their daughters in such a kind as is shameful to relate; for the cruel lust of the barbarians sparing neither girls nor virgins grown up, afflicted these poor people with unspeakable misery. The mothers, while they considered the slavery they were to undergo in Libya, and how they and their children were subjected in great contempt and disgrace to the brutish lusts of domineering masters, (whose language they understood not, and whose actions were altogether beastly), were in grief and sorrow even to see their children alive; for every injury and disgrace offered to them, affected them as if a dagger had pierced their own hearts, when they were not able to yield them any other relief but groans and lamentations; insomuch as they accounted their parents and kindred that had lost their lives in the defence of their country, to be happy, whose eyes saw not those brutish and beastly acts of barbarous cruelty. There were notwithstanding, two thousand six hundred that escaped and fled to Agrigentum, where they were received with all manner of humanity and tenderness; for the Agrigentines distributed to every family corn out of the public stores, and desired every private person (who yet were very ready on their own accord) liberally to supply them with all necessaries for their sustenance.

While these things were doing, three thousand of the best soldiers sent from Synracuse to assist the Selinuntines, came to Agrigentum. But when they heard that the city was taken, they sent ambassadors to Hannibal, to demand the redemption of the prisoners, and that be would forbear robbing the temples of the gods. They returned with this answer from Hannibal, that in regard the Selinuntines were not able to preserve their own liberty, they were now justly brought into the condition of slaves. That the gods were angry at the inhabitants, and therefore had forsaken Selinus. But when they sent Empediones ambassador a second time, Hannibal restored to hm all his estate, because he always favoured the Carthaginians, and some time before the city was taken, had advised the citizens not to withstand: he pardoned likewise all those prisoners that were of his kindred, and permitted those that fled to Agrigentum to repeople the city, and till the lands, upon paying tribute to the Carthaginians. Thus was this city taken, two hundred and fifty-two years after the building of it.

After Hannibal had demolished it, he marched off with all his army towards Himtea, with a longing desire to ruin this city. For this town occasioned the banishment of his father; and here it was that his grandfather Amilcar was routed by Gelon, who killed a hundred and fifty thousand of the Carthaginians, and took almost as many prisoners. In revenge whereof, Hannibal speeds away with forty thousand men, and encamps upon a hill at some distance from the city, and with the rest of his army (to whom joined the Sicilians and Sicanians, to the number of twenty thousand men) he besieges the place, and batters the walls with his engines in several places at once; and with fresh succours even wearies out the besieged; to the effecting of which, the forwardness of his men (through the late successes) was of no small advantage. Whilst he was undermining the walls, he supported them with great pieces of timber, and then setting them on fire, a great part of the walls on a sudden tumbled down; upon which there was a sharp conflict; these striving to enter by force, the others in dread of undergoing the same fate and destruction with them of Selinus; so that the besieged, endeavouring with all their might to defend their parents, children, and country, beat the barbarians off, and with all speed repaired the wall. For there had before come to their assistance four thousand Syracusans, and some other confederates from Agrigentum, under the command of Diocles the Syracusan. Then night coming on, it gave a check to the fury of the besiegers, and so there was an intermission of the assault.

But as soon as it was day, the besieged, resolving not to be penned up as the Selinuntines were, through slothfulness, placed the guards upon the walls, and with the rest of their own, and the forces of their confederates, to the number of ten thousand, made a sally, and fell suddenly upon the enemy. Whereupon the barbarians were struck with great terror and amazement, conceiving that all the confederates of the besieged were come to their relief. The salliants, therefore, being far more daring and skilful in their weapons, and especially the last hope of their safety lying in the good success of the present engagement, they cut off all those that first opposed them. And though the whole force of the barbarians in great disorder and confusion fell upon them, (for they never suspected that the besieged durst ever have attempted any such thing), yet they were under no small disadvantages; for fourscore thousand men running in confusion together, beat down one another, and more incommoded themselves than their enemies. The Himerians in the mean time being in sight of their parents, children, and all their friends and relations upon the walls, exposed themselves, without fear, to all dangers for the common safety. The barbarians, therefore, astonished with the valour of the enemy, and unexpectedness of the onset, turned their backs, and fled in great precipitation to their fellows encamped upon the hill, whom the Himerians pursued, calling one to another not to give any quarter. In this encounter there were killed of the Carthaginians above six thousand, as Timeus relates, but Ephorus says twenty thousand. Hannibal, when he saw his soldiers so distressed, drew out those that were encamped, and came to the relief of his shattered troops, setting upon the Himerians, now in disorder by the pursuit; upon which there began another sharp dispute, in which at length the Himerians were put to flight; but three thousand of them stood their ground, and bore the brunt of the whole Carthaginian army; and after they had signalized their valour, all died upon the spot.

After this fight, five-and-twenty gallies, which were some time before sent to the aid of the Lacedæmonians, from the Siculi, now returning home, arrived at Himera; but a rumour spread through the city, that the Synracusans, with all their forces and confederates, were come to the relief of the Himerians. Hannibal in the mean time embarks many of his best soldiers in his gallies which lay at Motya, in order to sail for Syracuse, to surprise the city, now that it wanted sufficient strength to defend it, as he supposed. And therefore Diocles, commander in chief of them who were sent in aid of the Himerians, advised the captains of the vessels to sail with all speed to Syracuse, lest, when they had lost the best of their soldiers, in the next fight, their own city should he taken by force. To which end it was thought advisable to leave the city for awhile, and to embark one half of Diocles's forces, to go along with the fleet till they were past the coasts of Himera, and to leave the other half for the defence of the city till the gallies returned. The Himerians took this grievously, nut being it was not in their power to do otherwise, gallies were filled in the night, with women and children, and other things to be transported to Messana.

Then Diocles, with those under his command, prepared for his journey back into his own country, leaving the bodies of them that were slain unburied. And so many of the Himerians, with their wives and children, went along with him, as could not be otherwise transported for want of shipping. But they that were left for the defence of the city, watched every night in arms upon the bulwarks. And although the Carthaginians constantly upon the approach of day made frequent assaults in every place round the city, yet they upon the walls indefatigably bore the brunt, believing the ships would return speedily; to which very day they held it out courageously: but the next day after the fleet was in sight afar off, at that instant the wall was battered down by the engines, and the Spanish regiment in a full body rushed into the city, part of the barbarians forcing the guard from the walls, and another part possessing the breaches, made way for the rest of the army to enter. At length the city was entered, and the barbarians, with all savage cruelty, killed all in their way, till, by the command of Hannibal, they forbore their butcheries: in the mean time, the soldiers plundered the houses of every thing valuable. Here Hannibal robbed and spoiled all the temples, and after he had taken out those that fled thither for refuge, he set them on fire, and razed the city to the ground, two hundred and forty years after the settling of the inhabitants there. Among the prisoners, the women and children he commanded to be kept safe; but the men, to the number of three thousand, he caused to be brought to a rising ground there near at hand, where Amilcar, his grandfather, perished by the army of Gelon, and there, with all sorts of taunts and marks of disgrace, put them all to the sword. Afterwards he disbanded many of his forces; among the rest he sent the Sicilians who sided with him to their several countries, and with them the Campanians, who made great complaint of the injustice of the Carthaginians, for that they, contributing so much to their successes, had not rewarded them proportionably to the services they had done them in the war.

However Hannibal shipped his army, leaving a small guard with his confederates, and with his transport ships and gallies set sail from Sicily, and arrived at Carthage, laden with abundance of booty. The whole city came out to meet him, and received him with loud and joyful acclamations, as a general that had performed greater things by far in so short a time than ever any before him.

At this time Hermocrates the Syracusan returned into Sicily. He was in great esteem among the Syracusans, because in the war against the Athenians he was remarkably serviceable to his country. He was afterwards sent as admiral with thirty-five sail, to the aid of the Lacedæmonians; but by a contrary faction at home being condemned to banishment, he delivered up the command of the fleet in Peloponnesus, to those who were deputed by the government. Afterwards, having received a considerable sum of money from Pharnabazus, whose favourite he was, he sailed to Messana, and there built five gallies, and hired a thousand soldiers with his own money; and taking likewise with him a thousand of those that were forced from Himera, he attempted with the help of his friends to return to Syracuse: but being prevented in this design, he marched up into the country to Selinus, and enclosed part of the city with a wall, and got together as many of the Selinuntines as survived the late destruction, and with them and many others which he received into the place, he made up a body of six thousand choice men. From thence he made an excursion, and spoiled the country of the Motyeans, overcame then that issued out of the city against him, and killed many of them, driving the rest within their walls. Presently after, he broke into the borders of the Panormians, and carried away abundance of plunder: he killed likewise five hundred of the citizens that stood in battalia before their city to oppose him, and shut up the rest within their walls, and wasted and spoiled likewise all the other countries that were subject to the Carthaginians, for which he was in high esteem among the Sicilians. Hereupon the Syracusans likewise presently began to repent, when they saw that they had banished one whose valour merited so much to the contrary: so that when he was often named and discoursed of in public assemblies, the people gave many hints and signs of their desire to have him recalled. Hermocrates therefore understanding that his name was up among the Syracusans, used his utmost endeavour to return, knowing that his enemies and rivals would oppose it with all their might: and thus stood things in Sicily at this time.