Diodorus Siculus, Library 8-40

§ 14.37.4 After this, when Thibron sent for the soldiers with the promise to hire them, they withdrew to join him and made war with the Lacedemonians against the Persians.

§ 14.37.5 While these events were taking place, Dionysius founded in Sicily a city just below the crest of Mount Aetne and named it Adranum, after a certain famous temple.

§ 14.37.6 In Macedonia King Archelaus was unintentionally struck while hunting by Craterus, whom he loved, and met his end, after a reign of seven years. He was succeeded on the throne by Orestes, who was still a boy and was slain by Aeropus, his guardian, who held the throne for six years.

§ 14.37.7 In Athens Socrates the philosopher, who was accused by Anytus and Meletus of impiety and of corrupting the youth, was condemned to death and met his end by drinking the hemlock. But since the accusation had been undeserved, the people repented, considering that so great a man had been put to death; consequently they were angered at the accusers and ultimately put them to death without trial.

§ 14.38.1 At the end of the year in Athens Aristocrates entered the office of archon and in Rome the consular magistracy was taken over by six military tribunes, Gaius Servilius, Lucius Verginius, Quintus Sulpicius, Aulus Mutilius, and Manius Sergius.

§ 14.38.2 After these magistrates had entered office the Lacedemonians, learning that Thibron was conducting the war inefficiently, dispatched Dercylidas as general to Asia; and he took over the army and advanced against the cities in the Troad.

§ 14.38.3 Now Hamaxitus and Colonae and Arisba he took at the first assault, then Ilium and Cerbenia and all the rest of the cities of the Troad, occupying some by craft and conquering the others by force. After this he concluded an armistice of eight months with Pharnabazus and advanced against the Thracians who were dwelling at that time in Bithynia; and after laying waste their territory he led his army off into winter quarters.

§ 14.38.4 In Trachinian Heracleia civil discord had arisen and the Lacedemonians sent Herippidas there to restore order. As soon as Herippidas arrived in Heracleia he called an assembly of the people, and surrounding them with his hoplites, he arrested the authors of the discord and put them all to death, some five hundred in number.

§ 14.38.5 And since the inhabitants about Oite had revolted, he made war on them, subjected them to many hardships, and forced them to leave their land. The majority of them, together with their children and wives, fled into Thessaly, from where they were restored to their homes five years later by the Boeotians.

§ 14.38.6 While these events were taking place, the Thracians invaded the Chersonesus in great multitudes, laid waste the whole region, and held its cities beleaguered. The inhabitants of the Chersonesus, being hard pressed in the war, sent for the Lacedemonian Dercylidas to come from Asia.

§ 14.38.7 He, crossing over with his army, drove the Thracians out of the country and shut off the Chersonesus by a wall which he ran from sea to sea. By this act he prevented any future descent of the Thracians; and after being honoured with great gifts he transported his army of the Asia.

§ 14.39.1 Pharnabazus, after the truce had been made with the Lacedemonians, went back to the King and won him over to the plan of preparing a fleet and appointing Conon the Athenian as its admiral; for Conon was experienced in the encounters of war and especially in combat with the present enemy, and although he excelled in warfare, he was at the time in Cyprus at the court of Evagoras the king. After the King had been persuaded, Pharnabazus took five hundred talents of silver and prepared to fit out a naval force.

§ 14.39.2 Sailing across to Cyprus, he ordered the kings there to make ready a hundred triremes and then, after discussions with Conon about the command of the fleet, he appointed him supreme commander at sea, giving indications in the name of the King of great hopes Conon might entertain. 3 Conon, in the hope not only that he would recover the leadership in Greece for his native country if the Lacedemonians were subdued in war but also that he would himself win great renown, accepted the command. 4 And before the entire fleet had been made ready, he took the forty ships which were at hand and sailed across to Cilicia, where he began preparations for the war. Pharnabazus and Tissaphernes gathered soldiers from their own satrapies and marched out, making their way towards Ephesus, since the enemy had their forces in that city. 5 The army accompanying them numbered twenty thousand infantry and ten thousand cavalry. On hearing of the approach of the Persians Dercylidas, the commander of the Lacedemonians, led out his army, having in all not more than seven thousand men. 6 But when the forces drew near each other, they concluded a truce and set a period of time during which Pharnabazus should send word to the King regarding the terms of the treaty, should he be ready to end the war, and Dercylidas should explain the matter to the Spartans. So upon this understanding the commanders dispersed their armies.

§ 14.40.1 The inhabitants of Rhegium, who were colonists of Chalcis, were angered to see the growing power of Dionysius. For he had sold into slavery the Naxians and Catanians, their kinsmen, and to the Rhegians, because they were of the same blood as these unfortunate peoples, this act was the cause of no ordinary concern, since all feared the same disaster would befall them.

§ 14.40.2 They therefore decided to take the field speedily against the tyrant before he became entirely secure. Their decision upon war was forthwith supported strongly also by the Syracusans who had been exiled by Dionysius, for most of them were at that time resident in Rhegium and were continually discussing the matter and pointing out that all the Syracusans would seize the occasion to join in an attack.

§ 14.40.3 In the end the Rhegians appointed generals and sent out with them six thousand infantry, six hundred cavalry, and fifty triremes. The generals crossed the strait and induced the generals of the Messenians to join in the war, declaring that it would be a terrible thing for them to stand idly by when Greek cities, and their neighbours, had been totally destroyed by the tyrant.

§ 14.40.4 Now the generals were won over by the Rhegians and, without obtaining a vote of the people, led forth their forces which consisted of four thousand infantry, four hundred cavalry, and thirty triremes. But when the armaments we have mentioned had advanced as far as the borders of Messene, opposition broke out among the soldiers due to a harangue delivered by the Messenian Laomedon;

§ 14.40.5 for he advised them not begin a war against Dionysius who had done them no wrong. Accordingly the Messenian troops, since the people had not approved the war, followed his advice at once, and, deserting their generals, turned back home;

§ 14.40.6 and the Rhegians, since they were not strong enough alone for a battle, when they saw that the Messenians were disbanding their army, also turned back speedily to Rhegium. At the outset Dionysius had led out his army to the border of the Syracusan territory, awaiting the attack of the enemy; but when he learned of their retirement, he led his forces back to Syracuse.

§ 14.40.7 When the Rhegians and Messenians sent ambassadors to treat upon terms of peace, he decided that it was to his advantage to put an end to enmity against these states and concluded peace.

§ 14.41.1 When Dionysius observed that some of the Greeks were deserting to the Carthaginian domain, taking with them their justice and their estates, he concluded that so long as he was at peace with the Carthaginians many of his subjects would be wanting to join their defection, whereas, if there were war, all who had been enslaved by the Carthaginians would revolt to him. And he also heard that many Carthaginians in Libya had fallen victims to a plague which had raged among them.

§ 14.41.2 Thinking for these reasons, then, that he had a favourable occasion for war, he decided that preparation should first be effected; for he assumed that the war would be a great and protracted one since he was entering a struggle with the most powerful people of Europe.

§ 14.41.3 At once, therefore, he gathered skilled workmen, commandeering them for from the cities under his control and attracting them by high wages from Italy and Greece as well as Carthaginian territory. For his purpose was to make weapons in great numbers and every kind of missile, and also quadriremes and quinqueremes, no ship of the latter size having yet been built at that time.

§ 14.41.4 After collecting many skilled workmen, he divided them into groups in accordance with their skills, and appointed over them the most conspicuous citizens, offering great bounties to any who created a supply of arms. As for the armour, he distributed among them models of each kind, because he had gathered his mercenaries from many nations;

§ 14.41.5 for he was eager to have every one of his soldiers armed with the weapons of his people, conceiving that by such armour his army would, for this very reason, cause great consternation, and that in battle all of his soldiers would fight to best effect in armour to which they were accustomed.

§ 14.41.6 And since the Syracusans enthusiastically supported the policy of Dionysius, it came to pass that rivalry rose high to manufacture the arms. For not only was every space, such as the porticoes and back rooms of the temples as well as the gymnasia and colonnades of the market place, crowded with workers, but the making of great quantities of arms went on, apart from such public places, in the most distinguished homes.

§ 14.42.1 In fact the catapult was invented at this time in Syracuse, since the ablest skilled workmen had been gathered from everywhere into one place. The high wages as well as the numerous prizes offered the workmen who were judged to be the best stimulated their zeal. And over and above these factors, Dionysius circulated daily among the workers, conversed with them in kindly fashion, and rewarded the most zealous with gifts and invited them to his table.

§ 14.42.2 Consequently the workmen brought unsurpassable devotion to the devising of many missiles and engines of war that were strange and capable of rendering great service. He also began the construction of quadriremes and quinqueremes, being the first to think of the construction of such ships.

§ 14.42.3 For, hearing that triremes had first been built in Corinth, he was intent, in his city that had been settled by a colony from there, on increasing the scale of naval construction.

§ 14.42.4 After obtaining leave to transport timber from Italy he dispatched half of his woodmen to Mount Aetne, on which there were heavy stands at that time of both excellent fir and pine, while the other half he dispatched to Italy, where he got ready teams to convey the timber to the sea, as well as boats and crews to bring the worked wood speedily to Syracuse.

§ 14.42.5 When Dionysius had collected an adequate supply of wood, he began at one and the same time to build more than two hundred ships and to refit the one hundred and ten he already had; and he also constructed about the Great Harbour, as it is now called, one hundred and sixty costly ship-sheds, and repaired the one hundred and fifty which were already there.

§ 14.43.1 With so many arms and ships under construction at one place the beholder was filled with utter wonder at the sight. For whenever a man gazed at the eagerness shown in the building of the ships, he thought that every Greek in Sicily was engaged on their construction; and when, on the other hand, he visited the places where men were making arms and engines of war, he thought that all available labour was engaged on this alone.

§ 14.43.2 Moreover, despite the unsurpassable zeal devoted to the products we have mentioned, there were made one hundred and forty thousand shields and a like number of daggers and helmets; and in addition corselets were made ready, of every design and wrought with utmost art, more than fourteen thousand in number.

§ 14.43.3 These Dionysius expected to distribute to his cavalry and the commanders of the infantry, as well as to the mercenaries who were to form his bodyguard. He also had catapults made of every style and a large number of the other missiles.

§ 14.43.4 For half of the ships of war which were prepared, the pilots, officers at the bow, and rowers were drawn from citizens, while for the rest of the vessels Dionysius hired mercenaries. When the building of the ships and the making of arms were completed, Dionysius turned his attention to the gathering of soldiers; for he believed it advantageous not to hire them far in advance in order to avoid heavy expenses.

§ 14.43.5 In this year Astydamas, the writer of tragedies, produced his first play; and he lived sixty years. The Romans were besieging Veii, and when a sortie was made from the city, some of the Romans were cut to pieces by the Veientes and others escaped by shameful flight.

§ 14.44.1 When this year had come to an end, Ithycles was archon in Athens and in Rome five military tribunes were established in place of the consuls, Lucius Julius, Marcus Furius, Marcus Aemilius, Gaius Cornelius, and Caeso Fabius. Dionysius, the tyrant of the Syracusans, as soon as the major part of the task of making arms and building a fleet was completed, turned at once to the gathering of soldiers.

§ 14.44.2 From the Syracusans he enrolled those who were fit for military service in companies and from the cities subject to him he summoned their able men. He also gathered mercenaries from Greece, and especially from the Lacedemonians, for they, in order to aid him in building up his power, gave him permission to enlist as many mercenaries from them as he might wish. And, speaking generally, since he made a point of gathering his mercenary force from many nations and promised high pay, he found men who were responsive.

§ 14.44.3 Since Dionysius was going to raise up a great war, he addressed himself to the cities of Sicily with courtesy, eliciting their goodwill. He saw that the Rhegians and Messenians who dwelt on the Strait had a strong army mobilized and he feared that, when the Carthaginians crossed over to Sicily, they would join the Carthaginians; for these cities would add no little weight to the side with which they allied themselves for the war.

§ 14.44.4 Since these considerations were the cause of great concern to Dionysius, he made a present to the Messenians of a large piece of territory on their borders, binding them to him by such a benefaction; and to the Rhegians he dispatched ambassadors, urging them to form a connection by marriage and to give him in marriage a maiden who was a citizen of theirs; and he promised that he would win for them a large section of neighbouring territory and do all that was in his power to add to the strength of their city.

§ 14.44.5 For since his wife, the daughter of Hermocrates, had been slain at the time the cavalry revolted, he was eager to beget children, in the belief that the loyalty of his offspring would be the strongest safeguard of his tyrannical power. Nevertheless, when an assembly of the people was held in Rhegium to consider Dionysius' proposal, after much discussion the Rhegians voted not to accept the marriage connection.

§ 14.44.6 Now that Dionysius had failed of this design, he dispatched his ambassadors for the same purpose to the people of the Locrians. When they voted to approve the marriage connection, Dionysius sued for the hand of Doris, the daughter of Xenetus, who at that time was their most esteemed citizen.

§ 14.44.7 A few days before the marriage he sent to Locri a quinquereme, the first one he had built, embellished with silver and gold furnishings; on this he had the maiden conveyed to Syracuse, where he led her into the acropolis.

§ 14.44.8 And he also sought in marriage from among the people of his city the most notable maiden among them, Aristomache, for whom he dispatched a chariot drawn by four white horses to bring her to his own home.

§ 14.45.1 After Dionysius had taken in marriage both maidens at the same time, he gave a series of public dinners for the soldiers and the larger part of the citizens; for he now renounced the oppressive aspect of his tyranny, and changing to a course of equitable dealing, he ruled over his subjects in more humane fashion, no more putting them to death or banishing them, as had been his practice.

§ 14.45.2 After his marriages he let a few days pass and then called an assembly of the Syracusans and urged them to make war against the Carthaginians, declaring that they were most hostile to all Greeks generally and that they had designs at every opportunity on the Greeks of Sicily in particular.

§ 14.45.3 For the present, he pointed out, the Carthaginians were inactive because of the plague which had broken out among them and had destroyed the larger part of the inhabitants of Libya, but when they had recovered their strength, they would not refrain from attacking the Sicilian Greeks, against whom they had been plotting from the earliest time.

§ 14.45.4 It was therefore preferable, he continued, to wage a decisive war upon them while they were still weak than to wait and compete when they were strong. At the same time he pointed out how terrible a thing it was to allow the Greek cities to be enslaved by barbarians, and that these cities would the more zealously join in the war, the more eagerly they desired to obtain their freedom.

§ 14.45.5 After speaking at length in support of his policy he speedily won the approval of the Syracusans. Indeed they were no less eager than he for war, first of all because of their hatred of the Carthaginians who were the cause of their being compelled to take orders from the tyrant; secondly, because they hoped that Dionysius would treat them in more humane fashion because of his fear of the enemy and of an attack upon him by the citizens he had enslaved; but most of all, because they hoped that once they had got weapons in their hand, they could strike for their liberty, let Fortune but give them the opportunity.

§ 14.46.1 After the meeting of the assembly the Syracusans, with the permission of Dionysius, seized as plunder the property of the Phoenicians; for no small number of Carthaginians had their homes in Syracuse and rich possessions, and many also of their merchants had vessels in the harbour loaded with goods, all of which the Syracusans plundered.

§ 14.46.2 Similarly the rest of the Sicilian Greeks drove out the Phoenicians who dwelt among them and plundered their possessions; for although they hated the tyranny of Dionysius, they were still glad to join in the war against the Carthaginians because of the cruelty of that people.

§ 14.46.3 For the very same reasons, too, the inhabitants of the Greek cities under the rule of the Carthaginians, as soon as Dionysius publicly enacted war, made open display of their hatred of the Phoenicians; for not only did they seize their property as plunder, but they also laid hands on their persons and subjected them to every kind of physical torture and outrage, remembering what they had themselves suffered during the time of their captivity.

§ 14.46.4 So far did they go in the vengeance they wreaked on the Phoenicians both at this time and subsequently, that the Carthaginians were taught the lesson no more to transgress the law in their treatment of conquered peoples; for they did not fail to realize, learning as they did by very deeds, that in war Fortune is impartial to both combatants and in defeat both sides must suffer the same sort of thing that they themselves have done to those who were unfortunate.

§ 14.46.5 Now when Dionysius had made ready all his preparations for the war, he determined to send messengers to Carthage with the announcement: The Syracusans declare war upon the Carthaginians unless they restore freedom to the Greek cities that they have enslaved. Dionysius, then, was engaged in the affairs we have discussed.

§ 14.46.6 Ctesias the historian ended with this year his History of the Persians, which began with Ninus and Semiramis. And in this year the most distinguished composers of dithyrambs were in their prime, Philoxenus of Cythera, Timotheus of Miletus, Telestus of Selinus, and Polyeidus, who was also expert in the arts of painting and music.

§ 14.47.1 At the close of the year, in Athens Lysiades became archon, and in Rome six military tribunes administered the office of consul, Popilius Mallius, Publius Maelius, Spurius Furius, and Lucius Publius. When Dionysius, the tyrant of the Syracusans, had completed all his preparations for the war according to his personal design, he sent a herald to Carthage, having given him a letter to the senate,

§ 14.47.2 which contained the statement that the Syracusans had resolved to make war upon the Carthaginians unless they withdrew from the Greek cities. The herald accordingly, pursuant to his orders, sailed to Libya and delivered the letter to the senate. When it had been read in the council and subsequently before the people, it came about that the Carthaginians were not a little distressed at the thought of war; for the plague had killed great numbers of them, and they were also totally unprepared.

§ 14.47.3 Nevertheless, they waited for the Syracusans to take the initiative and dispatched members of the senate with large sums of money to recruit mercenaries in Europe.

§ 14.47.4 Dionysius with the Syracusans, the mercenaries, and his allies marched forth from Syracuse and made his way towards Eryx. For not far from this hill lay the city of Motye, a Carthaginian colony, which they used as their chief base of operations against Sicily; and Dionysius hoped that with this city in his power he would have no small advantage over his enemies.

§ 14.47.5 In the course of his march he received from time to time the contingents from the Greek cities, supplying the full levy of each with arms; for they were all eager to join his campaign, hating as they did the heavy hand of Phoenician domination and relishing the prospect at last of freedom.

§ 14.47.6 He received first the levy from Camarina, then those of Gela and Acragas; and after these he sent for the Himeraeans, whose home was on the other side of Sicily, and after adding the men of Selinus, as he passed by, he arrived at Motye with all his army.

§ 14.47.7 He had eighty thousand infantry, well over three thousand cavalry, and a little less than two hundred warships, and he was accompanied by not less than five hundred merchantmen loaded with great numbers of engines of war and all the other supplies needed.

§ 14.48.1 Since the armament was on the great scale we have described, the people of Eryx were awed by the magnitude of the force and, hating the Carthaginians as they did, came over to Dionysius. The inhabitants of Motye, however, expecting aid from the Carthaginians, were not dismayed at Dionysius' armament, but made ready to withstand a siege; for they were not unaware that the Syracusans would make Motye the first city to sack, because it was most loyal to the Carthaginians.

§ 14.48.2 This city was situated on an island lying six stades off Sicily, and was embellished artistically to the last degree with numerous fine houses, thanks to the prosperity of the inhabitants. It also had a narrow artificial causeway extending to the shore of Sicily, which the Motyans breached at this time, in order that the enemy should have no approach against them.

§ 14.48.3 Dionysius, after reconnoitring the area, together with his engineers, began to construct moles leading to Motye, hauled the warships up on land at the entrance of the harbour, and moored the merchantmen along the beach.

§ 14.48.4 After this he left Leptines his admiral in command of the works, while he himself set out with the infantry of his army against the cities that were allies of the Carthaginians. Now the Sicani, fearing the great size of the army, all went over to the Syracusans, and of the rest of the cities only five remained loyal to the Carthaginians, these being Halicyae, Solus, Aegesta, Panormus, and Entella.

§ 14.48.5 Hence Dionysius plundered the territory of Solus and Panormus, and that also of Halicyae, and cut down the trees on it, but he laid siege to Aegesta and Entella with strong forces and launched continuous attacks upon them, seeking to get control of them by force. Such was the state of the affairs of Dionysius.

§ 14.49.1 Himilcon, the general of the Carthaginians, being himself busy with the mustering of the armaments and other preparations, dispatched his admiral with ten triremes under orders to sail speedily in secret against the Syracusans, enter the harbour by night, and destroy the shipping left behind there.

§ 14.49.2 This he did, expecting to cause a diversion and force Dionysius to send part of his fleet back to the Syracusans. The admiral who had been dispatched carried out his orders with promptness and entered the harbour of the Syracusans by night while everyone was ignorant of what had taken place. Attacking unawares, he rammed the vessels lying at anchor along the shore, sank practically all of them, and then returned to Carthage.

§ 14.49.3 Dionysius, after ravaging all the territory held by the Carthaginians and forcing the enemy to take refuge behind walls, led all his army against Motye; for he hoped that when this city had been reduced by siege, all the others would forthwith surrender themselves to him. Accordingly, he at once put many times more men on the task of filling up the strait between the city and the coast, and, as the mole was extended, advanced his engines of war little by little toward the walls.

§ 14.50.1 Meanwhile Himilcon, the admiral of the Carthaginians, hearing that Dionysius had hauled his warships up on land, manned at once his hundred vest triremes; for he assumed that if he appeared unexpectedly, he should easily seize the vessels which were hauled up on land in the harbour, since he would be master of the sea. Once he succeeded in this, he believed, he would not only relieve the siege of Motye but also transfer the war to the city of the Syracusans.

§ 14.50.2 Sailing forth, therefore, with one hundred ships, he arrived during the night at the territory of Selinus, skirted the promontory of Lilybaeum, and arrived at daybreak at Motye. Since his appearance took the enemy by surprise, he disabled some of the vessels anchored along the shore by ramming and others by burning, for Dionysius was unable to come to their defence.

§ 14.50.3 After this he sailed into the harbour and drew up his ships as if to attack the vessels which the enemy had drawn up on land. Dionysius now massed his army at the entrance of the harbour; but when he saw that the enemy was lying in wait to attack as the ships left the harbour, he refused to risk launching his ships within the harbour, since he realized that the narrow entrance compelled a few ships to match themselves against an enemy many times more numerous.

§ 14.50.4 Consequently, using the multitude of his soldiers, he hauled his vessels over the land with no difficulty and launched them safely in the sea outside the harbour. Himilcon attacked the first ships, but was held back by the multitude of missiles; for Dionysius had manned the ships with a great number of archers and slingers, and the Syracusans slew many of the enemy by using from the land the catapults which shot sharp-pointed missiles. Indeed this weapon created great dismay, because it was a new invention at this time. As a result, Himilcon was unable to achieve his design and sailed away to Libya, believing that a sea-battle would serve no end, since the enemy's ships were double his in number.

§ 14.51.1 After Dionysius had completed the mole by employing a large force of labourers, he advanced war engines of every kind against the walls and kept hammering the towers with his battering-rams, while with the catapults he kept down the fighters on the battlements; and he also advanced against the walls his wheeled towers, six stories high, which he had built to equal the height of the houses.

§ 14.51.2 The inhabitants of Motye, now that the threat was at hand-grips, were nevertheless not dismayed by the armament of Dionysius, even though they had for the moment no allies to help them. Surpassing the besiegers in thirst for glory, they in the first place raised up men in crow's-nests resting on yard-arms suspended from the highest possible masts, and these from their lofty positions hurled lighted fire-brands and burning tow with pitch on the enemies' siege engines.

§ 14.51.3 The flame quickly caught the wood, but the Sicilian Greeks, dashing to the scene, swiftly quenched it; and meantime the frequent blows of the battering-rams broke down a section of the wall. Since now both sides rushed with one accord to the place, the battle that ensued grew furious.

§ 14.51.4 For the Sicilian Greeks, believing that the city was already in their hands, spared no effort in retaliating upon the Phoenicians for former injuries they had suffered at their hands, while the people of the city, envisioning the terrible fate of a life of captivity and seeing no possibility of flight either by land or by sea, faced death stoutly.

§ 14.51.5 And finding themselves shorn of the defence of the walls, they barricaded the narrow lanes and made the last houses provide a lavishly constructed wall. From this came even greater difficulties for the troops of Dionysius.

§ 14.51.6 For after they had burst through the wall and seemed to be already masters of the city, they were raked by missiles from men posted in superior positions.

§ 14.51.7 Nevertheless, they advanced the wooden towers to the first houses and provided them with gangways; and since the siege machines were equal in height to the dwellings, the rest of the struggle was fought hand to hand. For the Sicilian Greeks would launch the gangways and force a passage by them on to the houses.

§ 14.52.1 The Motyans, as they took account of the magnitude of the peril, and with their wives and children before their eyes, fought the more fiercely out of fear for their fate. There were some whose parents stood by entreating them not to let them be surrendered to the lawless will of victors, who were thus wrought to a pitch where they set no value on life; others, as they heard the laments of their wives and helpless children, sought to die like men rather than to see their children led into captivity.

§ 14.52.2 Flight of course from the city was impossible, since it was entirely surrounded by the sea, which was controlled by the enemy. Most appalling for the Phoenicians and the greatest cause of their despair was the thought how cruelly they had used their Greek captives and the prospect of their suffering the same treatment. Indeed there was nothing left for them but, fighting bravely, either to conquer or die.

§ 14.52.3 When such an obstinate mood filled the souls of the besieged, the Sicilian Greeks found themselves in a very difficult position.

§ 14.52.4 For, fighting as they were from the suspended wooden bridges, they suffered grievously both because of the narrow quarters and because of the desperate resistance of their opponents, who had abandoned hope of life. As a result, some perished in hand-to hand encounter as they gave and received wounds, and others, pressed back by the Motyans and tumbling from the wooden bridges, fell to their death on the ground.

§ 14.52.5 In the end, while the kind of siege we have described had lasted some days, Dionysius made it his practice always toward evening to sound the trumpet for the recall of the fighters and break off the siege. When he had accustomed the Motyans to such a practice, the combatants on both sides retiring, he dispatched Archylus of Thurii with the elite troops,

§ 14.52.6 who, when night had fallen, placed ladders against the fallen houses, and mounting by them, seized an advantageous spot where he admitted Dionysius' troops.

§ 14.52.7 The Motyans, when they perceived what had taken place, at once rushed to the rescue with all eagerness, and although they were too late, none the less faced the struggle. The battle grew fierce and abundant reinforcements climbed the ladders, until at last the Sicilian Greeks wore down their opponents by weight of numbers.

§ 14.53.1 Straightway Dionysius' entire army burst into the city, coming also by the mole, and now every spot was a scene of mass slaughter; for the Sicilian Greeks, eager to return cruelty for cruelty, slew everyone they encountered, sparing without distinction not a child, not a woman, not an elder.

§ 14.53.2 Dionysius, wishing to sell the inhabitants into slavery for the money he could gather, at first attempted to restrain the soldiers from murdering the captives, but when no one paid any attention to him and he saw that the fury of the Sicilian Greeks was not to be controlled, he stationed heralds to cry aloud and tell the Motyans to take refuge in the temples which were revered by the Greeks.

§ 14.53.3 When this was done, the soldiers ceased their slaughter and turned to looting the property; and the plunder yielded much silver and not a little gold, as well as costly raiment and an abundance of every other product of felicity. The city was given over by Dionysius to the soldiers to plunder, since he wished to whet their appetites for future encounters.

§ 14.53.4 After this success he rewarded Archylus, who had been the first to mount the wall, with one hundred minas, and honoured according to their merits all others who had performed deeds of valour; he also sold as booty the Motyans who survived, but he crucified Daimenes and other Greeks who had fought on the side of the Carthaginians and had been taken captive.

§ 14.53.5 After this Dionysius stationed guards in the city whom he put under the command of Biton of Syracuse; and the garrison was composed largely of Siceli. He ordered Leptines his admiral with one hundred and twenty ships to lie in wait for any attempt by the Carthaginians to cross to Sicily; and he also assigned to him the siege of Aegesta and Entella, in accordance with his original plan to sack them. Then, since the summer was already coming to a close, he marched back to Syracuse with his army.

§ 14.53.6 In Athens Sophocles, the son of Sophocles, began to produce tragedies and won the first prize twelve times.

§ 14.54.1 When the year had come to an end, in Athens Phormion assumed the archonship and in Rome six military tribunes took the place of the consuls, Gnaeus Genucius, Lucius Atilius, Marcus Pomponius, Gaius Duilius, Marcus Veturius, and Valerius Publilius; and the Ninety-sixth Olympiad was celebrated, that in which Eupolis of Elis was the victor.

§ 14.54.2 In the year when these magistrates entered office Dionysius, the tyrant of the Syracusans, set out from Syracuse with his entire army and invaded the domain of the Carthaginians. While he was laying waste the countryside, the Halicyaeans in dismay sent an embassy to him and concluded an alliance. But the Aegestaeans, falling unexpectedly by night on their besiegers and setting fire to the tents where they were camped, threw the men in the encampment into great confusion;

§ 14.54.3 for since the flames spread over a large area and the fire could not be brought under control, a few of the soldiers who came to the rescue lost their lives and most of the horses were burned, together with the tents.

§ 14.54.4 Now Dionysius ravaged the Carthaginian territory without meeting any opposition, and Leptines his admiral from his quarters in Motye kept watch against any approach of the enemy by sea. The Carthaginians, when they learned of the magnitude of the armament of Dionysius, resolved far to surpass him in their preparations.

§ 14.54.5 Consequently, lawfully according Himilcon sovereign power, they gathered armaments from all Libya as well as from Iberia, summoning some from their allies and in other cases hiring mercenaries. In the end they collected more than three hundred thousand infantry, four thousand cavalry in addition to chariots, which numbered four hundred, four hundred ships of war, and over six hundred other vessels to convey food and engines of war and other supplies. These are the numbers stated by Ephorus.

§ 14.54.6 Timaeus, on the other hand, says that the troops transported from Libya did not exceed one hundred thousand and declares that an additional thirty thousand were enlisted in Sicily.