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Return this book on or before the © 
 Latest Date stamped below. A 
 charge is made on all overdue 
 
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 MAY 14°38 
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 ‘JAN 13 1942 
 
 
 
 bo to: 
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 11148-S 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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 https://archive.org/details/southernitalysicO1 craw 
 
SOULBMERN. ITALY AND SICILY 
 AND | 
 Poe Oo RULERS OF THE. SOUTH 
 
 VOL, I 
 

 
CoPyYRIGHT, 1900, 
 
 By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.. 
 
 
 
 Set up and electrotyped October, 1900. Reprinted December, 
 1900. 
 
 New edition in one volume September, 1905; May, 1907. 
 January, 1910. 
 
 Nortoood JBress 
 J. S. Cushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
 Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 
 

 

 
SOUTHERN ITALY AND SICILY 
 
 AND 
 
 PoE RUEERS OF THE SOUTH 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANCIS MARION CRAWFORD 
 
 AUTHOR OF “IN THE PALACE OF THE KING,” “VIA CRUCIS,” 
 “AVE ROMA IMMORTALIS,” ETC. 
 
 WITH A HUNDRED ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY 
 HENRY BROKMAN 
 
 VOL, I 
 
 Neto Work 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Lt. 
 
 1914 
 
 All rights reserved 
 

 
—_—_—- - — 
 
 ry.Reeearcb GO 4 IS” s1wchers. HOG, ay, 
 
 TO MY FRIEND HENRY BROKMAN, TO WHOSE 
 GENIUS I AM INDEBTED FOR THE DRAWINGS IN 
 THIS BOOK, AND WHOSE COMPANIONSHIP IN 
 SICILY AND THE SOUTH HAS LIGHTENED MANY 
 LABOURS. 
 
 TorRE San NicoLtA ARCELLA 
 
 CALABRIA, 
 August, 1900. 
 
 312890 
 

 
Wav eWlas 
 
 THE EARLIEST TIME 
 THE GREEKS 
 
 THE ROMANS 
 
 OF CONTENTS 
 
 VOLUME I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 26 
 249 
 

 
— 
 
 Pius RA TLONS = EN = fiir EE XE 
 
 VOLUME I 
 
 PAGE 
 Etna at Sunrise ; : : : ‘ : I 
 Isles of the Cyclops, near Catania . : : ; : F 
 Isles of the Sirens, Gulf of Salerno . : : , 7 
 Old Fortification in Manfredonia_. ; ; ; oe Jah 
 
 Mare Piccolo at Taranto,— The Harbour of Ancient Tarentum 18 
 
 Spring called the ** Fonte del Sole,” in a Grotto near Taranto 24 
 
 Cape Palinuro, Gulf of Policastro. “ Sh) 
 Ancient Aqueduct at Solmona in the Abruzzi, the birthplace 
 
 of Ovid. - : : : Ao 
 After Sunset on the Shore of Eastern Calabria : : so BPEL 
 Aqueduct at Taranto, formerly Tarentum : : maiy 
 Columns called the “ Tavole Paladine,” at Metaponto, formerly 
 
 Metapontum_.. : : , oO! 
 The Site of Sybaris . ‘ : : . : ’ : SAS 
 Fortress of Charles the Fifth at Cotrone, formerly Crotona  . 65 
 Temple of Hera, Capo Colonne, near Cotrone ; ; 07 
 Fragment of the Ruins of Selinus, now Selinunto . : Pan Oo! 
 Girl washing near Reggio, Calabria, formerly Rhegium . Oo 
 The “ Gran Sasso d’ Italia” from Aquila . : ; :  Aiare: 
 Eucalyptus Trees near the Site of Sybaris : : ; melts 
 Old Well at Cotrone, formerly Crotona . : ;  alis 
 Coin with the Head of Arethusa, Syracuse, about 400 B.c. - 120 
 Map of Syracuse. : ; : : : : LON Le) 
 
X Illustrations in the Text 
 
 Street of Ancient Tombs, Syracuse . 
 
 Path under Rocks, Latomia dei Cappuccini, Syracuse 
 Old Well in the Latomia dei Cappuccini, Syracuse . 
 Peasant near Reggio, Calabria 
 
 Straits of Messina off Rhegium, now Reggio, Calabria 
 
 Garden of the Church of San Nicola, Girgenti, formerly Agri- 
 gentum . ; 
 
 A Sicilian Courtyard 
 
 Street in Syracuse To-day 
 
 Coin with the Head of Queen Philistis 
 
 Peasant Woman of Monteleone 
 
 On the Road at Girgenti 
 
 Papyrus in the River Anapus, near Syracuse 
 Amphitheatre at Syracuse : 
 A Lonely Spot on the Shore, Eastern Calabria 
 Castrogiovanni, formerly Henna 
 
 Calascibetta at Sunset 
 
 Castle of Aci Castello, near Catania 
 
 Vesuvius, on the Day before the Eruption of May, 1990 . 
 From the Highest Tier of the Theatre, Taormina 
 Harbour of Malta 
 
 Amantea, Western Calabria 
 
 Rocca Imperiale, Eastern Calabria . 
 
 PAGE 
 14! 
 148 
 151 
 163 
 181 
 
 187 
 206 
 214 
 230 
 241 
 251 
 262 
 
 284 
 296 
 300 
 318 
 533 
 348 
 359 
 368 
 372 
 
rode th PHOLOGRAVURE PLATES 
 
 VOLUME I 
 
 Scylla_. : : : ; : Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 Map of Sicily, with Greek and English Names 
 On the Outskirts of Giardini, below Taormina 
 The Ruins of Selinus 
 
 Temple of Segesta . 
 
 Latomia dei Cappuccini, Syracuse . 
 
 Ruined Rampart at Girgenti 
 
 Cavern called the ‘“ Ear of Dionysius,” Latomia del Paradiso, 
 Syracuse . 
 
 Greek Theatre at Segesta 
 
 Map of Italy and Sicily under Roman Rule 
 
 Temple of Concord, Girgenti . 
 
 Olive Trees in the Latomia dei Cappuccini, Syracuse 
 Catacombs at Syracuse 
 
 Shore, from the Theatre at Taormina 
 
 In the Theatre at Taormina 
 
 In the Temple of Neptune, Pestum 
 
 xi 
 
 I 
 
 oo 
 89 
 92 
 146 
 
 160 
 
 184 
 225 
 249 
 283 
 339 
 357 
 363 
 ofS 
 383 
 

 
monmhS CONSULTED, NOT INCLUD- 
 NC ler\ ool. ALU ELORS 
 
 AMARI. Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia. 
 
 APRILE. Cronologia della Sicilia. 
 
 Bryce. The Holy Roman Empire. 
 
 CAPECELATRO. Storia di Napoli. 
 
 CARINI. Gli Archivi e le Biblioteche di Spagna. 
 
 Caruso. Bibliotheca Historica Regni Siciliz. 
 
 Caruso. Storia di Sicilia, per cura di Gioacchino di Marzo. 
 
 CRrONICA del Rey d’ Arago En Pere 1V. Lo Ceremoniés. (Catalan 
 language. ) 
 
 CrOnIcA del Rey En Pere per Bernat Desclot. (Catalan language.) 
 
 CrONICA d’? En Ramon Muntaner. (Catalan language.) 
 
 CuTERA. La Mafia e i Mafiusi. 
 
 DeLarc. Les Normands en Italie. 
 
 DOMINAZIONE ARABA IN SICILIA. (Translations from the Arabic.) 
 
 EWALD. Gregorii I., Pape Registrum Epistolarum. 
 
 GiBpBon. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 
 
 Hoitm. Geschichte Siciliens im Alterthum. 
 
 La LumiA. Storie Siciliane. 
 
 LAVISSE ET RAMBAUD. Histoire Générale. 
 
 Morso. Palermo Antico. 
 
 MurRaATorRI. Annale d’ Italia. 
 
 MuRATORI. Scriptores Rerum Italicarum. 
 
 PRIVITERA. Storia di Siracusa. 
 
 RITTER. History of Ancient Philosophy. (Morrison’s translation. ) 
 
 RoeEtTH. Geschichte der griechischen Philosophie. 
 
 ROGER DE HOVEDEN. Annals. (Bohn’s edition.) 
 
 TESTA. De Vita et Rebus Gestis Gulielmi II. 
 
 TOMACELLI. Storia di Napoli e Sicilia. 
 
 ZuRITA. Anales de la Corona de Aragon. 
 
 xiii 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ETNA AT SUNRISE 
 
 The Rulers of the South 
 
 In very early times, when demigods made history 
 and myth together, heroic beings moved upon the 
 
 southern land and sea, in shapes of beauty and of 
 VOL, 1 I B 
 
2 - The Rulers of the South 
 
 strength, sometimes of terror, that pursued each other, 
 changing and interchanging forms, appearing and dis- 
 appearing, rising from the waters as a mirage and 
 sinking into the bosom of the earth, then springing 
 into life again elsewhere in the more vivid day of a 
 nearer reality, half human still but already mortal, to 
 die at the last, to be buried in tombs that endure, and 
 to leave names behind them which history can neither 
 quite accept nor wholly overlook. 
 
 First, ancient Kronos is the kindly god of the golden 
 age in all Italy, but changes in Sicily to Baal-Moloch, 
 grasping tyrant, devourer of human flesh, fortified 
 against mankind in the high places of the earth; and 
 he slays Ouranos, his father, whose blood falls as a 
 fertilizing rain from heaven upon the burning Sicilian 
 earth. Armed with the scythe, he rules in wrath, 
 then fades from existence, and leaves his crooked 
 weapon twice buried in the earth in Drepanon, the 
 sickle of Western Trapani, and in Zancle, the wide 
 reaping-hook of land that guards Messina from the 
 southern storms. 
 
 Poseidon next, his son, god of the Mediterranean 
 Sea, smites his trident deep into the uncertain land. 
 He is the father of many heroes, of Trinakros and 
 Sikelos, whose names stuck fast, of giant Polyphemus, 
 of the man-eating Lzestrygones, of Eryx, Aphrodite’s 
 son; he is the father, too, of great Demeter, who 
 fights forever with fiery Hephzestos for possession of 
 
The Earliest Time 3 
 
 her rich inheritance, of Demeter, who first taught men 
 to sow corn; while the nymph Aétna, high on her 
 mountain throne, watches the eternal strife, forever 
 umpire of a never-ending war. Still the fight for 
 bread against fire is raging, and in the wild burnt 
 lands between Randazzo and Bronté, the ‘thunder- 
 town,’ the myth of Hephzstos and Demeter is truth 
 still. 
 
 From her springs the lovely fable-allegory of the 
 seed hidden in the earth, dead half the year and half 
 the year alive again. For of Demeter, by Zeus, was 
 born Kore, the ‘Maiden,’ the girl Persephone, who 
 played in Sicilian fields with maiden Athene and 
 maiden Artemis, and each chose a playground of 
 her own. Athene took Himera, on the north, for 
 hers, and on the east Artemis chose Ortygia in the 
 sea; but Kore loved best the fruitful land of Enna 
 in the island’s heart, where violets grew so close and 
 sweet that the Huntress’s own hounds could follow no 
 scent there, and the chase ended among the flowers. 
 There Kore wandered, gathering the violets to make 
 a dark blue mantle for her father Zeus, the sky-king; 
 but though the meadows were so fair, the gate of 
 Hades was close at hand, among the trees at the foot 
 of Enna’s hill, and thence dark Pluton, master of hell, 
 watched her with glowing eyes, and sprang forward 
 at last and took her in his arms to bear her away. 
 But when he was hard by Syracuse, the nymph Kyane, 
 
A The Rulers of the South 
 
 Kore’s playmate, leapt lightly from the woods and 
 stood in the way as he rushed along, and she prayed 
 with all her heart for her friend’s freedom, but could 
 not move the raging god to mercy; so she sank to 
 earth and was lost in her own tears, which made a 
 deep translucent well, the most beautiful of all springs 
 in the world to this day. After that Demeter went 
 out to seek for her lost daughter, and lighted A¢*tna’s 
 fires for a torch, but could not find her, for Kore had 
 eaten the seed of the pomegranate in Pluton’s house, 
 and was wedded, and could only come back for half 
 the year. Therefore Zeus gave her Sicily for a wed- 
 ding gift. By this is fabled the hiding of the seed in 
 the earth, and its return to the upper world in leaf 
 and flower. 
 
 Next came mysterious Deedalus, art and skill in 
 person, flying before angry Minos, king of Crete, 
 touching Sicily first and wandering from island to 
 island, beautifying each and leaving in each some 
 stable work to tell that he had passed there; while 
 the Sicanians burned his enemies’ ships, and drowned 
 King Minos in the bath, burying him deep, and build- 
 ing above his grave their temple to Aphrodite. De- 
 dalus built great reservoirs and impregnable cities, 
 treasuries for kings and temples for gods, whose 
 images he carved in rare wood, and set them moving 
 with cunning devices hidden within. So, when bread 
 
 had first been won, and when husbandry had grown 
 
The Earliest Time 5 
 
 strong in peace, thought and art came likewise, that 
 Sicily might be a perfect home for men. The great 
 legend of Troy embraced the island then. When old 
 Laomedon had sacrificed his daughter Hesione to atone 
 for his broken word, many Trojans fled, or sent away 
 their children secretly, lest like should befall them. 
 Hippotes sent his child Egesta to Sicily, and she loved 
 
 
 
 ISLES OF THE CYCLOPS, NEAR CATANIA 
 
 Crimisos and bore him Acestes, who went back when 
 he was fully grown, and fought for Troy, but returned 
 again and brought with him Elymos, son of Anchises ; 
 and this Elymos left his name to the children of 
 Acestes, who were called Elymians. But some say 
 that these were the Elamites of the Bible. 
 
 Soon after that came great Ulysses, wandering by 
 sea, when he had dragged his unwilling companions 
 from the shores of the Lotus land; and first he came 
 
 to the eastern shore of Sicily, where Polyphemus dwelt 
 
6 The Rulers of the South 
 
 among cliffs and caves, pasturing huge sheep, and he 
 was taken with his companions by the giant; but he 
 blinded him and escaped with those who still lived; 
 and the Cyclops tore up great boulders, that were like 
 hills, and sent them whirling after the Greeks, but 
 could not hit them, being quite blind; so the rocks fell 
 into the sea and became three islets, fast and firm to 
 this day. One of them, moreover, is like a vast mon- 
 ster’s head rising above the water, and where the eye 
 should be there is a round aperture, through which the 
 light shines brightly from side to side; for which reason 
 it may well be that the Cyclops was made a one-eyed 
 creature in the imagination of early men, as any one 
 may understand who will go to Aci Castello or to 
 Trezza and look at the rocks for himself. 
 
 Thence Ulysses sailed by the southern coast, round 
 Sicily, touching here and there, and landing on islands 
 where many adventures befell him, and along the 
 Italian shore, so that his name and fame linked Sicily 
 and Southern Italy with Greece. 
 
 Next, still from Troy, came Trojans with Aeneas and 
 his fleet, wandering hither and thither, and founding 
 the great temple of Idalian Venus, of Venus Erycina, 
 on Mount Eryx, named after Aphrodite’s son; and then 
 Orestes came, crossing to Sicily when he had purged 
 himself of his crime in Rhegium, and he built the 
 temple of Artemis in Myle, which is Milazzo, to hold 
 the sacred image he had brought from far away. 
 
The Earliest Time FI 
 
 So gods and heroes came and went, and left their 
 names upon the south, and some of them found their 
 last resting-places there; and tradition grew out of 
 myth, and history was moulded upon tradition, till the 
 legends would have filled volumes, and gradually con- 
 
 
 
 ISLES OF THE SIRENS, GULF OF SALERNO 
 
 centrated themselves toward the point of transition at 
 which fable becomes fact. Out of it all results clearly 
 the main truth, that from very early times the rich 
 south was a possession for which several races fought 
 
 one with another, Orientals, Greeks, and peoples who 
 
8 The Rulers of the South 
 
 had come down from Italy, and who were afterwards 
 driven back by degrees into the inner country, the 
 Sicanians and the Sicelians. 
 
 The most learned modern historian of Sicily, Adolf 
 Holm, has proved almost conclusively that these two 
 peoples were of common and Italian origin, and came 
 in succession from their Latian home, somewhere near 
 Anxur, which is now Terracina. The Sicanians came 
 first, in small bands of wanderers, leaving many at 
 home, whence afterwards arose the confusion of names, 
 by which the stronger Sicelians were sometimes called 
 Sicanians, but when the latter sailed down in force 
 and took possession, the confusion ceased. The first 
 comers had intrenched themselves in strong passes and 
 had built fortresses on inaccessible heights, as men do 
 who know that they may be easily destroyed. But the 
 Sicelians came in hordes, driven from their homes by 
 the vast immigration of the Pelasgian race when it 
 moved westward and descended into Italy. They were 
 Latins, speaking a Latin language, closely allied with 
 that of the Romans, for they called a hare ‘leporis’ 
 and a basin ‘katinon,’ and they named a certain river 
 ‘Gela’ because the hoar frost settled along the banks 
 more thickly than elsewhere. And so, as Holm says, 
 the Sicelians are proved by their language to have 
 been closely connected with the Latins and the Oscans, 
 and descended from the common Pelasgian stock; and 
 
 it is clear that they had wandered from the Hemus 
 
s 
 
 The Earliest Time 9 
 
 to the Apennines, before they reached the island to 
 which they gave their name, and that in their immigra- 
 tion they had overrun and filled the southern mainland 
 of Italy. Once there, they built all those early cities of 
 which remains exist that are not manifestly Greek; 
 they built ships and sailed out on marauding expedi- 
 tions, and some of them even attempted to plunder the 
 Egyptians, joining themselves with Tyrrhenians and 
 Sardinians, Achzans and Lycians, as is proved by a 
 hieroglyphic inscription found in Thebes, which tells 
 how two hundred and fifty Sicelians were slain, under 
 King Merenptah, and their hands were struck off and 
 brought to him, twelve hundred years before our era 
 began. It is sure, also, that even for centuries after 
 the Greeks had settled in Sicily, the Sicelians dwelt 
 there still, a flourishing and active race. They were 
 therefore the first permanent element of a Sicilian pop- 
 ulation, and most probably of the south Italian people 
 also; for Thucydides says that Italus, from whom Italy 
 was supposed to have been named, was king of the 
 Sicelians, and Aristotle states that he taught his pas- 
 toral people the more civilized arts of agriculture. 
 Three epochs stand out from the chaos of myth, 
 legend, and history: the development of farming by 
 the Sicelians, about 1200 B.c., the introduction of com- 
 merce with the Phoenicians after that time, and the 
 gradual growth of a higher civilization under the 
 Greeks, from the time of their landing in the eighth 
 
IO The Rulers of the South 
 
 century before the Christian era, until the Carthaginian 
 or Punic wars with Rome, and the subsequent wreck 
 of Greek art and thought under the atrocious governor- 
 ship of Verres, between 73 and 71 B.c., during which, 
 with the connivance of his father, the senator, he pil- 
 laged all Sicily at his will. 
 
 The Roman rule became in the fourth century the 
 rule of Constantinople, and next in history, when the 
 Goths had ruled for a time, the Arabs began to take 
 Sicily, in the year 827 a.p.; the Normans came after 
 them, completing their conquest of the island in Iogr1, 
 and through them the German Imperial house of 
 Hohenstaufen, reigning from the fifth year before the 
 preaching of the first Crusade, until the downfall of 
 the Ghibellines. in 1268. Then the French, under 
 Charles of Anjou, during the few years that ended in 
 the Sicilian Vespers, in 1282, after which the Sicilians 
 chose for their king Peter of Aragon, and because 
 both he and Charles of Anjou continued afterwards 
 to call themselves kings of Sicily, the two kingdoms 
 of Sicily and Naples became known from that time as 
 the ‘two Sicilies,’ and were still so called under Fer- 
 dinand the Catholic, after Naples was annexed to 
 Aragon, and both became Spanish monarchies. In 
 1700 began the war of the Spanish succession, after 
 which Victor Amadeus of Savoy was king of Sicily 
 for a time, until Sicily and Naples were again united 
 under Charles the Third of the house of Bourbon, 
 
The Earliest Time II 
 
 Last of all, in 1860, the two Sicilies were united to 
 the modern Kingdom of Italy. 
 
 All these, through nearly three thousand years, 
 were Rulers of the South, in turn, Sicelians, Phoenicians, 
 Greeks; Romans, Byzantines, Goths, and Arabs; Nor- 
 mans, German Emperors, and French; Spaniards of 
 Aragon and of Bourbon, and Savoyard Kings of Italy. 
 Every great race that has won rights on the shores 
 of the Mediterranean Sea has, without an exception, 
 sooner or later called the south its own, and has left 
 the broad mark of full possession on the country, 
 where it may still be seen, sometimes grotesque and 
 sometimes grand, now rough, now beautiful, now vulgar, 
 but always very strong and clear, as if the south had 
 been a most cherished possession which each hoped 
 to hold forever. There is no part of Europe which 
 has been dominated by a greater number of different 
 races, and none where each has left such deep traces 
 of its domination. The Goths and Vandals are the 
 only people who ever held the south for a time and 
 left no sign of their presence; but their holding was 
 short, and their occupation was followed by a disap- 
 pearance so sudden that their brief rule never earned 
 the designation of a kingdom. 
 
 The Italian south differs in one prime condition from 
 all the other countries that open upon the Southern 
 Sea. It has never at any time been the independent 
 arbitrator of Europe or of civilization, and it has been 
 
12 The Rulers of the South 
 
 held in succession by those powers that have ruled 
 the rest, or most strongly influenced them, from very 
 early times. Greece held it, and Imperial Rome, the 
 wide-spreading Arab and Saracen domination, the all- 
 grasping Normans, the Holy Roman Empire, and 
 France and Spain. It has never been the source of 
 an individual power that began in it, spread from 
 it, and enveloped others. It has lacked strength of 
 its own from the beginning, it has lacked the genius 
 without which strength breeds monsters, it has been 
 wanting in the original character which bears modi- 
 fication but resists extirpation, it has produced no 
 race which another has not been able to enslave; 
 one people after another has taken possession of it, 
 each amalgamating in some degree with the last, but 
 the welding of races has not become a great race, 
 nor has any first element outlasted and outruled the 
 others. It has been the prize of contending warriors, 
 it has been the playground of magnificent civilizations, 
 but it has neither acted the part of conqueror itself, 
 nor has it ever produced a civilization of its own. It 
 has resembled Greece and Rome, Arabia and Spain, 
 in language, institutions, and manners, but its people 
 have never gone forth in the flesh or in the spirit to 
 impose upon others a resemblance to themselves. In 
 the balance of the world’s forces Sicily has been 
 feminine and reproductive rather than masculine and 
 
 creative; endowed with supreme natural beauty, she 
 
The Earliest Time 13 
 
 has been loved by all, she has favoured many, and 
 she has borne sons to a few, sons such as Archimedes 
 and Theocritus, Dionysius and Agathocles, King Roger 
 and Frederick Second of Hohenstaufen, of Greek, Nor- 
 man, and Norman-German blood. But if we ask for 
 a great man whom we may call a Sicilian, we must 
 ask what Sicilians were, and we shall receive different 
 answers in different ages,— Greeks, Arabs, Normans, 
 Spaniards, and Italians have all been Sicilians at one 
 time or another. 
 
 At the first glance it might be thought that the result 
 in history must be confusing and often disconnected, 
 breaking off at a point to begin again at another with 
 little or no apparent connexion, so as to present a 
 series of detached episodes without logical sequence, 
 and consequently without consecutive interest. But 
 this is not at all the truth. That has been the case 
 in some parts of the world, as in the plains of 
 Central Asia, where one horde of invaders has _ suc- 
 ceeded and exterminated another of which it knew 
 nothing, learned nothing, and desired nothing except 
 plunder. The connexion between the Chinese Mon- 
 gols and the Turanian Tartars, for instance, is not any 
 closer, beyond the bounds of China, than that between 
 white men and red Indians in America. But in the 
 story of Sicily the continuous, reasonable cause of 
 change lies in the unmatched attraction of Sicily, a 
 charm so strong and lasting as to be a source of 
 
14 The Rulers of the South 
 
 interest in itself, so that we may figure the island as 
 the undying heroine of an unending romance, wooed, 
 won, and lost by many lovers who have met and 
 fought and have conquered, or have been vanquished 
 in the struggle for the possession of her beauty. 
 Sicily has been the Helen of a European Epos. 
 
 The southern mainland has for the most part 
 served only as a stepping-stone to the conquest of 
 the island. Pyrrhus, called over by the Greeks to 
 help them, crossed the straits; Alaric meditated the 
 passage, but withdrew, and Genseric took Sicily from 
 Africa, but Roger the Norman and Charles of Anjou 
 went over as conquerors of all the south. Yet in 
 many respects Southern Italy has never been far 
 behind the most coveted spot in the Mediterranean . 
 there is great natural beauty in the mainland and 
 great wealth of soil, and such climate as is hardly to 
 be found elsewhere; there, too, the Greeks built 
 marvellous temples to their gods, and there thinkers, 
 philosophers, poets, and soldiers have been reared of 
 successive races; Horace himself was of the south, 
 and so was Zeno of Elea, founder of the great 
 Eleatic school. Tarentum lost all manliness and 
 vigour in a delicacy of thought and manners that 
 outdid the refinements of Syracuse, and the civiliza- 
 tion of Greece trained its growth of beauty like a 
 climbing rose from tower to tower. But in spite of 
 
 all, the mainland never rivalled Sicily in art or 
 
The Earliest Time 15 
 
 thought or war; in the vast construction of empires 
 Lucania, Apulia, Calabria, were never names to con- 
 
 jure with, nor were they ever numbered among the 
 
 
 
 we wD, 
 
 OLD FORTIFICATION IN MANFREDONIA 
 
 kingdoms of fable, wherein godlike shapes of terror 
 and of loveliness figured the drama of nature in 
 
 immortal allegory. They were not divided from the 
 
16 The Rulers of the South 
 
 world by the mystery of the moving sea nor hidden 
 from it by the morning mist of the straits, nor brought 
 to it in the magic mirage of the Fairy Morgana. 
 There was no secret in them for men to learn at 
 risk of life, there was no marvel in the thought of 
 them; they were among the world’s commonplaces, 
 and every one might go to them and live in them who 
 chose. It was not until the middle ages substituted 
 romantic tragedy for classic myth that the inacces- 
 sible mountains of the south were filled with a sort of 
 mysterious interest which they have not yet wholly lost. 
 
 The story of the Rulers of the South is as much 
 a history of places as of thé persons whose character 
 marked them and left them as they are, since almost 
 throughout history it was the nature of the places 
 themselves which played so great a part in the lives 
 of those who coveted them, grasped them, and ruled 
 them, or who dwelt in them and made them famous. 
 We cannot easily imagine Syracuse without Dionysius 
 the Elder, nor Dionysius without Syracuse, nor would 
 any one ever think of Theocritus as a poet of the 
 mainland. The great story of Roger the Norman 
 moves towards Palermo as the sun to the splendour 
 of its setting, and Charles of Anjou is better remem- 
 bered by the awful Vespers of the Church of the 
 Holy Ghost than by the long life of struggle, con- 
 quest, and murder which won him a kingdom and 
 
 founded a long-lived dynasty. 
 
The Earliest Time 17 
 
 It is true that in such a narrative it is necessary 
 to return again and again to the same places, and to 
 cross the same ground many times; but in successive 
 ages the cities of the south, while many of them have 
 kept their names, have so changed that it is hard to 
 recognize them as the same; and each of them is 
 therefore not one but many, all of which must be 
 seen in imagination and understood, as far as pos- 
 sible, in order to form a clear and reasonable idea of 
 the whole as it was and is. 
 
 Before going any further, however, it is necessary 
 that the reader should have a general conception of 
 the extraordinary country in which the events took 
 place which are hereafter to be narrated. 
 
 Southern Italy is little more than a range of volcanic 
 mountains which rise abruptly from the sea on the 
 west side and descend on the east in a succession of 
 fertile tablelands, the lowest of which is a vast fore- 
 shore only slightly raised above the level of the 
 Adriatic. There is not a single natural harbour, 
 really deserving the name, on the whole coast of the 
 southern mainland, from the Gulf of Naples on the 
 west to Manfredonia on the eastern side. The nearest 
 approach to one is perhaps Tarentum, and it early 
 owed its prosperity to the nature of the land, which 
 there afforded tolerable shelter to large vessels before 
 any harbour was constructed. Even at the present 
 day there is no safe port for large ships between 
 
 VOL, I Cc 
 
18 The Rulers of the South 
 
 Naples, or Stabian Castellamare, close by it, and the 
 straits. Messina, once called Zancle, the beautiful 
 ‘sickle’ on the Sicilian side, was therefore the natural 
 place for all vessels to put in that sailed round the 
 coast. 
 
 At the extremity of the range which thus forms 
 Southern Italy, and divided from it by a channel little 
 
 more than two miles wide, lies Sicily, a mountainous, 
 
 
 
 MARE PICCOLO AT TARANTO, — THE HARBOUR OF ANCIENT TARENTUM 
 
 three-cornered island over five hundred miles in circum- 
 ference by straight lines, and over six hundred, if one 
 closely follows the irregular coast. Viewed from the 
 sea, the island appears almost everywhere as a vast 
 assemblage of rocky peaks which often fall abruptly 
 away in huge cliffs and bluffs. Only on parts of the 
 eastern and southern side do the hills recede some 
 distance so that rich plains open to the sea; but all 
 
 round the coast the mountains are broken at intervals 
 
The Earliest Time 19 
 
 by deep valleys that lead to others at a higher level 
 in the interior, and there are more safe natural harbours 
 on the northern and eastern sides of the island, from 
 Trapani at the western extremity to Syracuse near the 
 southeastern corner, than are to be found on an equal 
 extent of coast line in any part of the world. The 
 history of Sicily has been largely the history of those 
 harbours and of those who held them; and as the size 
 and draught of ships increased with the development 
 of navigation under the Romans, after the Punic wars, 
 the importance of the harbours grew likewise, while 
 the cities on the southern side that possessed at most 
 half-sheltered sandy beaches on which small vessels 
 could be hauled up high and dry, steadily lost value, 
 and did not recover until the construction of artificial 
 harbours in modern times supplied what was deficient 
 in nature. 
 
 The fertility of Sicily is proverbial, and seems 
 incredible when one considers how large a part of the 
 island consists of high mountains. It is hard for one 
 bred in the north to realize that in southern latitudes 
 a mountain five thousand feet high may be richly culti- 
 vated to its very summit; it is even harder to under- 
 stand that the climate and soil are such that certain 
 plants bear two crops in the year without exhausting 
 the land, after three thousand years of cultivation; 
 it is hardest of all, perhaps, to believe that the old- 
 fashioned methods of agriculture, originally introduced 
 
20 The Rulers of the South 
 
 by #the “Greeks, are really the best adapted to the 
 country, as well as to the genius of a people possessed 
 of unbounded industry and vast traditional experience, 
 but wholly unlearned in the ways of modern science. 
 
 Let it be considered that out of six millions of acres, 
 
 
 
 ¥3 
 
 LIGHTHOUSE AT COLOMBAIA, HARBOUR OF TRAPANI 
 
 barely one hundred and fifty thousand are barren ; that 
 the soil will bear anything, from wheat and barley to 
 the orange, the lemon, the date palm, and the banana, 
 from the papyrus to the manna-ash, from cotton and 
 sumach to the carob and the Indian fig; that at a 
 
 short distance below the surface lie the most valuable 
 
The Earliest Time 21 
 
 sulphur mines in the world, as well as excellent mines 
 of rock salt; that the finest fisheries in the whole 
 Mediterranean exist upon the coast; and finally that 
 the most valuable coral is found in the same waters. 
 Consider these few facts and it becomes plain that 
 Sicily is one of the richest islands in the world, well 
 worth the endless struggle for its possession that has 
 been waged by a dozen different races since the be- 
 ginning of all history. There is probably not to be 
 found anywhere an equal area of land of the same 
 value, not containing mines of diamonds, gold, or 
 silver. The mainland opposite is very different. The 
 plains to the eastward are indeed prosperous agri- 
 cultural regions, but they are nowhere as fruitful as 
 the island, nor do they produce any such variety of 
 crops; and the mountains of Southern Calabria con- 
 _sist for the most part of barren rocks among which 
 a few herds of goats can hardly find a precarious 
 pasture. Sicily has been called the granary of Rome 
 and the garden of the Mediterranean; no such epithets 
 have ever been applied to Calabria or Apulia. 
 
 It is commonly said that the population of the 
 eastern and southern portions of the island is of 
 Greek descent, while the strongest traces of the Arab 
 race are found in the central and western parts, and 
 ina general way the statement is true. It is true 
 also that the predominating type on the southern 
 mainland is Greek rather than Latin. Both in Sicily 
 
22 The Rulers of the South 
 
 and on the mainland there are still villages where 
 only Greek is spoken and Italian is learned at school 
 as a foreign language; and in the Maltese islands, 
 only sixty miles south of Sicily, the modern tongue 
 is Arabic, so far as it can be said to be anything 
 definite. It is not more remarkable that Arabic 
 should have wholly disappeared from Italian territory 
 than that it should have been altogether lost in 
 lower Spain. The absence of a social constitution in 
 the Arab nation is the reason for the short endur- 
 ance of its language, manners, and faith wherever it 
 has become subject to a people more advanced in 
 this respect. It has left us much of its art, and its 
 profound genius laid the foundations of modern sci- 
 ence, in mathematics, chemistry, and astronomy; but 
 it has left nothing of itself behind it, and it is much 
 harder for any one who has not lived in the East to 
 evoke even a faint picture of Arab life in Palermo, 
 than it is to call up very vividly the sights of Greek 
 Syracuse under Dionysius or Agathocles. The point 
 is one that deserves the consideration of the student 
 of ethics, but it is worth noticing that the same truth 
 applies to the Semitic Phoenicians, who, perhaps, did 
 more for civilization at large than all the Pharaohs 
 together, but whose surviving image in the imagi- 
 nation of modern man is as vague as that of 
 the Egyptians is bright and sharply defined. We 
 may recall one more striking instance in the Goths, 
 
The Earliest Time 23 
 
 another people of whom it cannot be said that they 
 had a definite social constitution, who held all Italy 
 for a hundred years, and left few signs of their pres- 
 ence after them except the graves in which they 
 were laid. 
 
 The main influences that have worked upon the 
 south have been Greek, Roman, Arabic, and Norman, 
 of which the Roman is the one least strongly notice- 
 able at the present day, and even, perhaps, in earlier 
 centuries. For, in the south, the Romans themselves 
 lost character, and their decided taste for Greek. art 
 and manners hellenized them into insignificance. 
 When their reign was over, the Goths dominated 
 them and the Arabs made slaves of them. They 
 had accepted and imitated all they had found, and 
 they were themselves wiped out of social existence 
 by those who conquered them; yet their works re- 
 main, often gigantic and sometimes not without a 
 certain borrowed Greek grace, and we have no more 
 difficulty in fancying how they lived and ruled and 
 worked in Agrigentum, than in Rome itself. Yet, 
 to speak figuratively and familiarly, we do not ‘see’ 
 the Romans when we think of Sicily, excepting per- 
 haps Verres and his train of satellites, and though 
 we must follow their history, we do not wish to ‘see’ 
 them more than is necessary to an understanding of 
 their position in the succession of the rulers. We 
 are chiefly concerned with the Greeks, the Arabs, 
 
24 The Rulers of the South 
 
 and the Normans. That far-reaching Spanish domi- 
 nation which attained the height of its power in the 
 sixteenth century was a part of modern history upon 
 which the limits of this work will not allow us to dwell. 
 
 What has here been said by way of introduction 
 
 shall not afterwards be repeated. The sum of it, in 
 
 
 
 SPRING CALLED THE “FONTE DEL SOLE,”’? IN A GROTTO NEAR 
 TARANTO 
 
 brief, is this: For three thousand years Sicily has 
 been looked upon as the fairest among all the richly 
 endowed lands that border on the Mediterranean Sea 
 or lie as islands within it, a sort of earthly paradise, 
 to obtain which no sacrifice could be thought too 
 great; its claim to be so esteemed can be established 
 
The Earliest Time . 25 
 
 by the short proof of any thoughtful man’s first 
 glance, even to the present day; its history is the 
 narrative of fierce struggles fought by great and 
 manly races for its possession, and is told in monu- 
 ments and ruins still to be seen. It is of all lands 
 the one in which the most enthralling romance is 
 interwoven with the most stirring fact, for it has 
 always been the debatable country where fact has 
 met romance and vied with it for supremacy. It “is 
 much talked of, yet few travellers visit it, and those 
 who do so see it through much misunderstanding and 
 often at great disadvantage. Its history is confused 
 by an enormous number of small details, and by such 
 endless accounts of insignificant personages and of 
 minor actions, that the main stream of interest is 
 diverted into a thousand channels where no single 
 rivulet has much strength or beauty left; and some- 
 times all the channels are quite dry. For Sicily has 
 been the favourite ground of the specialist for a 
 long time, and in the specialist's minute work the 
 smallest detail may possess for him the very highest 
 importance. 
 
 Iteiss the writers aim, in this book, to.-give a 
 simple and true account of the successive domina- 
 tions by which Sicily and the south of Italy have 
 sometimes prospered and sometimes suffered from 
 the days of the early Greek settlers down to the estab- 
 lishment of the house of Aragon. 
 
26 The Rulers of the South 
 
 The Greeks 
 
 Ir is no wonder that the Greeks were seamen and 
 wanderers on the sea. With little more than twice 
 as much land as Sicily, Greece has a coast line equal 
 to that of all Spain and Portugal together.. More- 
 over, every strong race that has reached the sea in the 
 migration of peoples has sooner or later attempted to 
 sail westward, like Ulysses in his last voyage, beyond 
 the baths of all the western stars, and the Greeks 
 were almost driven from their own shore by the press 
 of those behind them, when their little country was 
 filled to overflowing. So they began to spread and 
 multiply in the islands of the Mediterranean, and cer- 
 tain of the bolder among them reached Italy and 
 passed the straits, whence, sailing up the dangerous 
 western coast, they came to the safe waters of Cume, 
 protected from storms by the island of Ischia; and 
 there they founded a colony which was the begin- 
 ning of Naples. Some of them, it is said, turned 
 pirates and found their way back to Sicily. 
 
 They were very perfect men, and could do all and 
 bear all that could be done and borne by human 
 flesh and blood. Taking them altogether they were 
 the most faultlessly constructed human beings that 
 ever lived, and they knew it, for they worshipped 
 bodily beauty and strength, and they spent the lives 
 of generations in the cultivation of both. They were 
 
The Greeks 27 
 
 fighting men, trained to use every weapon they knew, 
 they were boxers and wrestlers, athletes, runners and 
 jumpers, and drivers of chariots; but above all, they 
 were seamen, skilled at the helm, quick at handling 
 sails, masters of the oar, and fearless navigators. when 
 half of all navigation led sooner or later to certain 
 death. For though they loved life, as only the strong 
 and the beautiful can love it, and though they looked 
 forward to no condition of perpetual bliss beyond, 
 but only to the shadowy place where regretful phan- 
 toms flitted in the gloom as in the twilight of the 
 Hebrew Sheol, yet they faced dying as fighters always 
 have and always will, with desperate hands and a 
 quiet heart. 
 
 Their ships were small craft, much more like the lit- 
 tle vessels in which the Greeks and Sicilians sail to-day, 
 than those are like the vessels of the ocean. The first 
 condition for safety was that their ships might be easily 
 hauled up high and dry on any sandy beach, by means 
 of such gear as they could carry with them; the 
 second, that they should be very swift under the oar. 
 The Norsemen who reached the Western Ocean 
 needed the same qualities in their vessels; hence the 
 resemblance between the old viking’s ship and the 
 southern felucca of our own time. Both are long, nar- 
 row, and of small draught, flat-bottomed amidships, yet 
 sharp as a knife both fore and aft. The Greek ship, 
 like the Norseman’s, carried but one mast and one 
 
28 The Rulers of the South 
 
 great sail that was furled whenever the wind was not 
 free, so that the only means of motion lay in the 
 sweeps, steadily swung and pulled by free men or 
 slaves, as the case might be, sometimes from dawn to 
 sunset. 
 
 Men rarely put to sea in one ship alone for any dis- 
 tant voyage. They sailed out in little fleets of ten, or 
 even twenty sail, well knowing that some should not 
 come home, and trusting in the number of their vessels 
 to save some of their companions from death by drown- 
 ing. As Holm quietly observes, when speaking of 
 Ulysses, men did not travel for pleasure in those 
 days. 
 
 When the Greek sailors were not pirates who got a 
 living by robbing the Phoenician traders, they traded 
 themselves, from Greece to Asia Minor and among all 
 the rich Greek islands. They loaded their little ships 
 on shore, covered the cargo with ox-hides battened 
 down in the narrow water-ways to keep the stuff dry, 
 they launched their vessels with the cargo in them, and 
 they lived on deck, sleeping as they could in the open 
 air, or making awnings of skins when they could 
 anchor for the night in some natural harbour, or when 
 with infinite labour they were obliged to beach their 
 vessels on lonely shores before a coming storm. It 
 was a rough life, and often they had to fight in self- 
 defence, when weather-bound in barbarous places; 
 but most men carried their lives in their hands in 
 
The Greeks 29 
 
 those times, and few looked forward to dying of 
 old age. 
 
 A certain Theocles, whom some call Thucles, an 
 Athenian, traded with Italy in the eighth century 
 
 
 
 CAPE PALINURO, GULF OF POLICASTRO 
 
 before Christ, and no doubt had been as far as Cume, 
 where the Greeks had settled. But neither he nor any 
 other Greeks had landed in Sicily, for the Sicelians had 
 a bad name in the south, and it was said that they 
 
 devoured human flesh and destroyed every one who 
 
30 The Rulers of the South 
 
 tried to land upon their shores, so that other men left 
 them in peace for a long time; and it is most likely 
 that the Phcenicians, who traded with them, and even 
 had settlements in Malta, and perhaps in Western 
 Sicily, and who themselves offered up human sacrifices, 
 spread this tale through the East to frighten off other 
 trading folk. 
 
 But Theocles, the merchant, with his little fleet of 
 vessels, was sailing near the straits one summer day, 
 hugging the Italian shore, when the northeast wind 
 came upon him, suddenly and violently, as it does in 
 those waters, and he could not beat up against it to an 
 anchorage under the land, but was obliged to run 
 before it, towards Sicily; for it was wiser to take the 
 risk of being eaten by the Sicelians than to face certain 
 drowning in vessels that would not lie to ina gale. So 
 he wore his ships to the wind under such sail as he 
 dared carry and ran for the opposite land with a heavy 
 sea following. It is very likely that two or three of his 
 fleet were swamped and sank with all on board, though 
 a felucca will run safely before weather that would be 
 dangerous to many larger craft. Theocles offered 
 prayers to Apollo, and kept the helm up. 
 
 Seeing that the wind was northeast, and that Sicily 
 was a lee shore, he knew that his chance of safety and 
 life lay in running under the only little headland that 
 juts out from that part of the coast, and he succeeded 
 in making the shelter in time, before the wind shifted to 
 
The Greeks 31 
 
 the eastward. The sea broke over him just as he 
 rounded the point, but its force drove him on and into 
 smooth water, where he came to and let go both 
 anchors. One by one his companions followed him and 
 anchored alongside, and the first Greeks proceeded to 
 land, where they afterwards built Naxos and Taurome- 
 nium, on the soft beach of yellow sand below the little 
 town now called Taormina, which many say is the most 
 beautiful spot in the whole world. 
 
 It is not possible, as some traditions say, that Theo- 
 cles should have landed in the sandy cove under Cape 
 Schiso, and should have built his altar to Apollo on the 
 spot where Saint Pancras’s statue now stands; for the 
 only storm which could have driven him across from 
 Italy to the Sicilian shore was a northeaster; an east- 
 erly or southeasterly gale would have either swamped 
 him or sent him up the straits, and when the wind is in 
 the northeast, Cape Schiso affords no shelter, though 
 there is smooth water a mile to the northward under 
 Cape Sant’ Andrea, and a little islet there protects the 
 beach. So Theocles must have landed there, and there 
 he doubtless proceeded to beach his vessels, heavy 
 laden as they were, well knowing that the wind would 
 shift to the dangerous southeast before the bad weather 
 was over. It is most likely that he built his altar on 
 the island, since he feared the Sicelians, and would feel 
 safer if protected from them even by a narrow bit of 
 shallow water; and on it he and his companions sacri- 
 
Ba The Rulers of the South 
 
 ficed with a little meal and wine, which was all they 
 had, and they prayed that their lives might be spared, 
 not dreaming that they should reach Greece again in 
 safety, and return a second time, and build a city which 
 should endure for ages, and be the near forerunner of 
 a vast Greek colonization. 
 
 Instead of a race of cannibals, rushing down from 
 the hills to kill them for food,-the Greeks found a 
 peaceable farmer folk, well satisfied with themselves 
 and others, who sauntered down to the shore and eyed 
 the weather-bound strangers with benevolent curiosity. 
 From a distance they must have seen their ships, and 
 understood at once that these were not of Phoenician 
 build; and they could see too, before they descended 
 to the shore, that the newcomers were neither pirates 
 nor soldiers, but peaceable merchants driven in from 
 the sea for shelter. It is easy to fancy the distrust of 
 Theocles and his companions, and the simple plan they 
 followed; how they allured the Sicelians by holding up 
 specimens of their merchandise, coloured stuffs, glass 
 beads, and bits of tinsel-ware that caught the eye, just 
 as English sailors made friends of South Sea islanders 
 two thousand years later. The Greeks could not speak 
 the Sicelian tongue, but they conversed in the universal 
 dialect of all commercial enterprise, the language of 
 exchange, and for their wares they obtained fresh sup- 
 plies, and by and by the natives sat down by the Greek 
 camp fires while the great storm lasted, and they ate 
 and drank together and talked by signs. 
 
The Greeks 33 
 
 Sitting there on the beach below Taormina, and wan- 
 dering along to the southward, the strangers saw the 
 rich foreshore full of trees and running springs of good 
 water; their eyes followed the stubble fields up the 
 rising ground, where the plentiful corn had last been 
 harvested, to the vinelands beyond, where the scarlet 
 leaves still clung to the gnarled vine-stocks after the 
 vintage; further up there were silver-green olives, and 
 higher still the rich, dark foliage of carob trees, and 
 all was very fertile and good. They bought wine also 
 of the Sicelians, which was strong and almost black, 
 and had a flavour of its own, unlike all other wines. 
 They sacrificed at sunrise and at evening, but not 
 every day; and the Sicelians stood apart at a little 
 distance and watched how the strangers dealt with their 
 strange gods, and listened to the musical Greek voices 
 when they sang a hymn to Phcebus Apollo. But the 
 Greeks looked over at the vast smoking mountain to the 
 southward and dared not wander far in that direction, 
 lest the fire god should be angry with them, though the 
 Sicelians smiled and tried to make them understand 
 that there was no danger; for Ulysses seemed as real 
 and well remembered to Theocles as Columbus seems 
 to us; and the Athenians believed that blind Polyphe- 
 mus still wandered, bellowing for light, about the foot 
 of Etna, and that the smoke they saw still came from 
 Vulcan’s smithy, and that all manner of monstrous 
 and half godlike beings dwelt in the little valleys round 
 
 VOL. I D 
 
34 The Rulers of the South 
 
 about. So Theocles would not let his companions 
 wander far away. But in the evening, when the Sice- 
 lian farmers had gone to their dark huts, and the 
 Greeks lay on skins around the blazing camp fire on 
 the beach, while the southerly storm howled far over- 
 head from over the mountains, they told each other 
 that the land was good and the people mild, and that 
 a few hundred Greeks could easily hold their own 
 there, if only they could get possession of the first hill 
 above the shore, and a little to the northward, on which 
 Taormina now stands. There would be little difficulty 
 about that, since the Sicelians dwelt mostly in the val- 
 leys. Their real danger was from Polyphemus and 
 the Lzstrygones, and Hepheestos, and they therefore 
 sacrificed continually to Apollo, the protector of colo- 
 nists and the giver of victory. 
 
 The storm may have lasted a week, and when it was 
 over, and the sea rippled gently to the breeze under the 
 quiet sunlight, Theocles launched his ships and sailed 
 away, not without leaving gifts to the hospitable Sice- 
 lians. As soon as he reached Athens, he began to 
 speak of the rich country he had seen, telling that the 
 people were well disposed, and that it would be easy to 
 get a broad strip of land, and hold it against all comers; 
 but no one would listen to him, or if any noticed what 
 he said, they answered that it would be unwise to dis- 
 turb Polyphemus, or to run the risk of angering 
 Hephestos, and that moreover they did not believe 
 
The Greeks a5 
 
 anything that he said; which was a favourite refutation 
 of argument among the Athenians. Then Theocles went 
 over to Chalcis in Eubcea, and told his story; and there 
 he found hearers and men very restless with the spirit 
 of the sea, who had sailed far, and wished to sail far- 
 ther, and who preferred trading and wandering to staying 
 at home, and liked fighting better than either. But they 
 were not godless men, and before going upon the expe- 
 dition they consulted the oracle of Apollo, and the god 
 promised them his protection and a prosperous voyage 
 and all good fortune. Then some other Ionians and cer- 
 tain Dorians joined themselves to the Chalcidians with 
 more ships, and in the spring a whole fleet of vessels 
 sailed westward, laden with all sorts of necessary things, 
 and Theocles piloted them safely to the very point 
 where he had found shelter the first time; but instead 
 of waiting by the shore, he led his people up the hill 
 by the easy declivities that are almost like artificial 
 terraces, one above another, and took possession of the 
 strong crest on which the theatre now stands. No 
 doubt Theocles dealt in a friendly way with the Sice- 
 lians, especially at first; but they were a humble and 
 peaceable folk who looked with admiration upon the 
 Greeks and with mild covetousness on their posses- 
 sions, and were quite willing to part with a little land in 
 exchange for a few shining toys of glass and tinsel. 
 Besides, it does not appear that the Greeks, who were 
 after all but a few, had come with any idea of seizing a 
 
36 The. Rulers; ot thessouct 
 
 wide territory and enslaving the inhabitants to work for 
 them. They had come, rather, to establish an outpost 
 trading station whence they could export the produce of 
 the rich island in the way of regular commerce, and the 
 Sicelians soon found that instead of being a thorn in 
 their side, the young city of Naxos, which Theocles 
 founded to the southward of the hill, was a_ profitable 
 market for their corn and wine and oil. 
 
 Seeing how easy it was to settle and take possession 
 of a site for a city, some of the Dorians who were with 
 Theocles took courage to face the dangers of the fire 
 mountain and the anger of Polyphemus, and they sailed 
 farther southward, along the coast, till they came to the 
 beautiful natural harbour which is now Augusta, but 
 which they called Taurus, at the foot of the Hybleean 
 hills, and there they founded Megara Hybleea, in 
 remembrance of Megara in the Dorian country, between 
 Attica and the isthmus of Corinth. There, from the 
 end of a low promontory, a tongue of land runs due 
 south and almost encloses a sheet of still water, where 
 ships may lie in all weathers; and there the fore- 
 shore is deep and fertile, being that lower extremity 
 of the great plain of Catania which sweeps round the 
 base of Mount Thymbris and terminates in the jutting 
 land at Trogilos, just north of Syracuse. 
 
 Swiftly the news went back to Greece that the colony 
 was successful and that its wealth was already increas- 
 
 ing, and within two years the great western movement 
 
The Greeks aa 
 
 of the Greeks had begun, and the fate of the Sicelians 
 on the coasts of Sicily was decided forever. Archias, 
 the rich Heraclid of Corinth, whose evil passion had 
 brought about the riot in which beautiful Actzeon was 
 killed, was a fugitive and an exile before gods and men, 
 and he collected together his wealth, his people and his 
 servants, and sailed forth to found lordly Syracuse; and 
 within a few years the Chalcidians and Ionians got pos- 
 session of Catania and Leontini— the broad meadow 
 lands where the Lzstrygones had been supposed to 
 dwell; and Achzans had come to the mainland and 
 had founded Sybaris in the soft Italian gulf, and Cro- 
 tona, which is now Cotrone, soon taking possession of 
 all that is now Calabria and building Metapontum, 
 Poseidonia, and Terina. The Messenians of the Pelo- 
 ponnesus also built Rhegium on the Italian side of the 
 straits, and somehow their name afterwards crept across 
 the narrow water, and Zancle came to be called Messana 
 and then Messina. The Ionians also got round to the 
 north side of Sicily and founded Himera, and after that 
 came Dorians from the island of Rhodes and built Gela, 
 which is Terranova on the Gela, the ‘gelid’ river of the 
 Sicelians; and nearly a hundred years later the same 
 people got possession of Akragas, which became Agri- 
 gentum, and which is Girgenti to-day. The Megarian 
 Dorians also founded Selinus, near Western Lilybzeum, 
 and there one may yet see the most unimaginable mass 
 of ruins that exists in Europe, for the earthquake that 
 
38 The Rulers of the South 
 
 destroyed it left not one stone upon another, and buried 
 none. 
 
 In a hundred and fifty years the Greeks had got 
 possession of the south, including all the mainland 
 from Cumz near Naples, to the straits, and all the 
 coast of Sicily from Himera on the north, not far 
 from Palermo, round by the east and south sides to 
 westward as far as Selinus. In Sicily the Phoenician 
 traders had been gradually pushed to the west till 
 their settlements only extended along about a hun- 
 dred and fifty miles of the coast, though at that part 
 of the island which was most convenient to them, 
 as being nearest to Carthage. After they had got 
 what they could of the south without very much 
 fighting, the Greeks pushed further to the north and 
 west, attempted to form a colony in Corsica and 
 failed, and finally founded Massilia, now Marseilles. 
 
 Though the extent of territory which they occupied 
 in a short time seems very great, it must be remem- 
 bered that in reality they at first only held the coasts, 
 and that both on the mainland and in Sicily they 
 pushed the original people into the interior, where 
 the Sicelians and Italians for a long time pursued 
 their original rural occupations in peace and_ prob- 
 ably with profit, selling their produce to the Greeks, 
 who consumed it in part, and in part exported it. 
 The position of the Greeks in’ ‘the south @atetiar 
 
 period was in one respect more like that which was 
 
The Greeks 39 
 
 held for a long time by the East India Company in 
 India, than that of England’s trading stations. It 
 differed from it chiefly in that the majority of the 
 Greek colonies were not only independent of each 
 other, but also of the mother country, and had formed 
 themselves into oligarchies, which had succeeded the 
 first small monarchies of the founders, and were fol- 
 lowed again by the despotisms of men who rose to 
 the highest places through their own talents and the 
 play of circumstances, like Gelon, Dionysius, and 
 Agathocles. Another great difference lies in the fact 
 that whereas the East India Company was never 
 really a colony, in the ethnological sense, any more 
 than it was politically one, and whereas the English- 
 men who founded it, and the thousands who acted 
 as its agents, officers, and fighting men, always looked 
 forward to coming home to England, the Greek colo- 
 nists settled permanently in new countries, and their 
 cities became active and independent sources of genu- 
 ine Greek thought, literature, and art. 
 
 Corinth alone seems to have kept some hold and 
 influence upon the new settlements formed by her 
 citizens, but in the end that connexion died away also, 
 and at the time of the Athenian invasion all Sicily 
 was entirely separated from the mother country. With 
 regard to the relations between the Greeks and the 
 natives, events followed their usual historical sequence. 
 
 At first the newcomers spread round the coast, as 
 
40 The Rulers of the South 
 
 they increased, seizing all places most desirable for 
 trade, and driving out other traders as well as the 
 indigenous population. But when the coast was fully 
 occupied, they naturally began to take possession of 
 
 
 
 ANCIENT AQUEDUCT AT SOLMONA IN THE ABRUZZI, THE BIRTHPLACE OF 
 OVID 
 
 the interior, enslaving the peaceable country people 
 by degrees, till they were practically the masters 
 through the length and breadth of Sicily and South- 
 ern Italy. 
 
 It would be a mistake to look upon the conquest of 
 
The Greeks AI 
 
 the south as a direct consequence of conditions in 
 Greece. It was but an extension of the Hellenic 
 westward movement from Asia Minor, which had set- 
 tled Greece itself, and which filled all the eastern 
 Mediterranean and ultimately spread into Spain. The 
 whole race, continually fed by emigration from its 
 place of origin in Asia, was moving towards the set- 
 ting sun, as the Semite Phoenicians had moved before 
 it, and it was with the latter people that it engaged in 
 its first great struggle for existence in the west, at the 
 very time when the mother country was fighting for 
 life against the invasion of the Persian host. For the 
 westward migration was itself caused by the awaken- 
 ing of the Asian races, that culminated in the con- 
 quests of Nebuchadnezzar, Cambyses, Cyrus, and 
 Darius, which was checked at Salamis, and was ulti- 
 mately thrown back upon itself and annihilated by 
 the Greek Alexander the Great. 
 
 We are too apt to think of those early times as 
 barbarous and uncultivated compared with those of 
 Pericles. We forget the vast civilization of Egypt, 
 whose empire, in the seventh century before our era, 
 was hastening to its decline, but whose culture was 
 the model of all cultures then existing, and was 
 looked up to by the Phoenician and the Babylonian 
 alike, as well as by the Greeks themselves, who siav- 
 ishly imitated Egyptian art for centuries, and sur- 
 rounded with profoundest mystery the few poor 
 
A2 The Rulers of the South 
 
 secrets of nature they succeeded in stealing from the 
 rich treasures of Egyptian learning. Many do not 
 remember that Babylon was at that time the greatest 
 city in the world, and was enclosed within walls that 
 measured thirty-six miles in circuit, the chief strong- 
 hold of a power that overshadowed all central and 
 western Asia. One should recall the existence of 
 enormous libraries of learning, of hundreds of thou- 
 sands of books, written in Egypt on papyrus, in 
 Assyria on clay tiles, which were afterwards hardened 
 by baking and coloured with many tints, each of 
 which was distinctive of some branch of learning and 
 thus contributed to the easy classification of the 
 whole. Nor should it be forgotten that in those days 
 the magnificent monuments of the Egyptians were 
 still in the glory of perfect preservation, in Memphis, 
 in Heliopolis, and in Thebes, or that in Babylon the 
 legendary gardens of Semiramis still hung between 
 earth and heaven, supported on a thousand arches, 
 high above the city, but themselves overshadowed by 
 the vast temple of Bel. The Greeks were familiar 
 with Egypt through their trade, and many of them 
 had wandered beyond Palestine to the banks of the 
 Euphrates, and had written down careful accounts of 
 their journeys. The men who settled Sicily and the 
 south of Italy were adventurers, wanderers, and fight- 
 ing men, but they were very far from uncivilized ; 
 
 more than half of their religion was the worship of 
 
The Greeks 43 
 
 beauty, and if the science they had obtained from 
 Egypt was scanty, their own brilliant intelligence 
 enlightened them in applying it. It is no wonder 
 that within a few years of their settling in the south 
 they became a new nation of artists, poets, and 
 thinkers, actively creative in their own right, as it 
 were, and immeasurably superior in cultivation to all 
 the races with which they came into contact; it is not 
 surprising that Sybaris should have outdone the East 
 in refinement of luxury, nor that strong Crotona should 
 have bred more winners of the Olympic Games than 
 all Greece and all the Greek islands together. The 
 Greek athlete was not the gladiator of later days, 
 the mere ‘swordsman,’ as the word signifies; he was 
 the result of the thoughtful worship of human beauty, 
 brought to its final expression by natural selection and 
 artificial training; and the winner of the Games was 
 not merely a runner, a wrestler, or a boxer, he was 
 the best man of his day at all bodily exercises whatso- 
 ever, and in the eyes of the people that brought him 
 home in triumph he was a visible god, the living 
 incarnation of the Greek spirit. . Every race that has 
 beaten the world has at the outset shown a physical as 
 well as a characteristic superiority over its opponents, 
 but in almost every case that superiority has been 
 either unconscious, or has asserted itself with loud 
 boasting and overwhelming brutality. The Greek 
 
 alone knew how to cultivate and perfect the gifts that 
 
A4 The Rulers of the South 
 
 placed him above other men, reverencing his own 
 endowments as something divine within him, and ana- 
 lyzing the secret sources of his own strength, until he 
 had almost found a formula for the production of 
 great men. 
 
 At this time appeared one of the most romantic 
 figures in ancient history, the first that deserves especial 
 
 Cee A RT REET IR ORR EGLO 
 OE a in 2 Be 
 
 
 
 AFTER SUNSET ON THE SHORE OF EASTERN CALABRIA 
 
 mention in the story of the south, a man of almost 
 superhuman genius, who, had he lived in more ordinary 
 conditions than those which accompanied the first mar- 
 vellous development of the Greek people, would have 
 become in the west what his contemporaries, Zoroaster, 
 Buddha, and Confucius, became in Persia, in India, and 
 
 in China, This extraordinary person was Pythagoras, 
 
The Greeks A5 
 
 the Samian philosopher, the son of Mnesarchus, who 
 was a very rich merchant and shipowner, and strange 
 to say, in his moments of leisure, a sculptor of consider- 
 able talent. 
 
 It is neither a misuse of the term nor an exaggera- 
 tion of fact to call the great thinker’s career a romantic 
 one; for in its original signification the romance was the 
 tale of the ‘romare,’ of the pilgrim and wanderer; and 
 from ‘romare,’ derived from, or very closely connected 
 with Rome, as a chief place of pilgrimage, we have 
 made our modern word ‘roamer.’ If ever a man 
 earned that epithet it was the Samian seeker after 
 knowledge, who, in a life that covered nearly a century, 
 spent but the first eighteen years in his home, who 
 lived twenty-two years in Egypt, twelve in Babylon, 
 and thirty-nine in Italy, who was a pupil of Thales, 
 the favoured guest of Pharaoh, the friend of Zoroaster, 
 and the founder of the great Pythagorean brother- 
 hoods that played so interesting a part in the political 
 and civil history of Southern Italy. 
 
 The son of the rich man was taught by Hermodamas, 
 and the tenderest affection grew up between the pupil 
 and his master. The first instruction in those times 
 consisted in the reading and recitation of poetry and in 
 the art of music. Under the rule of Polycrates, Samos 
 was the very centre of Greek art and thought. There 
 lived Ibycus, the love poet born in Italian Rhegium, of 
 
 whose works beautiful fragments have come down to 
 
46 The Rulers of the South 
 
 us; there Anacreon spent his richest years, but of him 
 little remains, for the Odes are not now believed to be 
 all his work, though they have so long borne his name ; 
 there dwelt also Theodorus the younger, the Benvenuto 
 Cellini of his day, famous for the statues he modelled 
 and cast in bronze, and for his marvellous skill at 
 engraving, who made the ring of Polycrates; and last, 
 the great tyrant himself, cunning, cruel, fortunate, a 
 lover of every beautiful art, the despot of the sea, the 
 delight of poets, the friend of Pharaoh, fated to die on 
 the cross at last, like a common malefactor. Such was 
 the court in which the boy Pythagoras grew up to the 
 age of eighteen years, beautiful beyond other youths 
 and gifted of the gods above all his companions. It 
 is a conspicuous fact and one that raises strange 
 reflections concerning modern theories of education, 
 that every supremely great man of antiquity, from myth 
 to legend, from legend to fact, was first taught to recite 
 poetry and make music, and was not instructed in 
 mathematics till he had spent years in the study of 
 both; for it was held that a man who could not write 
 in verse, could not write his own language at all, and 
 that a being for whom musical sounds had no corre- 
 sponding meaning was a barbarian unfit to associate 
 with his fellows. So Pythagoras, whose famous propo- 
 sition is the point of departure to which all trigonometry 
 is referred, spent his first youth in playing on the seven- 
 stringed lyre and in declaiming the Homeric poems, 
 
The Greeks AT 
 
 which Pisistratus, the wise ruler of Athens, had very 
 lately collected and finally arranged. Without doubt 
 he sat at the feet of Anacreon, and filled the poet’s 
 drinking-cup, listening to the voice that matched the 
 wordsand to the words no age has ever matched, and 
 doubtless he was beloved by Ibycus and saw Theodorus 
 model gods of clay that were to be cast in bronze and 
 set up in temples to be worshipped by the people; 
 whence he began to understand that there was a faith 
 above belief in idols, and that far beyond the earthly 
 scenery of myth and the play of the beautiful little god- 
 figures there was the All-Being in which all is contained 
 that lives and dies and lives again. So when he was 
 about eighteen years of age his mind was opened, and he 
 began to desire absolute knowledge and to seek after it. 
 
 Now at this time Polycrates had not yet attained 
 to the height of his power, and he was enriching him- 
 self by extorting money from his wealthy subjects 
 and even by confiscating their goods with slight 
 excuse. Therefore many writers have asserted that 
 Pythagoras fled from Samos to escape from the 
 tyrant’s grasping hands, but this is a senseless story, 
 since he was then but a boy and his father and mother 
 remained in Samos and lived in riches for more than 
 twenty years after his departure. It seems to me 
 much more probable that Polycrates had made a 
 law, as many modern despots have done, forbidding 
 ‘young men to leave their country until they had 
 
48 The Rulers of the South 
 
 performed some stated service; and that Pythagoras 
 was in such haste to increase his knowledge that he 
 would not abide the ordained time. So he fled 
 secretly by night with his teacher Hermodamas, who 
 afterwards came back alone and appears to have 
 suffered no penalty. It is very clear that Pythagoras 
 feared pursuit and capture; for though Samos is close 
 to the mainland, and not far from Miletus, where 
 both Anaximander and Thales, or Theletas, as he is 
 sometimes called, were famous philosophers, yet the 
 young man preferred to sail all the way to Lesbos, 
 far to northward, where at that time he was safe 
 from the messengers of Polycrates. There he dwelt 
 with an uncle, a brother of his father, and was taught 
 by Pherecydes for some time; but when he had 
 learned of him what he could, he journeyed south- 
 ward by land to Miletus, and sat down beside the 
 ancient Thales and began to be initiated into the 
 secret wisdom of the priests. 
 
 The mysteries of the ancients were the truth, or 
 the nearest approach to it then possible, as contrasted 
 with the vast fictions of mythology in which the 
 peoples believed. Without an exception, all the mys- 
 teries taught of a god who had died and had been 
 buried on earth, and who had returned to life again 
 in glory; most of them foretold a judgment of souls, 
 and all looked forward to a future state, either as 
 following directly upon death, or as the end of a 
 
The Greeks AQ 
 
 series of migrations, in which the soul passed from 
 one body to another, purifying itself by degrees, or 
 sinking by steps of defilement to final perdition. All 
 the mysteries were ultimately monotheistic in idea, 
 though the one god of the secret faith was considered 
 as containing two, three, or four principles in himself, 
 according to the ethic and psychic schemes adopted 
 by the initiated of different nations. 
 
 The early philosophers were all priests and mystics, 
 most of them were poets, in the sense that they wrote 
 down their thoughts in verse, and all were seekers 
 after knowledge. The highest development, both of 
 mysticism and of scientific inquiry, was considered 
 to have been reached in Egypt, though it has been 
 thought that the Magians of Assyria were better 
 mathematicians than the Egyptian priests, and that 
 the Chaldzans were as good astronomers. 
 
 The true faith of those times was a profound secret 
 in the hands of small communities of amazingly gifted 
 men. It could never be popular, for the comprehen- 
 ‘sion required to understand it was far beyond the 
 gifts of the masses, and the consequence was that 
 although initiation into the mysteries was not the 
 exclusive privilege of the aristocratic class, it was 
 nevertheless very closely associated with an _aristo- 
 cratic principle in the minds of the many, a fact 
 which afterwards led directly to the violent destruction 
 -of the Pythagorean brotherhoods in Italy. 
 
 VOL, I E 
 
50 The Rulers of the South 
 
 The intellectual grasp of the young Samian soon 
 took possession of his master’s knowledge, and when 
 he had been initiated into the mysteries of Zeus in 
 the temple on Mount Ida, Thales declared that if his 
 pupil would learn more he must find a way to be 
 received among the priests of Egypt. No foreign 
 student. had ever accomplished such an apparently 
 impossible thing; but Pythagoras, who admitted no 
 impossibilities, forthwith determined to possess himself 
 of all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and of all learning 
 possessed by men. 
 
 That was a period of peace and prosperity in the 
 world. Under Croesus, Lydia had developed immeas- 
 urable wealth, Phoenicia, now under the lordship of 
 Babylon, was recovering from the ravages of Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, and Persia had not yet started upon her 
 long career of conquest. Egypt, after a revolution 
 which had placed a man of plebeian extraction upon 
 the throne of the Pharaohs, was enjoying the last years 
 of her splendour under the wise rule of Amasis. In 
 the west the Greeks were spreading mightily, and were 
 quickly developing the strength which first repelled the 
 Carthaginians and soon afterwards proved an impassa- 
 ble barrier to the advance of Xerxes. The known 
 world was rich and at peace, and in the shadow of a 
 hundred ancient temples, from the islands of the Medi- 
 terranean to Mount Ida, from Assyrian Babylon and 
 Phoenician Sidon to Egyptian Thebes, the chosen com- 
 
The Greeks 51 
 
 pany of the wise cherished what was wisdom in those 
 days, and followed those patient investigations in math- 
 ematics and astronomy to which modern science is so 
 deeply indebted. 
 
 It was in Sidon that Pythagoras first became a true 
 mystic, and it was there that he first conceived the idea 
 of uniting and simplifying the many forms of mysticism 
 into one religion which should satisfy at the same time 
 the highest aspirations of the soul and the widest spec- 
 ulations of the intellect, and which should be at once a_ 
 faultless rule of spiritual life and a perfect guide to 
 man’s social existence. The thought was high and 
 noble, for it was the thought which inspired Zoroaster, 
 Buddha, and Confucius, and it foreran the teaching of 
 Christ as the dawn the day. 
 
 In order to prepare himself for his mission, Pythag- 
 oras felt that he must withdraw himself from the world 
 among the wisest men at that time living. After he 
 had been initiated in Sidon, he wandered down through 
 Phoenicia into Palestine; he gazed thoughtfully upon 
 the ruins of Jerusalem that lay broken to pieces in the 
 dust like a vessel of clay, and he came to Mount 
 Carmel and looked towards Egypt, which was the goal 
 of his desires. So he took ship for the Delta in a 
 small Egyptian trading craft, and the merchant and the 
 sailors saw that he was a Greek, well skilled in learn- 
 ing, and they agreed that they would sell him for a 
 slave in Memphis, where he would fetch a good price. 
 
52 The Rulers of the South 
 
 But he understood what was in their minds and showed 
 no fear, and fixed his eyes upon them until they were 
 afraid under the strength of his look, and gave over 
 their evil designs; so he came safely to Memphis, 
 where Pharaoh dwelt at that time, and where there 
 were many wise priests. But these would have none of 
 him, for he was a foreigner, and they thought that he 
 wished to learn their secrets only to sell them for much 
 wealth to the priests of Ida or of Delphi. So he abode 
 among the Greeks, for there were many of these in 
 Memphis, and he occupied himself in learning the 
 Egyptian language. 
 
 Then he bethought himself of Polycrates, the tyrant 
 of Samos, who was yet in close friendship with Amasis, 
 and with whom his father Mnesarchus had much inter- 
 est. After that time Pharaoh, seeing the marvellous 
 good fortune of Polycrates, advised him to cast away 
 what was dearest to him, lest the gods should be angry; 
 and then the tyrant threw into the sea the ring which 
 Theodorus had made for him, and which he prized 
 above all his possessions; but it was found again in the 
 belly of a fish and was brought back to him by the 
 fisherman. So Amasis broke friendship with him, see- 
 ing that he was so highly favoured of the gods, because 
 it was not good, being powerful, to be too closely inti- 
 mate with one who was devouring the wealth of others 
 and who never failed in an undertaking. But these 
 
 things had not then happened, and Pythagoras wrote 
 
The Greeks 53 
 
 a letter to the tyrant, setting forth his desires, and 
 speaking of his long studies, and showing that the 
 Greeks might profit by the wisdom of the Egyptians if 
 only Polycrates would persuade Amasis to command 
 the admission of Pythagoras to the school of the 
 Egyptian priesthood. Polycrates therefore wrote a 
 very urgent letter to Pharaoh, which he sent to Pythag- 
 oras himself; and Amasis received the young man gra- 
 ciously, and sent him to the priests at Heliopolis, the 
 city of the Sun. But these sent him back to the priests 
 at Memphis, and these latter, not knowing what to do, 
 sent him at last to the great high priest at Thebes, with 
 the royal command. The high priest made it hard for 
 him, and required a long period of purification, and a 
 painful rite and ordeal, hoping perhaps to terrify the 
 scholar. But Pythagoras was of those who are born 
 without fear, and he despised pain, and was initiated. 
 
 Two and twenty years he lived in the temple in 
 Thebes, and he mastered by degrees all the sciences, 
 and the writings, and the mystic teaching of the 
 Egyptians, and the religion which was afterwards 
 called his teaching was a complete exposition of all 
 that the Egyptians both knew and believed, and had 
 acquired laboriously in thousands of years. It was 
 the wisdom of those to whom a hundred years were 
 but a day, and to whom ten generations were but 
 as the continuous life of one man, inasmuch as what- 
 
 ever was learned by each was wholly known to the 
 
54 The Rulers of the South 
 
 next, without break nor interval of forgetfulness; and 
 the whole was written down in a hard language that 
 changed not in ten centuries; and: was kept secre: 
 from the people. It is small wonder that Pythagoras 
 should have spent a quarter of his life in acquiring 
 what the wisest nation in the world had accumulated 
 in more than a hundred generations. There, in the 
 temple of Thebes, he dwelt and studied in peace, 
 while the face of the earth was changed, while Cyrus 
 erew great and greater, till he seemed the greatest 
 of men that had lived, and spread out the empire of 
 Persia and gathered all into his hands, to the very 
 borders of Egypt. Then he died, and Amasis died 
 also, and Cambyses came victoriously to Egypt and 
 dragged Pharaoh’s embalmed body from its tomb in 
 Sais to insult it shamefully; and he carried many 
 away captive to Babylon, and Pythagoras the Samian 
 was among the prisoners. Then Cambyses died too, 
 and the pseudo-Smerdis, the Magian, and Atossa, 
 the sister of the first and the wife of both, married 
 Darius, the: friend of Zoroaster, and became the 
 mother of Xerxes who invaded Greece. 
 
 At the time when Pythagoras was taken to Babylon, 
 he was forty-four years of age, and since he afterward 
 lived to be almost a hundred years old, he had not then 
 reached the middle of life. When he found himself 
 a prisoner, and probably in the social condition of a 
 
 slave, within the four walls of the greatest capital in 
 
The Greeks 55 
 
 existence, in the heart of Assyria and at least five hun- 
 dred miles east of the Mediterranean, he can have had 
 little hope of ever returning to the west again. Yet to 
 his philosophic genius such a captivity may not have 
 seemed irksome, and he was not cut off from inter- 
 course with his own people, for a great number of 
 Greeks were employed about the court of the Persian 
 king, and though news travelled slowly, it was brought 
 with much detail, if also with much exaggeration. 
 He resigned himself to his fate, and set to work to 
 study the religious reforms of Zoroaster, whom he 
 undoubtedly knew, and the mathematical methods of 
 the Assyrian and Chaldzan astronomers — of some of 
 those very men, perhaps, whom Belshazzar had called 
 in to interpret the writing on the wall. So he lived 
 and studied in peace, being one of the wise men 
 attached to the court of Darius. 
 
 Then he regained his liberty by a most extraor- 
 dinary train of circumstances. Before Cambyses 
 died of his wound in Ecbatana, Oroetes, the governor 
 of Sardis and satrap of Western Asia, who had long 
 cherished a private quarrel with Polycrates of Samos, 
 enticed him to land in Lydia as his guest, and then 
 crucified him with circumstances of hideous cruelty. 
 But Darius sent a single ambassador who came to the 
 court of Sardis and read to Oroetes the king’s com- 
 mands, and the last command was that the satrap’s 
 own guards should smite off his head. And so they 
 
56 The Rulers of the South 
 
 did, for Darius’ name was great, and they hated 
 Oroetes. The ambassador took back with him as 
 slaves many of the friends and servants of the dead 
 man, among whom was a very cunning physician of 
 Crotona, who became the friend of Pythagoras in 
 Babylon. One day Darius sprained his foot, and 
 when his own physicians could do nothing for him, 
 some one brought the skilled captive, who cured the 
 king at once. So the king asked him what reward 
 he desired, and he begged that he might return to 
 his home. Darius yielded so far as to permit him 
 to visit Crotona, if he would promise to come back, 
 and not trusting him, he sent with him a Persian 
 guard, and several men of learning, bidding them to 
 write a description of the coast as they sailed, and he 
 gave them a fine ship and many supplies. But it 
 came to pass that as they sailed to Crotona they 
 were driven into Tarentum under stress of weather, 
 and the Tarentines took them all prisoners with their 
 goods, and when the physician had told his story they 
 let him go free and he returned to Crotona. Now 
 there was at Crotona a rich man exiled from Taren- 
 tum. And learning what had happened, he sent 
 thither, and ransomed the Persian captives and their 
 ship, and sent them all back to Darius, asking two 
 things; namely, that the King would use his power 
 to make the Tarentines receive him again and also 
 that he would set free the wise man Pythagoras 
 
The Greeks 57 
 
 whom Cambyses had taken captive in Egypt; this 
 he asked at the request of the physician. Then 
 
 Darius, being glad to receive his Persians safely 
 
 
 
 
 SRR NR pn mee emegtt rem am te 
 
 teak ininianacena 
 
 AQUEDUCT AT TARANTO, FORMERLY TARENTUM 
 
 again, promised both things, and the second, at least, 
 he performed, for Pythagoras was set at liberty; and he 
 came to Samos in time to see his father and his mother 
 
 alive, and also Hermodamas his first teacher, who 
 
58 ihe Rulers of (thes sours 
 
 had helped him to escape in the days of Polycrates. 
 But he stayed not long in his home, for’ he desired to 
 work among men and to turn his learning to their 
 good, and his thoughts went out westward to the 
 great Greek colonies of Italy, so that at last he 
 followed the instinct of his soul and took ship and 
 came to Crotona and founded the Pythagorean brother- 
 hood, which was mystic, philosophical, and aristocratic, 
 after the model of the Egyptian priesthood from which 
 Pythagoras had got his wisdom. 
 
 Hallam says somewhere that mankind has generally 
 required some ceremonial follies to keep alive the 
 wholesome spirit of association. It is hard to say 
 now how many of the curious rules of life adopted 
 by the Pythagorean brotherhood should be traced 
 to this motive, and many of these contain more wis- 
 dom than appears in them at first sight. The breth- 
 ren abstained from eating flesh, as most mystics have 
 done, but they were as careful never to eat beans; 
 they believed in the transmigration and immortality 
 of souls, yet they prohibited the use of woollen grave- 
 clothes; they had an elaborate system of degrees and 
 initiations, they possessed most of the existing wis- 
 dom of their time, and they nevertheless followed 
 rules for making a fire which seem utterly childish. 
 Yet an inquiry into the origin and reason of some 
 of these practices, if the facts could be. sufficiently 
 known, would throw a brilliant light upon the domes- 
 
The Greeks 59 
 
 tic customs of the early Greeks, and might not 
 impossibly explain some of the peculiar superstitions 
 of the south, such as that, for instance, which forbids 
 a man to lay his hat upon a bed, or the universal 
 southern belief that if a woman drinks from a new 
 earthen jar, before a man has drunk from it, the 
 water kept in it will ever afterwards taste of mould. 
 In considering some of the extraordinary beliefs cur- 
 rent among the Italians and Sicilians, it has often 
 occutred to me that they may have had their origin in 
 the fables about the Pythagorean brothers, to whom 
 strange powers were imputed, of whom extraordinary 
 tales were told, and some of whose visible practices 
 may have been ignorantly imitated by the people in 
 very early times. 
 
 The society founded by Pythagoras was as much a 
 secret one as that of the modern Japanese Buddhists, 
 and lovers of esoteric philosophy will find many points 
 of close resemblance in the two religions, if the doc- 
 trine of the Greek philosopher deserves the name of 
 religion, which he would undoubtedly have applied 
 to it, if an equivalent word had existed in the 
 Greek language. It taught that the soul is immor- 
 tal, that the aim of man should be a virtuous life. on 
 earth and a state of peace hereafter, and that g’ood- 
 ness, if not the fear of God, is the beginning of 
 wisdom. Yet it limited by the strictest tests the 
 
 number of those who were admitted to a full know- 
 
60 The Rulers of the South 
 
 ledge of its secrets, and it visited every betrayal with 
 merciless severity; it professed to be a religion for 
 the few, it was necessarily hieratic if not aristocratic, 
 and it was fatally disposed by its exclusiveness to 
 identify itself with a political party. It drew into 
 itself, or its founder gathered round him, the noblest 
 youth of Grecian Italy, at a time when the power of 
 the democracy was increasing at an enormous rate; 
 and in the first real conflict which took place its 
 adherents died devoted deaths at the hands of a 
 bloodthirsty proletariat, as more than one aristocracy 
 has perished since. They had advised, directed, and 
 morally ruled the people, and their general, the heroic 
 Milo, had returned from a victorious war with Syba- 
 ris, once all-powerful, but then fast sinking to an 
 inglorious decadence by degrees of esthetic idleness 
 and unmeasured luxury. They brought home great 
 spoils to Crotona, and in the division, one Kylon, a 
 brutal fellow whom the Pythagoreans had refused to 
 receive on account of his evil life, stirred up a riot 
 against them. In the house of Milo they made their 
 last stand, and there most of them were slain; but a 
 few escaped, and Pythagoras came to his end in 
 Metapontum, and the brotherhoods were done away 
 with forever. Their existence had endured twenty 
 years; had it lasted longer they would have been led 
 from their natural political sphere, by the dangerous 
 
 paths of political expediency, down to the moral dis- 
 
The Greeks 61 
 
 grace of political necessity, which is wholly unreconcil- 
 able with any true philosophy, and they would have 
 left behind them the tradition of a once pure faith 
 degraded to the basest uses and expedients of politics. 
 But they died in a 
 
 whole and _ clean 
 
 belief, and from their 
 ashes arose some- 
 thing new, which was 
 not the Pythagorean 
 religion, but the Py- 
 thagorean philosophy ; 
 their leader left a name 
 little less than saintly, 
 he bequeathed the ac- 
 cumulated wisdom of 
 the world to his sur- 
 viving followers, and 
 he left his memory 
 
 to the veneration of 
 
 
 
 mankind. 
 
 t COLUMNS CALLED THE ‘‘TAVOLE PALA- 
 DINE,” AT METAPONTO, FORMERLY 
 METAPONTUM 
 
 I have dwelt at grea 
 length upon his story 
 because it combines 
 in a wonderful degree the elements of fable, romance, 
 and history, and is therefore a fitting link between 
 myth and truth. I am aware that almost every inci- 
 
 dent in the tale has been held up to ridicule by 
 
62 The Rulers of the South 
 
 some one scholar, but there is not one in which 
 many others have not firmly believed. When learned 
 authorities disagree, it is the right of the student 
 of romantic history to choose from the confusion 
 of discords those possible combinations which seem 
 most harmonious. It is not his province to dissect 
 the nerve of truth from the dead body of tradition, 
 but rather by touch and thought and sympathy to 
 make the old times live again in imagination. There- 
 fore the godlike figure of this Pythagoras belongs 
 among the Rulers of the South, as with the legends 
 of his miracles, and the reality of his wisdom, with 
 his profound learning, his untiring activity, and his 
 unswerving belief in the soul’s life to come, with 
 his love of man and his love of beauty, his faith, his 
 hope, and his almost Christian charity, he repre- 
 sented in its best conditions the highest type of the 
 Aryan or Indo-Germanic people. It matters little that 
 scholars should quarrel over the theories of numbers 
 ascribed to him, that the one should deny his cap- 
 tivity in Babylon and the other his long residence in 
 Egypt, that Bentley should tear the traditions of him 
 to pieces, that Roeth should glorify him almost to 
 sainthood, or that Ritter should make a laudable but 
 ineffectual attempt to find a golden mean of sense 
 between the extremes; the fact remains that he lived 
 and laboured, that he dreamt of a world of brother- 
 
 hoods in which all good was to be in common, and 
 
The Greeks 63 
 
 from which all evil was to be excluded, that when he 
 was gone he left a philosophy behind him without 
 which, as a beginning, it would be hard to imagine 
 an Aristotle, a Socrates, or a Plato, and that both to 
 
 his fellow-men and to those that came after him his 
 
 
 
 THE SITE OF SYBARIS 
 
 name meant all that was best, whether possible or 
 unattainable, in the struggle of inward civilization 
 against outward darkness. 
 
 The place where Sybaris stood among gardens of 
 roses and groves of fruit trees is a desolate plain, 
 
64 The Rulers of the South 
 
 where not one hewn stone is to be seen above the 
 storm-ploughed soil, and rotting trunks of trees and 
 rain-bleached branches strew the sterile drift. There 
 the soft Sybarites made it unlawful to rear a crow- 
 ing cock in the city, or for braziers, smiths, and car- 
 penters to work at their trades, lest any harsh sound 
 should grate upon their delicate hearing; there even 
 the children were clad in purple robes, and their hair 
 was curled and braided with gold; there the idle 
 reared witty dwarfs to jest for them, and bred little 
 Maltese dogs with silky hair; and the five thousand 
 horsemen of their cavalry rode in procession, wear- 
 ing saffron-coloured robes over their corslets, and the 
 people lived in luxuries beyond imagination, and in 
 pleasures without a name, till Milo and the stern men 
 of Crotona came and destroyed them all, and turned 
 the waters of the river upon their city and swept it 
 utterly away. The winter floods roar down the river 
 bed where Sybaris was, and the spring freshets pile 
 up brushwood and sand upon the barren stones, while 
 overhead the southern hawk makes wide circles above 
 the universal desolation, and his mournful note falls 
 fitfully upon the lonely air. But Crotona flourished 
 long and greatly, and its possessions extended from 
 sea to sea; it has left in history the names of count- 
 less winners of the Olympic Games, and the reputa- 
 tion of its men and women for matchless strength 
 
 and beauty; and though not a stone of its buildings 
 
The Greeks 65 
 
 remains in sight, yet there is a sort of logical satis- 
 
 faction in knowing that the ancient ruins which were 
 
 
 
 FORTRESS OF CHARLES THE FIFTH AT COTRONE, FORMERLY CROTONA 
 
 standing in the last century were finally destroyed in 
 order that the stones might be used to build the mole 
 
 of a safe harbour. For Crotona never disappeared 
 
 VOL. I F 
 
66 The Rulers of the South 
 
 from existence as Sybaris did, and where the ancient 
 stronghold of Milo was reared upon a bold mass of 
 seagirt rock, another fortress, strong in the middle 
 ages, rebuilt by Charles the Fifth and still unruined, 
 reflects its dark outline in the sea. 
 
 A deserted corner of Italy now, Crotona is a land of 
 farmers ignorant of all but farming, and it is hard to 
 feel that it was once the heart of Greek strength, and 
 beauty, and civilization in the west, and that where a 
 single column rises in lonely beauty almost from the 
 water’s edge, at Capo Colonne, the great philosopher 
 once lingered in the shade of Lacinian Hera’s temple; 
 that the picture of Lacedaemonian Helen hung upon the 
 wall within, painted by Zeuxis from the five most lovely 
 maidens of the city, and that the Greeks of all southern 
 Italy came up thither every year in splendid procession, 
 bearing gifts and offerings to the goddess and her 
 shrine. | 
 
 It is generally said that the influence of Pythagoras 
 and of the brotherhoods, which was dominant on the 
 mainland and left distinct traces of itself there after 
 the catastrophe in which the disciples and their master 
 perished, had little influence upon Sicily. Some say 
 indeed that a tyrant of Centoripa, one Simichus, became 
 an adept and divided all his possessions between his 
 sisters and his subjects, and others assert that the peo- 
 ple of Akragas, and Tauromenium, and Himera threw 
 
 off the yoke of their several tyrannies at last, not as 
 
The Greeks 67 
 
 common revolutionaries, but as true believers in the 
 
 Pythagorean doctrines of individual freedom and com- 
 
 
 
 TEMPLE OF HERA, CAPO COLONNE, NEAR COTRONE 
 
 mon possessions; but these stories are gravely doubted, 
 and Holm has shown that more than one wise despot 
 
 was also accounted a Pythagorean. Yet to one who 
 
68 The Rulers of the South 
 
 knows the south well, there is a striking resemblance 
 between the organization of the original brotherhood, 
 with its rigid tests of worthiness, its countless secret 
 signs and pass words and peculiar practices, and its 
 bloody vengeance upon unfaithfulness, and the rules 
 and ordinances of secret societies that have ruled the 
 south in later days. Were there no traces of such free- 
 masonry among the slaves who twice rose against the 
 Romans in Sicily and who seem to have connected 
 themselves in some imaginative way with an Eastern 
 tradition? Or among the people who destroyed Charles 
 of Anjou’s Frenchmen in the Sicilian Vespers? Or is 
 the evil Camorra of Naples to-day wholly different 
 from a_ brotherhood, so far as the laws that bind 
 together its members are concerned, though the object 
 be crime instead of good? Or, to go one step higher, 
 is the modern Mafia of Sicily, which so strangely com- 
 bines a mistaken idea of patriotism, or at least of inde- 
 pendence, with the most nefarious notions of general 
 lawlessness, so wholly different in its forms from the 
 brotherhoods, as not to be perhaps a degenerate descend- 
 ant of them? Answer the question as one will, the 
 south has always been the natural home of wide-spread 
 and secret unions of determined men for one end; and 
 whereas in recent history political parties have made 
 use of them and have risen to power by their help, no 
 party, and no government has ever been able to fight 
 them to an issue nor to stamp them out. 
 
The Greeks 69 
 
 The Greeks were an imaginative and a boastful peo- 
 ple, prone to think well of themselves, like most highly 
 gifted races, and it requires much good will to believe 
 all the stories their historians have left us of their super- 
 human endurance and courage; but it is an undeniable 
 proof of their extraordinary vitality and strength that 
 they withstood victoriously the simultaneous attempts 
 of two great powers to crush them out of existence at 
 a very critical moment in their career. About the year 
 480 B.c. Xerxes and Carthage, apparently acting in 
 concert, advanced from the east and west with vast 
 armaments and enormous preparations, in the clear 
 intention of annihilating the whole Greek nation in a 
 single campaign. Xerxes came with all Persia and the 
 north of India at his back; Carthage sent Hamilcar and 
 three hundred thousand men. 
 
 At that time, except in Syracuse, despots ruled over 
 the principal Greek cities of Sicily, Gela, Callipolis, 
 Naxos, Leontini, and Zancle, the first of which had 
 under Hippocrates acquired a sort of lordship over the 
 rest; and he indeed attempted to conquer Syracuse 
 also, but failed when on the point of success, and left 
 the undertaking to his successor Gelon, the conqueror, 
 and none could be compared with him excepting Theron 
 of Akragas, who became his friend and gave him his 
 daughter to wife; and Theron ruled through the midst 
 of the land, from Akragas on the south to near Himera 
 on the north, but the tyrant of Himera was his enemy 
 
70 The Rulers of the South 
 
 and the friend of Anaxilas of Rhegium on the main- 
 land. So there was war between the north and the 
 south, and the south stood for a Greek Sicily and a 
 Greek civilization, but the north was against both. But 
 in Himera there was a division of parties, and the one 
 asked help of Theron, who came and took the city and 
 held it, while the tyrants of the north turned to the Phee- 
 nicians and to Carthage for aid. At that time the Phee- 
 nicians were powerful in Panormus and all the eastern 
 parts of the island, so that the Carthaginians were sure 
 of being well received with all their forces and supplies 
 in cities belonging to their own people, whence they 
 could fight their way by land to a general conquest. 
 They saw that their opportunity was come at last, 
 and they made great preparations during three years, 
 and gathered together mercenaries from many lands, 
 as was their custom in time of war, from Italy and 
 Liguria and from Gaul and Spain and Corsica, and 
 many from Africa, and weapons were made _ with- 
 out number, and a vast provision was collected; then 
 they set sail with two hundred galleys and three thou- 
 sand transports, under Hamilcar, the son of Hanno, 
 one of the two kings called Suffetes, a man of ancient 
 Carthaginian lineage, though his mother was a Syra- 
 cusan; and he was a devout person who neglected no 
 service of the Phoenician gods, and continually sacri- 
 ficed mer and children to Ashtaroth on the altars of 
 
 his house. Moreover, he had good surety that some 
 
The Greeks 71 
 
 of the most western Greek cities would help him, 
 such as Selinus and others. 
 
 He set sail, therefore, with a good heart and dream- 
 ing of great spoil. But immediately a great storm 
 arose, and the ships that bore the cavalry with their 
 horses, and the war chariots also, were filled and sank 
 with all on board; so that when he reached Panor- 
 mus he had only the mercenary foot soldiers, a great 
 host of fighting men of all nations, wearing strange 
 dresses and armed with many sorts of weapons. In 
 
 ’ 
 
 the wide bay of Panormus, the ‘‘ All-harbour,” where 
 the Golden Shell stretches between the high moun- 
 tain and the water’s edge, he landed his men, and 
 repaired his ships; and thence he marched along the 
 narrow foreshore against Himera, where Theron 
 awaited him, not without fear, for great rumours 
 went before the armament. 
 
 The fleet sailed along close in shore, keeping the 
 army in sight, and when they came to Himera and 
 saw that the gates were shut against them, Hamilcar 
 made two camps, the one for his land forces and the 
 other for his ships, which he beached high and dry, 
 surrounding them with a high stockade and a broad 
 ditch. But the tents of the soldiers began from the 
 enclosure and followed all the west side of the city 
 and along the low heights to southward. When 
 Theron saw how great a host was come against him, 
 
 he was afraid, and he walled up the west gate of the 
 
ie hes hitlerssotpthesocurcn 
 
 city and sent messengers quickly and secretly to 
 Gelon, the soldier king of Syracuse. But Hamilcar 
 besieged the city, and when the defenders made sal- 
 lies he drove them back with slaughter, making many 
 of them prisoners; and the strange arms and wild 
 dresses of the Carthaginian mercenaries frightened 
 Theron’s men even before they came to close quar- 
 ters. Nevertheless Hamilcar did not press the siege 
 overmuch, and while he was wasting his days in 
 small engagements, thinking himself sure of taking 
 the city without loss, Gelon was crossing over through 
 the mountains by forced marches, day and night, with 
 fifty thousand men-at-arms and five thousand _horse- 
 men, not mercenaries speaking many tongues and 
 trained to many different kinds of warfare as Hamil- 
 cars men were, but all Greeks of the Sicilianucittes 
 under Gelon’s rule, well trained, speaking one tongue, 
 and ready to die for their homes, their children, and 
 their gods. .They -all encamped together and _ in- 
 trenched themselves in the plain to eastward of 
 Himera, and Gelon began to harass the Carthagini- 
 ans with his cavalry, for they had none, having lost 
 both horses and men in the great storm. Then the 
 face of things changed, and the Himerans took heart 
 and opened the west gate again, tearing away the 
 stones they had piled up, and Gelon took many prison- 
 ers and bethought him of some plan of striking a de- 
 
 cisive blow. Now the Carthaginians had received 
 
hes Greeks rie 
 
 promises of help from Selinus, the unfaithful city of 
 the west, and the Selinuntians had agreed to send a 
 body of horse to Hamilcar on a certain day which 
 was also the feast of the Phoenicians; and a captive 
 told this news to Gelon. He therefore waited until 
 the feast day, and very early in the morning, before 
 the sun was risen, he sent a chosen band of his own 
 cavalry to the gate of Hamilcar’s camp, bidding them 
 say that they were the Greek horsemen from Selinus 
 whom Hamilcar expected. He, being deceived, bade 
 the gates be opened and the riders went in; but they 
 rode past him and his men without drawing rein 
 till they came to the ships that were beached upon the 
 sand, and they set them on fire before the Carthagini- 
 ans well understood what they were doing, and then 
 drew their swords and began to slay. 
 
 Then, when Gelon saw the column of smoke rising 
 up from the enemy’s camp, he knew that his stratagem 
 had succeeded, for he was ready and on the watch; and 
 he marched down with all his fifty thousand men, and 
 with all the Himeran soldiers also, and in that great 
 day the Greeks slew of the Carthaginians outright one 
 hundred and fifty thousand, and wounded many more; 
 and the rest fled as they might, leaving all behind 
 them. Hamilcar also perished, and some say that he 
 died a strange death; for it is told that all day, while 
 the battle ebbed and flowed in a tide of blood, he stood 
 before the great altar in the midst of his camp, sacrific- 
 
74 The Rulers of the South 
 
 ing human offerings to the gods, that by some miracle 
 they might turn and save him from destruction; but 
 when it was towards evening, and he saw that all was 
 lost, he spread out his arms and prayed to the setting 
 sun, and threw himself into the flames upon the altar, 
 the last and noblest burnt-offering of his own sacrifice. 
 The few who fled intrenched themselves upon a 
 mountain west of Himera, whither Gelon pursued them, 
 and they were soon obliged to abandon their position 
 for lack of water. Hastening to the shore with the 
 - Greeks in hot pursuit, they found the few vessels which 
 had escaped the flames, launched them as best they 
 could, and put to sea; yet the unappeased gods pur- 
 sued them to the.end, for the vessels were overladen 
 and were overwhelmed in the stormy waters of the 
 Malta channel. Three thousand and two hundred ships 
 had sailed from the harbour of Carthage with more 
 than three hundred thousand men, to make the con- 
 quest of Sicily; a single skiff returned with scarce a 
 dozen survivors to tell the tale. . 
 Then the Carthaginians feared lest Gelon, having 
 felt his strength and their weakness, should cross the 
 water with his victorious Greeks to blot out their city 
 and name, and take the rich coasts of Africa for his 
 spoil, and so complete the circle of Greek possession 
 round the central basin of the Mediterranean Sea. 
 For, as some say, it was on the very day of Hamilcar’s 
 destruction that Xerxes was disgracefully beaten at 
 
The Greeks 75 
 
 Salamis; and if that be not so, it was at least soon 
 afterwards; and the allied attempt of Persia and of 
 Carthage to crush out the Greek power had utterly 
 failed. Therefore the Carthaginians sent ambassa- 
 dors to Gelon, who was now the greatest ruler in Sicily, 
 to sue for peace on such terms as he could be induced 
 to grant. But it is said that Damarete, Gelon’s wife, 
 advised him not to set the price of peace too high, lest 
 at some future time he should need Carthaginian help 
 for himself. He therefore exacted only three condi- 
 tions; namely, that the Phoenicians should desist from 
 offering human sacrifices in Sicily; that they should 
 pay two thousand talents as indemnity for the cost of 
 the war; and that they should build two temples to the 
 memory of the peace; thé one in Carthage, and the 
 other at their expense in Syracuse. When the Cartha- 
 ginians heard of such easy terms, they were over- 
 joyed, and because they attributed their good fortune 
 to Damarete, they presented her with a golden garland 
 of one hundred talents’ value, which may have been 
 equal only to about seventy-five ounces of pure gold, 
 if the Sicilian talent is meant, but if the Attic talent 
 was the measure, the worth of the garland would have 
 been near twenty-five thousand pounds sterling. 
 
 The power of Gelon grew vastly after these things, 
 which happened about thirty years after Rome had 
 become a republic, and more than two hundred 
 years before Rome’s first war with Carthage. He was 
 
76 The Rulers of the South 
 
 the first great ruler, for he brought under his dominion 
 not only all Sicily but also a part of the mainland, and 
 there is every reason to believe that he made Crotona 
 and Rhegium, with all their possessions, tributary to 
 him. In the first years of his lordship, he called a 
 great meeting of the Syracusan people, and of all those 
 to whom he had given the right of citizenship, bidding 
 them come fully armed; but he himself, now that he 
 trusted them, came alone and without armour or 
 weapons, and stood up in their midst, and gave a true 
 account of his actions in the war and afterwards. Then 
 the people cried out and cheered, calling him their 
 saviour, their benefactor, and their king; and so he was, 
 and he changed not till he died, for he was a brave 
 and just man, and a glory to the Hellenic name. He 
 died of a dropsy when he had ruled only seven years, 
 and the Syracusans built him a tomb with nine towers; 
 but long afterwards the Carthaginians destroyed the 
 sepulchre, and at last Agathocles pulled down the 
 towers in envy of Gelon’s greatness, so that nothing 
 remains to mark the spot to-day. 
 
 It is easy and generally unprofitable to construct 
 imaginary history from the starting-point of an event 
 which might have occurred, but did not. Yet one may 
 ask not unreasonably what would have taken place if 
 Gelon had followed up the victory of Himera by cross- 
 ing over to Africa and destroying Carthage at once and 
 
 forever. That he could have done so there is little 
 
The Greeks 77 
 
 doubt. At that time Carthage had few fighting men 
 of her own, but was accustomed to raise mercenaries 
 for her wars, and her whole army, consisting of a third 
 of a million men, had just been utterly destroyed. 
 Gelon had fifty thousand trained Greeks, he controlled 
 vast wealth, and he had the prestige of victory. If he 
 had pushed the war, the issue could hardly have been 
 doubtful; Carthage would have sunk to the level of a 
 province of Sicily, and two hundred years later Rome 
 would not have had to fight the Punic Wars. But 
 Gelon was a victor, a patriot, a wise ruler; he had not 
 the instinct of the conqueror, and Carthage was left 
 to recover from her defeat and to grow strong again 
 within a few years. Yet what Gelon did contributed 
 more directly to the growth of the beautiful civilization 
 which blossomed in the reign of Hiero the First, and 
 bore fruit long afterwards, than a career of foreign 
 conquest could have done. 
 
 With the exception of Alexander, whose character 
 was more Asiatic than Hellenic, no Greek appears to 
 have conceived the idea of direct lordship over many 
 states. The ruler of the dominant state controlled the 
 rest, much as the German emperors controlled the 
 Holy Roman Empire, leaving to each country its own 
 ruler and its own laws, but without the tradition upon 
 which the Holy Roman Empire rested, and from which 
 it derived its authority. From the days of Gelon, Syra- 
 cuse became the chief despotism in Sicily, and led the 
 
78 The Rulers of the South 
 
 rest in civilization as well as in war; but the other 
 tyrants continued to rule, each in his own place, both in 
 the island and on the mainland, with very considerable 
 authority ; and Gelon’s brother and successor Hiero, 
 who usurped the power from Gelon’s young heir, 
 whose guardian he was jointly with another, had to sus- 
 tain no insignificant struggle with Theron of Akragas, 
 who had been Gelon’s friend, and with Anaxilas of 
 Rhegium, before he established his right to stand first 
 among the despots of hisday. Then, indeed, he pushed 
 his influence northward on the mainland, and van- 
 quished the Etruscans who had attacked Greek Cume, 
 planting colonies in the island of Ischia and elsewhere, 
 some of which afterwards moved away, being terrified 
 by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, while others 
 remained. So all the south became a harmonious, well- 
 governed confederation of Greek states, a little empire 
 —a great one for those days — under the guidance of 
 Hiero. 
 
 But he having attained to greatness, and not being 
 by any means satisfied with the honour and glory 
 achieved by his brother Gelon, nor being by nature 
 of such simple and soldierly tastes, began to make 
 his reign memorable for something higher and more 
 enduring than conquest. Already the greatest ruler, 
 he began to fill his court with the greatest men of 
 the world, and to make Syracuse worthy, in beauty 
 and grandeur, to be his home and theirs. 
 
The Greeks 79 
 
 The Olympic Games held together all Greeks, 
 throughout the civilized world, by a common bond; 
 to be a winner was not only to win fame, sometimes 
 undying —much glory was also shed upon the con- 
 testant’s native city. Nor were the games only for 
 those trained athletes who ran long races on the 
 measured course, who wrestled desperately in the 
 dust, or fought even to the death for the boxer’s 
 prize, or leapt with weights, or strove in mere feats 
 of strength without skill; besides these there were 
 the chariot races, to which all the tyrants of the 
 Greek states sent both chariots and priceless horses, 
 vying with each other in the splendid show; and in 
 these races the prize belonged not to him who drove, 
 but to the owner of the steeds. Countless coins of 
 exquisite design bear witness to the value the princes 
 set upon a successful race, for it is now believed that 
 these coins were only minted for such as had been 
 winners; and as has been pointed out by specialists, 
 there are coins of Messina, Catania, Leontini, Syra- 
 cuse, Akragas, and many other cities, some even with 
 Phoenician inscriptions from Panormus, all of which 
 have on the reverse the biga, triga, or quadriga, often 
 with a figure of Victory flying in the air above the 
 horses’ heads. That racing with chariots was an 
 almost universal sport throughout the Greek states 
 we know, and the fact explains the immense impor- 
 tance attached to the great contests of Olympia, of 
 
80 The Rulers of the South 
 
 Delphi, of the Isthmus of Corinth, and of Nemea. 
 But their greatest value to the world lay in the fact 
 that they gave opportunities of inspiration to the 
 poets of the time, whose odes to the victors earned 
 a greater immortality of their own, and enriched pos- 
 terity with some of the most beautiful masterpieces 
 of verse that have ever been produced. 
 
 The Greeks of Sicily and of the Italian mainland 
 rivalled the rest and often outdid them in the num- 
 ber of winners they sent to Greece, and while Crotona 
 surpassed all other cities in the foot races and in 
 wrestling and boxing, Sicily was more often first with 
 her chariots and horses. That was a sort of contest 
 in which only the richest could compete, and more 
 than once Hiero himself carried off the palm. Then 
 in the train of Olympic victories came the Olym- 
 pic poets, and Simonides of Ceos, and Bacchylides 
 his nephew, and Pindar himself, all came to Sicily 
 and spent years in Syracuse, being three lyric poets 
 of strangely different genius, but reckoned almost 
 equal in fame while they lived. We know something 
 of the character of each. We can call up from the 
 depth of five and twenty centuries the still living 
 memory of Simonides, who enjoys the singular dis- 
 tinction of having first discovered that poetry is a 
 marketable production of genius, for it is recorded 
 that he was the first poet who not only received re- 
 muneration, but exacted payment for his verses, and 
 
The Greeks | 81 
 
 he must therefore be looked upon as the direct liter- 
 ary ancestor of the modern author. Worldly, gifted, 
 tactful and extravagant, he used to say that his 
 poetry filled two chests, the one with thanks and the 
 other with gold, but that when in need, he had 
 always found the first empty. Once, when Anaxilas 
 of Rhegium won the mule race at Olympia, — for 
 there were mule races too,—he offered Simonides a 
 sum of money to write an ode to him as victor. The 
 poet thought the price too small and answered that 
 he would not demean his genius by writing of mules. 
 The tyrant determined to have what he wanted, in- 
 creased his offer to a sum which he knew that the 
 poet would not refuse, but wondered how the latter 
 would extricate himself from the dilemma he had 
 created by his first refusal. Simonides was equal to 
 the occasion. His address to the mules began, ‘ All 
 hail, ye daughters of wind-swift mares’— and the 
 poem contained no further allusion to the hybrids. 
 At another time he observed that it must be better 
 to be rich than to be wise, since he always saw wise 
 men knocking at rich men’s doors. Filled with amaz- 
 ing vitality and love of life, age seemed to take no 
 hold upon him; at eighty he was the winner of a 
 poetic contest and led the Cyclic Chorus in Athens, 
 which means that he not only composed the song 
 and sang it, but danced round the altar with the 
 chorus of fifty youths who sang with him; and this 
 
 VOL. I G 
 
82 The Rulers of the South 
 
 was in Athens, the very home of satire, where to be 
 ridiculous for an instant was to be ruined forever. 
 He lived to the age of ninety, and we do not hear 
 that his faculties lost their vigour nor his genius its 
 charm. 
 
 Bacchylides, his nephew, was of different temper, 
 though he affected to imitate the worldly wisdom of his 
 uncle. Nothing he wrote has come down to us, but at 
 one time Hiero esteemed him above Pindarvandsatae 
 blot upon his character is his mean jealousy of the latter 
 and his low instinct of flattery. The evil that he did 
 lived after him, but his good verses perished, like those 
 of Simonides. 
 
 Last of the three, and unhke “both, comes stue 
 greatest —‘as the rain-fed river overflows its banks 
 and rushes from the mountains, immeasurable, deep- 
 mouthed Pindar rages and rushes on’—the proud, the 
 stern, the inspired, who ‘lived not for the world but 
 for himself,’ scorning gold as Simonides loved it and 
 despising flattery and backbiting alike. There must 
 have been something about the man that imposed itself 
 upon others, something not far from awe and much 
 above the most sincere admiration — something that is 
 in the Odes, which alone have come down to us, with a 
 few fragments quoted by Athenzeus, something lofty, 
 half divine, almost of the prophet; and all men recog- 
 nized it and honoured the poet. Yet he would never 
 make his home with Hiero, though he wrote four odes 
 
The Greeks 83 
 
 upon his victories, and in the end, being eighty years 
 of age, he died in Argos, independent to the last, and 
 leaving that rare and unrivalled fame which suggests 
 neither comparison nor similarity with that of other 
 men, the glory of those few who were not only first 
 but last of their kind. 
 
 To the court of Syracuse there came not only lyric 
 poets; A*tschylus was a favourite with Hiero also, 
 and Epicharmus, the father of comedy, whose rough 
 humour shocks the instinctive reverence we feel even 
 for false gods, when they were grand or beautiful, who 
 in the ‘Marriage of Hebe’ represented mighty Jove 
 squabbling for the best fish at the feast of the gods, 
 and introduced the divine Muses as glibly chattering 
 fishwives, offering their wares for sale; a man of most 
 irrepressible wit and impertinent humour, even in his 
 ninetieth year. 
 
 /Eschylus was a younger and a stronger man. He 
 may be called the father of tragedy as Epicharmus was 
 of comedy. Rugged and vast of plan, his work is to 
 that of Sophocles as a rock temple of India to a Gothic 
 cathedral; dimly terrible with the unseen presence of 
 fate, the horror of the final catastrophe overshadows 
 the play from the first and speaks in every accent of 
 predestined man and woman. The watchman sees evil 
 coming from afar, the stamp of it is on Clytemnestra’s 
 brow, Cassandra in frenzied prophecy foretells the mas- 
 ter’s murder, and when it is accomplished, unseen, in 
 
84 The Rulers of the South 
 
 the imagination of the horrified spectator, its effect is a 
 hundred times more terrible than if the king’s blood 
 were shed upon the stage. The weapons of Atschylus 
 are huge, and unwieldy to a common hand; but in his 
 strong grasp they have a masterly precision and an 
 appalling directness. Before his time there were play- 
 wrights and actors, there were wandering companies 
 of Sicilian mimes who played from town to town, 
 changing the action and the lines of their half-impro- 
 vised dramas to suit the circumstances in which they 
 found themselves; and there were genuine theatres 
 also in the great cities, where graver plays were per- 
 formed. But Aéschylus first made the stage what it 
 has remained more or less ever since, by introducing 
 machinery and accessories never heard of before, a god 
 appearing through a trap-door — the original ‘ Deus ex 
 machina, — to put an end toa situation which had no 
 natural conclusion; and rich costumes were also his 
 invention, and sounds produced behind the scenes sug- 
 gestive of deeds too atrocious to be seen by the audi- 
 ence. 
 
 Many tales are told to explain why the tragic poet left 
 Greece.’ One writer says that he was dissatisfied with 
 the honour he received in his own country; another, 
 that during a great performance of one of his trage- 
 dies a platform upon which a number of the audience 
 were seated broke down with its load, and that the 
 
 poet feared the ridicule of the people; again, it is 
 
The Greeks 85 
 
 Saids that he left his home in anger, because in a 
 contest of tragedy the young Sophocles obtained the 
 prize against him, but the strangest reason of all is 
 that the Athenians drove him out because their 
 women were driven to frantic fear by the terrible 
 chorus of the Furies, in his tragedy called the Eu- 
 menides. Whatever the cause may have been, and 
 it seems useless to seek for a complicated one, he 
 came twice to Sicily, and on the second visit, being 
 Hearly seventy years or age, he settled: in the’ city 
 of Gela, near which, as tradition says, he died a very 
 extraordinary death. For it is said that an eagle, 
 having taken a tortoise and meaning to drop it from a 
 great height upon a rock, in order to break it and 
 devour its flesh, looked down and saw the bald head 
 of Aéschylus, who was walking in a meadow near the 
 city; and taking it for a polished stone, the eagle 
 dropped the tortoise directly upon it, whereby A¢schy- 
 lus came to his end. The people of Gela buried him 
 with great pomp, and raised a splendid monument to 
 his memory. 
 
 Besides his other inventions in connexion with the 
 stage, A%schylus was the inventor of the tragic 
 trilogy, which in its true and original form consisted 
 of three complete tragedies, of which the subjects 
 were closely dependent each upon the other and in 
 each of which the unity of time, of place, and of 
 
 action were maintained in the strictest manner. It 
 
86 The Rulers of the South 
 
 had not entered the thoughts of Greek playwrights to 
 give any play a greater scope of time than was re- 
 quired for its actual performance, by dividing it into 
 acts, separated by an imaginary lapse of hours, days, 
 or months; to produce such an illusion it seemed 
 necessary to them to write as many different plays 
 as the whole action required different times, and to 
 present them on successive days in order that the 
 spectators might the more easily imagine a longer 
 interval of time to have passed. The modern play 
 in. three, four, or five, acts is in substance a trilogy, 
 a tetralogy, or a pentalogy on a small scale, and the 
 Greeks would certainly not have admitted a Wagne- 
 rian trilogy to be a legitimate piece of play-writing. 
 During his splendid reign Hiero not only attracted 
 to his court such men as these and many others be- 
 sides, but he exerted also the great powers which 
 had fallen to his lot in improving and beautifying his 
 capital, and it was largely due to his initiative that 
 Syracuse soon afterwards became one of the most 
 beautiful cities of the world. It was to be the privi- 
 lege of others, notably of Dionysius the Elder and of 
 Hiero the Second, to bring the work to full perfection, 
 but the first and greatest merit is due to the first 
 Hiero. To the end he was successful in all he under- 
 took, and victorious in every war. When Theron, the 
 friend of Gelon, died at last after reigning sixteen years, 
 his son Thrasydzus succeeded him in the tyranny. 
 
The Greeks 87 
 
 Ambitious as he was cruel, and in all other respects 
 different from his father, he conceived the idea of 
 conquering Syracuse, and raised an army of twenty 
 thousand men, almost all of whom were Greeks. 
 But Hiero was before him, though he had to march 
 his troops over a hundred miles through a difficult 
 country, and Thrasydzeus, instead of invading his 
 enemy’s dominions, was forced to give battle within 
 his own on the banks of the river Akragas. Hiero’s 
 army slew four thousand and put the rest to flight, 
 including the young tyrant himself, who escaped to 
 Megara in the hope of being received in a friendly 
 manner; but the inhabitants feared him, for his name 
 was associated with every sort of barbarity, and when 
 they had taken counsel they put him to death. After 
 that Hiero was supreme while he lived. 
 
 He died after reigning eleven years, probably in 
 the city of A‘tna, of which it is doubtful whether any 
 trace remains. He had founded it himself, notwith- 
 standing certain authorities which insist that it was 
 only built after his death, and in the latter years of 
 his life he probably preferred it as a residence during 
 the cold weather, for it was situated on the southern 
 slope of the volcano, partly protected from the east 
 winds which, in the winter season, are the only draw- 
 back of the climate of Syracuse. 
 
 The first great development of art, as well as of 
 literature, in Sicily dates from the victory of Himera 
 
88 The Rulers of the South 
 
 which terminated the first Carthaginian invasion. It 
 was between 480 B.c. and 409 B.c. that the great 
 temples of Selinus, of Segesta, and of Akragas were 
 built, edifices which surpassed in size and_ solidity 
 almost every building of the sort in the Greek world. 
 The architecture was most magnificent; the art of 
 sculpture, however, was still in its archaic infancy, 
 and the large fragments of uncouthly sculptured 
 metopes preserved in the museum at Palermo must 
 have contrasted strangely, when whole and in their 
 places, with the splendid proportions and_ finished 
 workmanship of the temples they adorned. ‘These 
 stand, or le in fragments, throughout the island from 
 end to end, witnesses of an age of faith, of strength, 
 and of warfare; of a primitive warfare that was but 
 wholesale hand to hand strife, of physical strength 
 deified and worshipped as the main requisite for vic- 
 tory, of a material faith which was little better than 
 a glorified generalization of man’s animal instincts 
 and of nature’s common phenomena. We modern 
 men are more easily surprised by such monuments 
 of material power than by the far more wonderful 
 results which purely spiritual and ethic influences 
 have brought about in more recent days. It seems 
 more extraordinary to us that human hands should 
 ever have piled one upon another the enormous 
 masses of stone that composed the temples of Selinus, 
 than that whole nations should have fought to the 
 

 
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 op ; i my rh vw 
 
The Greeks 89 
 
 death for half a dozen more or less vague articles 
 of religious belief. . 
 There is nothing in Europe like the ruins of Selinus. 
 Side by side, not one stone upon another, as they fell 
 at the earthquake shock, the remains of four temples 
 lie in the dust, within the city, and the still more gigan- 
 tic fragments of three others lie without the ruined 
 walls. At first sight the confusion looks so terrific 
 that the whole seems as if it might have fallen from 
 the sky to the world, from the homes of the gods to 
 destruction on earth—as if Zeus might have hurled 
 a city at mankind, to fall on Sicily in a wild wreck 
 of senseless stone. Blocks that are Cyclopean lie 
 like jackstraws one upon another, sections of columns 
 twenty-eight feet round are tossed together upon the 
 ground like leaves from a basket, and fragments of 
 cornice fifteen feet long lie across them or stand half 
 upright, or lean against the enormous steps. No 
 words can explain to the mind the involuntary shock 
 which the senses feel at the first sight of it all. One 
 touches the stones in wonder, comparing one’s small 
 human stature with their mass, and the intellect strains 
 hopelessly to recall their original position; one climbs 
 in and out among them, sometimes mounting, some- 
 times descending, as one might pick one’s way through 
 an enormous quarry, scarcely understanding that the 
 blocks one touches have all been hewn into shape by 
 human hands. and that the hills from which men 
 
90 The Rulers of the South 
 
 brought them are but an outline in the distance. But 
 as one reaches the highest fragment within the Acrop- 
 olis, the plan of the whole begins to stand out from 
 the confusion; the columns have all fallen in ranks, 
 and in the same direction, and from the height one 
 may count the round drums of stone which once com- 
 posed each erect pillar. There is method in the ruin 
 and a sort of natural order in the destruction. No 
 earthly hands, bent on blotting out the glory of Selinus, 
 could have done such work, neither the crowbar and 
 lever of the Carthaginian, nor the giant-powder of the 
 modern engineer. Nature herself did the deed. In 
 the morning the seven temples of Selinus were stand- 
 ing whole and perfect against the pale and dazzling 
 sky; at noonday the air grew sultry and full of a 
 yellow glare, the sea lay still as liquid lead, and the 
 sleeping beast in the field woke suddenly in terror of 
 something far below, that could be felt rather than 
 heard; an hour and more went by, and then the long, 
 low sound that is like no other came up from the 
 depths of the world, and the broad land heaved like 
 the tidal swell of the ocean, once, twice, and thrice, 
 and was still, and a great cloud of white dust hung 
 where the seven temples had stood. As they fell, so 
 they lie and will lie for all time, a very image of the 
 abomination of desolation. 
 
 The sculptured fragments have been almost all re- 
 moved to the great museum in Palermo; they seem to 
 
The Greeks QI 
 
 have represented battles between goddesses and giants, 
 and, while the treatment is of archaic simplicity, there 
 are, here and 
 there, a few fig- 
 ures in which 
 the rising genius 
 of sculpture fore- 
 shadows the great 
 things it was soon 
 foecoas On. the 
 whole they al- 
 most reach the 
 
 
 
 
 artistic level of the 
 fragments from A¢gina, 
 and we may fairly take it for : 
 granted that this was the state mene tig 
 of art throughout Sicily towards ats 6 
 
 the end of the seventy years FRAGMENT OF THE 
 RUINS OF SELINUS, 
 
 NOW SELINUNTO 
 
 6 
 
 which elapsed between the two 
 Carthaginian invasions. Of the 
 same period is the great temple of Athene at Syra- 
 cuse, crowning the island of Ortygia. Enclosed within 
 high walls, it has been converted to the uses of a 
 cathedral, but the columns of the temple stand intact 
 within, and it is easy to fancy it as it was. High on its 
 seaward side Athene’s burnished shield was hung up 
 of old to catch the rays of the noonday sun, a beacon 
 to ships at sea; for mariners who were departing on 
 
92 The Rulers of the South 
 
 a voyage used to go up thither before they weighed 
 anchor, and when they had made offerings to the god- 
 dess they received from the priests little earthen ves- 
 sels containing flowers and grains of incense ; and when 
 the burnished shield was lost to their view as they sailed 
 away, they consigned the little jar and its contents to 
 the sea with a final prayer for their safe return. 
 
 In widest contrast to the ruins of Selinus and to the 
 church-temple at Ortygia, is the still almost perfect tem- 
 ple of Segesta. At the western extremity of the island 
 a lonely valley leads from the deep Gulf of Castella- 
 mare upwards to the mountains. Climbing the narrow 
 path, the traveller looks in vain for ancient ruin or 
 modern habitation until he pauses for breath upon the 
 shoulder of a hill, and suddenly he sees over against 
 him the faultless outline of one of the most beautiful 
 temples in the world. Dark and symmetrical, it stands 
 alone upon the waste, vividly perfect against the sky 
 that is bright with the reflection from the sea beyond. 
 Of all its forty Doric columns, only one is very slightly 
 injured. Nothing more strangely impressive can be 
 imagined, nothing more solid and more silently grand, 
 more nobly alone. It is as if the visible spirit of the 
 Greeks had chosen that wild solitude for its last abiding- 
 place. 
 
 Yet of all the cities of Sicily, Segesta was. the least 
 Greek, if, indeed, it can be said to have been Greek at 
 
 all.”- There 1s-a sort of romantic uncertainty about its 
 
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The Greeks 93 
 
 origin which was particularly attractive to the Romans, 
 and they admitted the claim of the Segestans to a 
 Trojan descent as noble as that of A‘neas himself. It 
 is certain that from very early times Segesta was in 
 closer and more friendly relations with the Phoenicians 
 than any other colony, and it was this circumstance 
 which twice almost caused Segesta to be the ruin of all 
 Greek Sicily: the first time when, finding itself iso- 
 lated from the other Greek cities and hated by them 
 owing to its former attachment to Phoenician interests, 
 it sent out ambassadors to Athens and provoked the ill- 
 fated Athenian expedition in which Alcibiades played 
 -so strange a part; the second, when it appealed to 
 Carthage for help against Selinus and brought on 
 directly another Carthaginian invasion. 
 
 But before describing those great events which took 
 place when Sicily’s power and influence were at their 
 height, it is necessary to glance at the record of Hiero’s 
 successors, since Syracuse had, under him, become the 
 commanding power of the island, and the chief centre 
 of its civilization. Though Hiero was one of the great 
 rulers, and, on the whole, a wise one, it must not be 
 forgotten that he had in reality usurped the sovereignty 
 which Gelon had intended to transmit to his own son, 
 and had held it in spite of the other members of his 
 own family, by the means usually adopted by usurpers. 
 He employed numerous spies, both men and women, to 
 
 detect his enemies, and he exiled or destroyed the latter 
 
94 The Rulers of the South 
 
 without the slightest hesitation. At his death, he left 
 one brother living, the eldest of all and the least gifted, 
 Thrasybulus by name. He also believed that he was 
 destined to the kingship, and he attempted to withhold 
 it from his nephew as his brother had done; but he had 
 neither the strength of character nor the talent which 
 the latter had possessed, and he oppressed the people 
 beyond endurance. The Syracusans had borne the 
 exactions of Hiero, the victorious, the generous, the 
 adorner of the city, the terror of their foes; they soon 
 lost patience with his mean and miserly successor. 
 
 Sicily was ripe for a revolution, and the democratic 
 spirit was abroad; the fall of the tyrant of Akragas 
 had prepared the way, and the despots of the minor 
 cities governed in hourly fear of ruin. Syracuse was 
 mistress of the island, and indirectly of Southern Italy ; 
 it was certain that if she freed herself from her master, 
 the rest of the country would follow. 
 
 But Thrasybulus was strong in mercenary troops and 
 ships, and the numerous relations and adherents of his 
 family stood by him to a man; a memorable struggle 
 began, of which the result was long doubtful and which 
 showed for the first time the extraordinary strength 
 which the older parts of the city possessed, both by 
 natural position and artificial fortification. 
 
 Syracuse overlooks an extensive natural harbour, 
 two miles long and a mile across, free from rocks or 
 shoals, and so completely enclosed by the mainland and 
 
The Greeks 95 
 
 the island of Ortygia that the entrance is but little over 
 a thousand yards wide, opening due east. The island 
 is divided from the mainland by what is nothing more 
 than a narrow canal; it extends from the entrance 
 northward, and north of it Gelon had walled off from 
 the mainland a strip of land about two and a half miles 
 long, of which the sea-line consists of low cliffs that 
 offer no landing worth the name, and no shelter from 
 any wind all the way round by east, from north to 
 south. This strip of land received the name Achra- 
 dina, a word for which there seems to be no satisfac- 
 tory derivation, unless it comes from ‘achrades,’ the 
 wild pear trees, which still abound in this part of Sicily. 
 A modern Sicilian writer suggests that the word might 
 be made to mean the ‘height of the cape.’ The city 
 of Gelon consisted of Achradina and Ortygia, both 
 strongly fortified. At the time of the revolution 
 against Thrasybulus, the suburb Tyche, ‘good For- 
 tune,’ was without the walls, on the west, and the 
 larger suburb Neapolis, ‘the new city,’ extended to 
 the Lysimeleian swamp that opens upon the bay. In 
 later years the whole of the great harbour was sur- 
 rounded by buildings. 
 
 Thrasybulus shut himself up within the walls with 
 about fifteen thousand men who bore arms. The popu- 
 lation of the city consisted largely of those persons to 
 whom Gelon had given rights of citizenship, whom he 
 had collected about him, and who had remained there 
 
96 The Rulers of the South 
 
 under Hiero. In the general revolution these made 
 common cause with the genuine Syracusans of old 
 stock, and, with the latter, occupied the suburbs, mak- 
 ing fruitless attempts to drive the tyrant from his posi- 
 tion.. They soon saw that success was impossible, for 
 by means of his ships he kept his communications 
 open by sea and was able to provision the city at his 
 pleasure. The people then turned to the other Sicilian 
 cities for assistance, renouncing their supremacy over 
 the island by doing so. Those to whom they appealed 
 asked nothing better than to help in destroying the 
 power under which they had fretted so long. Gela 
 Akragas, Selinus, and Himera joined the Syracusans, 
 sending both men and ships. Thrasybulus attacked the 
 ships first, but lost a part of his own, and the remain- 
 der were soon blockaded in the harbour; his attempts 
 to sally out by land were equally unsuccessful, the 
 enemy closed in upon him on every side, he was in dan- 
 ger of famine, and he sued for his life, asking only that 
 he might be allowed to leave the country unmolested. 
 The men who had him in their power had been 
 oppressed by him, robbed by him, and it is more than 
 probable that some of them had been tortured by him; 
 but they magnanimously granted his request, he was 
 allowed to depart unmolested, and he ended his days 
 peacefully in Locri. His fall was the signal for a gen- 
 eral rising against the tyrants, and in a few months all 
 
 the south was in the hands of a jubilant democracy. 
 
The Greeks 97 
 
 The Syracusans set up a gigantic statue to Zeus and 
 instituted the Festival and Games of Freedom, during 
 which four hundred and fifty oxen were to be sacrificed 
 every year to make a feast for the people, and for this 
 purpose they built an altar a tenth of a sea mile long 
 and over sixty feet wide —a Gargantuan expression of 
 gratitude to the gods in the present and the future, 
 which suggests that under Thrasybulus they had never 
 enjoyed a feast, and had rarely had enough. But the 
 revolution was not yet over, for the new democracy 
 took measures to exclude from the higher public offices 
 all those burghers who owed their citizenship to Gelon, 
 Hiero, or Thrasybulus, and a long struggle ensued, 
 during which the offended party held Achradina and 
 Ortygia as the last tyrant had done. With the help of 
 the Sicelians, the old burghers triumphed at last, how- 
 ever, got possession of the walled city, and drove out 
 their adversaries. 
 
 One of the first results of the fall of the tyrants 
 throughout Sicily was that the Sicelians reasserted 
 themselves on the ground of having helped the burghers 
 to obtain their freedom, and regained a large part of 
 the lands which had been taken from them by the 
 different Greek cities. When Hiero determined to 
 transplant the population of Catania, to change its name 
 to Aftna, and to fill it with more or less Doric citizens, 
 he settled those whom he had expelled upon broad 
 tracts of country taken from the Sicelians. These 
 
 VOL. I H 
 
98 The Rulers of the South 
 
 possessions now fell back to their original owners. 
 The former inhabitants of Catania besieged it and drove 
 out those who had supplanted them, and the latter 
 established themselves in the new city on the southern 
 
 
 
 GIRL WASHING NEAR REGGIO, CALABRIA, FORMERLY RHEGIUM 
 
 slope of the mountain, which Hiero had called A*tna, 
 while Catania resumed its original name. The same 
 thing took place elsewhere, in all places, in fact, where 
 
 Hiero had endeavoured to change the population in 
 
The Greeks 99 
 
 order to create one entirely devoted to his interests. 
 As may well be imagined, the result of this second 
 change was a considerable degree of confusion, to 
 remedy which the various Sicilian commonwealths 
 held a general meeting, at which they agreed that the 
 rights of citizenship should nowhere belong to any but 
 the original inhabitants of the towns and that all other 
 persons, whether natives of other cities in the island, 
 or Greek immigrants, or barbarians, should lose their 
 acquired or usurped rights and depart forthwith. It 
 does not appear, however, that they were driven into 
 any cruel exile, and in the great majority of cases they 
 received sufficient grants of land in other districts. 
 When matters were thus settled in a preliminary 
 manner, a period of peace and extraordinary prosperity 
 began, which lasted nearly sixty years and which offers 
 little of interest to the general reader, but which resulted 
 in a vast development of art, literature, and general 
 culture. Of course, men appeared from time to time 
 whose personal influence rendered them dangerous to 
 democracy. For their own safety the Syracusans intro- 
 duced the law of petalism, corresponding almost exactly 
 to the ostracism of the Athenians. Instead of the 
 fragments of pottery used by the latter to vote the expul- 
 sion of a citizen, the Syracusans used the ‘ petals,’ that 
 is the leaves, of the olive tree, and the citizen for whom 
 the greatest number of these were cast into the urns 
 
 was obliged to exile himself from the city for five years, 
 
100 The Rulers of the South 
 
 whereas the time of exile imposed by the Athenian 
 ostracism was ten. As usual, however, the common 
 people promptly made use of this method to get rid of 
 every one with more than average intelligence, and the 
 custom was abolished. 
 
 An extraordinary and not altogether unromantic 
 attempt on the part of the Sicelians to regain the prin- 
 cipal power in the island produced the only wars 
 fought in this period. Ducetius, who suddenly appears 
 as the Sicelian king, succeeded in raising a considerable 
 force with which he dislodged the inhabitants of the 
 newly founded city of A*tna and seized several other 
 important points; but the Syracusans, though not 
 friendly with the sufferers, looked upon their defeat as 
 a slight upon Greeks in general, and gathering their 
 allies, soon drove Ducetius to desperate straits. Seeing 
 himself lost, he conceived the strange idea of throwing 
 himself upon the mercy of his enemies. Under cover 
 of a dark night he rode alone across the intervening 
 country, entered the city at dawn and took sanctuary 
 upon the altar in the market-place; the people assem- 
 bled in multitudes from all parts of the city, and in 
 the presence of a vast throng the vanquished king 
 declared that he gave up his leadership and all his 
 possessions to the Syracusans. Immediately a great 
 discussion arose. Some were for making an end of 
 him at once, but more generous counsels prevailed, and 
 
 as in the great revolution the tyrant Thrasybulus had 
 
The Greeks IOI 
 
 been allowed to go his way in peace and security, so 
 also now the Syracusans voted that Ducetius should 
 go free, on condition, however, that he would exile 
 himself to Corinth and promise faithfully to remain 
 there during the rest of his life. Heswore the required 
 oath and departed, but he found means to elude the 
 obligation ; for it was in the interest of Greece to weaken 
 the Greek power in Sicily if possible, and an opportune 
 oracle, doubtless inspired by Corinthian gold, bade 
 Ducetius return to Sicily and found a peaceful colony 
 upon the shore known as ‘the beautiful.’ With the 
 full consent of the Corinthians, the Sicelian king, who 
 was in their eyes no better than a barbarian, sailed 
 away with many ships and a great body of armed 
 Greeks, and actually became the founder and father of 
 a flourishing Hellenic colony on the north coast, where he 
 was practically beyond the reach of his former enemies. 
 The strange result of this move was that the people of 
 Akragas regarded it as a stratagem of the Syracusans, 
 gathered an army, attacked the latter, and were badly 
 beaten, while neither party molested Ducetius in his 
 new city. He lived about eight years more and died 
 aenetural death. After the defeat of the: forces of 
 Akragas, Syracuse became once more the leading 
 power in the island, not without exciting jealousy 
 among the other cities and stirring up the envy of the 
 Athenians by her extraordinary prosperity and mag- 
 
 nificence. 
 
102 The Rulers of the South 
 
 The chief fault of the Greeks was a direct result 
 of that gift of individuality, which has never belonged 
 in the same degree to any other nation. They loved 
 freedom as few people have loved it, but at no time 
 in their history were they ever reconciled in any sort 
 of unity or harmony. The wonderful talents displayed 
 by men born in every part of the Greek world pro- 
 duced both a variety and an opposition of initiatives 
 which were easily fostered into violent dissension by 
 the competitive spirit that was so strong in the Hel- 
 lenic race. All opponents, not Greeks, seemed un- 
 worthy to men who had vanquished the Carthaginians 
 in the west, and made a laughing stock of Persia’s 
 gigantic attack from the east. If after the battles 
 of Himera and Salamis the whole Greek nation, from 
 Asia Minor to Western Sicily, and from Italian Naples 
 to the shores of Africa, had united to effect the con- 
 quest of the known world, Europe, Asia, and Africa 
 would have been theirs, and the Hellenes would have 
 filled the part afterwards played by Rome. But their 
 instinct threw them into competition with each other, 
 rivalry led to strife, and strife to destruction ; their patri- 
 otism was local pride, their loyalty was incapable of 
 any broad interpretation, and they squandered in petty 
 wars with each other the strength, the courage, and 
 the military genius that should have made them the 
 masters of mankind. If the famous line of Nathaniel 
 Lee, ‘When Greeks joined Greeks, then was the tug 
 
The Greeks 103 
 
 of war,’ has passed into a proverb, the reason is that 
 the saying is profoundly true. To them it seemed 
 hardly worth while to fight except against each other. 
 The long period of peaceful prosperity, during which 
 the free democracies of Sicily rose to supremacy in 
 culture as well as in wealth, was brought to an end 
 by the jealousy of the Athenians, who seized the 
 opportunity of a quarrel between Syracuse and Leon- 
 tini to interfere in favour of the latter, which rep- 
 resented the party disaffected under the Syracusan 
 leadership of the island; and this interference had 
 its origin in the long struggle between the Dorian 
 and Ionian Greeks which we call the Peloponnesian 
 War, and which was practically fought to a finish 
 in the harbour of Syracuse. It was the outbreak in 
 Greece of the old enmity between the two great 
 branches of the Hellenic race which revived the same 
 almost forgotten hatred between the Sicilian cities. 
 At that time, taking free men and slaves together, 
 the population of Sicily seems to have been about 
 three millions and a half, all of whom, both the origi- 
 nal Sicelians and Elymians, and the Phoenician colo- 
 nists and traders, were so far Hellenized that they 
 used the Greek language and practised Greek rt, 
 even in cities such as Panormus, which were not at 
 all under Greek political domination. Sicily was al- 
 ready the granary of the Mediterranean, and just 
 then was a commercial rather than a military power, 
 
104 The Rulers of the South 
 
 possessing but few ships and a limited number of 
 trained soldiers. On the whole, Syracuse and the 
 principal Sicilian cities were more closely allied with 
 the Peloponnesian confederation than with the Athe- 
 nian state, and it was natural that a city like Leontini, 
 hard pressed by the Syracusans, should turn to Athens 
 for help, and that Athens should promptly grant the 
 request, by sending a small expedition of twenty ships. 
 The force was absurdly inadequate, the generalship 
 of the leaders was lamentably insufficient, the result 
 was a miserable defeat before Inessa, and the’ Athe- 
 nians barely made good an ignominious retreat. A 
 year later, when they had succeeded in seizing Messina, 
 which was distracted by factions, the Syracusans made 
 interest with the stronger party and in alliance with the 
 men of Italian Locri drove the Athenians out again with- 
 out difficulty, but lost the day in a sea-fight soon after- 
 wards; and so the small warfare went on from year to 
 year with very little result except to stir up old enmities 
 between the Sicilian cities, some of which feared Syra- 
 cuse, while some feared the possible domination of 
 Athens; but their own general interests soon got the 
 upper hand, and holding a peace conference in Gela, they 
 were easily persuaded by the Syracusan Hermocrates 
 that it was necessary to face Athens as a common foe. 
 Therefore the Athenians retired altogether and left the 
 island to itself for a time. 
 
 The great expedition under Alcibiades was made 
 
The Greeks 105 
 
 against Syracuse, and against Sicily generally, at the 
 instigation and on the representations of Segesta. The 
 latter city was at war with its neighbouring enemy 
 Selinus, and being worsted, began, as most of the states 
 did in those days, to appeal to its powerful friends for 
 help, and first of all to Carthage. The Selinuntians, on 
 their side, asked assistance from Syracuse, which was 
 granted in a small measure. But Carthage would do 
 nothing for Segesta, and the latter, allying itself with 
 Leontini, always oppressed by Syracuse, sent an em- 
 bassy to Athens, ever ready to interfere, making great 
 promises of payment for the alliance. The Athenians 
 took the precaution of sending representatives by sea 
 to Segesta to find out whether there was any probabil- 
 ity of obtaining the promised payment in case the 
 required assistance were given. It was on this occa- 
 sion that the Athenians became the victims of one of 
 the most extraordinary and amusing frauds in history. 
 Their ambassadors were received with unsurpassed 
 splendour, and the Segestans, who were in reality very 
 poor, succeeded in producing upon their guests the 
 impression that they possessed vast wealth. Leading 
 them up to the ancient temple of Aphrodite on Mount 
 Eryx, above Drepanon, which is Trapani, they showed 
 them what they called their war treasure, an immense 
 collection of sacred vessels of fine workmanship and 
 seemingly of precious metals, but of which a great 
 
 number were in reality worthless imitations, apparently 
 
106 The Rulers of the South 
 
 made for the occasion. ‘The ambassadors were dazzled 
 by the display and were doubtless told that the treas- 
 ures were too sacred to be touched or examined. It 
 appears certain that such objects as were really of any 
 value had been borrowed from Sicelian cities that hoped 
 
 
 
 THE *‘GRAN SASSO D’ ITALIA,” FROM AQUILA 
 
 to profit by the coming of the Athenians. The ambas- 
 sadors were then entertained for some time in Segesta 
 with the most profuse hospitality, and the sailors from 
 their ships were feasted by the inhabitants. For these 
 
 occasions every available dish and vessel of gold or 
 
The Greeks 107 
 
 silver was collected together, and as much plate as 
 possible was borrowed from the Sicelians, all of which 
 was sent secretly from house to house to make a fresh 
 appearance at every feast. Ona less magnificent scale 
 the same was done for the entertainment of the soldiers 
 and sailors, who drank the rich wines of Western Sicily 
 from vessels of wrought silver for the first time in their 
 lives, and formed a correspondingly high opinion of 
 their hosts. The whole fraud was perfectly successful, 
 and the ambassadors sailed away to tell the citizens of 
 Athens that Segesta was one of the richest cities in the 
 world and well able to pay for any assistance in war. 
 To confirm the impression they had thus created the 
 Segestans soon afterwards sent ambassadors to Athens 
 bearing sixty talents of silver in bullion, borrowed from 
 their friends, and asking for sixty ships; the silver was 
 offered as payment in advance for the first month’s ser- 
 vice. What would have happened to Segesta if the 
 Athenians had ever been in a position to enforce their 
 demand for more, when they discovered how they had 
 been imposed upon, may be left to the imagination of 
 the reader; as it turned out, matters took another 
 direction. ) 
 
 At that time Alcibiades was the representative in 
 Athens of all that meant change, movement, and popu- 
 lar excitement. He had long dreamt of a conquest of 
 Sicily, in which he saw magnificent opportunities for 
 
 satisfying his boundless vanity; he was at that time 
 
108 The Rulers of the South 
 
 thirty-five years of age, the handsomest, the bravest, the 
 wittiest, and the most worthless of mankind. He advo- 
 cated the Sicilian expedition with irresistible eloquence 
 and claimed the right to command it, in a speech of 
 which the brazen impudence is historical. 
 
 “Tt belongs to me,” he said, “above all others# tose 
 in command, and to tell the truth I consider myself 
 worthy thereof. The very things for which I am so 
 noisily attacked are not only an honour to my family 
 and to myself, but also a benefit to my country. If the 
 Greeks admit that Athens is greater than she ever was, 
 this is in a measure due to the display I made as your 
 representative at the Olympic Games, where I entered 
 seven chariots, which no private citizen had ever done 
 before, and won the first prize, and had the second and 
 fourth places, and did everything in a manner suitable 
 to such a victory. And if I give choruses and dances 
 at home, my fellow-citizens of course envy me, but the 
 strangers who come here see the outward appearance 
 of greatness. The unfortunate do not share their mis- 
 fortunes with others; why should a man who glories in 
 his own prosperity set himself down to the level of 
 common mankind ?”’ 
 
 It seems strange that a man should carry his point 
 by talking in such a strain, but of all men living Alci- 
 biades knew his fellow-citizens best, and Nicias, the 
 leader of the conservative party, made no attempt to 
 oppose him on his own ground, but contented himself 
 
The Greeks 109 
 
 with making a fair statement of the possible advantages 
 and evident risks which would attend the expedition, 
 giving at the same time an opinion as to the manner in 
 which it should be conducted. He concluded by mod- 
 estly offering to withdraw his claim to any command if 
 any one understood the matter better than he. The 
 result was that he and Alcibiades were appointed joint 
 leaders with Lamachus, and preparations were at once 
 made on a very great scale. Meetings succeeded meet- 
 ings, speeches were made without end, and Athens 
 went mad over the anticipated conquest and possession 
 of one of the richest spots in the world. Nothing 
 else was talked of for many weeks; strolling lecturers 
 held forth upon the subject to delighted crowds at the 
 corners of the streets, and drew imaginary maps of 
 Sicily in the dust. It was clearly demonstrated and 
 proved in the mind of every patriotic Athenian that 
 as soon as Sicily was taken, Athens would take 
 Italy, Carthage, and the western islands of the Medi- 
 terranean, and lord it over all the coasts of the sea to 
 the very Pillars of Hercules. 
 
 In the final discussion from which I have quoted 
 fragments of Alcibiades’s speech, the latter, in order 
 to persuade the people, spoke disparagingly of the 
 Sicilian power and declared the conquest of the island 
 an easy matter. Nicias, who disapproved of the ex- 
 pedition at heart and understood its real difficulty, 
 did not hesitate to say that the force must consist of 
 
I1O The Rulers of the South 
 
 at least a hundred triremes, sixty being full war-ships 
 and the rest transports, and five thousand heavy- 
 armed troops, with all the light-armed men and fol- 
 lowers which such an armament implied. He _ per- 
 haps thought it probable that the Athenians would be . 
 discouraged from the enterprise by his demands; but if 
 so, he had miscalculated their temper. They granted 
 without hesitation all that he asked, and would have 
 given him more also. For, as Thucydides tells us, 
 the city had recovered from the effects of the plague 
 and from the long war, and a new generation of 
 young men had grown up, and there was abundance 
 of money in the public treasury. 
 
 But Alcibiades had many enemies, who hated and 
 envied him. They hit upon an unexpected way of 
 injuring him, and he might have been ruined and 
 even executed before the departure of the expedition, 
 if only they had all agreed. There were in Athens 
 a great many images, called Hermz, which were 
 heads of different gods set on pillars of stone 
 squared and tapering to the foot. In earlier times 
 the head had always been that of Hermes, whence the 
 name. These were set up in doorways both of prt 
 vate houses and of temples, in honour of the tutelary 
 divinities, and were regarded with a certain degree of 
 reverence. Some enemies of Alcibiades took advan- 
 tage of a dark night to mutilate almost all these 
 images throughout Athens, hacking the features of 
 
The Greeks III 
 
 them to pieces, and in the midst of the excitement 
 that followed they accused Alcibiades and his friends 
 of having perpetrated the outrage in a drunken frolic, 
 as a direct and wilful insult to the gods. Athens 
 was in an uproar, the gods had been offended on the 
 Pver OL, tne oTcatest: expedition ever sent out, the 
 mutilation of their images was an omen of shipwreck 
 and defeat, and the Athenians trembled for their repu- 
 tation, their lives, and their money. Great rewards 
 were offered to any one who would give information 
 against the impious evil-doers. In a moment Alci- 
 biades was accused of a hundred crimes of sacrilege, 
 the greatest of which was that of holding mock cele- 
 brations of the mysteries, and as for the Herma, it 
 was clear that he had broken them, because the great 
 statue of Hermes near his own house was almost the 
 only one that was untouched. Informers also swore 
 that they had seen him and his friends doing the 
 deed and had recognized them by the bright light of 
 the moon, forgetting in broad daylight that the moon 
 was new on that very night. Alcibiades demanded 
 immediate trial, but his enemies feared the army, for 
 he was beloved by the soldiers, and insisted that he 
 should set sail with his command, yet hold himself 
 ready to stand his trial when called upon to do so. 
 He was obliged to submit to this iniquitous decision, 
 and it being now midsummer, the great fleet set sail 
 
 with solemn pomp and ceremony. 
 
II2 The Rulers of the South 
 
 Before they got under way the sixty men-of-war 
 and the forty transports were drawn up in line at 
 the Pirzus, with all their flags and their standards 
 in the morning sun; and a trumpet call rang out 
 upon ‘the air, high and clear, calling” the hostaas 
 warriors and seamen to offer the last libation and the 
 final prayer. So the gold and silver goblets were 
 filled with purple wine, and the dark red libations 
 stained the dark blue sea, while the orisons of those 
 who were departing and of all those who were gath- 
 ered on the shore went up to the gods together. 
 This being done, they weighed anchor at once, the 
 oars began to swing in time, and the great array 
 went forth upon the calm waters; and the ships 
 raced with each other from the Pirzeus to A‘gina and 
 then steered for Corcyra, where the allies were to 
 muster with transports and provisions. Then, with 
 all the allies, there were a hundred and thirty-four 
 triremes besides two fifty-oared Rhodian galleys, with 
 more than seven thousand fighting men, a noble army 
 and fleet if one considers the size of the Athenian 
 state, but an inadequate force for the conquest of a 
 civilized country having three and a half million of 
 inhabitants. Holm, however, whose authority is gen- 
 erally indisputable, reckons that with the crews of 
 the fighting ships and the necessary number of 
 squires for the heavy-armed soldiers, the whole com- 
 pany must have numbered about thirty-six thousand 
 
The Greeks ot 
 
 souls; and before the war was over Athens had sent 
 more than sixty thousand men and two hundred war- 
 ships to Sicily. Not a ‘single vessel ever returned, 
 and few indeed were the wretched stragglers who 
 found their way back to Greece at last. 
 
 One of the decisive struggles of the world was at 
 
 hand, and there was to be no compromise from first 
 
 
 
 EUCALYPTUS TREES NEAR THE SITE OF SYBARIS 
 
 to last; it was to be fought to the end, and the end 
 was to be destruction. The greatest sea-power in 
 existence was determined to get possession of the 
 richest island in the sea, and the greatest Greek 
 power, the power of the south, was united in self- 
 defence. The news of the coming fight went out and 
 rang along the shores of the Mediterranean and was 
 carried inland by traders and merchants, and the 
 
 VOL, I I 
 
114 The Rulers of the South 
 
 whole civilized ancient world watched the contest with 
 anxiety. 
 
 The Athenian command was divided between three 
 men of entirely different natures, —the slow and obsti- 
 nate Nicias, the boastful and ill-advised Alcibiades, 
 and Lamachus, who was the best soldier of the three 
 but the least influential by his political position. As 
 matters developed, each proposed a different plan, 
 according to his character. 
 
 The Athenian fleet, having met the allies at Corcyra, 
 crossed the narrow part of the Adriatic to the Iapygian 
 headland, and bringing to before one city after another 
 endeavoured to induce the inhabitants to join in a gen- 
 eral movement against Syracuse. But these efforts 
 were vain, and the cities declared that they would 
 afford no help, but would ultimately act in accordance 
 with the decision of the other Greek cities of Italy. 
 Reaching Rhegium, the Athenians were for the first 
 time treated with some friendliness; for though the 
 city would not admit them within its walls, it gave 
 them permission to encamp on the shore without, 
 and to establish a market whither the country people 
 might bring them provisions for sale; and there the 
 whole Athenian force established itself for a time. 
 In the first place three ships were detached from the 
 fleet and sent to Segesta in order to obtain some part 
 of the great sum of money the latter city had prom- 
 ised. To the dismay and disappointment of the 
 
The Greeks 115 
 
 Athenians, the messengers soon returned bringing word 
 that the Segestans could only raise the absurdly small 
 sum of thirty talents. A discussion then arose between 
 the three generals as to the conduct of the war. 
 Nicias, who had been opposed to it from the begin- 
 ning, advocated a naval demonstration against Selinus, 
 during which efforts should be made to extract money 
 from Segesta, failing which the city should at least 
 be forced to provide a large quantity of provisions. 
 These being obtained, he advised that the whole expe- 
 dition should return to Athens. 
 
 Lamachus, who was the practical soldier, said that 
 Syracuse was wholly unprepared for resistance, and 
 that it would be an easy matter to fall upon it unex- 
 pectedly, gain a brilliant victory, and return home with 
 vast spoil and sufficient honour. 
 
 Alcibiades, who was always the evil genius of his 
 country when he did not appear as her deliverer, was 
 bent upon permanent and extensive conquest. With 
 his usual eloquence and with more than accustomed 
 insistence, he addressed the council of war, and pro- 
 posed that before attacking Syracuse, the Sicilian 
 cities should be systematically canvassed in order to 
 secure an overwhelming body of allies for the great 
 undertaking. He proceeded to exhibit the advantages 
 of this course in the most brilliant and attractive light; 
 his momentary great popularity with the troops gave 
 him an unfair advantage over his colleagues, and the 
 
116 The Rulers of the South 
 
 discussion ended in their reluctantly approving his 
 design. 
 
 Had the situation been anything like what he sup- 
 posed it to be, the plan might have succeeded; but 
 he was in reality altogether ignorant of the state of 
 Sicilian feeling. Many Sicilian cities were indeed 
 envious of Syracuse, and the great body of the original 
 Sicelians resented its supremacy; but none desired to 
 fall under the rapacious rule of Athens, and the vast 
 majority would have considered such subjection as 
 calamitous to their country as a Carthaginian conquest. 
 
 The plan of campaign having been decided, a num- 
 ber of ships sailed southward along the Sicilian coast 
 to Naxos and Catania, the only cities which were 
 known to be unchangeably hostile to Syracuse; and 
 Naxos indeed promised the Athenians such assistance 
 as she could give, but in Catania there was a party 
 that favoured the cause of the Syracusans and was 
 strong enough to keep the Athenians out. Thereupon 
 a squadron of ten ships was detached to make a sort 
 of declaration of war in the very harbour of Syracuse, 
 at a time when the appearance of the whole of the 
 Athenian force there might have terminated the war 
 in a week. Instead of this, however, the whole expe- 
 dition returned to Catania and succeeded in seizing 
 that city by a stratagem which caused the Syracusan 
 party to depart secretly and in haste. But nothing 
 of any importance was accomplished, and the hour of 
 
The Greeks 117 
 
 victory was squandered in puerile negotiations with 
 Camarina and other small places. 
 
 At this juncture the Athenian senate, having agreed 
 upon a plan for sentencing Alcibiades to death, sent 
 a ship for him with orders to bring him back to stand 
 his trial. Being fully aware of the danger to which 
 he was exposed, he embarked upon his own vessel, 
 under convoy of the Athenian man-of-war, but clev- 
 erly slipped away from the latter under cover of the 
 night and escaped to Sparta, after which he was in 
 due course sentenced to death, in contumacy; and 
 therewith he disappears from the history of the south, 
 leaving behind him the evil he had done to the Athe- 
 nian cause. 
 
 Nicias and Lamachus being now left together in 
 command, the counsels of the former prevailed, and 
 the whole fleet began to sail round Sicily by the 
 north, striking a blow here and there, taking a few 
 prisoners who were afterwards sold as slaves to raise 
 money, and receiving at last the thirty talents which 
 Segesta was able to give. They sailed on by the 
 west and south, but a large body of the soldiers appear 
 to have crossed the island by land to Catania. So 
 more time was wasted which was of immense advan- 
 tage to the Syracusans for making preparations. 
 
 Two years had passed since the first arrival of the 
 Segestan ambassadors in Athens when the Atheni- 
 ans at last laid formal siege to Syracuse, nearly one- 
 
118 The Rulers of the South 
 
 half of which time had been shamefully wasted on the 
 one hand by the assailants and had been used with 
 great profit by the assailed on the other. Some refer- 
 ence has already been made in these pages to the 
 
 
 
 OLD WELL AT COTRONE 
 
 position of the city and the nature of the land adjoin- 
 ing it, but a more complete description is now neces- 
 sary in order to understand the nature of the great 
 struggle which took place there. 
 
 Let the name of Syracuse mean for us not only the 
 
ihe .Greeks 119 
 
 city as it is, and the five cities that once composed it, 
 or the two, with their suburbs, of which it consisted 
 at the time of the Athenian invasion, but the whole, 
 with the neighbouring land and including both the 
 great and the small harbours; let it take in what the 
 traveller can see below him and around him when he 
 stands on the rampart of Epipole, facing northwards 
 first and then turning by his right till he faces south 
 —one of the most wonderful sites in the whole world, 
 consisting of two small peninsulas of gentle outline 
 and of even height, extending outwards and towards 
 each other like the claws of a crab and enclosing the 
 great harbour between them, with the island of Ortygia 
 across the entrance. The island was the beginning of 
 the city, which was first founded there and afterwards 
 bridged the narrow channel and grew out to Achradina, 
 thence westwards to Tyche and Neapolis, then down 
 through the Lysimeleian swamp and across the Anapus, 
 the swift and silent stream where grows in rich profu- 
 sion the papyrus, extinct in Egypt now and everywhere 
 but here—and up to the Olympieum, due west of the 
 harbour — spreading at last all round Plemmyrium to 
 the sea again, to face its starting-point across the 
 water; and in its great days the whole was fourteen 
 miles round about. But by great catastrophes and 
 again by small degrees, in the alternating haste or 
 slow delay of ruin, it has all shrunk back to the island, 
 
 saving only a few newer buildings just on the mainland 
 
120 The Rulers of the South 
 
 below Achradina; and now it may have come to life 
 once more, to overgrow its long-buried destruction with 
 all the profitable dulness of a modern commercial city. 
 For the history of the south is not ended, and he who 
 gazes at the most magnificent natural harbour in the 
 Mediterranean, and then turns his eyes to the most 
 fertile lands of Italy behind him, and upwards to the 
 mountains stored with rich minerals, and who is able 
 to forget his prejudice and see that though the Sicili- 
 ans are a hot-blooded tribe, prone to use the knife and 
 not averse to bloodshed, they are nevertheless a manly 
 and a hard-handed race, fearing neither danger nor toil 
 —he who judges these things at their value, under- 
 stands that the future holds some good thing for such 
 a country and for such men. Moreover, guessing at 
 what Syracuse was in the past, he can understand also 
 why the Athenians so much coveted it for themselves 
 that they fought for it on the spot for 
 a whole year, to their utter ruin and 
 destruction. 
 
 Of all Sicilian cities, Syracuse was 
 the richest in pure water, and even 
 
 
 
 now, though the old aqueducts are in 
 SYRACUSAN COIN WITH 2 
 THE MEAD OF Aner pare destroyed) sthercausmclUcnms omnes 
 THUSA dance in this respect as few cities 
 would not envy. Arethusa first, the matchless and 
 mysterious spring, rises almost from the sea under 
 
 Ortygia, within the harbour. It is certain that the 
 
The Greeks 121 
 
 water passes in some way under the sea, but whence 
 it comes will perhaps be never known. The Greeks 
 said that it was Alpheius, the river of Arcadia, 
 which plunges into a mountain chasm and disappears 
 from sight. The lonely nymph of the Acroceraunian 
 mountains, chased by the strong river god, sent up a 
 piteous prayer to Artemis and sank beneath the stream; 
 and the goddess brought her back to the sun by the 
 Syracusan bay, and Shelley’s magic voice has sung her 
 song. Science conjectures that the mysterious water 
 rises in the neighbouring hills, in a spur of Thymbris, 
 and, flowing under Achradina, passes below the small 
 harbour and beneath Ortygia to its rising place. We 
 do not surely know, for it is a mystery still, and a won- 
 der. At this spring Nelson watered his fleet when he 
 anchored in the harbour on his way to fight the battle 
 of the Nile. It is well cared for now, and the Syracu- 
 sans have planted the lovely papyrus in the central pool. 
 Then besides Arethusa there were three great aque- 
 ducts, and a fourth, the greatest of all, which draws its 
 water from the higher part of the river Anapus, eigh- 
 teen miles away. Southward, too, in the Plemmyrian 
 peninsula, I myself have explored a part of a great 
 subterranean channel which I do not find mentioned in 
 books, cemented for the flow of abundant water and 
 having openings at intervals for the air; but in some 
 later age this was used as a catacomb, and rough cells 
 were hewn here and there in the walls. It is quite cer- 
 
122 The Rulers of the South 
 
 tain that the united waters that supplied the old city in 
 Greek days would fill a river. 
 
 It would have been strange if the Syracusans had 
 felt much apprehension, after their enemies had wasted 
 so much time in futile excursions along the coast and in 
 objectless waiting in their camp at Catania. Bands of 
 Syracusan riders traversed the country in all directions, 
 and cantering up to the Athenian lines, inquired sar- 
 castically whether their inactive foes had come to re- 
 store the rights of the Leontini or to settle as colonists. 
 At last Nicias decided to act. He began by sending a 
 treacherous message to inform the Syracusans that if 
 they would attack the camp at Catania before sunrise 
 on a certain day, a large number of the Athenians 
 would then be within the city, that the party which 
 favoured Syracuse would shut and hold the gates, and 
 that it would thus be an easy matter to destroy the 
 Athenians who were left in the camp. The Syracusans 
 believed the message and appeared at the appointed 
 time, only to find the camp deserted and the Athenians 
 gone, for they had sailed away on the preceding even- 
 ing and were entering the harbour of Syracuse at the 
 very time when the Syracusan cavalry reached the 
 -empty camp. 
 
 At the last m'™ 1e city was therefore unprepared 
 for the arrival o we armament. The Greeks had 
 already carefully ubserved the harbour when their ten 
 ships had entered it to make the declaration of war, and 
 
The Greeks Loe 
 
 they now took advantage of the knowledge gained on that 
 occasion to establish themselves in a position which was 
 all but impregnable. Without approaching the inner 
 side of Ortygia, they sailed directly across the harbour, 
 landed to the southward of the mouth of the Anapus, 
 and immediately occupied the heights of the Olym- 
 pieum. They then proceeded to beach their vessels 
 upon the sand, and according to the custom of those 
 times erected a strong palisade to protect the ship-yard 
 from a land attack. Finally they destroyed the bridge 
 over the Anapus by which the so-called Helorine road 
 crossed from the swamp to the Olympieum. They thus 
 commanded the principal height in the bay, were at 
 liberty to launch or beach their ships as they pleased, 
 and were protected from the city by the narrow but 
 very deep and rapid stream. They could accept or 
 refuse battle as they pleased. 
 
 The Syracusans were bitterly disappointed to find 
 that the enemy had left Catania, and fearing the worst 
 they rode furiously back to the city. The Athenians 
 were already encamped and intrenched and the bridge 
 was destroyed. Crossing the stream at a higher point, 
 probably on the road to Floridia, the Syracusans rode 
 round the great spring of Kyane,“ skirted the hill of 
 the Olympieum on the west side 1 ney reached the 
 camp. They then endeavoured to tu. ‘the Athenians 
 out to fight, but without success, and naving failed in 
 this first attempt they withdrew, crossed the road that 
 led to Helorus, and bivouacked for the night. 
 
124 The Rulers of the South 
 
 The battle took place on the following day, and Thu- 
 cydides describes it with graphic clearness. The Athe- 
 nians drew up their forces before their camp, taking 
 the centre themselves, with the Argives on the right 
 and the rest of the allies on the left. They divided 
 their forces into two portions, half of which were drawn 
 up in advance, eight deep, while the rest were formed 
 in a hollow square behind them close to the tents. 
 Opposite them, and therefore facing the sea, the Syra- 
 cusans placed their heavy infantry in a line sixteen 
 deep, having their twelve hundred horse on their right 
 towards the Olympieum, and the road, which they had 
 again crossed, being behind them. 
 
 Before the Athenians began the attack, Nicias made 
 a short speech to the soldiers, in which he did not rise 
 above the level of his usual dulness on such occasions. 
 It appears that even at the last moment the Syra- 
 cusans did not really believe that there was to be a bat- 
 tle, and that some of them even rode away to the city 
 to. their homes. Nevertheless, when the time came, 
 they took up their arms and advanced to meet the 
 Athenians. The stone-throwers, slingers, and archers 
 skirmished on each side, driving each other backwards 
 and forwards. Under cover of the heavy infantry the 
 priests in their robes and fillets brought up victims to 
 sacrifice on the field of battle, and at last the trumpets 
 sounded the general charge of the heavy-armed men on 
 each side. So they rushed upon each other, the Syra- 
 
The Greeks 125 
 
 cusans to fight for their lives, their country, and their 
 freedom, the Athenians for the hope of conquest and 
 wholesale robbery. 
 
 The forces met with the shock of heavy arms and 
 fought savagely hand to hand, the Athenians with the 
 coolness and steady fence of veteran soldiers, the Syra- 
 cusans with fitfully furious energy ; and when the com- 
 bat was at its height all along the line the sky grew 
 suddenly dark and a great storm burst upon the field 
 with thunder and lightning and much rain. The expe- 
 rienced Athenians laughed at the tempest, but the Syra- 
 cusans were suddenly chilled and disheartened; the 
 Argives drove in their left wing, the Athenian centre 
 forced back the other, and in a few moments their lines 
 were broken. Yet the Athenians could not pursue 
 them far, for the Syracusan cavalry, which had not suf- 
 fered, charged again and again and held them in check. 
 So they returned to their camp, and collecting the rich- 
 est armour from the slain, set up a trophy after their 
 manner; but the Syracusans, though they had been 
 defeated, retired in good order, and sent a garrison up 
 to the temple of Zeus on the Olympieum to protect the 
 treasure there before they returned to the city. The 
 Athenians, however, made no attack upon the sacred 
 building, and immediately proceeded to burn their dead 
 upon a funeral pile. On the following day, under a 
 truce, they restored to the Syracusans their dead to the 
 number of about two hundred and sixty and collected 
 
126 The Rulers of the South 
 
 the ashes and bones of their own, who numbered not 
 more than fifty; and thereupon they launched their 
 ships again and sailed back to Catania. They spent 
 the rest of the winter there and in Naxos, after ascer 
 taining that Messina was too cold. Nicias seemea 
 incapable of following up an advantage, and moreover 
 it was winter, and the Greeks seemed to have consid- 
 ered it impossible to fight successfully, even in such a 
 climate as that of Sicily, except in the summer months. 
 The consequence was that the Syracusans had ample 
 time to remedy the defects in their organization which 
 had been evident in the first engagement; they elected 
 three competent generals, despatched envoys to Corinth 
 and Sparta, and built a great wall of defence on the 
 mainland between the city and Epipole. They also 
 erected palisades along the beach wherever it was easy 
 to land and built forts at Megara on the north, and on 
 the Olympieum. 
 
 Meanwhile Alcibiades had established himself in 
 Sparta, and was exciting his old enemies the Lace- 
 dzmonians to make a general attack upon Athens, by 
 way of revenging himself for having been unjustly 
 sentenced to death. 
 
 “And now,” he said, addressing the Lacedamonians 
 at the conclusion of a long speech, “I entreat that 
 you may not think the worse of me because I am 
 now strenuously attacking my own country on the side 
 of its bitterest enemies, though I once was called a 
 
The Greeks ly, 
 
 patriot; for though I am an exile from Athens by 
 the villainy of those who banished me, I am not one 
 here, if you will hearken to my words; and the party 
 that was really hostile to me was not you, who only 
 hurt your enemies, but rather they who compelled 
 their friends to become their foes. I was a patriot 
 while I safely enjoyed my civil rights; I am none 
 now, since I am wronged, for I am turning against 
 the land that is still my country, and I am recover- 
 ing that country which is mine no more.” 
 
 The speech was well timed, the man’s reputation in 
 Greece was enormous, and the advice he gave the 
 Spartans was diabolically wise. He planted a thorn 
 in the side of Athens which weakened her resources 
 and hastened her defeat in Sicily, if it did not directly 
 cause it, and he taught his former fellow-citizens and 
 present enemies to believe that he alone could save 
 them from destruction; and besides following his advice 
 in other respects the Spartans deliberated with Corinth 
 about sending help to the Sicilians. Meanwhile, the 
 Athenians had sent a trireme to Athens, asking for 
 money and for cavalry, without which they felt unable 
 to meet the Syracusans on equal terms; and when 
 the spring was come, the Athenian force did some 
 damage to the Sicilian crops near Syracuse, but gained 
 no signal advantage. Athens sent them money, but 
 only sent two hundred and fifty horsemen, without 
 horses, supposing that they could be mounted in Sicily. 
 
128 The Rulers of the South 
 
 They afterwards got about four hundred more cavalry 
 from Segesta and Naxos, and from the Sicelians. 
 The Syracusans had in the meantime finished their 
 wall, completely enclosing the city with its suburbs 
 towards Epipole, from the harbour to the sea on the 
 north, and taking in the theatre, the ridge above it, and 
 the quarter called Temenites, from a portion of it sacred 
 to Apollo, as well as the extensive inhabited suburb 
 called Tyche, the whole being a gigantic piece of 
 work, but extremely necessary for defence. It must 
 have followed very nearly the modern road by which 
 one drives from the esplanade northwards, and out 
 of which, to the right, the narrower road leads, at 
 right angles, to the Latomia dei Cappuccini. The 
 Syracusans knew that when they were at last besieged 
 the Athenians would attempt a systematic circumvalla- 
 tion, and try to blockade them by land and sea and 
 starve them out; for in those days of small armies, 
 the besiegers rarely ran the risk of losing a number 
 of men in an assault. The Carthaginians alone, who 
 did not fight themselves, but employed mercenaries 
 altogether, sacrificed men with the recklessness famil- 
 iar in modern warfare. From the great wall they 
 had built, the Syracusans hoped to throw out counter- 
 walls at right angles to westward, so as to hinder the 
 Athenian works. Before the siege was over the Syra- 
 cusans alone had built seven and a half miles of 
 fortified stone wall, a fact which gives some insight 
 
The Greeks 129 
 
 attack and defence. But 
 even after building the first great wall, the Syracusans 
 
 into ancient methods of 
 
 saw that it was more or less commanded by the still 
 
 ND AW Wi itl. . 
 
 / tt vill Sf 
 NS li ki i lil i la Wil i 
 
 uryaluS Papdalum a 
 
 { 
 
 sill 
 
 ow 
 
 Ny 
 
 
 
 Neo 
 
 
 
 SYRACUSE Le) Wore aw wS yy 
 } 41) HW OM Ze GA 
 B.C. 414-138. "5 / 
 
 ayy wo 
 
 eum sh 
 City 
 
 i} 
 VY) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 AA. Wall of Gee gia. 
 
 EF. First section of intrench- 
 BBB. Wall of outer city. ments. 
 BCD. Wall enclosing all the FG. Upper section of  in- 
 suburbs. trenchments, 
 Ii. First counter-wall. 
 
 J. Third counter-wall. 
 I. Second counter-wall. 
 
 higher ground of Epipolze, which means the upper 
 town, and they selected for the defence of that place 
 
 a band of six hundred chosen heavy-armed men, who 
 VOL. I 
 
 K 
 
130 The Rulers of the South 
 
 afterwards distinguished themselves in many feats of 
 courage. 
 
 The siege now began in earnest. The Athenians 
 did not bring their fleet into Syracuse at first, but 
 anchored in the small but safe natural harbour of 
 Thapsus, just north of the Syracusan promontory, and 
 surprised Epipole while the Syracusans were review- 
 ing their troops in the meadow below. After some 
 desperate fighting, in which the leader of the six hun- 
 dred was killed, the Athenians remained in possession 
 of the high ground, whence they descended after the 
 usual truce for burying the dead, and offered battle 
 before the new wall. But the Syracusans would not 
 face them, and the Athenians then proceeded to 
 fortify the heights, constructing a storehouse there 
 for their baggage and money. They had previously 
 provided themselves with an immense supply of bricks 
 and building tools, which they brought up from Thap- 
 sus, and the road they built, some of which is hewn 
 in the rock, is still distinctly traceable. They hastened 
 to begin the tedious work of circumvallation by con- 
 structing a circular fort of which the nearest point 
 was about half a mile from the Syracusan wall. Not 
 a trace remains of those works. The fort was in- 
 tended as a starting-point from which to build a 
 fortification north and south. Such was the extraor- 
 dinary rapidity with which they worked that the 
 Syracusans hastily determined upon a sally that 
 
The Greeks 131 
 
 ended in a cavalry engagement on the broken ground, 
 in which the Athenians ultimately succeeded in bring- 
 ing up a detachment of infantry and got the better 
 of the fight. 
 
 It was but a small affair, however, and the Athenians 
 had no sooner begun to build their wall northwards 
 from the central point, at’ the same time collecting 
 stones, lumber, and other material along the _pro- 
 _ jected line, than the Syracusans set to work to 
 build a counter-work due west in order to intersect 
 that of the Athenians. The Athenian fleet being still 
 at Thapsus, the Athenians were obliged to bring up 
 their provisions and materials from that place to Epi- 
 pole by land. . The Athenians next succeeded in cut- 
 ting off at least one of the aqueducts which supplied 
 the city with water. Then, one day, when the Syra- 
 cusans had completed their first counter-wall and 
 had retired within their tents during the noonday 
 heat, some having even returned to the city, the 
 Athenians suddenly sent a strong picked force at 
 full speed to seize the counter-wall, moving up the 
 rest of their army in two divisions at the same time. 
 The counter-wall appears to have been at first lightly 
 constructed as a sort of stockade with stones heaped 
 up against it, and the Athenian advance guard had 
 no difficulty in taking possession of it and in tearing 
 it down. The Athenians then carried off the material 
 to their own lines and erected a trophy, which they 
 
132 The Rulers of the South 
 
 did on every occasion when they had obtained the 
 smallest advantage. Works and counter-works were 
 now carried on with the greatest energy for some 
 days, and when the Athenians considered that their 
 works were sufficient they ordered their fleet to sail 
 round from Thapsus into the great harbour, whither 
 they themselves descended, crossing the swamp in 
 the firmest part by laying planks upon the mud. 
 And here again a short and bloody engagement was 
 fought near the river Anapus, and the Syracusans 
 succeeded in driving in the picked three hundred of 
 the Athenian van, which produced something like a 
 panic among the heavy-armed troops upon whom 
 they fell back. Lamachus, seeing the danger, came 
 up at full speed with a few archers and a body of 
 Argives, crossed a ditch, and being followed only by 
 a few men, was surrounded and killed, the Syra- 
 cusans carrying off his body in triumph just as the 
 main Athenian force came up. 
 
 Seeing from a distance that the Athenians had lost 
 the bravest and most energetic of their officers, those 
 of the Syracusans who had at first been driven back 
 to the city took heart and came back to charge the 
 Athenians once more, and destroyed a thousand feet 
 of a new outwork built by the enemy upon the 
 heights of Epipole. But within the lines Nicias him- 
 self lay ill, and he at once ordered his attendants to 
 set fire to all the timber collected at that point so as 
 
The Greeks 133 
 
 to defend himself by a wall of flame, for he had no 
 soldiers with him. So the Syracusans withdrew 
 as the Athenians were bringing up reénforcements. 
 At that moment the fleet from Thapsus entered the 
 great harbour, and the whole Syracusan army imme- 
 diately retired into the city. 
 
 Matters now looked very badly for the besieged. 
 The Athenians continued their works unhindered, and 
 built a double wall down to the harbour not far from 
 the city gate. From all parts of Italy provisions 
 began to arrive in great quantities, and the Sicelians, 
 seeing that the invaders were getting the advantage, 
 offered themselves as allies. The Syracusans had 
 received no answer from Sparta, and supposing them- 
 selves deserted by their friends lost hope altogether, 
 for they were completely cut off from the mainland 
 by the circumvallation, and the Athenian fleet had 
 destroyed their communications by sea. They began 
 to discuss terms of capitulation, and to treat with 
 Nicias, who held the sole command after the death 
 of Lamachus. There was confusion within the city, 
 they had lost confidence in their generals and chose 
 others, they were entirely dependent upon Arethusa 
 for their water, which therefore had to be carried 
 nearly three miles to supply the furthest extremity of 
 Achradina, and it was clear that before long there 
 would be a scarcity of provisions. 
 
 But at the very moment when despair was settling 
 
134 The Kulerstor thes south 
 
 upon the Syracusans help was at hand. The Spartans 
 had despatched Gylippus to the aid of the beleaguered 
 city, and he was already off the Italian coast. Hewasa 
 man of brilliant resources and untiring energy, a most 
 complete contrast in mind and character to the hesi- 
 tating but obstinate Nicias who was soon to be his 
 opponent. The latter had heard of his expedition and 
 looked upon him with scorn, considering him to be 
 rather a pirate than a general, for he had only about 
 fifteen ships and no great number of soldiers. But 
 he possessed in abundance the military genius which 
 was wholly lacking in Nicias, and nothing else was 
 necessary to turn the fortunes of war. 
 
 After experiencing violent storms and being obliged 
 to refit in Tarentum, instead of making directly for 
 Syracuse, by which course he would probably have 
 been obliged to fight the Athenians at sea, he sailed 
 round by the north and picked up considerable auxil- 
 lary forces in Himera, Selinus, and Gela. Meanwhile 
 Corinth had sent more ships, and the one which put 
 to sea last of all, but was the fastest sailor, reached 
 Syracuse first, just in time to prevent the Syracusans 
 from capitulating. Gylippus appears to have left his 
 ships either at Himera or at Gela. By forced marches 
 and with less than three thousand men he arrived 
 suddenly under the heights of Epipole. The Syra- 
 cusans meanwhile came out in force and effected a 
 junction with the army of rescue. A better general 
 
The Greeks 135 
 
 than Nicias would have prevented the enemy from 
 obtaining such an advantage, and it proved his ruin. 
 The united forces now seized the heights, and the 
 Athenians formed to give them battle. Gylippus sent 
 forward a herald with a daring message to the Athe- 
 nians. They might choose, he said, whether they would 
 depart from Sicily within five days or remain where 
 they were and fight to an issue. The Athenians 
 returned no answer and sent the herald back with 
 contempt. Nicias had chosen, and his choice had 
 fallen upon his own destruction. Gylippus boldly 
 seized the Athenian fort on the height and slew the 
 garrison, and on the same day the Syracusans cap- 
 tured one of the Athenian triremes. The Syracusans 
 then set to work upon building an enormous wall, over 
 two miles in length, from the city right across Epipole, 
 thus effectually shutting off the Athenians from the 
 sea on the north side. 
 
 Nicias now made that mistake which has been con- 
 sidered to be his greatest by military men. He wasted 
 time and labour in fortifying the Plemmyrium, south 
 of the great harbour, and he transferred thither the 
 greater part of his stores, regardless of the scanty water 
 supply in the newly occupied region. By this time 
 also the other Corinthian vessels were known to be 
 rapidly approaching, so that Nicias was obliged to 
 send out twenty armed vessels to cruise in search of 
 his assailants. 
 
136 = “The -Kulers ot “the south 
 
 Gylippus experienced a slight reverse, for he at- 
 tacked the Athenians in the narrow space between 
 their works and his, where the Syracusan cavalry 
 had no room to manceuvre and was consequently 
 useless. Once more the Syracusans were driven back 
 with slaughter, and the Athenians erected another 
 trophy. Undaunted by this check, however, Gylippus 
 rallied his men with an energetic speech, continued 
 the works actively, and waited for a more favourable 
 opportunity. It was not long in coming. Gylippus 
 succeeded in giving battle in the broad space where 
 the works connected with both walls ended; the 
 Syracusan cavalry charged the Athenian flank at 
 furious speed, while the heavy infantry engaged the 
 centre. The Athenians were completely routed, and 
 during the night that followed the whole Syracusan 
 force worked at the wall. In the morning it had 
 reached the Athenian works and crossed them, and 
 all hope of completely investing the city was lost. 
 
 Fortune now favoured the Syracusans in every way. 
 The Corinthian vessels eluded the flying squadron 
 which Nicias had sent out to cruise for them, and 
 entered the harbour unexpectedly, before the Athe- 
 nians could get ships under way to oppose them. Reén- 
 forced by the arrival of these allies, the Syracusans 
 completed their works, and began to get their own 
 ships ready for sea and to exercise their crews. Gylip- 
 pus then made a journey through Sicily to raise more 
 
The Greeks 137 
 
 troops and money from the friendly cities, and sent 
 messages to Sparta and Corinth asking for further 
 help, for the Athenians were sending to Athens to 
 make a similar request. 
 
 Indeed, the letter written by Nicias and read aloud 
 in Athens by the secretary of state is a confession of 
 powerlessness, if not of defeat, and is, moreover, a sin- 
 gularly honest statement of the situation; for he frankly 
 says therein that from being the besieger he was be- 
 come the besieged, that his ships were leaky and could 
 neither be beached nor hove down for caulking, in the 
 face of the enemy’s fleet; that it was becoming ex- 
 tremely difficult and dangerous to get supplies of food, 
 either from Italy or the island, and that he himself was 
 almost helpless from nephritis. 
 
 Both parties, Corinth and Sparta on the one hand, 
 and Athens on the other, responded in the most liberal 
 way to these appeals. The Athenians sent ten ships at 
 once, and sixty later on under Demosthenes, with sev- 
 eral thousand men; and Gylippus having raised large 
 reénforcements in Sicily, the armies on both sides 
 began to assume formidable proportions. At this time, 
 Demosthenes not having yet arrived, Gylippus planned 
 an engagement which, though only in part successful, 
 ultimately decided the fortunes of the war. A part of 
 the Syracusan fleet lay in the small harbour outside of 
 Ortygia and north of it; the rest were anchored in the 
 great harbour within a sort of defence made by driving 
 
138 The Rulers of the South 
 
 huge piles into the bottom, leaving about twenty feet pro- 
 jecting above water, witha narrow entrance. The leader 
 determined upon a general battle, by land and sea; the 
 two divisions of the Syracusan fleet were to sail round 
 the opposite sides of Ortygia and effect a junction at 
 the mouth of the harbour, where the Athenian ships 
 would of course meet them, and, as Gylippus hoped, 
 would be caught between them and easily destroyed. 
 Meanwhile, he himself intended to march his army 
 round the bay and storm the forts on Plemmyrium. 
 It was clear that if both movements succeeded, the 
 Athenians would be caught in the harbour like mice, 
 with no possibility of escape. 
 
 The operation began under cover of the night, of 
 course, and the engagement opened at daybreak. The 
 Athenians, warned, perhaps, of their danger, succeeded 
 in getting thirty-five ships out of the harbour in time to 
 engage the outer Syracusan division in open water, 
 while, with twenty-five more, the inner squadron of the 
 Syracusans was kept at bay. The outer squadron 
 forced its way through the Athenian ships, instead of 
 driving them in, or sinking them, and was caught, as 
 they should have been. The fighting continued in the 
 harbour, and eleven of the Syracusans vessels were 
 sunk and most of their crews killed. The remainder 
 of the fleet withdrew inside the stockade of piles, badly 
 damaged. The Athenians only lost three vessels. 
 Nevertheless, the result of the day was a victory for 
 
The Greeks 139 
 
 Syracuse. Gylippus had carried out his plan on land 
 without a check. He had seized Plemmyrium, with its 
 three forts, its vast stores of grain and lumber, and the 
 considerable treasure which was deposited there. He 
 razed one of the forts to the ground and placed strong 
 garrisons in the other two. The Syracusans now held 
 every point, all round the bay, from the city to Plem- 
 myrium, the Athenians were driven back to their old 
 camp below the Olympieum, opposite the entrance of 
 the harbour, and, being completely hemmed in by land, 
 were obliged to fight their way in and out of the har- 
 bour in order to maintain communications and receive 
 supplies. Their destruction was now clearly a ques- 
 tion of time. 
 
 They exerted every energy to prevent the safe arri- 
 val of the Corinthian reénforcements, and made des- 
 perate attempts to destroy the ships anchored within 
 the stockade. To this end they moved up to it one of 
 their largest ships, a vessel of ten thousand talents’ 
 burden, equal to about two hundred and fifty tons by 
 our measurement, fitted with cranes and windlasses 
 that were protected by armoured screens; and making 
 fast ropes to the piles as far below water as possible, 
 they hove them out and towed them away. There 
 were divers among the Athenians who, for a reward, 
 went down with saws and sawed some of the piles off 
 at such a depth that the stumps could not injure the 
 vessels; and the Syracusans had also:purposely driven 
 
140 The Rulers of the South 
 
 in stakes in certain places, below the surface, that the 
 Athenian ships might run upon them, but these also 
 the divers succeeded in sawing away. Now no man 
 can work at sawing below water for more than thirty 
 or forty seconds at a time without coming up for 
 breath, so that the divers must have worked many 
 hours, and perhaps a whole day, at cutting through a 
 single pile. The Syracusans, however, were not slow 
 to replace those which the Athenians removed or de- 
 stroyed, and the latter gained no advantage in that 
 way, while the difficulty of obtaining provisions in- 
 creased daily, and the malarious fever caused by the 
 Lysimeleian swamp in the summer months made rav- 
 ages in the Athenian camp. 
 
 At this juncture the fleet commanded by Demos- 
 thenes appeared off Syracuse in magnificent array. 
 Seventy-three galleys sailed down in even order, their 
 signals streaming on the wind, their richly adorned 
 and painted bows rising high above the blue water, 
 From the decks gleamed the shields and helmets of 
 five thousand heavy-armed men, and as they neared 
 Ortygia, soldiers and seamen raised the song of war and 
 the loud Grecian trumpets blared out triumphant notes. 
 
 Demosthenes intended to terrify the Syracusans by 
 making all the display of military and naval power of 
 which he could dispose, and the Syracusans almost lost 
 heart again at the approach of a new host of enemies. 
 As soon as Demosthenes had landed he proposed to 
 
The Greeks 141 
 
 Nicias to make a general attack by sea and land, and 
 if his advice had been taken, a signal success might 
 
 have been gained. But Nicias had grown timid and 
 
 was broken down by illness, and Plutarch even says 
 
 
 
 STREET OF ANCIENT TOMBS, SYRACUSE 
 
 that he had an understanding with certain traitors in 
 Syracuse, who advised him to wait patiently, as the 
 inhabitants were weary of the war and of the exact- 
 ing energy of Gylippus, and would soon begin to 
 
142 The Rulers of the South 
 
 dispute among themselves. But Demosthenes in- 
 spired the Athenians with courage and at last suc- 
 ceeded in carrying his point. He determined to make 
 a night attack upon Epipole, and taking the guards 
 by surprise he slew a great number and was hasten- 
 ing on, supposing that he had carried the position, 
 when he suddenly came upon the Bceotian detach- 
 ment, which was already under arms. Uttering their 
 tremendous war-cry, they closed up with levelled 
 spears and charged the Athenians with the force of 
 a solid mass. The young moon was hastening to her 
 setting, and shed an uncertain light. The wildest 
 confusion fell upon the Athenians as they fled in dis- 
 order, or attacked each other, unable to distinguish 
 their friends from their foes. The faint moonlight, 
 reflected upon the gleaming shields of the Syracusans 
 and upon their glittering arms, made them appear ten 
 times more numerous, and as the victorious force pre- 
 served its compact order, shoulder to shoulder, every 
 soldier knew that he had only foes before him and 
 friends behind, every thrust went home and every 
 blade was dyed in Athenian blood. Many, in their 
 flight, fell from the low cliffs and were killed, a few 
 lost themselves in the fields beyond Epipole while 
 attempting to escape, and as the dawn lightened, the 
 Syracusan horse scoured the country and cut down 
 every straggler. Between midnight and morning two 
 thousand Athenians had perished. 
 
The Greeks 143 
 
 Nicias had expected nothing better, but yet he would 
 not hear of a general retreat, and Demosthenes, hav- 
 ing failed in his first enterprise, attempted no further 
 action for some time. At last, as fresh reénforcements 
 strengthened the Syracusan army, Nicias reluctantly 
 consented to withdraw and gave the order to embark 
 the troops. But on that very night, the moon, being 
 full, was totally eclipsed, and not only Nicias himself, 
 but all the Greeks with him, were paralyzed with fear 
 by what they considered a terrific portent. After con- 
 sulting a diviner, Nicias declared that the army could 
 not embark until the moon had completed another 
 revolution. He was approaching his destruction, and 
 even nature seemed to conspire with ill fortune to 
 ruin him. In total inactivity he passed his time in 
 sacrificing to the gods, while his diviner consulted the 
 auguries presented by the victims. His ships lay idly 
 at anchor, their seams opening under the blazing sun; 
 his disheartened soldiers made no attempt to prevent 
 the Syracusans from hemming them in; hundreds 
 died of the malarial sickness spread by the pestilen- 
 tial swamp. The Syracusan fishermen and boatmen 
 pulled out to the men-of-war and jeered at them, offer- 
 ing them fight. A boy, Heraclides, the son of a great 
 Syracusan house, ventured in a skiff close under an 
 Athenian vessel that was unmoored, and reviled the 
 captain amid the laughter of the other boys. Furious 
 at being insulted by a child, the officer manned the 
 
144 The Rulers of the South 
 
 oars and gave chase. Instantly ten Sicilian galleys, 
 now always ready for fight, put out to save the lad, 
 others followed, and a sharp engagement ensued in 
 which the Syracusans did considerable damage to the 
 Athenian vessels and slew a general and a number of 
 men. 
 
 The Syracusans lost no time in completely blocking 
 the entrance of- the- harbour, after this successmane 
 Nicias was reluctantly driven to fight where starvation 
 and death by fever were the only alternatives. He 
 embarked the best of his heavy infantry, and chosen 
 detachments of archers and spearmen, manning a 
 hundred and ten vessels, and he marshalled the rest 
 of his army on the shore to await the event. 
 
 It was the end. The swift Syracusan ships pulled 
 out in wide order, provided with their catapults, and 
 with vast numbers of stones which could be dis- 
 charged with terrible effect at short range, and against 
 which the Athenians had no missiles but darts and 
 arrows. The Athenian fleet was so crowded together 
 that the ships could barely advance, and were unable 
 to execute any manceuvre; the Syracusans, on the con- 
 trary, could charge, turn, and retire as they pleased; 
 from the shore and from the city a hundred thousand 
 spectators watched the struggle for life or death. 
 Driven together upon each other, rammed and bat- 
 tered by their assailants, the Athenian ships sank one 
 by one with the living and the dead together, and 
 
The Greeks 145 
 
 as the sun declined to the west what had been a 
 battle became but a universal massacre; at evening 
 the Athenian fleet was totally destroyed, and no alter- 
 native remained for the survivors ashore but to cut 
 their way through the Syracusan lines in a hopeless 
 attempt to escape by land. Gylippus would have 
 fallen upon them in their camp without delay, but 
 the Syracusans, in wild rejoicing at their great vic- 
 tory, could not be induced to postpone a universal 
 feast. Hermocrates, however, whose counsels and 
 ready wit had helped his countrymen throughout the 
 war, sent a treacherous message to Nicias, warning 
 him that every pass was held and every point of the 
 works completely manned, and he was deceived and 
 waited for the morning. Then indeed the Syracusans, 
 having feasted and rested, went out and held the 
 whole line during all that day and the following 
 night. At last the Athenians, still forty thousand 
 strong, began to move, going up from their camp 
 with tears and loud lamentations, and leaving their 
 sick and wounded behind them. They broke a pas- 
 sage through the lines indeed, but the whole Syra- 
 cusan force was upon them, flanking them continually, 
 following them, and slaying them like sheep as they 
 struggled hopelessly and almost without food through 
 the valley towards Floridia. Eight days the massacre 
 lasted, until there was no hope, and the remnant of 
 the greatest army of that age surrendered uncondi- 
 
 VOL. I L 
 
146 The Rulers of the South 
 
 tionally to Spartan Gylippus. Some say that Demos- 
 thenes and Nicias killed themselves, and this is more 
 likely, but others say that the Syracusans stoned them 
 to death. Then the Syracusans dressed those tall 
 trees that still grow by the river for miles, with 
 the arms of their fallen foes, making blood-stained 
 trophies all the way; and they plucked leaves and 
 autumn flowers and made themselves garlands for 
 their helmets and adorned their horses too; and thus 
 marched back in a glorious triumph, driving their 
 prisoners before them; for the war was over, and of 
 all the vast armament that had come against Syracuse 
 not one vessel was ever to return to Greece, and not 
 one man had escaped to bear arms or to lift a hand 
 against the victorious city, but all were dead or slaves. 
 There was not even one to bring the frightful news to 
 Athens, and it was late in the autumn when a travel- 
 ling merchant carelessly told the story to a barber 
 in the Pirzus, supposing that all Greece knew it. 
 Thus ended the great Athenian expedition, and thus 
 was Alcibiades revenged. 
 
 Forty thousand men had left the Athenian camp to 
 begin the retreat. After the battle about seven thou- 
 sand prisoners remained alive. They suffered a hideous 
 condemnation ; let any one who wishes to understand 
 their fortunes go down into the great quarries of Syra- 
 cuse and see for himself; for, saving that the quarries 
 
 are larger now than they were then and full of trees 
 

 
“* 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
The Greeks 147 
 
 and flowers, they are the same in their shape and in 
 their appalling isolation. They are still called the 
 Latomie, the ‘ places of stone cutting,’ and the tale of 
 what once happened in them is told still, handed down 
 perhaps without a break, through the changing genera- 
 tions of many races of inhabitants, Greeks, Romans, 
 Saracens, Normans, Spaniards, and Italians. They are 
 situated on an irregular line which leads eastward from 
 the one nearest to the theatre, across Achradina to the 
 last and most extensive of all, called the Latomia dei 
 Cappuccini, which is very near the sea. In all that 
 region the soil is thin but very rich, and below it the 
 yellowish white stone lies in a solid mass, perhaps hun- 
 dreds of feet deep. Straight down from the surface 
 the stone has been quarried to a depth of from eighty 
 to a hundred feet, making sheer walls of rock on every 
 side, so that the only means of descent is by wooden 
 ladders, and neither man nor beast can scale the height 
 without help from above. Below, it is all an enchanted 
 garden now; two thousand and three hundred years ago 
 it was a bare quarry of white stone, strewed with stone 
 chips and stone dust. By day the sun beat down into 
 it, with the glare of the unpitying sky, and was reflected 
 from its sides, and the rock radiated an intolerable heat; 
 at evening the upper air, suddenly chilled at sunset, 
 rushed down and filled it with an icy dampness. A 
 furnace in summer, bitterly cold in winter, a fever hole 
 
 in the autumn rains, a hell at all times save in spring, 
 
148 The Rulers of the South 
 
 the Syracusans found it ready to their hand to be a 
 place of torture and death for their beaten enemies. 
 Therefore they let them down into it by the cranes that 
 
 
 
 PATH UNDER ROCKS, LATOMIA DEI CAPPUCCINI, SYRACUSE 
 
 served to lift the stone, being seven thousand men in 
 all; and lest it should be said that they had starved 
 prisoners to death, they sent down to them rations, for 
 
 every man half a pint of water every day, or very little 
 
The Greeks 149 
 
 more, and twice as much of raw barley or other grain ; 
 and this was only half the measure of food that was 
 given to common slaves in those days, and the slaves 
 had water in abundance. 
 
 Now among the miserable captives there were many 
 who had been wounded in the last fight and had been 
 taken alive, and these suffered less, for they died first, 
 of their injuries and of fever. But the strong and the 
 well lived on in torment, and the bodies of the dead lay 
 in the quarry among the living, and the poison of death 
 made the air horrible to breathe, so that mortal sickness 
 fell upon the strongest, and they died daily, while each 
 dead man became a new source of pestilence. Ten weeks 
 long they died, and yet they were not all dead; and 
 when the sun was declining, and the people of Syracuse 
 went out to taste the sea breeze, many came and stood 
 at the edge of the quarry, on the windward side, lest 
 their nostrils should be offended, and looked down at 
 men who were rotting alive, all that remained of the 
 great Athenian army, men who were not men, but halt- 
 clad skeletons, scarce moving or breathing between the 
 heaps of shapeless corpses that had been their friends. 
 And the fine ladies of Syracuse held little vials of scent 
 to their noses and leaned upon their slaves’ arms, and 
 looked down curiously; for the Athenians had been 
 handsome men. 7 
 
 When seventy days had gone by, the Syracusans 
 took out those of the living who were not Athenians, 
 
150 The Rulers of the South 
 
 and sold them for slaves, many being not worth a day’s. 
 purchase; but they left the Athenians to suffer a little 
 longer, and when at last they brought them up, they 
 heated branding-irons red hot, and branded them all in 
 the forehead with the mark of the Syracusan horse, and 
 sold them as slaves for the public benefit. Yet amid so 
 much shadow of cruelty there is one redeeming light. 
 The Syracusans loved the verses of the tragic poet 
 Euripides above all other poetry, and in the great 
 theatre, carved with its high ranks of seats from the 
 solid rock in the hollow side of the mountain, they had 
 been used to sit enthralled and listen to the ‘Medea’ 
 and the ‘ Alcestis’ and the other great plays, through 
 long summer afternoons, when the sun was_ behind 
 them, and behind the mountains. Among the Athenian 
 captives there were many who could repeat and sing 
 long passages from Euripides’ plays; and these men 
 were favoured far above the others when they were 
 sold as slaves, so that some of them were even freed for 
 the poet's sake, and long afterwards went back and 
 found him and thanked him, branded though they were, 
 for life and liberty. Nothing we know of to tell, and 
 no story thata man might build up with the material 
 of imagination, could show as this does the difference 
 between that age and ours. There was divinity in the 
 poet then, and his inspiration was from a god, deserving 
 to be worshipped and revered as a heavenly gift; and 
 those who had skill to sing his words, as he would 
 
The Greeks 151 
 
 have them sung, were sharers in his genius and blessed 
 with a talent half divine, which others recognized and 
 loved. 
 
 There is a sort of taste in nations which belongs to 
 their young days, when they have not done their best, a 
 
 living and creative taste that is closely akin to hope 
 
 
 
 Ai Gin 
 [ OLD WELL IN THE LATOMIA DEI 
 CAPPUCCINI, SYRACUSE 
 
 and aspiration; and there is another sort that comes 
 with decadence and is satisfied more with the past than 
 with the present or the future, that knows neither the 
 elation of hope nor the satisfaction that lies in creation, 
 but which is easily cast down, sad, self-tormenting, 
 and as often a source of pain as of pleasure. So the 
 degenerate Sybarite writhed upon a ruffled rose leaf 
 
152 The Rulers of the South 
 
 and ached at the sight of a man digging hard ground, 
 and thé modern exquisite utters poor little cries of 
 distress at the sound of a false note or the glare of a 
 false colour. 
 
 In those days Sicily was in the stronger, brighter, 
 earlier stage of life, and it would have asserted itself in 
 a vast artistic productiveness after the failure of the 
 Athenian invasion, if that event had been followed by a 
 period of peace. The first impulse of the Syracusans 
 and of the other free Greek cities of Sicily was to build 
 temples and to raise up statues to the gods, in grati- 
 tude for the greatest victory ever won by Greeks over 
 Greeks; and as peace followed war, and plenty grew 
 up where famine had followed the destruction of crops, 
 the hearts of the people were lightened and the song of 
 rejoicing filled the land. While the law-givers they 
 chose at home were occupied in framing a code that 
 would not disgrace a modern civilization, Sicilian fleets 
 and Sicilian soldiers sailed eastward to the islands and 
 even to the shores of Asia Minor, paying back war 
 with war, allied with the Peloponnesians for the final 
 destruction of Athens, the common enemy, and bringing 
 home shiploads of treasure and booty. Could this 
 condition of things have lasted, there is no telling to 
 what heights the prosperity of Sicily might have risen 
 in a few years. But the old causes were at work to 
 produce new disasters ; the Athenians had invaded the 
 
 island ostensibly to rignt the wiongs inflicted upon 
 
The Greeks 153 
 
 Segesta by Selinus and on Leontini by Syracuse; in 
 the terrific struggle with Syracuse, Selinus had been 
 more than half forgotten, and one year’s crop had not 
 been sown and reaped before those very circumstances 
 renewed themselves which had led to the destruction of 
 a great fleet and of sixty thousand men. The Selinun- 
 tians fancied that since Athens had fallen they could 
 harass their old enemies at their pleasure, and boldly 
 crossing the border they made havoc of the Segestan 
 country. Now the land subject to Segesta lay in a 
 broad tract between the Phoenician colonies of Panormus 
 and of Lilybaum, and a free and safe passage across 
 was essential to the commerce of both, the distance 
 by sea being far greater and the voyage not always 
 free from danger. It was therefore to the interest of 
 Carthage that Segesta, which had always been friendly 
 to her, should not be overrun by the Selinuntians who 
 had always been her enemies, and when Segesta ap- 
 pealed to her for help as it had appealed to Athens 
 some six years earlier, a ready assistance was granted on 
 interested grounds. The despatching of a few thousand 
 men to help the oppressed state had the natural result 
 of sending Selinus to Syracuse for assistance in its turn, 
 and Syracuse promised it readily, not dreaming of the 
 magnitude of the undertaking. Carthage, mindful 
 of the ignominious defeat suffered at the hands of 
 the Syracusans in Himera seventy years earlier, and 
 
 dreading lest, since Athens was fallen, Syracuse should 
 
154 The Rulers of the South 
 
 obtain the empire of the Mediterranean, put forth all 
 her strength and began to raise an enormous army. 
 In the spring of the year 409 B.c. sixty Carthagin- 
 ian men-of-war convoyed no less than fifteen hundred 
 small vessels from Carthage to Lilybeum, carrying 
 an army of something like two hundred thousand 
 foot-soldiers and four thousand cavalry, together with 
 an immense supply of war material and siege engines. 
 At the head of this formidable force was the grand- 
 son of Hamilcar, who had perished in his own sacri- 
 fice at Himera. This was Hannibal, the second of 
 the name who appears in history, and who is said to 
 have sworn a solemn oath to avenge his grandsire. 
 Landing on the headland of Lilybzeum, he at once 
 began to lay waste the country, and moving rapidly 
 forwards, attacked Selinus itself with all the energy 
 which Nicias had lacked. He fell upon the city from 
 the north; six iron-headed battering rams were brought 
 to make a breach in the walls, six lofty towers, which 
 overtopped the fortifications, slung masses of stone 
 into the city, while slingers and archers picked off the 
 defenders one by one. Nevertheless, the people de- 
 fended themselves courageously, trusting to the speedy 
 arrival of help from Syracuse. The young men fought, 
 the old provided them with fresh weapons and mis- 
 siles, and the women brought food and drink to the 
 combatants. But Hannibal promised the soldiers the 
 whole plunder of the city, and the siege was prose- 
 
The Greeks 155 
 
 cuted with surprising energy. The men fought in 
 watches and by turns, marching up to relieve each 
 other with trumpet call and war-cry. Day and night 
 the battering rams, hanging in their frames by iron 
 chains, pounded the walls with the sound of unceas- 
 ing thunder. A breach was broken, and Hannibal’s 
 Campanian mercenaries charged in; but as their need 
 grew greater the defenders fought more desperately, 
 and the first attack was repulsed with frightful 
 slaughter. Messengers rode for life and death to 
 Akragas and Gela and Syracuse, bearing the news of 
 their city’s supreme need. But it was too late. 
 The battering rams still pounded at the wall, and 
 Saumethe catapults hurled huge- stones from the 
 towers; the breach was widened and held by the 
 enemy, while still the defenders fought like madmen 
 and looked eastward for help through nine long days. 
 Driven back from the breach at last, as a great cry 
 of woe went up from their women, they defended 
 themselves to the end. They threw up barricades of 
 stones, fighting from street to street; the old men, 
 the wounded, the women and the children, climbed to 
 the roofs and dashed down stones and tiles upon the 
 Carthaginians. But at last it was over and the city 
 was won. Then fire and the sword did the rest, for 
 Hannibal knew his men and kept his word and gave 
 them their hearts’ desire. Slaying every living thing 
 they met, they broke into every house, flung the booty 
 
156 The Rulérs*of the South 
 
 into the streets, and set each dwelling on fire before they 
 left the door. The soldiers paraded the streets, bearing 
 on their spears the heads of the vanquished, and 
 hideous festoons of hands cut off and strung together. 
 Only those women and children were spared who had 
 taken refuge in the temples, and not from any rev- 
 erence for the gods, but in fear lest they should 
 fire the temples in self-defence and destroy the rich 
 treasures preserved there. On that day sixteen thou- 
 sand lives fell to the Carthaginian ‘swords; less than 
 three thousand persons escaped alive to Akragas, and, 
 weary of slaughter, the victors carried off five thousand 
 prisoners. 
 
 Then at last the first three thousand of the Syra- 
 cusan troops appeared and sent heralds demanding 
 that Hannibal should at least respect the temples and 
 give up their prisoners for a ransom; but Hannibal 
 answered roughly that since the Selinuntians had not 
 been able to defend their freedom they must learn to 
 be slaves, and so far as the temples were concerned 
 the gods appeared to have abandoned both them and 
 their city. From this destruction Selinus never re- 
 covered. 
 
 Hannibal crossed unhindered to Himera next, and 
 proceeded at once to a formal siege, undermining the 
 walls and soon producing a wide breach. A Syra- 
 cusan fleet of five and thirty sail came in sight, and 
 the hopes of the city rose to enthusiasm; but by 
 
The Greeks 157 
 
 treacherous messages Hannibal made the admiral of 
 the fleet believe that he was about to raise the siege 
 because the whole Syracusan army was advancing by 
 land, and that Syracuse being therefore undefended 
 he intended to attack it without delay. The admiral 
 made ready to go to the rescue, and seeing them- 
 selves about to be deserted, a great part of the pop- 
 ulation abandoned the city to the enemy, crowding 
 the ships until there was no more room, and the 
 remainder marching out by land. On the following 
 day the Carthaginians entered Himera; the women 
 and children were carried out to the camp to be sold 
 as slaves in Africa, and on the spot where his grand- 
 sire had perished, Hannibal appeased his unquiet — 
 spirit by the mutilation and slaughter of three thou- 
 sand Himeran warriors. Last of all he burned the 
 whole city and razed the ruins to the ground. 
 
 Here in the story appears for the last time Hermoc- 
 rates, in a short and brilliant campaign that ended in 
 his violent death at the gates of Syracuse. From the 
 beginning of the Athenian invasion his counsels had 
 helped Syracuse, his labours had been unceasing, his 
 submission to the generalship of Gylippus exemplary ; 
 he had seemed a man above passion, inspired only by 
 the purest love of his country. But his country feared 
 the return of a tyranny like that of Thrasybulus, and 
 accusing him of plotting to get the despotism, Syracuse 
 exiled her best and bravest. In exile he had not 
 
158 The Rulers of the South 
 
 turned against the state, as Alcibiades had turned 
 against Athens; he remained faithful and devoted, 
 waiting and longing for an opportunity to return. He 
 saw his chance when the Carthaginians withdrew after 
 the final slaughter at Himera. Provided with large 
 sums of money, he came to Messina, built five warships 
 of his own and raised a thousand men. He collected 
 the fugitives from Himera, sailed round to Selinus, and 
 rapidly fortified the ruins left by the Carthaginians. 
 Without losing time, but gathering an army of six 
 thousand men, he dashed across the island, surprised 
 Motye and Panormus, and laid waste the country. 
 Even then Syracuse would not recall him from banish- 
 ment. He marched down to Himera and collected 
 from the field of battle the unburied bones of the Syra- 
 cusans who had perished there, and sent them rever- 
 ently to Syracuse; but yet his native city would not 
 receive him back. Mad with longing to see his home, 
 and believing that if he appeared in person, the false 
 accusations against him would be forgotten, he rode 
 with a few followers to the very gate of the city. His 
 friends received him, but could not save his life, for his 
 enemies spread the report that he had returned with an 
 army, and they fell upon him and cruelly slew him on 
 the threshold of his home. But some of his followers 
 saved themselves, and though they were all banished, 
 there was one among them who, being desperately 
 wounded, was given out to be dead, and he escaped 
 
The Greeks 159 
 
 the ban; he was Dionysius, who was to save Syracuse 
 from the Carthaginians, and was to be her lord and des- 
 pot before many years should pass. 
 
 For soon the Carthaginians bethought themselves 
 how they should avenge the raid made by Hermocrates 
 upon the Phoenician west, and they fortified beforehand 
 a strong place on the coast, which is now Termini, near 
 Himera, and equipped another great army, under Han- 
 nibal the victorious; and they brought over between 
 two and three hundred thousand fighting men, to attack 
 Akragas, rich in corn and wine and oil, as Girgenti is 
 to-day. For the Akragantines were a _ peace-loving 
 people who kept out of war and enriched themselves 
 with agriculture and trade; and their city was beautiful 
 with many temples, and with many monuments, some 
 of which were even erected to the memory of horses 
 that had won some famous race, and the maidens of 
 Akragas sometimes built tombs for their favourite song- 
 birds. There were also marvellous. paintings there, and 
 there was vast wealth. Once, before this war, a certain 
 Exainetos of Akragas won the two hundred yard race 
 at Olympia, and when he came home, there went out to 
 welcome him three hundred chariots drawn by as many 
 pairs of milk-white horses. In their gymnasium the 
 people used golden strigils and gold vessels for oil. At 
 the door of the house of Gellias, a rich man of the 
 city, slaves stood in waiting all day long, inviting every 
 
 passing stranger to enter for rest and entertainment, 
 
160 The Rulers of the South 
 
 and once, when five hundred riders came from Gela, 
 Gellias took them all in, and presented each one with 
 new garments, for it was winter. In his cellars, instead 
 of casks and hogsheads, three hundred reservoirs for 
 wine were hewn in the solid rock, and each one held 
 one hundred amphore, which is equal to nearly nine 
 hundred gallons. And of the Akragantines Empedo- 
 cles said that they built as if they were to live for ever, 
 but that they feasted as if they were to die on the mor- 
 row ; and it is recorded that at a certain marriage eight 
 hundred carriages and innumerable riders brought the 
 bride home at night, while the whole city was illumi- 
 nated. Moreover, during the war which now began, a 
 decree was issued which forbade a soldier on the watch 
 to be provided with more than two mattresses, two pil- 
 lows, and a blanket. 
 
 Nevertheless their allies defended them manfully 
 for some time, and the strong position of their city 
 helped them at need, as it had doubtless contributed 
 to create that feeling of absolute security which is the 
 most favourable condition for the development of idle- 
 ness and luxury. It is easy to understand that even 
 a slack defence of such a place might suffice to hold it. 
 Standing on the ruined rampart of Girgenti, at the 
 southeastern point, near the temple of Hera, the 
 traveller can take in the extent of the city at a glance, 
 from the modern town, where stood the ancient acrop- 
 
 olis, cresting the hill, round by a wide descending 
 

 

 

 
 LIBRARY 
 OF THE 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Greeks 161 
 
 sweep to the right, then westward along the south 
 side, protected by the abrupt falling away of the 
 ground, and from beyond the temples of Zeus and 
 the Dioscuri up the steep hill to the acropolis again. 
 Only on this last stretch could Hannibal see any 
 chance of success, where the old burial ground came 
 up to the walls; and there he intrenched himself and 
 set up his engines of attack, but the citizens sallied 
 out and burned his wooden towers; in digging his 
 trenches, he exposed a great number of dead bodies, 
 from which a plague arose among his soldiers, and he 
 himself died of the sickness. Then his father, Himil- 
 con, lost six thousand men in an engagement with 
 the Syracusans who were advancing to relieve the city. 
 The Greeks were elated and contemplated making a 
 destructive attack upon the Carthaginian camp. The 
 besiegers, as the winter came on, were short of pro- 
 visions; some even died of hunger; matters looked ill 
 for the rest, and the mercenaries threatened to depart. 
 
 But Himilcon learned that an immense supply of 
 ccrn was on the way to Akragas from Syracuse. He 
 bribed his soldiers to wait a few days, sent out war- 
 ships, overcame the Greek triremes that formed the 
 convoy, and seized the whole provision. Among the 
 defenders were Spartans and other allies, who began 
 to sell themselves to the Carthaginian general, and 
 presently all the allies deserted almost in a body. 
 The luxurious Akragantines were paralyzed with fear, 
 
 Wolo vt M 
 
162 The Rulers of the South 
 
 for they remembered the horrid fate of Selinus and 
 Himera. Incredible as it must seem, though there was 
 not so much as a breach in the walls, the whole pop- 
 ulation abandoned the city, leaving the old and the 
 sick to their fate. Himilcon entered at daybreak and 
 slew all these. The rich Gellias had collected such 
 of his treasures as he could gather quickly into a 
 temple, to which he set fire, and he perished tte 
 flames. A few patriots who would not fly destroyed 
 themselves. The vast booty fell into the hands of the 
 Carthaginians without a blow, and Akragas ceased to 
 play a part in Sicily. There is hardly a parallel in 
 all history to such an ignominious evacuation. 
 Dionysius the scribe, who by the accident of his des- 
 perate wound had escaped being banished with the 
 friends of the murdered Hermocrates, was a man who 
 possessed those gifts of courage, eloquence, and cun- 
 ning by which obscure individuals have from time to 
 time raised themselves suddenly to empire. Yet even 
 such gifts as these could have produced no result with- 
 out the opportunity for exercising them. After the fall 
 of Akragas, which had been largely due to the defection 
 of the more important allies for the sake of Himil- 
 con’s rich bribes, a profound disgust of the existing 
 government, under which such things were possible, 
 manifested itself. among the Sicilian people; the 
 conviction grew in the minds of the masses that 
 
 although a democracy might be the best form of gov- 
 
The Greeks 163 
 
 ernment in times of peace and prosperity, yet, in a 
 moment of public danger, it was absolutely necessary 
 that all military power should be in the hands of a sin- 
 
 gle individual. The Sicilians had not 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 the cool sense of fitness which made 
 the Romans name a dictator during 
 war, and return to republican forms 
 as soon as it was ended. The Greek 
 cities, and Syracuse first of all, felt the 
 want of a strong hand; the days of 
 the democracy were over, and it 
 fell to the lot of the most talented 
 man of his day to restore the 
 tyranny. He began by ingra- 
 tiating himself with the re- 
 mains of Hermocrates’ 
 party, and being sure 
 of their support, he 
 took the earliest op- 
 portunity of exhibit- 
 ing his eloquence at 7 
 a general meeting of a 
 the people. Himera, PEASANT NEAR REGGIO, CALABRIA 
 Selinus, and Akragas 
 
 had fallen a prey to the Carthaginians, their vast army 
 was fattening on the spoil got from their latest con- 
 quest, from Akragas they would march to Gela, and 
 
 once there, the fate of Syracuse would be a foregone 
 
164 The Rulers of the South 
 
 conclusion. The leaders hesitated, the people mur- 
 mured, no one dared to speak out. Then Dionysius 
 suddenly arose and impeached the Greek generals, 
 the government, the rich and powerful throughout the 
 land, taking, as every great adventurer has done at 
 first, the side of the oppressed many against the over- 
 bearing few ; nor did any ambitious man ever take that 
 side in vain. Dionysius proposed that the generals 
 responsible for the fall of Akragas should be punished 
 summarily and without trial. This was against the law 
 of Syracuse. A few of the aristocrats, with loud pro- 
 tests, cried out that the speaker was liable at once to 
 the fine imposed by law; but a friend of his rose 
 instantly and bade him go on, saying that he would pay 
 not only the fine imposed upon Dionysius, but all other 
 fines exacted from any who should speak in the same 
 spirit. With fiery energy Dionysius proceeded to the 
 end; the generals were then and there degraded from 
 their’ officey others were chosen in their ystead and 
 among them Dionysius himself. From this to the sole 
 command was a difficult step. He began by refusing to 
 associate with his fellow generals, hinting that they 
 were in secret understanding with the Carthaginians. . 
 The people trusted him, and when he proposed that 
 they should vote the immediate return of all political 
 exiles, they acceded to his request without hesitation. 
 By this means he gained a vast number of enthusiastic 
 friends. 
 
The Greeks 165 
 
 Another opportunity for gaining fresh power soon 
 presented itself. It was clear that Gela would be the 
 next city to fall, and its garrison was under the orders 
 of one of the captains who had sold himself to Carthage 
 at Akragas. Dionysius hastened thither, to find the 
 city in a frenzy of excitement. He presented himself 
 as the protector and liberator of the people, he paid 
 the troops the stipend which had long been owing to 
 them, and he brought the suspected traitors, chiefly the 
 richest in the city, to prompt trial and execution, their 
 property being seized for the public good. Having thus 
 settled matters for a time, he returned with speed to 
 Syracuse. [Entering the city at sunset, just as a great 
 audience was leaving the theatre, and being asked what 
 news he brought from Gela, he delivered a magnificent 
 speech in which he told the people that their worst ene- 
 mies were not the Carthaginians, but their own corrupt 
 and grasping generals. They were selling their country 
 inch by inch for Carthaginian gold, and he would no 
 longer be one of them. His words were received with 
 unbounded applause and wild acclamation; on the 
 following day a public meeting of the people was called, 
 he addressed them again, his friends rose up in ferce to 
 support all he said, and amid the universal enthusiasm 
 a measure was carried which removed the other generals 
 from office, and conferred upon him the sole military 
 command, 
 
 The tyranny was now restored in fact, and all but 
 
166 The Rulers of the South 
 
 acknowledged in name. Dionysius needed only a 
 devoted body-guard to protect him from the assassin’s 
 knife, in order to assume the position of absolute lord. 
 He obtained this also, and by the same stratagem which 
 had served Pisistratus for the same end. He called 
 upon tHe whole available force of armed men which 
 Syracuse could furnish, bidding them meet him in 
 Leontini as if for a great review. That night a great 
 tumult arose in the camp, Dionysius rushed from his 
 tent, declaring that an attempt had been made upon his 
 life, and fled to the acropolis, calling upon all who 
 trusted him to follow him up thither. Then and there 
 the soldiers, to whom he was already a hero and almost 
 a demigod, voted him a life-guard of six hundred men. 
 He was to choose them himself, and he took advantage 
 of the privilege to select a thousand. Armed to perfec- 
 tion and receiving twice the pay of other soldiers, their 
 fate was now bound up with his, and he could count 
 upon every man to the death. The blow was struck, 
 the tyranny was restored, and Dionysius was the despot 
 of Syracuse. 
 
 In Syracuse he established himself in the arsenal, 
 which became at once his palace and his stronghold; 
 he strengthened his position by marrying the daughter 
 of the ill-fated Hermocrates, giving his own sister in 
 marriage to the latter’s brother-in-law. He caused the 
 people to execute the two men who had principally 
 opposed his advancement, and he issued orders for 
 
The Greeks 167 
 
 gathering together into one army, besides the Syra- 
 cusans, every soldier of fortune in Sicily who would 
 serve for pay. 
 
 What he had foreseen was not long in coming. 
 Himilcon had spent the winter with his army in 
 Akragas; when the spring came, and he no longer 
 needed shelter, he ordered the city to be destroyed and 
 marched upon Gela. The inhabitants determined to 
 send their wives and children to Syracuse, but the 
 devoted women clung to the statues of the gods and to 
 the altars in the market-place, crying out that they 
 would share the fate of their men. As usual Himilcon 
 moved up his battering rams and towers to the walls; 
 but though he broke down great breaches in the forti- 
 fications, the besieged men fought with fury by day, 
 and by night even the women and children helped to 
 build up the broken ramparts. In spite of Himilcon’s 
 ceaseless exertions the city was held against him until 
 Dionysius came up with fifty thousand men. He formed 
 a plan to surround the enemy and the whole city and to 
 make three simultaneous attacks. The well-conceived 
 scheme failed in execution; Dionysius lost many men, 
 and was at once accused of betrayal, since he had done 
 no better than his predecessors. Yet he kept his com- 
 mand, being most likely preserved from instant death 
 by his life-guard, and by a clever stratagem he so far 
 retrieved himself as to effect the safe evacuation 
 
 of the city with the women and children, and the sick 
 
168 The Rulers of the South 
 
 and wounded. Two thousand light-armed troops, men 
 of heroic courage, remained behind in the city, and 
 completely deceived the Carthaginians by making bon- 
 fires and simulating a tumult in the streets. In the end 
 they also escaped unhurt. 
 
 Little by little the Greeks were being driven from 
 city to city towards Syracuse, where the final struggle 
 was to take place. The enemy came upon them as 
 the Huns fell upon Europe many centuries later. 
 The Carthaginians spared neither man nor beast, nor 
 woman nor child, and prisoners were horribly tortured, 
 torn to pieces, and crucified by hundreds. Before such 
 an enemy the people fled to their last refuge like 
 sheep to the fold when the wolves are upon them. 
 That Dionysius should have been able to direct the 
 storm of such a panic and regain all his power 
 and influence proves his genius; that he afterwards 
 attacked Carthage with success demonstrates his mas- 
 terly military talent; but that he utterly vanquished 
 and blotted out his foes in the end is little short of 
 miraculous. 
 
 The spectacle of a whole population hurrying in 
 desperate confusion to their last shelter, women and 
 children and old and sick dying of exhaustion by the 
 way amid the tears and lamentations of the survivors, 
 roused the Syracusan soldiers to exasperation against 
 the leader to whom alone they attributed such dis- 
 aster; the well-born youths who composed the cavalry 
 
The Greeks 169 
 
 watched for an opportunity to slay him, but finding 
 him too well protected by his mercenaries, they rode 
 on before and reached Syracuse in time to stir up a 
 revolution against him; they seized his house and 
 treasure, and in their blind rage so frightfully mal- 
 treated his wife that she died of her injuries. But 
 they had to deal with a man of genius and action 
 who knew no fear. Dionysius had no sooner learned 
 of their desertion than he hastened to follow them 
 with a chosen band of seven hundred men. At mid- 
 night he was before the closed gate of Achradina, 
 where brave Hermocrates had been murdered; in an 
 hour the doors were burned down; when the day 
 dawned his enemies lay dead in the market-place, and 
 as the sun rose he was once more master of the city. 
 
 And now the Carthaginian advance was checked 
 by the plague, which ever wrought havoc among the 
 Phoenician mercenaries, and Himilcon made a treaty 
 of peace, with an exchange of prisoners and of ships 
 taken in the war, and an extension of the Phoenician 
 territory. More than half the Carthaginian army 
 perished in the pestilence, Himilcon withdrew to 
 Carthage, and the first part of the conflict came to 
 an unexpected termination. The strong man set about 
 consolidating his power. 
 
 He occupied the arsenal, and the island of Ortygia, | 
 allowing none but his most faithful adherents to set 
 
 foot upon the island; using the methods of Gelon 
 
170 The Rulers of the south 
 
 and Hiero, he conferred citizenship upon his mer- 
 cenaries and even upon freed slaves, and created a 
 new body of devoted friends. He matured his plan 
 for dominating all Sicily in order to make war upon 
 Carthage, but at his first attempt at extending his 
 power a mutiny broke out, his chief lieutenant was 
 murdered, and he saw himself obliged to fall back 
 upon his fortified home in Ortygia, while the muti- 
 neers encamped upon Epipole and besieged the city, 
 setting a price on the tyrant’s head. The situation 
 was perilous in the extreme, and for once the iron 
 man seems almost to have lost hope. Yet he held 
 his stronghold grimly, and secretly communicated with 
 certain Campanian soldiers of fortune, while propos- 
 ing terms of capitulation for himself to the besiegers. 
 In their simplicity they believed him, and many of 
 their force dispersed. Twelve hundred Campanian 
 soldiers swept down like a whirlwind upon the Syra- 
 cusans, slew all they met, broke through their siege 
 works, and joined Dionysius in the fort. The besiegers 
 now disagreed among themselves and, choosing his 
 time, Dionysius sallied out and defeated them in one 
 of the suburbs, but checked all useless slaughter, that 
 the vanquished mutineers might owe him their lives; 
 and he honourably buried their dead. 
 
 Master of Syracuse once more, he entered into close 
 alliance with Sparta. Tyranny was growing popular in 
 
 theory, if not yet in practice, and the Lacedzemonians, 
 
The Greeks 171 
 
 while still in name recommending a democracy, pri- 
 vately gave their whole support to Dionysius, although 
 their conduct brought them into opposition with Cor- 
 inth, which faithfully advocated the freedom of Syra- 
 cuse. Thus strengthened, he began the conquest of 
 Sicily. Henna, which is Castrogiovanni now, and Cata- 
 nia and Naxos fell successively under his dominion, 
 and Leontini surrendered on condition that the inhab- 
 itants should receive the citizenship of Syracuse. His 
 plan was to destroy the Greek commonwealths, to spare 
 the Sicelian ones, and to found Italian cities, in order 
 to equalize the various elements and produce a homo- 
 geneous Sicilian nation; and as the Syracusans began 
 to understand that he was not cruel but ambitious, and 
 as much for them as for himself, their confidence in 
 him rose and his influence became unbounded. Re- 
 membering what Syracuse had suffered during the 
 Athenian invasion, and mindful of his own experience 
 during the mutiny, he determined to extend the fortifi- 
 cations so as to take in Epipole. The huge ramparts 
 that still crown the height are his work. Knowing 
 that there was still some danger of revolution in the 
 city, he exerted his whole energy to accomplish this 
 quickly, and the great wall, more than three miles in 
 length and made of large hewn stones, was completed 
 in twenty days. It was built by sixty thousand free 
 men, who received double wages for their labour; thirty- 
 
 six thousand, in one hundred and eighty detachments 
 
172 The Rulers of the South 
 
 of two hundred each, worked upon sections one hundred 
 feet long, each section being under a master-mason, and 
 every six sections under an architect. Four and twenty 
 thousand men, with six thousand carts, quarried the 
 stone and hauled it up the heights. Most of the stone 
 was quarried in the Latomie, in Syracuse. Dionysius 
 himself hardly left the works till all was finished. 
 
 The main wall being built, he soon afterwards pre- 
 pared to attack Carthage, and set to work upon the 
 vast equipment which he knew to be necessary for such 
 an undertaking, for the success of the Carthaginians 
 had generally been due to their superior numbers and 
 excellent munitions of war. Dionysius worked on a 
 great scale; he built two hundred new ships of war 
 and refitted a hundred and ten old ones; one hundred 
 and forty thousand shields with an equal number of 
 swords and helmets were made, and fourteen thousand 
 cuirasses with their fittings. Great engines were con- 
 structed for hurling stones; and it is known that in 
 the year 399 he called together a general meeting of 
 engineers, who planned the first ships ever built with 
 five banks of oars, and the first long-range catapults, 
 though what the range of the latter may really have 
 been we do not know: those in use earlier could hurl a 
 stone six hundred feet. 
 
 The first five-banked ship, splendid with gold and 
 silver, brought home from Locri one of two brides 
 
 whom the despot married on the same day, —a wedding 
 
The Greeks 173 
 
 unexampled, I believe, in Greek history. A few days 
 later he addressed the people and exposed his plans 
 with the fervid eloquence that had seldom failed him, 
 stirring up the hatred that was not yet old, and firing 
 every hearer with the spirit of revenge. The news of 
 the unequalled preparations at Syracuse had already 
 gone forth; the tidings of the master’s speech spread 
 like flame through straw. 
 
 All Sicily rose, and wheresoever, in cities that once 
 had been all Greek, there were Punic masters, or mer- 
 chants, or landowners, or travellers, they were put to 
 death ; and wheresoever the Carthaginians had torn to 
 pieces or burnt or crucified a Greek, there the Greeks 
 tortured and impaled a Carthaginian. 
 
 At last, in 397, when all the African coasts were 
 exhausted by a pestilence that had raged for two whole 
 years, Dionysius declared war, and his ambassadors 
 gave proud warning to the high council of Carthage 
 that she must set free and evacuate every Greek city in 
 Sicily or fight to an issue. As soon as the ambassadors 
 returned, and without giving Carthage time to collect 
 the mercenary troops on which she always most de- 
 pended, Dionysius struck the first blow, and attacked 
 Eryx, now Monte San Giuliano above Trapani, and 
 Motye, a dozen miles to southward. Eryx surren- 
 dered without a blow; Motye had received a small 
 reénforcement from Carthage, and made a_ brave 
 
 defence. 
 
174 The Rulers of the South 
 
 In those times the two small islands which lie north 
 of Marsala, or Lilybzeum, formed a part of the main- 
 land and enclosed a wide harbour; in the midst of this 
 sheet of shallow water Motye was built upon the little 
 island which now bears the name of San Pantaleo and 
 was connected with the land by a narrow causeway on 
 the northeast side. The town itself was strongly forti- 
 fied and was one of the most valuable points held by 
 the Carthaginians. Before the arrival of Dionysius the 
 inhabitants destroyed the causeway. Dionysius deter- 
 mined to rebuild it, entered the harbour, and. beached 
 his war-vessels north of the little island. He left his 
 admiral Leptines to see to the reconstruction of the dam 
 and withdrew his land forces for a time in order to 
 make a raid upon the Phoenician country. Meanwhile 
 Himilcon reached Syracuse with a small fleet of ten 
 vessels, hoping to draw Dionysius away from Motye; 
 but failing in this intention and having done such 
 damage as he could with so small a force, he sailed 
 back again and appeared before Motye at daybreak, 
 with one hundred of his best ships. Having easily 
 destroyed the few Greek vessels that were lying out- 
 side, he at once blockaded the entrance to the harbour, 
 within which the whole of the Greek war fleet was drawn 
 up high and dry. It seemed as if the Greeks were 
 caught in a trap from which they could not escape, but 
 the courage and decision of Dionysius were not at fault, 
 
 and he turned the tables upon his adversary in a day. 
 
The Greeks its 
 
 The north side of the harbour was separated from the 
 open sea by a low neck of sand about four thousand 
 yards wide. Across this space Dionysius actually 
 hauled eighty ships of war on chocks, in a single day, 
 and at the same time he moved his newly invented long- 
 range catapults down to the entrance of the harbour. 
 The war-ships he had now launched sailed down in a 
 body and attacked the Carthaginian fleet from seaward, 
 driving it in, and at the same time the astonished Car- 
 thaginians, who believed themselves well out of range 
 from the shore, received a terrific volley of stones from 
 the catapults. Himilcon himself would have been driven 
 into the harbour and caught, if he had not at once 
 made good his escape; but he lost no time, left Motye 
 to its fate, and breaking through the line of Syracusan 
 vessels, got out to sea. 
 
 During the siege of Motye’ which followed, the 
 inhabitants made a memorable defence, opposing the 
 engines of the Greeks with every conceivable device, 
 and sometimes setting them on fire; and when at last a 
 breach was made in the walls, and Dionysius believed 
 that the city was in his hands, he still had to carry on 
 the siege from street to street and from house to house 
 through many days and nights. When the last defence 
 was broken down, the Greeks wreaked their vengeance 
 in a wholesale slaughter, in which neither women nor 
 children were spared, until Dionysius himself bade 
 them take refuge in their temples. The Carthaginians 
 
176 The Rulersvorsthes sours 
 
 - who were taken alive were sold as slaves, but every 
 Greek who was found on their side was crucified at 
 once. 
 
 Intending to follow up his victory, Dionysius at once 
 moved upon Segesta, the city of all others in Sicily the 
 most hateful to the Syracusans; but here, as if misfor- 
 tune were attached to the mere name of the place, he 
 suffered a considerable reverse almost before the siege 
 had begun. Meanwhile the Carthaginians had set on 
 foot for the third time a vast army of mercenaries, and 
 we now hear for the first time that war chariots accom- 
 panied the host. Those that had left Carthage at the 
 beginning of the first invasion had been lost at sea. 
 
 Dionysius awaited him near Panormus, but only suc- 
 ceeded in destroying some fifty ships and about five 
 thousand of his soldiers, the rest entering the harbour 
 in safety. In afew days Himilcon had undone all that 
 the Syracusans had accomplished; Eryx was won back, 
 Motye was retaken, and the other Phoenician cities of 
 the west found themselves free. In face of such an 
 enemy Dionysius was reluctantly obliged to withdraw 
 to Syracuse. Himilcon now marched eastward and 
 seized Messina, whence the greater part of the popula- 
 tion had already escaped. Out of two hundred who 
 sprang into the sea and attempted to swim the straits 
 fifty reached the Italian shore in safety. Himilcon saw 
 the great difficulty of holding Messina and, lest it 
 should be of use to his enemies, determined to destroy 
 
The Greeks iby 
 
 the city. The allies of Dionysius now began to desert 
 him, but he did not lose heart; he fortified and fpro- 
 visioned the Syracusan towns and completed the fortifi- 
 cations of Syracuse, while Himilcon was marching down 
 upon Naxos. At Catania he attacked the Carthagin- 
 ian fleet in the hope of preventing it from effecting a 
 junction with the land force, but suffered an overwhelm- 
 ing defeat in which he lost one hundred ships and 
 twenty thousand men. Retreating upon Syracuse again, 
 he prepared to make a final stand, while Himilcon 
 advanced upon the city by land and encamped a little 
 more than a mile north of Epipole. 
 
 Seeing the enormous strength of the fortifications 
 raised by Dionysius. before the war began, Himilcon 
 determined to starve the city to a surrender, and 
 built three forts which commanded the southern side 
 of the harbour. Meanwhile, however, reénforcements 
 of ships arrived from Sparta, and the Syracusans, 
 gathering courage, fell upon a detachment of vessels 
 which were bringing corn to the Carthaginians; a 
 naval engagement followed in which the Carthagini- 
 ans were badly beaten and lost twenty-four ships. 
 
 The position of Dionysius was dangerous, but not 
 desperate, and before long the plague, which seems 
 to have accompanied the Carthaginians wherever they 
 went, came to his assistance. The men died at such 
 a rate that it was impossible to bury the bodies, and 
 the condition of Himilcon’s camp was too hideous to 
 
 VOL. I N 
 
178 The Rulers of the South 
 
 be described. Quick to take advantage of everything 
 that could weaken his enemy, Dionysius now executed 
 a general movement which terminated the war. On 
 a night when there was no moon the Syracusan fleet 
 got under way in the harbour, and Dionysius himself 
 marched a large force round Epipolz to surprise the 
 Carthaginian camp and one of Himilcon’s forts. He 
 sent a thousand mercenaries against the camp, and 
 a body of cavalry, instructing the latter to pretend 
 flight as soon as the enemy came out. These mer- 
 cenaries were men whom he distrusted, and he coolly 
 sacrificed them for the sake of occupying the enemy 
 on that side. He himself seized the fort on the Olym- 
 pieum, and sent the cavalry down to take the next, 
 which was near the shore. At daybreak the Greek 
 ships surprised the Carthaginian fleet, and gained a 
 complete victory over the vessels which were afloat. 
 Dionysius himself set fire to forty ships that were on 
 the beach, and a strong wind drove the flames out 
 to the transports. In an indescribable confusion the 
 whole sea force of the Carthaginians was destroyed 
 before their eyes, while every kind of small craft, 
 manned even by old men and boys, put out from the 
 city to plunder the half-burned wrecks, and thousands 
 of women and little children climbed the roofs of the 
 city to watch the tragedy of fire and sword. By land 
 the fighting lasted all the day, and at night Dionysius 
 encamped by the Olympieum. All but forty of Himil- 
 
The Greeks 179 
 
 con’s ships were destroyed or crippled, and more than 
 half his army of three hundred thousand men lay 
 dead in the camp or on the field. He humbly treated 
 for his life and safety, and at last for the sum of 
 three hundred talents, which was perhaps all he had 
 left to give, Dionysius suffered him to depart and to 
 take with him, upon his forty ships, those of his sol- 
 diers who were Carthaginian citizens. When the 
 Greeks entered the Carthaginian camp at last, it is 
 told that they found within it the unburied bodies of 
 a hundred and fifty thousand men. Thus ended the 
 great Carthaginian expedition for the conquest of 
 Sicily. 
 
 At first sight one may wonder why Dionysius did not 
 completely destroy the remains of Himilcon’s host, exe- 
 cute their general himself, and drive out the Phcenicians 
 from the western part of the island; but a little reflec- 
 tion will show how much wiser that course was which 
 he actually pursued. The strength of Carthage lay, 
 not in a warlike population, but in the great wealth 
 by which she commanded the service of numerous 
 mercenaries, and although she had now suffered an 
 extraordinary defeat, which was followed by some- 
 thing like a revolution, her losses were chiefly finan- 
 cial, while her resources were practically inexhaustible. 
 By not driving her to extremities, Dionysius both prac- 
 tised wisdom and displayed magnanimity. Moreover, 
 
 his real ambition was to be the ruler of the western 
 
180 The Rulers of the South 
 
 Greeks rather than a mere conqueror of barbarous 
 nations. By treachery or arms, indeed, he soon got 
 the lordship of the Sicelian cities of the interior, but 
 these were already so completely hellenized as to be 
 practically Greek, and were so situated as to be nec- 
 essary to him. His fortune, however, did not follow 
 him everywhere, and in attempting to seize Taurome- 
 nium he once more suffered defeat, in spite of the 
 most tremendous exertions. Climbing the steep ascent 
 behind the modern town, on a dark winter’s night 
 when it was bitter. celd, he seized the castiewstie 
 ‘Castello’ of to-day, and thence tried to storm the 
 city; but the Sicelians drove him back into the dark- 
 ness, slaying six hundred of his men; he himself fell, 
 and barely escaping with his life rolled down the hill, 
 bruised and bleeding, with no arms left but the cuirass 
 on his body. But his defeats were always followed by 
 victories. He crossed the straits and attacked Rhegium 
 on the mainland; failing to take the strong place at 
 once, he laid waste the country. When he took it at 
 last it was by starving the garrison to a surrender. In 
 their agony of hunger the people crept out from the 
 beleaguered city and devoured the grass under the 
 walls, but Dionysius turned cattle and sheep upon it, 
 that cropped it close while his soldiers guarded them. 
 When at last he had possession of a city half full of 
 dead men, he allowed the rest to buy their freedom, 
 and sold the poor for slaves, but he took evil vengeance 
 
The Greeks 181 
 
 upon their brave general Phyton, for he drowned his 
 son, and told the unhappy father what he had done, 
 then scourged him through the city, and drowned him 
 also at last, with all the rest of his family. 
 
 
 
 STRAITS OF MESSINA ABEAM OF RHEGIUM, NOW REGGIO, CALABRIA 
 
 Thenceforward Dionysius ruled the south for twenty 
 years, for Rhegium had been the last strong place that 
 had held out against him. It was at this time, in the 
 
182 The Rulers of the South 
 
 year 387, that the Greeks of Greece had practically 
 abandoned the Greeks of Asia Minor to Persia, and 
 Rome had not yet recovered from the invasion of the 
 Gauls; the Greeks of Sicily alone, by the genius of a 
 tyrant, held in check their strong enemies the Cartha- 
 ginians, and were themselves united under Dionysius ; 
 and he, on his side, maintained a sort of friendly alli- 
 ance with the Gauls, and had done his best to contrib- 
 ute to the humiliation of Greece. Yet, as the acute 
 Holm truly says, he was the chief stay of Hellenism 
 in the Mediterranean, and without him the Persian 
 from the east might have met the Carthaginian from 
 the west to bring about the total extinction of the 
 Greek power. Little by little, by ceaseless war and 
 untiring activity, he extended his dominion into Italy, 
 and joined the Gauls in the destruction of the Etrus- 
 can power, even plundering Czeere, not thirty miles 
 from Rome. On the Adriatic coast he was supreme, 
 and if Tarentum still was independent in name it was 
 his tributary in fact, and was forced to receive his colo- 
 nists into its lands. 
 
 So strong a despot might well have been free from 
 little vanities; yet he wrote verses for public competi- 
 tion, and after proving himself a soldier of genius 
 showed the whole world that he was a poet without 
 talent. Fortunate in great undertakings and at the 
 most critical moments of his life, he could not win a 
 
 prize at Olympia, his horses ran away on the track, 
 
The Greeks 183 
 
 x 
 
 and the ship that brought home his representatives 
 went to pieces on the Italian coast. His small under- 
 takings failed, and his small talents betrayed him into 
 fits of inordinate vanity, followed by disappointment 
 out of all proportion with their cause. In this respect 
 the man whom Publius Scipio called the bravest and 
 keenest of his time was not superior to many other 
 sovereigns and men of genius; for the man of genius 
 looks upon his favourite minor talent as a prodigal son 
 to whom all sins are forgiven, and it is perhaps only 
 he whose chief gift is not beyond question, who dares 
 not trust himself to play with a small accomplishment. 
 Dionysius was great enough to have written even 
 worse poetry than he probably produced. 
 
 What he did for Syracuse was so great that after 
 two thousand and three hundred years, the remains 
 of his work belong to the greatest monuments of 
 antiquity, and it is impossible to follow the wall of 
 Epipole, or to wander through the enchanted gardens 
 of the vast quarries, without marvelling at the man 
 who deepened the one and built the other. 
 
 As is the case with many romantic characters in 
 history, who lived in distracted times and appeared 
 upon the stage of the world, like the gods in the 
 plays of A®schylus, to make order out of chaos by 
 the mere miracle of their presence, a vast mass of 
 fable and fantastic legend clings about the name of 
 the elder Dionysius. He made prisons of the quar- 
 
i84 The Rulers of the South 
 
 ries, in which captives were kept so long that they 
 married and had children and brought up a second 
 generation of prisoners; and in order that he might 
 know how they spoke of him he constructed the 
 astounding acoustic cavern still called the Ear of Dio- 
 nysius. He visited without mercy even the passing 
 thought that an attempt upon his life might be pos- 
 sible; one of his favourite guards was executed for 
 having dreamt that he murdered his master, on the 
 singularly insufficient ground that before dreaming of 
 such a deed he must have often thought of doing it. 
 His own brother one day, when explaining to him the 
 position of a fortress, borrowed a javelin from a guards- 
 man in order to draw upon the sand with its point; the 
 soldier was instantly executed for having given up his 
 weapon. Again, when playing ball, he laid aside his 
 upper garment with his sword, giving them into the 
 care of a favourite youth. One standing by said in 
 jest that the sovereign seemed willing to trust his life 
 to the lad, and the latter smiled at the words. Both 
 were instantly put to death. It is said that he would 
 never trust himself to the services of a barber, but that 
 he used to make his own daughters clip his beard, or 
 singe it with burning walnuts. In meetings of the 
 people he would not speak from a platform, but built 
 himself a stone tribune which was nothing less than a 
 small tower. The legends say that he had his bed 
 surrounded by a broad channel of deep water, crossing 
 

 

 

 
The Greeks 185 
 
 it on a plank which he drew after him; that he wore 
 night and day an iron cuirass, and seldom was without 
 weapons; that he employed an organized band of 
 spies, both men and women, as the first Hiero had 
 done; that neither his sons nor his brothers were 
 allowed to approach him till his guards had changed 
 every one of their garments, lest they should have 
 some weapon concealed about them; and finally that 
 he brought up his eldest son, who became Dionysius 
 the second, in ignorance and solitude within the 
 palace, allowing him no amusement nor occupation 
 except carpentering. To him belongs the legend of 
 the sword of Damocles, which has passed to proverbial 
 use in successive ages, and the fable of Damon and 
 Pythias belongs to his reign. 
 
 Of his cruelties, so far as concerns those of which 
 there is historical evidence, it seems certain that they 
 were perpetrated from no blocdthirsty motive, but were 
 necessary to his system of self-defence at a time when 
 the murder of tyrants was so common as to seem natu- 
 ral and logical. Of temperate life and untiring indus- 
 try, ambition was the only passion that could hold him. 
 Long afterwards, during a drinking bout, Philip of 
 Macedon asked the younger Dionysius how his father 
 had found time to write poetry. ‘‘He used the time,” 
 answered the son, “which happier men like you and 
 me spend in drinking together.’ Holm considers it a 
 sign of his firm character that he lived in harmony with 
 
186 The Rulers of the South 
 
 two wives at a time, dining daily with them both 
 together, and indeed he seems to have lived peacefully 
 with them and with his seven children. The great 
 man’s only weakness seems to have been for his own 
 verses, and when at last, doubtiess for political reasons, 
 the prize was awarded in Athens to his tragedy, the 
 ‘Ransom of Hector,’ he only outlived that great and 
 final satisfaction to his vanity by a few days. It is 
 even told that in his delight, he, the most moderate of 
 men, drank so deeply as to cause his death. Yet he 
 encouraged joyous excesses among his subjects, as 
 many another despot has done since, and there is evi- 
 dence that while himself leading what may almost be 
 called a moral life, he preferred for his amusement the 
 society of rakes, gamesters, and spendthrifts. Though 
 it is said that he rarely laughed, he made jests of the 
 kind that seemed witty to historians, but which have 
 either lost their savour by two thousand years of repeti- 
 tion, or offend our sense of fitness by vulgar blasphemy 
 of the gods, to whom, though false in our view, he 
 owed the respect which good taste concedes to all 
 objects of devotion and civilized belief. 
 
 Under him the Sicilian power reached its height, 
 and we may make the sad reflection that in the past 
 history of all great nations the acme of strength and 
 culture has been attained under a despot, often under 
 the first who has appeared after a long period of free- 
 
 dom. Dionysius ruled alone during thirty-eight years, 
 
The Greeks Loy 
 
 one of the most extraordinary men of any age; he 
 saved Hellenism from destruction in the central Medi- 
 
 terranean and he reduced chaos to order in founding a 
 
 
 
 "B GARDEN OF THE CHURCH OF S. NICOLA, 
 GIRGENTI, FORMERLY AGRIGENTUM 
 
 new and powerful state; but he destroyed freedom and 
 the very meaning of it, root and branch. 
 
 He was succeeded by the younger Dionysius, his 
 
188 The Rulers of the South 
 
 eldest son, who began life at twenty-eight years of age 
 as one of the most powerful sovereigns in the west, and 
 ended it as a schoolmaster in Corinth. Few dynasties 
 have been enduring, of which the founder was a con- 
 queror, and Dionysius the Second exhibited all the 
 faults and weaknesses which were to be expected in a 
 youth who had been brought up without experience of 
 the world, still less of government, whose chief occupa- 
 tion had been a manual art, and whose only amusements 
 -had consisted in unbridled excess. It was no wonder 
 that he could not wield the power which had fallen to 
 him as an inheritance, or that he should have been 
 completely dominated by a man who, although himself 
 not strong of purpose, was a tower of strength com- 
 pared with such a weakling. 
 
 This man was Dion, sometimes said to have been the 
 father-in-law of the young prince, but who was really 
 his brother-in-law ; a Platonist, a mystic, and a dreamer, 
 wise in his beginnings, devoted in his pursuit of an 
 ideal, honourable, as some weak and good men are, 
 with sudden lapses from the right that shock us the 
 more because their right was so high; a man of sad 
 and thoughtful disposition, who gradually degenerated 
 from a noble beginning to a miserable end. 
 
 He conceived the plan of inducing Plato himself to 
 make a second visit to Syracuse, that his influence might 
 save the young Dionysius from destruction, and teach him 
 to make a fact of the Ideal State, and the great philoso- 
 
The Greeks 189 
 
 pher fancied that his own opportunity was come at last 
 and yielded to the tyrant’s request. The aspect of the 
 Syracusan court was changed, the sounds of revelry 
 died away, the halls were strewn with sand that the 
 master might draw geometrical figures upon them, and 
 the scapegrace despot became as gentle and forgiving 
 as an ideal Platonist should be. But he became as 
 weak to the influence of his courtiers as he was docile 
 to the new teachings of philosophy, and before long 
 Dion was banished to the Peloponnesus and afterwards 
 to Athens, under the thin pretence of an embassy. For 
 a time Plato remained with the tyrant, against his will 
 perhaps, for Dionysius made him live in the castle on 
 Ortygia and had him closely watched. But a small war 
 in which Syracuse became engaged soon required the 
 attention of the sovereign, and the philosopher was 
 suffered to depart to Greece. Yet he was induced to 
 return a third time, and chiefly through his friend- 
 ship for the banished Dion; but though he was re- 
 ceived magnificently and pressed with splendid gifts 
 which he refused to accept, he was not able to obtain 
 anything for his friend, whose great possessions were 
 presently confiscated, while Plato soon found himself 
 treated almost like a prisoner, if not worse; for he had 
 been constantly advising Dionysius to give up his life- 
 guard, and the soldiers who now watched him, being of 
 that body, hated him and would gladly have murdered 
 him. But a ship having been sent from Greece by 
 
190 The Rulers of the South 
 
 Archytas, Plato’s friend, with orders to bring the philos- 
 opher home, he was allowed to sail without opposition. 
 “T fear,” said the tyrant when they parted, “that you 
 and your friends will speak ill of me when you get 
 home.” “TI trust,’ answered Plato, smiling, “that we 
 shall never be so much at a loss for a subject of con- 
 versation as to speak of you at all.” 
 
 Then Dionysius married his sister Arete, who was 
 Dion’s wife, to a courtier, against her will, and-Dion’s 
 gentle nature was roused at last. He raised a small 
 force of mercenary soldiers, in Zacynthus, the island 
 now called Zante, and led them up to make a solemn 
 sacrifice in the temple of Apollo; and though the moon 
 was eclipsed on that very night, to the consternation of 
 his men, his soothsayer Miltas persuaded them that the 
 portent foretold the overshadowing of Dionysius’ power, 
 and they were satisfied. A storm drove the five small 
 ships far to southward, and they made Sicily at last 
 at Minoa, a Phoenician town west of Akragas. Dion 
 landed by force but without bloodshed, and marching 
 eastward gathered an army of twenty thousand men. 
 The tyrant was known to be absent from Syracuse, and 
 the letter that warned him of his enemies’ approach 
 was lost by the messenger, who had a piece of meat in 
 the same wallet with it, and fell asleep under a tree: a 
 wolf carried off the bag with all its contents. Dion 
 pressed on, and came within sight of Syracuse at dawn ; 
 
 in the level rays of the morning sun he sacrificed to 
 
The Greeks 191 
 
 Apollo for the freedom of the city and of Sicily, and 
 his devoted followers crowned themselves with garlands. 
 At the first news that Dion was at hand, the whole city 
 rose, the tyrant’s governor, Timocrates, fled in headlong 
 haste, and the citizens came forth by thousands, in 
 festal garments, to bring Dion through the gates in 
 triumph. Entering the city, he caused it to be pro- 
 claimed that he was come to free Syracuse and all 
 Sicily from the despot’s hands, and to restore the de- 
 mocracy of earlier days. The wildest enthusiasm took 
 possession of the people. Only a small body of loyal 
 troops held Epipole and the castle of Ortygia. The 
 first place Dion seized at once, and he set free all the 
 prisoners who were kept there. The castle withstood 
 him for a time, and the result was an irregular war, in 
 the course of which Dion lost his hold upon the people, 
 was removed from his generalship by them to make 
 way for his secret enemy Heraclides, and was obliged 
 to retire to Leontini. In his absence the people were 
 badly beaten by the tyrant’s soldiers, who made a 
 vigorous sally, slew many hundreds, and plundered the 
 houses as if they had been in an enemy’s city. Humil1- 
 ated by this defeat and even more terrified than humili- 
 ated, the Syracusans sent messengers entreating Dion 
 to return and save them. They found him in his house 
 at sunset and appealed to him with all the eloquence of 
 terror. His gentle nature, incapable of Achillean wrath, 
 
 yielded to their entreaties, and calling his soldiers 
 
192 The Rulers of the South 
 
 together- he set forth at once: to; the escucs 1 teee 
 news of his approach the besieged force withdrew into 
 the castle, and once more the people hesitated as to 
 whether they should admit Dion or not. But before 
 morning the garrison of the castle sallied out again, and 
 by way of hastening a solution of the situation set fire 
 to the city. Dion reached the gates in time to witness 
 the spectacle, but too late to save more than half the 
 city. Heraclides surrendered to his old leader uncon- 
 ditionally, and many entreated Dion to give him up to 
 the soldiery to be dealt with as they chose. But the 
 kind-hearted man gently quoted the maxim of Plato and 
 asked whether, because Heraclides had been envious 
 and faithless, Dion should therefore be wrathful and 
 cruel: 
 
 A formal siege of the castle was now undertaken, 
 while the friends of Dionysius were gathering forces 
 elsewhere to rescue it. But Dion’s military operations 
 were systematic and complete, the promised assistance 
 did not reach the besieged, and they finally capitulated, 
 on condition that the members of the tyrant’s family 
 should be allowed to depart with such treasure as they 
 could take with them. 
 
 It will be remembered that Dion’s expedition to liber- 
 ate Syracuse from the tyrant had not been undertaken 
 until his wife had been forcibly married to another. 
 During the whole time and up to the capitulation of 
 Ortygia, both she and Dion’s son, and her mother 
 
The Greeks 193 
 
 Aristomache, had been within the castle, helpless to 
 render him any assistance or to communicate with him. 
 As he entered the stronghold, they came forward . to 
 meet him. First came Aristomache leading his son, 
 while his wife Arete followed at a little distance with 
 streaming eyes, for she knew not how Dion would look 
 upon her after she had so long been the wife of another. 
 But when he had embraced his son and Aristomache, 
 the latter led forward his wife and spoke these words : 
 “Your banishment has made us all miserable alike, and 
 your victorious return has filled us all with joy, except- 
 ing her whom it was my ill fortune to see married by 
 force to another. How shall she salute younow? Are 
 you only her mother’s brother, or will you be still her 
 husband?” Then Dion clasped Arete in his arms very 
 tenderly, and they took their son and went to his own 
 house, where he intended to live thenceforward. He 
 was too conscientious to make himself despot in Dio- 
 nysius’ place, yet too aristocratic by nature to found a 
 true democracy. He had freed Syracuse and liberated 
 all Sicily, but he was unable to follow up his advantage. 
 He dreamed of something between a monarchy anda 
 commonwealth, and between those two forms of gov- 
 ernment there could only be an aristocracy. He at- 
 tempted to control the people, refused to allow them to 
 demolish the castle, and prevented them from tearing 
 the ashes of the elder Dionysius from the tomb; he 
 kept himself aloof from the masses and chose Corinthi- 
 
 VOL. I. 12) 
 
194 The Rulers of the South 
 
 ans for his counsellors; his intention, as Plutarch says, 
 was to restrain the government of the people, which, 
 according to Plato, is a warehouse of governments, and 
 to set up a Lacedzmonian constitution. Meanwhile, 
 Heraclides, whose life he had spared, opposed him at 
 every turn and accused him of every crime against 
 liberty, until the gentle Platonist fell into the state of 
 exasperation which is peculiar to weak characters, and, 
 out of sheer weariness and annoyance, consented to the 
 suggestion of his friends that Heraclides should be 
 murdered. It was his own death warrant. The deed 
 being done, in a sudden revulsion of feeling he decreed 
 that the murdered man should have a magnificent 
 funeral at the public expense, and he addressed the 
 people in a speech which was at once a political ha- 
 rangue, an impeachment, a panegyric of the dead 
 man, and an apology for having slain him. After this 
 his character and his intelligence rapidly degenerated ; 
 his only son, scarcely more than a boy, committed sui- 
 cide in a fit of disappointment over a trifle; the furies 
 of Heraclides pursued him even in his own house, and 
 the gigantic spectre of a woman swept the hall of his 
 home at nightfall with a phantom broom; a settled 
 melancholy that was fraught with terror possessed him, 
 and he saw a conspirator and a murderer in every man ~ 
 who approached him. Like the elder Dionysius, he 
 employed spies throughout the city, but unlike him, he 
 lacked the cynical courage to execute unhesitatingly 
 
The Greeks 195 
 
 every one whom he suspected. On pretence of creat- 
 ing an imaginary conspiracy for the sake of detecting 
 it, and increasing Dion’s popularity by a general par- 
 don of those concerned, —a trick which could hardly 
 deceive a schoolboy,— his former friends conspired in 
 good earnest to take his life. They came to him at 
 last in his own house, all unarmed, lest they should be 
 searched by his guards and their weapons taken from 
 them, and they trusted to slay him with their hands; 
 but when they could not, because he was very strong, 
 none dared go out to fetch a sword wherewith to kill 
 him, and so they held him fast for the greater part of 
 an hour; but at last one of their number who had 
 remained outside, came to the window and passed in 
 a knife to them. And so they slew him. That was the 
 miserable end of the attempt to restore liberty in Sicily. 
 
 The leader of the murderers was one Callippus, an 
 Athenian, who had long been Dion’s friend. He 
 instantly seized the power, and reigned thirteen months, 
 a military despot hated by all alike, till he was driven 
 out on his first attempt to extend his dominions. Two 
 or three years later he was slain near Rhegium, and 
 with the very knife by which Dion had died, by two of 
 his fellow-murderers. 
 
 Syracuse became the sport of any adventurer who 
 could gain the momentary support of the soldiery, and 
 at last it was the turn of the younger Dionysius, who 
 had succeeded in holding Rhegium and Locri through- 
 
196 The Rulers of the South 
 
 out the confusion of those years. Returning to Syra- 
 cuse, he showed himself at his worst, and ruled by a 
 system of terror which has rarely been equalled and 
 never surpassed. Not Syracuse only but all Sicily 
 had fallen into a miserable condition; the mercenaries 
 employed by the tyrants at the height of their power 
 overran the country far and wide, supporting them- 
 selves by plunder and revelling in every species of 
 licentious excess. Anarchy reigned supreme; Car- 
 thage had concluded a treaty with Rome and again 
 stretched out her grasping hand in an attempt to get 
 possession of the coveted island; in utmost fear the 
 Syracusans turned to Corinth for help, imploring the 
 assistance of a general if not of an armed force. Their 
 request was granted, and Corinth sent them a man 
 whose name stands almost alone in history, the patriot 
 soldier Timoleon, he who saved his brother’s life in 
 battle by a miracle of reckless courage, but gave him 
 over to a just death when he seized the power and 
 attempted to make himself the tyrant of Corinth. 
 We contemplate Timoleon’s almost unattainable 
 moral greatness with a sort of despair, and we realize 
 that an example may be so perfect as to discourage all 
 attempts at imitation. He risks his life with magnif- 
 cent recklessness to save his brother from the enemies’ 
 spears, and then, with antique virtue, after using every 
 means of affectionate persuasion in vain, he orders the 
 same brother to be executed before his eyes, that his 
 
The Greeks 197 
 
 country may be saved from tyranny; yet being very 
 human at heart, he withdraws from public life, and 
 almost from the society of mankind, to mourn in soli- 
 tude for nearly twenty years the deed which he would 
 have done again. Emerging at last from his retire- 
 ment in the hope of setting free an enslaved country, 
 he exhibits, with the most exiguous resources, the most 
 magnificent gifts of generalship, carries all before him 
 in a series of brilliant actions, liberates Sicily, restores 
 democratic freedom, vanquishes the Carthaginians, and 
 establishes just laws. The idol of his adopted people, 
 the arbiter of their destinies, and almost their predes- 
 tined master, not a thought of holding the rulership 
 assails him, nor is the lustre of his patriotism dimmed 
 by the least breath of ambition; after teaching a nation 
 to govern itself wisely, he retires to the peaceful privacy 
 of an ordinary citizen’s condition, and he lives out the 
 calm remainder of his days in the enjoyment of the 
 liberty he has created, and under the rare protection of 
 the laws he has called into existence. It is indeed 
 hard to see how human nature could approach nearer 
 to perfection from the beginning to the end of a 
 career fraught with danger, difficulties, and perplexing 
 problems. 
 
 Timoleon’s departure from Corinth was accompanied 
 by the most propitious signs and auguries. Demeter 
 and Persephone appeared to their priestesses in dreams, 
 
 clad in the garb of travellers and promising to accom- 
 
198 The Rulers of the South 
 
 pany and protect the expedition. When Timoleon sac- 
 rificed to Apollo in Delphi, a wreath embroidered with 
 crowns and images of victory fell from its place and 
 encircled his head; and when at last his ships put to 
 sea, mysterious fires came down from heaven and floated 
 through the darkness before them, night after night, 
 until the ships made the Italian coast. Nor is the 
 last occurrence perhaps altogether a fable, for in fair 
 weather, and in certain conditions of the air, seafaring 
 men are familiar with the lights of Saint Elmo, the elec- 
 tric glow that sometimes settles on the mastheads and 
 hangs at the yardarms in balls of fire for whole nights 
 together, and which must naturally have seemed to the 
 ancients to be nothing less than a heavenly portent. 
 The story of Timoleon’s war of liberation must be 
 briefly told. In Rhegium he found a Carthaginian 
 fleet, of which the commanders were disposed to pre- 
 vent his movement upon Syracuse; but in concert with 
 the people of the city he called the Carthaginian gen- 
 erals to a council within the walls, and while long argu- 
 ments were made to cause delay, Timoleon’s fleet 
 slipped out of the harbour and got to sea; then, when 
 he received news that they were under way, he himself 
 disappeared in the crowd, reached his own vessel, 
 which had waited for him, and was beyond pursuit 
 before the council broke up and the Carthaginians dis- 
 covered that they had been tricked. Sailing down the 
 east coast, he was received with open arms in Taurome- 
 
The Greeks 199 
 
 nium, and he looked about for a second ally. At last 
 the people of Hadranum, now Aderno, being divided 
 into two parties, the one asked help of Timoleon, the 
 other of Icetes or Hicetas, who held all of Syracuse 
 except Ortygia and was in good understanding with the 
 Carthaginians; Timoleon surprised and put to flight his 
 force, and Hadranum opened its gates. 
 
 Dionysius was meanwhile driven to last extremities 
 in his castle on the little island; he was hemmed in 
 on all sides, and he saw that whether Icetes or Timo- 
 leon won the day, his own lordship was at an end. 
 He sent messengers to Timoleon secretly, and treated 
 with him for the surrender of the island, on the con- 
 dition of being allowed to escape with one ship and 
 all the treasure he could carry. This was granted; 
 four hundred of Timoleon’s men entered the fortress 
 in spite of the vigilance of Icetes, and the Dionysian 
 dynasty was at an end. Timoleon held Catania and 
 supplied Ortygia with provisions by means of a num- 
 ber of small vessels which regularly ran the blockade. 
 Icetes went out to attack Catania in order to destroy 
 the base of supplies. He was not in sight of the 
 latter place when news came that in his absence the 
 Corinthians in Ortygia had succeeded in seizing Achra- 
 dina, and had connected it with the island by hasty 
 works, and he hurriedly returned to Syracuse. And 
 now a long siege followed, with little fighting, and it 
 
 came to pass that in the idle days Timoleon’s Corin- 
 
200 The Rulers of the South 
 
 thian soldiers came out to catch fish in the ponds 
 near the marsh, and the Greeks who were with Icetes 
 came likewise, so that they made friendly acquaint- 
 ance; for they had no reason for quarrelling except 
 that they were mercenaries on opposite sides, and had 
 to fight when they were led out to battle. They told 
 each other that Icetes ought to side with Timoleon, 
 and that both should drive out the Carthaginians, and 
 presently it was rumoured that Icetes would do so. 
 Thereupon, without striking another blow, the Car- 
 thaginian general suddenly withdrew his whole army 
 and fleet, and sailed away to Africa. They were 
 hardly out of sight when Timoleon led up his force, 
 and in a triple attack drove Icetes out of Syracuse 
 altogether. He had accomplished the first part of 
 his task, and he set to work to reorganize the liberated 
 people. 
 
 He now showed his vast intellectual and moral supe- 
 riority over Dion. The latter’s first move was to estab- 
 lish himself in the castle on Ortygia, as if expecting 
 to be attacked by the people he had freed; Timoleon 
 called upon the inhabitants to raze the tyrant’s fortress 
 to the ground, and to build the people’s tribunal upon 
 the spot, and he began to make them frame laws which 
 should be administered there, while he himself lived 
 simply, openly, and unattended. 
 
 Sicily had been reduced to a desperate condition by 
 civil war, and Syracuse, like many other Sicilian cities. 
 
The Greeks 201 
 
 was half depopulated. The grass grew high in the 
 market-places, the deer and wild boar from the forests 
 grazed under the very walls of the towns, and some- 
 times made their way into the deserted streets. The 
 few rich survivors had retired to strong castles of their 
 own in the mountain fastnesses, as men did in the deso- 
 lation of the dark ages, and the poor had been enslaved 
 or exterminated. The need of a new population was 
 evident, and Timoleon called upon Corinth for colo- 
 nists. The mother city sent ten thousand; the rest of 
 Sicily together with Southern Italy sent fifty thousand ; 
 the new colonists consented to pay for the land and 
 houses they occupied, and the old inhabitants actually 
 paid for what was already theirs, in order that a public 
 fund might be created. To increase the resources of 
 the state, Timoleon took several cities from the Phceni- 
 cians, the most important of which was Entella, and 
 sold them to Greek colonists, a proceeding which is jus- 
 tified when one considers the extent of the injuries done 
 to the Greeks by the Carthaginians, but which doubt- 
 less contributed to bring on a new struggle with Car- 
 thage. The shameful retreat of the latter’s general 
 from Syracuse, almost without having struck a blow, 
 led to his speedy disgrace, and though he died by his 
 own hand, even suicide could not save him from 
 infamy, and his dead body was nailed to the cross. 
 Carthage now prepared for another great expedition, 
 Hasdrubal and Hamilcar were chosen as generals, the 
 
202 The Rulers of the South 
 
 usual vast army of mercenaries landed at Lilybeum, 
 and another reign of terror began in Sicily. Timo- 
 leon’s force was insignificant, and his war material was 
 scanty; as he was marching to Akragas, a mutiny 
 broke out in his little army, and a thousand of his mer- 
 cenary Greeks deserted him and returned to Syracuse. 
 The Carthaginians marched upon Entella, which Timo- 
 leon had taken from their people; he had determined to 
 intercept the enemy, when he was checked by meeting 
 with a number of mules laden with parsley; for parsley 
 was used for funeral crowns, and the omen was there- 
 fore evil. But Timoleon took some of the leaves, and 
 made a chaplet, and crowned himself, saying that pars- 
 ley was used also for the victors in the Isthmian Games, 
 and encouraged his men, saying that crowns were given 
 them even before victory. So they took courage and 
 marched on, and a heavy mist hid the enemy from 
 them, while they heard the inarticulate hum of the 
 camp at no great distance; and when the mist began to 
 lift the Carthaginians were already crossing the river, 
 with their chariots and a thousand men who carried 
 white shields. So Timoleon sent down his cavalry, but 
 the chariots drove furiously up and down in front of the 
 enemy’s ranks and the horses would not charge them. 
 Then Timoleon cried aloud to his foot-soldiers to fol- 
 low him, and his voice was clearer and louder than the 
 voice of a man, so that it was as if a god spoke to 
 them; he took his sword and shield in his hands, and 
 
The Greeks 203 
 
 the trumpets screamed, and he rushed forward, and a 
 great tempest with thunder and much rain had gath- 
 ered behind him on the hill and came down with him 
 and beat into the faces of his enemies, and the thunder 
 roared, and the hail rattled on their iron breast-plates 
 and brass helmets with a deafening noise, so that they 
 could not hear the orders their officers gave; and the 
 Greeks put them to sudden rout and wild confusion, 
 and ten thousand of them were slain or drowned in the 
 river, for they were weighed down by their heavy 
 armour. This is the first time that as many as three 
 thousand natives of Carthage were slain in a battle. 
 After that the Greeks took the camp and all it held, 
 with many prisoners; and so that expedition ended. 
 Now the Carthaginians, seeing that the Greeks were 
 the bravest and most invincible of men, hired Greek 
 soldiers to fight for them, and a new expedition was 
 sent out with seventy ships, and sailed to Messina, 
 where a dim war was fought of which not much is 
 known; but three tyrants, Icetes of Leontini, Mamer- 
 cus of Catania, and Hippo of Messina, were allied with 
 the Carthaginians against Timoleon, and he beat them 
 one by one; yet when peace was made he was obliged 
 to leave Carthage the lordship of the western cities. 
 Of the three despots, Hippo fell into the hands of his 
 own people, and they scourged him and put him to 
 death in the theatre of Messina, gathering thither all 
 the children of the city to see the tyrant’s end, that 
 
204 The Rulers of the South 
 
 they might always remember it. Icetes was executed 
 by the Corinthians as a traitor to the Greeks, and 
 because he had drowned the wife and the sister of the 
 son of Dion, the Syracusans also slew his wife and 
 daughters after a mock trial. As for Mamercus, when 
 Timoleon had beaten him in battle, he surrendered ; 
 but Timoleon gave him up to the Syracusans to judge 
 him, which they did in the theatre. When they would 
 not hear his defence, he, being unarmed, broke from 
 his keepers, and running at great speed across the 
 open orchestra, he threw himself forward upon his 
 head, against the wall, hoping to die; but he lived to 
 perish on the cross, like acommon robber. And with 
 his death the most strenuous part of Timoleon’s task 
 was accomplished. He had freed all Sicily from the 
 tyrants, and he had reduced the power of Carthage. 
 He repopulated the deserted cities of Sicily and taught 
 them how to enrich and strengthen themselves, and 
 unlike Dionysius the elder he did not aim at the 
 agerandizement of Syracuse to the detriment of all 
 the rest: it was under his guidance that Akragas, 
 which had never recovered from the Carthaginian 
 conquest, became once more a strong and indepen- 
 dent city. 
 
 He spent his old age, afflicted with total blindness, 
 in encouraging the work he had begun; on important 
 occasions, when his counsels could not be spared, he 
 was carried to the theatre where the people went to 
 
The Greeks 205 
 
 deliberate, and every appearance was a triumph, fol- 
 lowed by his immediate return to the privacy of the 
 house given him by the city, in which he dwelt with 
 his wife and his children, and in which at last he 
 died, one of the most splendid types of human hon- 
 our, courage, and wisdom that ever freed a nation 
 from slavery. 
 
 Chosen youths bore his body over the ground where 
 the tyrant’s castle had stood, and the whole population 
 of Syracuse followed it to the market-place, where the 
 funeral pile was erected. His ashes were buried on 
 the spot, and about his tomb a great gymnasium was 
 built. Games were then and there instituted in his 
 memory, and the proclamation which decreed them 
 called him ‘the destroyer of tyrants, the subduer of 
 barbarians, the man who had peopled again great cities 
 that lay desolate, and who had restored to all Sicilians 
 their laws and ancient rights.’ 
 
 The immediate result of Timoleon’s labours was not 
 lasting, but it was long before the spirit he had in- 
 stilled into the life of Syracuse altogether disappeared, 
 and even under the worst tyranny of Agathocles some 
 of the forms of freedom were preserved. During 
 some twenty years after Timoleon’s death, the city 
 remained free, and as is often the case in prosperous 
 times the records of that period are few and con- 
 fused. Agriculture prospered, commerce throve, archi- 
 tects built, sculptors modelled, and poets made verses ; 
 
206 The Rulers of the South 
 
 but history is silent and only resumes her labour to 
 tell of new disasters. The story of the extraordinary 
 man to whom the tyranny of Syracuse next fell is so 
 fantastic that it deserves telling for its own sake, as 
 
 
 
 A SICILIAN COURTYARD 
 
 well as for some resemblance that it bears to the fable 
 of CEdipus. 
 
 In Rhegium, in fhe days of Timoleon, there lived 
 a Greek called Carcinus, of noble birth and great 
 
The Greeks 207 
 
 possessions, and he was exiled by his fellow-citizens, 
 and went and dwelt in Sicily, in the city of Therma, 
 which is now Termini, on the north side of the island. 
 He married a woman of that city, and when a 
 son was about to be born to him, he was visited by 
 evil dreams. At that time certain Carthaginians were 
 going to the oracle of Delphi, and he besought them 
 to ask for him the interpretations of his visions. 
 They brought him word that his son should be the 
 cause of great misfortunes to the Carthaginians and 
 to all Sicily; therefore, when the child was born, he 
 caused it to be exposed in a desert place, and set a 
 watch lest any one should come and save it or by 
 any means keep it alive. Yet the child did not die, 
 and the mother watched her opportunity until the 
 guard grew careless, and she took up her child and 
 fled with it to the house of her brother and named 
 it Agathocles, after her own father. The child 
 grew up and was very beautiful, and stronger than 
 other children, and when he was seven years old, his 
 father, not knowing him, praised his beauty and his 
 strength, and his mother answered, feigning sadness, 
 “So would our boy have been, if you had let him 
 live.” Then Carcinus repented suddenly of what he 
 had done and turned away weeping bitterly; but his 
 wife comforted him and told him the truth, and he 
 ‘acknowledged his son and brought him home. By 
 and by Carcinus left Thermze with all his family and 
 
208 The Rulers of the South 
 
 went and lived in Syracuse, where he died soon after- 
 wards, and Agathocles grew up with his mother. 
 She, believing in great things for him, caused a little 
 statue of him to be made and set it up as an offer- 
 ing before one of the temples, and at once a swarm 
 of bees settled upon it and built their hive; and 
 the soothsayers interpreted the sign to mean that the 
 boy should win high fame. 
 
 He grew up of great stature and marvellous strength, 
 and a rich man of Syracuse, named Damas, took him 
 under his protection and caused him to be appointed 
 one of the leaders of a thousand in the army. Damas 
 died childless, and Agathocles immediately married the 
 rich man’s widow, and became thenceforward one of 
 the most important persons in Syracuse. He kept 
 his military position in spite of his wealth and showed 
 extraordinary military talent; but when he did not 
 receive the advancement he expected, after a brilliant 
 engagement in Italy, and when no attention was paid 
 to his claims, he left the city and seems to have lived 
 for some time as a sort of free lance, while cherish- 
 ing the most adventurous designs. He even besieged 
 Crotona on his own account, and failing to take it, 
 sought employment as a general of Tarentine mer- 
 cenaries. Meanwhile, the party that had opposed him 
 in Syracuse fell from power, and he returned to his 
 home, to find himself before long in his old command 
 of a thousand men, opposed to the Carthaginians, with 
 
The Greeks 209 
 
 whom the fallen party had allied itself. In spite of 
 his courage and brilliant actions the Syracusans would 
 not confer upon him the generalship, since it was 
 clear ta them from the first that he aimed at making 
 himself despot. Turning upon him as suddenly as 
 they had turned upon the opposite party, they bade 
 him quit the city at once, and sent out men to kill him 
 as he should ride by; but he, being warned, dressed 
 a slave in his own armour and clad himself in rags. 
 He escaped, and the slave was murdered in his stead. 
 
 Being now banished, he immediately came to an 
 understanding with his country’s enemies, the Car- 
 thaginians, and by their influence upon the oligarchy 
 of six hundred which now ruled Syracuse he obtained 
 his recall, and took solemn oath before the people to 
 do nothing contrary to their freedom or their rights. 
 He had now reached the stage at which aspirants to 
 despotism appear as the friends of the oppressed popu- 
 lace, and he did not hesitate to use his power for the 
 destruction of the oligarchy. On pretence of reducing 
 a small revolution in the interior, he was allowed to 
 get together a chosen force, and on the day appointed 
 for his departure he gathered his soldiers in the 
 buildings about the tomb of Timoleon in the market- 
 place. In an address of stirring eloquence he accused 
 the six hundred of setting him aside from public 
 offices on account of his attachment to the people; 
 and as his impeachment turned to a fiery arraignment 
 
 VOL. I 13 
 
210 The Rulers of the South 
 
 and at last to a tremendous invective, the soldiers cried 
 out for the blood of the accused. Then, as if only 
 yielding to pressure, he ordered that the trumpets 
 should give the signal to fall upon the six hundred 
 and upon all who should help or harbour them. The 
 gates were shut against any who should escape death, 
 and the infuriated soldiers stormed every house which 
 might give shelter to their prey. The streetsmran 
 blood. Four thousand of the richest citizens were put 
 to the sword, and many perished in attempting to 
 leap from the walls in flight. Some were brought 
 bound before Agathocles to be executed or banished 
 at his will. About six thousand escaped to Akragas. 
 
 On the following day Agathocles called a general 
 meeting of the people, and, acting out the favourite 
 comedy of the despot, he declared that he had freed the 
 city from the tyranny of the oligarchy, that he was 
 worn out by the struggle for a righteous cause, and that 
 he refused to keep even the semblance of a power to 
 which he had never aspired. Thereupon, he laid down 
 his military cloak and turned away, well knowing what 
 was to follow. The thousands who were before him 
 were the men who yesterday had plundered the houses 
 of the nobles at his word; they would not lose a leader 
 who might bid them plunder again; they unanimously 
 declared him their general and dictator, and he made 
 a pretence of refusing the dignity only that he might be 
 the more certain of holding it for his life. 
 
The Greeks 211 
 
 From the first he showed that he had profited by the 
 example of Dion the unsuccessful, and of the half-dei- 
 fied Timoleon. Strong, brave, and no longer young, he 
 scorned to surround himself with a body-guard, and 
 took that surer means of safety which lay in binding 
 the populace to him by the joint bonds of gratification 
 and greed; for he gave them what was not his, and 
 promised to give them whatsoever was not theirs already. 
 What the nature of his patriotism was, is clear from 
 the fact that he did not hesitate to ally himself with the 
 Carthaginians, the hereditary enemies of his country. 
 
 Tyranny is as often remembered by the people for 
 the immediate advantages it brings them, as for the 
 evils it sooner or later inflicts. The order which Agath- 
 ocles introduced by force was more advantageous to 
 Sicily than the chaos that had followed when the quar- 
 relsome nature of the Greek people had rendered futile 
 the noble institutions of Timoleon; and though it is 
 true that under Agathocles Sicily produced no famous 
 artist or poet, there can be no doubt but that her wealth 
 and power increased suddenly and prodigiously. It 
 would be impossible to explain otherwise how the tyrant 
 could have so far got the advantage of Carthage, after 
 the old quarrel was renewed, as to carry war into Africa, 
 winning many battles and failing only at the last when 
 he had been on the point of decisive victory. 
 
 Friendly relations were broken by the discontent of 
 the Carthaginians when their general interfered to 
 
212 The Rulers of the Sante 
 
 make peace between Agathocles and the Greek cities, 
 and so arranged matters as to give Syracuse the lord- 
 ship of the island, with the exception of the old Phe- 
 nician towns; for the tyrant’s treaty had really been 
 rather a personal agreement with Hamilcar than a 
 national affair, and Carthage did not hesitate to set it 
 aside. Then began the usual gathering of mercenaries, 
 and the preparations for a great invasion, while Agath- 
 ocles, on his side, collected a great force of mercenaries, 
 though not without difficulty; for whereas Dionysius 
 the elder had always succeeded in making Sicily feel 
 that he was her true representative and natural leader 
 against foreign influence, Agathocles was distrusted by 
 many and opposed by not a few, and his frightful cru- 
 elties may fairly be ascribed to the exceptional danger 
 of his situation. He was not even a native of the city 
 he ruled. He held his position, not by employing spies 
 and paying life-guards whom he could implicitly trust 
 to destroy the few who dared to plot against his life, 
 but by the wholesale massacre of every party that was 
 organized to oppose him; and when he had thus cleared 
 the situation by bloodshed, he went about with careless 
 courage and without ever showing the slightest suspi- 
 cion of individuals. 
 
 Carthage was not ready for war until he had com- 
 pletely established his supremacy in Sicily, and when 
 at last her fleet put to sea, a violent storm destroyed 
 many ships with the troops they carried. Another 
 
The Greeks 212 
 
 Hamilcar—the name was frequent — commanded the 
 force, and in spite of all losses succeeded in encamping 
 with an army of forty-five thousand men on Mount 
 Ecnomus, the huge headland that juts out to the 
 eastward of Girgenti; and Agathocles encamped over 
 against him, still further east and beyond the salt river. 
 Both armies waited and watched, sending down forag- 
 ing parties to drive up cattle from the valley. Then 
 Agathocles, having observed how the enemy conducted 
 those small expeditions, laid an ambush for them, fell 
 upon them unawares, drove back the few survivors to 
 the camp, and taking advantage of the momentary 
 confusion, led a general attack. Before the Carthagin- 
 ians could give battle the Greeks were upon them, 
 filling the ditches that protected their camp and tearing 
 down the stockades. The battle would have been won 
 but for the Balearic slingers, whose slings hurled stones 
 weighing an English pound, and who at last drove the 
 Greeks out; and then defeat followed upon repulse, as 
 an unexpected reénforcement landed from Africa, and 
 defeat became disaster in a general rout, in which no 
 less than seven thousand of the Greeks were slaughtered. 
 Yet strange to say the survivors remained faithful to 
 their leader, who burned his camp and fell back first 
 upon Gela, now Terranova, and at last upon Syracuse, 
 while Hamilcar made a triumphal progress through the 
 island, the cities opening their gates to him as to a 
 liberator. Agathocles seemed lost. He saved himself 
 
214 The Rulers of the South 
 
 by a stroke of astonishing boldness. 
 
 He determined 
 
 to leave a small garrison in Syracuse and to invade 
 
 Carthage without delay, while all her forces were 
 
 
 
 STREET IN SYRACUSE TO-DAY 
 
 with sixty men-of-war. 
 
 abroad. It was the con- 
 ception of a man of genius, 
 and though he did not ac- 
 complish the conquest of 
 Carthage, which was re- 
 cerved for the vast power 
 of Rome, he succeeded 
 in freeing Sicily and in re- 
 establishing his despotic 
 Hamilcar had 
 
 pursued him to Syracuse, 
 
 position. 
 
 had besieged the city, 
 and was actually blockad- 
 ing the harbour with his 
 fleet, when Agathocles set 
 forth on his expedition. 
 He waited until the Car- 
 thaginian ships put out to 
 capture a convoy of ves- 
 sels with provisions for 
 the city, and sailed out 
 
 The Carthaginians saw him, 
 
 supposed he meant to give battle, and drew up to await 
 
 his attack, and by the time they understood that he was 
 
 heading to southward he had gained enough distance to 
 
The Greeks 215 
 
 greatly reduce the chances of being overtaken. Never- 
 theless, the Carthaginian fleet gave chase, while the 
 corn ships quietly entered the harbour, and Syracuse 
 was provisioned for a long siege. The whole affair 
 was one of those brilliant manoeuvres that prove the 
 born general. 
 
 The Greeks believed that they were beyond pursuit, 
 heading for the African coast, when, on the morning 
 of the seventh day, the Carthaginian ships hove in 
 sight, still in full chase, and gaining visibly. A race 
 for life and death began, in the dead calm, and the 
 oars pulled desperately, hour after hour. If the Greeks 
 could reach the land and intrench themselves, they 
 would have the advantage, for their enemies would have 
 to attack them from the water’s edge; but if they were 
 overtaken on the high sea, they could expect nothing 
 but destruction in a battle with a force so far superior 
 to their own ; and Syracuse would be lost also. Still the 
 Carthaginians crept up astern, hour after hour, while 
 Agathocles counted the miles that lay between him 
 and the land, and knew that his fate hung by a hair. 
 His men knew it too, and they reached the shore in 
 time, southwest of what is now Cape Bon, in a strong 
 place at the entrance to an ancient stone quarry of 
 vast extent, and they threw up fortifications and 
 beached their vessels. But the leader knew that the 
 ships were a weakness and a temptation to flight, where 
 
 men were to win or die, and with a heroism that has 
 
216 The Rulers of the South 
 
 seldom been equalled, and commanding an obedience 
 that has never been surpassed, he burned the fleet as 
 it lay on the shore, firing his own vessel with his 
 own hand, while every captain followed his example. 
 
 During the fire, the Carthaginians, at some distance 
 from the shore, were filled with joy; but their mood 
 changed when they saw that Agathocles was leading 
 his army to the interior, without waiting to give battle. 
 It was too late to overtake him now; he was entering 
 the richest part of their country with a large army of 
 the bravest men in the world, and men whose only 
 hope lay in victory; the Carthaginians fell to weeping 
 and mourning and draped the bows of their ships with 
 black. 
 
 Agathocles marched on without hindrance, seized the 
 rich city of Megalopolis, plundered it, and took Tunes 
 next, only ten miles from Carthage. The great city, 
 even in such sudden and utter need, when her main 
 force was either in Sicily or at sea, was able to send out 
 forty-one thousand men and two thousand chariots to 
 meet the invaders. Agathocles had less than fifteen 
 thousand soldiers, all told; he helped himself by 
 strange stratagems that savour of Homeric times, 
 spreading out the shield-covers of his heavy-armed 
 infantry on staves, to represent a reserve of soldiers 
 that did not exist, and loosing a number of owls among 
 his men, who suddenly took great courage as the birds 
 sacred to Pallas settled blinking upon their helmets and 
 
The Greeks 207 
 
 shields. One thinks of the young Louis Napoleon and 
 the trained eagle that was allowed to fly at his first 
 landing —a trick which Ulysses might have invented 
 and Homer described. 
 
 The Greeks fought like madmen, the drivers of the 
 enemy’s chariots were shot down and the cavalry pelted 
 to death, the famous heavy-armed infantry charged, the 
 chief general of the Carthaginians was slain, and their 
 ranks wavered, —the next in command turned traitor, 
 it is said, and commanded a hasty retreat, which pres- 
 ently became a rout and massacre, and Agathocles was 
 master of the field. In the Carthaginian camp he 
 found twenty thousand pairs of manacles, brought out 
 to shackle the Greeks who were to have been taken 
 prisoners. 
 
 With the small force at his disposal he could not 
 hope to take the strong city, fortified as it was at every 
 point and more than amply provisioned. But it was 
 the policy of Carthage to allow no other town to pro- 
 tect itself by fortifications, lest any should turn against 
 her, and Agathocles seized one place after another, 
 with vast booty. Meanwhile the Carthaginians sent to 
 Hamilcar in Sicily for help, and made horrible burnt 
 sacrifices of many little children to their cruel gods. 
 
 Hamilcar received the news of the Carthaginian 
 defeat before Syracuse and, at the same time, the 
 bronze beaks of the ships burned by Agathocles were 
 brought to him. Hoping to prevent the beleaguered 
 
218 The Rulers of the South 
 
 Syracusans from learning the truth, he showed them the 
 beaks as if they were trophies, and proclaimed to them 
 the defeat and destruction of Agathocles, calling upon 
 them to surrender at once; but they held firm, and 
 before long they were informed of the truth in an unex- 
 pected manner. For Agathocles had sent a vessel with 
 the news of his victory; it appeared off Syracuse in the 
 morning, and after an exciting race, in which it escaped 
 the enemy’s blockade, it entered the harbour with fly- 
 ing streamers, the whole ship’s company drawn up on 
 deck, and intoning a victorious chaunt. Hamilcar tried 
 to take advantage of the excitement that reigned in 
 the city in order to storm a weak point, but he was 
 repulsed, and soon afterwards despatched five thousand 
 men to the help of Carthage. Agathocles performed 
 marvels of quick marching, as he darted from one point 
 to another, subduing the cities in succession, but unable 
 to hold them for any length of time, for lack of men. 
 He created a sort of floating domination of fear that 
 centred round him in a movable kingdom wherever he 
 appeared, but which could not under any circumstances 
 become a permanent conquest; he plotted and con- 
 spired with native princes and Carthaginian traitors to 
 obtain some influence more lasting than that of the 
 sword, and more than once it seemed as if he might 
 succeed. For instance, there was a certain Ophellas, 
 who had been a general with Alexander the Great and 
 had made himself prince of Cyrene on the African 
 
The Greeks 219 
 
 coast; Agathocles induced him by great promises to 
 join in the conquest of Carthage, and the old soldier, 
 after overcoming the difficulties of a three months’ 
 march through a desert country, reached Tunes with 
 over ten thousand fighting men and as many camp-fol- 
 lowers, besides women and children. Agathocles did 
 not hesitate to do one of the most atrociously treach- 
 erous deeds in history; he wanted the troops without 
 their leader, whose influence might rival his own; he 
 spent a few days in friendly intercourse with him in his 
 camp, and then returning to his own soldiers, accused 
 Ophellas to them of attempting his life. Wrought up 
 to fury by his words, they rushed upon the camp of his 
 new ally, a great number of whose men were absent 
 to collect provisions, and after a short and desperate 
 struggle, Ophellas was slain. Agathocles then took 
 the army into his own pay and shipped the camp- 
 followers with all the women and children to Syracuse. 
 A storm dispersed the miserable convoy, most of the 
 ships sank, one or two were driven as far north as 
 Ischia in the bay of Naples, and but a very few 
 reached Syracuse alive. 
 
 Meanwhile, the conspiracy of the Carthaginian trai- 
 tors broke out in open revolution in the capital, under 
 the leadership of Bomilcar; but they had miscalcu- 
 lated their strength, the movement was crushed, and he 
 himself was executed. This was in reality the end of 
 Agathocles’ hopes in Africa; had the revolution suc- 
 
220 The Rulers of the South 
 
 ceeded, he would without doubt have destroyed Bomil- 
 car as cynically as he had murdered Ophellas, and 
 Carthage might have been his; but, as it turned out, 
 the Carthaginians learned their own strength by the 
 failure of the attempt, and from that time forward the 
 power of the Greeks diminished. Not realizing the sit- 
 uation, Agathocles left his son in command and crossed 
 over to Sicily with a small force; for while the Cartha- 
 ginians had all this time maintained the blockade of 
 Syracuse, Akragas, once more an independent and pow- 
 erful city, was making an effort to dominate Sicily, and 
 to that end had taken into its friendship all those whom 
 Agathocles had exiled. In a short time, however, 
 Agathocles put a stop to these schemes, and, having 
 effectually checked the Akragantines, had only to 
 contend with the exiled Syracusan aristocracy under 
 Dinocrates. Meanwhile, and in his absence, his son 
 suffered a succession of defeats in Africa, and found 
 himself driven down to Tunes, and so hemmed in that 
 he sent an urgent appeal to his father to return and 
 help him. It was some time before Agathocles was able 
 to leave Sicily, and when he reached Africa, he found 
 himself with a small force opposed to one of those enor- 
 mous armies which the Carthaginians again and again 
 collected in the course of their wars. They, on their 
 side, did not desire battle unless Agathocles attacked 
 them, and when he did so, they had no difficulty in 
 driving him back to his position with fearful loss, and 
 
The Greeks 221 
 
 the end of the war was hastened by a hideous fire which 
 broke out in the Carthaginian camp on the following 
 night. As usual after a victory, the handsomest of the 
 captives were burnt alive as a sacrifice to the gods; a 
 sudden squall drove the flames from the altar upon the 
 sacred tent, which caught fire and set the neighbouring 
 tents of the generals in a blaze. In an instant the 
 whole Carthaginian camp, consisting chiefly of huts of 
 reeds and of straw, became a sea of fire, and the entire 
 army fled in the direction of Carthage, in the wildest 
 confusion. A large body of Libyans deserted from the 
 Greek army, believing that the flames proceeded from 
 bonfires lighted to celebrate the Carthaginian victory. 
 When they attempted to join the Carthaginians, how- 
 ever, they were taken for a hostile force, in the confu- 
 sion, and thousands of them were slain. The rest 
 returned to the Greeks, and, being again taken for 
 enemies, were most of them slaughtered. Had Agath- 
 ocles known the condition of the Carthaginians on that 
 night, he might have struck a decisive blow; but the 
 truth was only known in the morning, when the remain- 
 der of the Libyans deserted in a body. 
 
 The situation was now desperate, and Agathocles 
 attempted to escape to Sicily, intending to leave the 
 rest of his army to its fate. His son, who was to 
 have been left also, discovered his father’s treachery, 
 and disclosed it to the soldiers, who seized Agathocles 
 and loaded him with chains. It was not until a false 
 
222 The Rulers of the South 
 
 alarin of the enemy’s approach was raised in the camp 
 that the tyrant was released from his bonds, in order that 
 he might lead the Greeks in a final attempt to save 
 themselves. But Agathocles had more regard for his 
 own safety. He was brave to recklessness, but not 
 devoted; when a cause was lost,: he abandoned it. 
 With a few faithful followers, he got on board a small 
 ship and slipped away in the night. The next day the 
 soldiers murdered both his sons, and treated with the 
 Carthaginians for peace, which was granted. Those of 
 the Greeks who refused the terms were either crucified 
 or were forced to work in chains upon the lands they had 
 laid waste but a few months earlier. It is said that the 
 sons of Agathocles were slain on the anniversary of 
 that day on which their father had murdered Ophellas. 
 
 But the career of the great adventurer was not yet 
 over, nor was his influence in Sicily by any means 
 gone. Landing in Selinus, he gathered a small force, 
 which he led at once, with the unerring instinct of the 
 born tyrant, against Segesta, the ancient rival and 
 enemy of the Selinuntines. After laying a heavy trib- 
 ute upon the city, he suddenly accused the citizens of 
 attempting to murder him, and turned his soldiers 
 upon them with orders to spare no living thing. He 
 caused the rich men to be tortured before him, till 
 they revealed the hiding-place of their treasures, and 
 then had them put to death. Only the most beautiful 
 boys and girls were spared to be sold as slaves in 
 

 

 

 
7, ha . 
 
 
 
The Greeks 223 
 
 Italy. The city was levelled to the ground, and the 
 very name of the place was changed when he gave 
 the site to be inhabited by those of his adherents who 
 would take it. That was the end of Segesta, and of 
 the great city that in its day had brought so much 
 evil upon Sicily; nothing survived the destroying wrath 
 of Agathocles but the little lonely theatre high on the 
 overhanging hill, and the great temple that. still stands 
 in its dark beauty upon the deserted mountain side. 
 
 But this was not all. The army of Africa which 
 he had abandoned in its last need had murdered his 
 two sons, and they also must be avenged. He sent 
 word to his brother Antandros to take vengeance 
 upon all the relatives of the soldiers he had left be- 
 hind him in Africa, and Antandros executed the order 
 to the letter. Thousands of old men, women, and chil- 
 dren were driven down to the seashore and slaughtered 
 on the beach like sheep. The sea was red with their 
 blood and none dared to bury their bodies. 
 
 Gathering strength, as it were, from each new deed 
 of terror, and imposing himself upon the Sicilians by 
 fear rather than by strength, he turned against the 
 party of the exiles, whose army counted nearly thirty 
 thousand men, and with a force of scarcely six thou- 
 sand defeated them totally in a single battle. It is 
 needless to say that he massacred in cold blood several 
 thousands of the prisoners he took, but it is a strange 
 fact that he spared Dinocrates himself, treated him 
 
224 The Rulers of the South 
 
 with the greatest kindness, and employed him as a 
 general of his troops during the rest of his life. 
 From that time forward the power of the hoary 
 tyrant was unchecked, and he extended his dominions 
 far up the mainland and through the islands, laying 
 Lipari under tribute and seizing Corcyra, which is 
 Corfu, after completely vanquishing a Macedonian 
 fleet; and when the people of that island complained 
 that he laid waste their land, he laughed and said it 
 was the vengeance of the Sicilians because Ulysses, 
 an island man, had blinded the Sicilian shepherd Poly- 
 phemus long ago; and again, on his return from that 
 expedition, he massacred two thousand of his soldiers 
 who dared to demand their pay that was overdue. 
 He plundered Crotona, too, by a piece of outrageous 
 treachery, and the gradual decay of the great southern 
 city began from that day, and continued through the 
 wars that followed; and he who stands by the solitary 
 column which is all that remains of Hera’s temple, 
 may remember that Agathocles must have sacrificed 
 there in gratitude to the gods for the abomination 
 they had permitted him to work in the beautiful city. 
 He made himself also a friend of Ptolemy Soter and 
 married that king’s daughter by Berenice; and he 
 gave his own daughter to Pyrrhus the Epirote con- 
 queror; he also allied himself with Demetrius, king 
 of Macedonia, who was called Besieger of Cities, and 
 he perhaps dreamt of conquests in the east. But most ~ 
 
The Greeks 225 
 
 of all he desired to humble the Carthaginians and to 
 be revenged upon them for the defeats he had suf- 
 fered at their hands, and he was seventy-two years of 
 age when he began to fit out a great expedition 
 against them. 
 
 But his destiny overtook him before his ships were 
 ready to sail out from Syracuse. He had a favourite 
 slave, named Mainon, whom he had brought from 
 Segesta and trusted, whose eyes had looked upon the 
 slaughter of his people and had seen his home levelled 
 to the earth; and though this slave smiled, and did his 
 service, and was promoted to high office, he would not 
 forgive, and he waited for his opportunity more than 
 sixteen years. Then he took a tooth-pick which the 
 tyrant used, and he rubbed upon it a very subtle poison, 
 which bred a dreadful corruption, with unspeakable 
 pain, first in the mouth and by and by through the 
 whole body. So when Agathocles had lost even his 
 power of speech, Mainon and those who hated him took 
 him and laid him still alive upon his pyre; and so he 
 perished, in the year 289 B.c., as strange a compound of 
 genius, cruelty, reckless courage, and shameful faith- 
 lessness as ever ruled by alternate terror and popu- 
 larity. 
 
 It is said that during the awful and protracted suffer- 
 ings caused by the poison, he formally presented the 
 Syracusans with their freedom, hoping, perhaps, by a 
 piece of theatrical magnanimity to obtain the privilege 
 
 VOL. I Q 
 
226 The Rulers of the South 
 
 of dying in his bed. We do not know the truth, but he 
 was no sooner dead in the flames of his own funeral 
 pile than the people seized upon his possessions, de- 
 stroyed his statues, and banished all his mercenaries, 
 attendants, and creatures. Even Mainon, who had 
 delivered them of the tyrant, fled from the city. He 
 afterwards raised a force among Agathocles’ veterans 
 and attempted to seize Syracuse, but was successfully 
 opposed by the people, who chose a certain Icetes for 
 their general. As Holm says, with his usual keenness, 
 it is clear that Syracuse remained a free city for a 
 time, as the citizens immediately made war upon each 
 other. 
 
 The days of Sicilian unity, such as it had been under 
 Dionysius and Agathocles, were over, and were never 
 to return. Icetes seized the tyranny of Syracuse, and 
 tyrants sprang up in other cities, while Carthage still 
 held her possessions in the west, and the Italian mer- 
 cenaries of Agathocles founded a state of some power 
 in the north, calling themselves Mamertines from 
 Mamers, the Oscan god Mars, familiar in Roman 
 mythology. It was to be foreseen that during the 
 internal struggles which decimated the population of 
 Syracuse, and surely destroyed its power, the Carthagin- 
 ians would make another attempt at conquest. They 
 appeared with a hundred ships and fifty thousand men 
 and laid siege to the city as of old. Then Syracuse 
 appealed to Pyrrhus, once the friend of Agathocles, 
 
The Greeks 2097 
 
 who was called the Eagle and the Alexander of his 
 day, and whose alliance had already been sought by 
 Tarentum against the Romans. He dreamed of conquer- 
 ing all Sicily, all Italy, all the world, and he equipped 
 himself for a great struggle, and carried war into the 
 heart of the Roman country. He beat the Romans 
 in battle, but he knew, and said frankly, that a few 
 more such victories would ruin him. He was in winter 
 quarters in Tarentum when the Syracusan ambassadors 
 came to him and implored his help. Hoping for easier 
 conquests, he set out for Tauromenium with his army 
 and his famous elephants. The Carthaginians did not 
 await his coming, but withdrew with their fleet and 
 their forces, and he entered Syracuse in triumph; the 
 rival factions united to deliver up their city, their fleet, 
 their army, and their treasure to his care. But he was 
 determined to drive the Carthaginians out of Sicily 
 altogether, and he now advanced westward with more 
 than thirty thousand men, accompanied by two hundred 
 ships that sailed round the coast. 
 
 Before Eryx, the lofty stronghold above Drepanon, a 
 position which even now looks almost impregnable, he 
 went forward alone and fully armed, and made his vow 
 of games and sacrifices to Hercules; the trumpets 
 sounded, the scaling-ladders were set against the walls, 
 and he himself was the first to reach the rampart. 
 Hand to hand he grappled with the foe, stabbing, 
 thrusting, wrestling with superhuman strength, unhurt 
 
228 The Rulers of the South 
 
 in the thick of the perilous fray, till men shrank away 
 from him in awe, as if he had been a god, and the 
 fortress was taken with great slaughter. A half-ruined 
 medizval castle, partly a town gaol, is built round all 
 that remains of Aphrodite’s temple —a bit of marble, 
 a tank hollowed in the rock, and the marvel of Sicily 
 lying far below in a haze of colour. As he stood there, 
 the Molossian king must have felt that he could take 
 the island in the hollow of his hand; and so he did. 
 But he used his conquest ill, and he tried to press the 
 people to serve under him against Carthage, until they 
 rebelled; and he murdered some of the great in Syra- 
 cuse, as the tyrants had always done; but before his 
 expedition was ready he found himself so hemmed in 
 by treachery, and smouldering revolution, and sedition, 
 that he took an excuse to go back to Italy and left the 
 island to itself. It is told that as he sailed away he 
 looked back, and said to those about him that they were 
 leaving behind them a great field, in which the Romans 
 and the Carthaginians might exercise their arms. 
 And so it came to pass, for he was beaten by the 
 Romans at the river by Beneventum, on the same 
 ground where Charles of Anjou destroyed Manfred and 
 his army fifteen hundred years later, and where many 
 other famous fights were fought in after times. 
 
 With the reign of Hiero the Second the story of the 
 Greeks in the south hastens to its close, while the vast 
 
 shadow of Rome spreads wide over the mainland and 
 
The Greeks 229 
 
 the islands. With the departure of Pyrrhus and the 
 consequent freedom from all restraint, the old troubles 
 broke out in Syracuse, the usual consequences followed, 
 and while the citizens took one side, the soldiers took 
 the other. The troops chose two generals, Hiero and 
 another; they entered the city by treachery, got pos- 
 session of the power, and from that time Hiero appears 
 alone in command. He was aman of no great birth, 
 but as soon as he had made himself ruler, the usual 
 fables and legends were told of his childhood and early 
 years; how he had been exposed to die of hunger as an 
 infant, and afterwards recognized by his father; how, 
 when he was a boy in school, a wolf rushed in and tore 
 his tablets from his hand, and how, when he ran out 
 to follow the wild beast and get them back, the school- 
 house fell in, and he alone was saved of all the chil- 
 dren; owls perched upon his lance, and eagles on his 
 shield, in short, of him was told the whole cycle of 
 fairy tales, which, for the people, distinguished the 
 great man from the common crowd. Yet in one re- 
 spect he was unlike the rest of those strong men who 
 had grasped the power with rude hands and held it 
 with an iron grip before him; he was young, kind, and 
 gentle, and after the first bold stroke he seems to have 
 held his own, or what he had taken for his own, more 
 by the love of his subjects than by any rougher means. 
 To strengthen his position he married the lovely Philis- 
 tis, through whom he allied himself, by the female line, 
 
230 The Rulers of the South 
 
 with the great house of Dionysius. Of all the beauti- 
 ful heads which we find upon the gold and silver coins 
 of Sicily, and there are many, none 
 can compare with that of Hliero’s 
 queen. One may fancy that Helen 
 of Troy had such a face, or Semir- 
 amis, or divine Athene herself, but 
 
 
 
 it is hard to believe that so fair a 
 
 COIN WITH THE HEAD 
 OF QUEEN PHILISTIS 
 
 woman ever lived; and if such little 
 history of her as has come down 
 to us be true, she was as good and wise as she was 
 beautiful. 
 
 Hiero could no longer hope to face Carthage in war 
 as Agathocles had done, still less to stem the tide of 
 Rome’s advancing might; he could not even hope to 
 rule all Sicily, and he contented himself with opposing 
 the nearer and more dangerous enemies of Syracuse. 
 Foremost of these were the Mamertines, who had 
 already given Pyrrhus trouble and whose compact 
 strength was penetrating into the interior of Sicily like 
 a wedge. Hiero did not ally himself with the Romans, 
 but succeeded in keeping on good terms with them by 
 occasionally doing them a service, and while they were 
 engaged in conquering the people of Rhegium, he 
 endeavoured to make himself master of Messina on the 
 other side of the straits. After taking a number of 
 small towns belonging to the Mamertines, he fought a 
 pitched battle with them near Messina itself and so 
 
The Greeks 231 
 
 completely defeated them that they were about to aban- 
 don the city, when a Carthaginian fleet appeared, not 
 with the open intention of helping the Mamertines, but 
 with such a considerable force as left no doubt of their 
 ultimate intentions, in Hiero’s mind. Contenting him- 
 self with the victory he had won, he withdrew to Syra- 
 cuse, where the people’ crowned him king with great 
 festivities and rejoicing. Irom this time forward, Mes- 
 sina was coveted by three powers,—by Hiero himself, 
 by the Carthaginians, and by Rome; and as the pop- 
 ulation divided itself into two parties, the one for Car- 
 thage, the other for the Romans, it was almost a fore- 
 gone conclusion that the latter should gain the upper 
 hand. And so it happened. The Mamertines sent an 
 embassy to Rome from Messina, asking for help, in the 
 year 265 B.c., and the favourable answer returned by 
 the Romans became the cause of the first Punic war. 
 
 But this was not the end of Hiero’s reign, for the 
 events which followed occupied a considerable time and 
 it was not until he had governed more than fifty years, 
 and was nearly ninety years of age, that he at last left 
 his kingdom to his grandson, who, after a series of mis- 
 takes chiefly attributable to his advisers, lost his life by 
 the hands of conspirators and left his kingdom a prey 
 to the Romans. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that during Hiero’s long 
 reign, Sicily became the battlefield of Rome and Car- 
 thage, as Pyrrhus had seen that it must, and that the 
 
232 The Rulers of the South 
 
 first part of the great struggle for empire occupied no 
 less than three and twenty years, during which the war 
 was waged without ceasing from one end of Sicily to 
 the other, through more than half of Italy and over 
 many hundred miles of sea. It must be remembered, 
 however, that the first Punic war was called the Sicilian 
 war in Rome, and that the first move of importance 
 made by the Romans was the capture of Messina, or 
 perhaps, as we should say, the occupation of that city, 
 since Caius Claudius got possession of it without strik- 
 ing a blow. As the Carthaginians had frequently done 
 on former occasions, they now landed their forces at 
 Lilybetum and marched along the southern coast 
 towards Akragas, which now becomes Agrigentum in 
 history. But the situation was not the same as in 
 former times, since the adversary of Carthage was no 
 longer Syracuse but Rome; and it was the object of 
 Hanno, the Carthaginian general, to make alliance with 
 the Sicilian cities against a common enemy instead of 
 destroying everything he found in his way, as his prede- 
 cessors had done. Hiero and the Syracusans joined 
 him, as Agrigentum had already agreed to do, and the 
 Sicilian armies moved up to the neighbourhood of Mes- 
 sina, where it was expected that the fighting should 
 begin. Before attempting to bring over his troops the 
 Roman general, who was the consul Appius Claudius, 
 attempted to persuade both the Carthaginians and 
 Hiero to retire. “As soon as he had? received™ them 
 
The Greeks 243 
 
 refusal, he brought a large force over by night, in all 
 manner of little craft, of the roughest and poorest 
 description, whereupon he got the nickname ‘ Caudex,’ 
 which may be interpreted to mean the trunk of a tree 
 hollowed to form a boat, in fact what we familiarly call 
 a ‘dug-out.’ When one considers the difficulty of navi- 
 gating the straits of Messina at the present day, when 
 steam vessels under way sometimes become unmanage- 
 able in the currents and are driven into collision, it 
 must be admitted that what Appius Claudius accom- 
 plished was no light undertaking, even with the help of 
 fishermen and boatmen who knew the waters; yet the 
 immediate result of the daring move was of less impor- 
 tance than might have been expected. MHiero and his 
 troops were nearer to Messina than the Carthaginians, 
 and sustained the first attack, the result of which was 
 so much to their disadvantage that Hiero withdrew 
 towards Syracuse on the following night with all his 
 force, and evidently with the intention of withdrawing 
 from his alliance with Carthage as soon as possible. 
 Left to deal with the Carthaginians only, the Romans 
 found them strongly intrenched between the little 
 lagoons, which are still to be seen near the Faro, and 
 the sea, and after a fruitless attempt to carry the works 
 Appius Claudius left a garrison in Messina and made a 
 move against Syracuse. He accomplished nothing, 
 however, though he exposed himself to great personal 
 risk, and he soon afterwards retired to Italy. 
 
234 The Rulers of the South 
 
 In a book of the present dimensions it is impossible 
 to narrate in detail the stirring events of the first 
 Punic war, even so far as they concern Sicily. The 
 reader to whom German or Italian is familiar should 
 read the masterly work of Holm, whom I have fol- 
 lowed very closely in the main, and of whom Pro- 
 fessor Freeman says that he appears to have collected 
 everything of value in Sicilian history, and from the 
 most varied sources. The principal matter with which 
 we are concerned is the general condition of affairs 
 in the south, when the first war with Carthage began, 
 and the general result upon the country when the 
 war ended, after a duration of twenty-two years. 
 
 When Pyrrhus had been decisively beaten, Rome 
 ruled the south of Italy to the Straits, having gradu- 
 ally got possession of all those rich Greek cities, and 
 their dependencies, which had still refused to acknow- 
 ledge her supremacy after she had finally defeated 
 the Samnites and Gauls at Sentinum in 295 B.c. Her 
 occupation of Messina gave her a hold upon Sicily, 
 which was before long greatly strengthened by the 
 more or less voluntary submission of a great num- 
 ber of other cities that foresaw the result of the 
 struggle and wished to be on the winning side, even 
 though the Romans were exacting allies. As for 
 Hiero, he waited and temporized, with a skill at which 
 we can only guess, but which proves him to have 
 
 possessed that true historical sense that alone can 
 
The Greeks 235 
 
 give a keen intuition of future history, and which has 
 been possessed by every really great statesman in all 
 times; and after manoeuvring to avoid anything like 
 a battle with the Romans, so long as he was still 
 nominally on the Carthaginian side, he became con- 
 vinced that the Romans were to be the winners, and 
 he openly allied himself with them. A Carthaginian 
 fleet which arrived near Syracuse soon afterwards, 
 ostensibly to help him, but of course in the hope of 
 getting control of the city as a base of operations, 
 sailed away again. The conditions of the alliance 
 acknowledged Hiero as king of a small territory in the 
 southeast corner of the island, but required of him 
 the payment of a proportionate tribute to Rome, and 
 it is no wonder if Hiero, remembering the deeds of 
 his predecessors, who had never really consolidated 
 their power, should have supposed that Rome could 
 conquer Carthage with comparative ease. From the 
 outbreak of the first Punic war to the destruction of 
 Carthage, the fight lasted a hundred and eighteen 
 years; but though Hiero was deceived as to the mag- 
 nitude of the memorable struggle, his judgment of 
 the result was correct, and his instinct was not at 
 fault in regard to the immediate advantages of the 
 alliance he made. If he had remained the friend of 
 Carthage, there can be no doubt but that Syracuse 
 would have become their chief stronghold, instead of 
 Agrigentum, and would have suffered the final dis- 
 
236 The Rulers of the South 
 
 aster which overtook that city. Instead, and without 
 at any time performing any brilliant action, or win- 
 ning any great battle, he shielded Syracuse from 
 danger throughout his reign, and at Jast made him- 
 self so indispensable to Rome that she was forced to 
 accept from him a present of money, which the Senate 
 would have given much to refuse, for the sake of 
 Rome’s dignity; yet, as soon as the first long war 
 was over, he helped the Carthaginians to put down 
 the great mutiny that broke out in their own army. 
 His character was upright and honourable in the 
 extreme, and while protecting his small kingdom from 
 the consequences of the war which was being waged 
 between the two great nations, he devoted himself to 
 its welfare in every other way, improved its agricul- 
 ture and made it one of the most important trading 
 states in the world, at a time when the commerce of 
 Carthage was necessarily greatly reduced. The position 
 occupied by Syracuse under Hiero may aptly be com- 
 pared with that of Belgium from the date of its indepen- 
 dence to the present day, though under a totally different 
 form of government, and in widely different conditions ; 
 but a solid modern representative government pos- 
 sesses over the very best form of the ancient absolute 
 monarchy the inestimable advantage that its stability 
 at no time depends upon the genius of an individual, 
 and therefore, to use a comparison from commerce, 
 it bears the same relation to absolutism that a long- 
 
The Greeks 2A 
 
 established corporation bears to an individual banker 
 who has no partners. 
 
 While the Romans were besieging Agrigentum, los- 
 ing a fleet at Lipari, winning battles in the west of the 
 island, slowly driving their enemies back and estab- 
 lishing their power with that astonishing comprehen- 
 sion of military supply which they early displayed in 
 warfare, Hiero was enriching Syracuse, extending 
 his trade and multiplying those resources of wealth 
 and provisions which made him indispensable to the 
 Romans themselves. His success in this respect 
 proves what Sicily could do in peace after a century 
 and a half of bloodshed, or much more, if one choose 
 to go farther back, beyond the first Carthaginian inva- 
 sion —a century and a half of foreign wars, internal 
 dissensions, race struggles, and cruel tyrannies. The 
 same boundless recuperative power is in the island 
 to-day, and the time is not far distant when the com- 
 merce and manufactures of Sicily will equal that of all 
 Italy, from the straits to Florence, and will compare 
 favourably with that of the whole Italian peninsula. 
 
 Hiero’s government has been described as a wise 
 combination of magnificence and economy, of strength 
 and gentleness; he dealt with foreign powers in the 
 name of the Syracusan people, not in his own; he 
 refused the outward insignia of royalty, and seems to 
 have lived simply in the vast city he had restored and 
 beautified, surrounding himself with such men of tal- 
 
238 The Rulers of the South 
 
 ent as he could attract to Syracuse. He made pres- 
 ents of great value not only to Rome but .to Egypt, 
 and even to Rhodes, most often in the form of corn 
 and probably in times of scarcity ; but we hear no 
 tales of his own extravagance, still less of any exces- 
 sive exactions, whether to satisfy his own caprices or 
 for any purpose of aggrandizement or conquest. His 
 was a model government for times of peace; it lacked 
 every element, except wealth, which could have made 
 it successful in war, and would have been obliged, like 
 Carthage, to employ mercenaries altogether, for lack 
 of a standing army. Two great nations, the one war- 
 like, the other commercial, tried the two methods on 
 a vast scale, and Carthage, the commercial nation, lost 
 in the end, and the poor Roman annihilated the rich 
 Phoenician. 
 
 The greatest man at Hiero’s court was without 
 doubt Archimedes, and the most extraordinary of 
 Hiero’s works, though by far the least useful, was the 
 ship of four thousand and two hundred tons which he 
 sent to Alexandria as a present to Ptolemy. 
 
 Archimedes was born in 287 B.c., being according 
 to some authorities a relative of Hiero’s family. He 
 must certainly be ranked with the greatest mathema- 
 ticlans and mechanics that ever lived, and his natural 
 gifts developed to the proportions of genius in the 
 congenial atmosphere of Syracuse. It will be remem- 
 bered that the Syracusans at all times showed consid- 
 
The Greeks 239 
 
 erable inventive talent, especially in the arts of war, 
 and that the elder Dionysius held a sort of congress 
 of engineers and shipbuilders, who designed the first 
 ships that were built with five banks of oars, as well 
 as the long-range catapults which did such execution 
 upon the Carthaginian fleet, when planted at the 
 entrance of the harbour. The magnitude of the 
 works which remain in Syracuse, the astonishing ease 
 with which the builders handled the great masses of 
 stone, the marvellous beauty of the theatre hewn out 
 of the live rock, by sheer quarrying and without any 
 builder’s work, the graceful curves and the harmoni- 
 ous proportions of the amphitheatre, which far sur- 
 passes the Roman colosseum, and which almost rivals 
 it in size, all these show to what a height the art of 
 architecture, the science of mathematics, and the skill 
 of the stone-cutter were carried in the only city of 
 that day which rivalled Athens and Alexandria. 
 From his earliest youth Archimedes must have 
 watched the builders at work and studied the plans 
 and sketches and working drawings that were used on 
 the spot, and his intensely practical genius must have 
 begun to grapple with the greatest problems in 
 mathematics and the most difficult theorems of geom- 
 etry, long before he dreamed that he possessed the 
 power to solve the one or demonstrate the other. The 
 results his studies have left to the world are enormous, 
 and can hardly be completely understood without some 
 
240 The Rulers of the South 
 
 mathematical learning. His method of squaring the 
 parabola was the first step towards all accurate meas- 
 urement of curved figures. His: discovery of the 
 relation between a cylinder, of which the height 
 equals the diameter, to the greatest sphere it can con- 
 tain, has remained for all time one of the greatest 
 mathematical feats accomplished by the human mind. 
 His theory of the centre of gravity justified Lagrange 
 in calling him the father of mechanics. He was the 
 discoverer of specific gravity, which is one of the chief 
 foundations of modern chemistry, and it was when he 
 found, in testing a gold crown for the king, that the 
 difference between the weight of any body when 
 weighed in the air and when weighed under water is 
 equal to the weight of the volume of water which 
 the object displaces, that he uttered his memorable 
 exclamation, ‘Eureka!’ ‘I have found it!” That he 
 should have invented the lever as a mechanical engine 
 is impossible, but he undoubtedly invented some of 
 its applications, and he must have discovered its laws 
 when he said, ‘Give me a place to stand and I will 
 move the world.’ Holm doubts whether he actually 
 set fire to the Roman fleet with a burning-glass, when, 
 after Hiero’s death, the city was besieged by Marcel- 
 lus; but the historian cites two interesting parallel 
 instances to prove that such a feat was possible. In 
 514 A.D. Proculus is said to have fired Vitalian’s fleet 
 before Constantinople by the same means. Further, 
 
The Greeks 241 
 
 in 1747 Buffon succeeded in setting fire to wood at a 
 distance of a hundred and fifty feet, and in melting 
 lead at a hundred and forty feet, by means of a sys- 
 tem of one hundred and sixty movable mirrors, by 
 which, in the month of April, and when the sunlight 
 
 
 
 PEASANT WOMAN OF MONTELEONE 
 
 was not strong, he concentrated the sun’s rays upon 
 a point. Archimedes invented countless machines of 
 less importance, such as the hydraulic serpent, which 
 was probably the instrument worked by a single man 
 in pumping out Hiero’s ship. His whole life was 
 
 VOL. I R 
 
242 The Rulers of the South 
 
 spent in the application of mathematics and mechan- 
 ics to useful needs in peace and war. His end was 
 characteristic of his life, for when Marcellus, on tak- 
 ing Syracuse, gave orders that no one should harm 
 him, it is said that a soldier came upon him unawares 
 and stepped upon the figure he was drawing in sand. 
 The man of genius protested sharply against the dis- 
 turbance. The soldier drew his sword and killed the 
 greatest man in the world with a foolish laugh. 
 
 We have in Athenzus a very elaborate description 
 of the great ship which Hiero built and launched inside 
 the harbour of Syracuse. Judging from the nature of 
 the ground, and with some knowledge of shipbuilding, 
 I think that it would have been impossible to build a 
 vessel of four thousand tons and more in the arsenal 
 near Ortygia. The work must have been done in the 
 low land by the shore, outside the gate, and between it 
 and the swamp. 
 
 Athenzeus says that Hiero brought enough timber 
 from Mount Etna to build sixty triremes and that he 
 got planks and lumber for various purposes from other 
 parts of Sicily and from Italy. Archias the Corin- 
 thian was the chief builder, and three hundred work- 
 men were employed only to trim the timber. As 
 soon as the planking was finished it was covered 
 with sheet lead, as we use sheet copper. The hull 
 was built in six months, and Archimedes launched it 
 by a system of screws worked by a few persons. The 
 
‘hestrreeks 243 
 
 vessel was bolted with brass, and brass nails were used, 
 the holes being plugged with lead, driven in upon 
 tarred canvas. The ship was constructed with twenty 
 banks of oars, and here it is as well to say at once that 
 nothing whatever is known as to the arrangement of 
 the banks, even in the ordinary trireme; the late Pro- 
 fessor Breusing, who was not only for many years the 
 director of the celebrated naval school in Bremerhaven, 
 but also a very eminent philologian, has completely 
 destroyed the old-fashioned belief of scholars that three 
 banks of oars situated one above the other could under 
 any circumstances be pulled at the same time. Those 
 who are interested in the subject may consult his inval- 
 uable work, ‘Die Nautik der Alten.’ That Hiero’s ship 
 had at least three decks is certain from the otherwise 
 confusing description of Athenzeus. He says that it 
 had three entrances, the lowest leading to the hold, 
 which was reached by two long ladders; the second 
 gave access to the eating-rooms, and the third was for 
 the soldiers. A great number of rooms are described, 
 of which the floors were made of mosaic and depicted 
 very beautifully the whole story of the Iliad. On the 
 upper deck was a gymnasium, and also a garden filled 
 with all sorts of plants, set in casks full of earth, and 
 there were walks shaded with awnings, and a temple to 
 Venus paved with Sicilian agate, the walls and roof 
 being made of cypress wood and the doors of ivory 
 and citron. There was a state cabin, containing five 
 
244 The Rulers of the South 
 
 couches, a bookcase, and a clock set into the ceiling, 
 and there was a complete bath having a tank lined with 
 marble from Tauromenium. There were also stalls for 
 ten horses on each side. In the fore part of the vessel 
 there was a large fresh-water tank made of wood and 
 tarred canvas, and holding two thousand measures; 
 there was also a fish tank filled with salt water.  Fig- 
 ures of Atlas at well-proportioned intervals, and appar- 
 ently carved in wood, carried the rail or were placed 
 outside the bulwarks to support the great weight of the 
 wooden turrets. There was a catapult on deck which 
 hurled a stone weighing three talents, or an arrow 
 twelve cubits long, equivalent to eighteen feet. The 
 vessel had three masts, each carrying two yards, which 
 latter were fitted with a curious device for dropping 
 heavy weights upon an attacking vessel. Finally, the 
 bulwark was protected with iron throughout, and there 
 were a number of very long grappling hooks. 
 
 This vast construction appears to have _ been 
 launched and sent to sea as a present to Ptolemy 
 during a time of dearth in Egypt, with an enormous 
 cargo, consisting of sixty thousand measures of corn, 
 ten thousand jars of Sicilian salt fish, five hundred 
 tons’ weight of wool, and five hundred tons of other 
 freight. 
 
 The reign of Hiero the Second connects the story 
 of the Greeks with that of the Romans, and his 
 alliance with the latter helped to determine the future 
 
The Greeks 245 
 
 position of Sicily; the destinies of the southern main- 
 Jand were already decided, and Italy was altogether 
 Roman. One of the most important turning points 
 in Roman history was the subjugation of the great 
 island, which became Rome’s first province, because 
 it was too thoroughly Hellenic to be incorporated 
 in the Republic. The influence and domination of 
 the Greeks in the south had lasted, at the beginning 
 of the first Punic war, from about 700 B.c. to 
 264 B.c., that is to say, more than four hundred 
 years, during which the original elements of the 
 population, as well as the greater part of the Phe- 
 nician colonies in Sicily, had become completely 
 hellenized in speech, manners, and culture, and to a 
 great extent also in blood, by constant intermarriages 
 in time of peace. The reason why greater Greece 
 never became a consolidated empire lay in the 
 Greek character, and not in the lack of enterprise, 
 of military ability, or of a common interest. Had 
 the whole south at any time remained united for a 
 century, it would have easily grown to be a match 
 for Carthage. The astonishing success of Gelon, of 
 the elder Dionysius, and of Agathocles, are sufficient 
 proof that this is true. But the Greek had neither 
 the Roman’s conception of political unity, nor the 
 Carthaginian’s commercial talent. He was as inca- 
 pable of sinking his highly original personality in the 
 ranks of an organization as he was of devoting his 
 
246 The Rulers of the South 
 
 whole energies to money making; he was a free lance 
 rather than a trained soldier; an artist, not a middle- 
 class citizen; a man of genius, not a banker. In the 
 heat of enthusiasm there were few feats which he 
 could not accomplish, but his restless blood could 
 not brook the daily round of a humdrum existence. 
 In war he loved the brilliant pageant, the high pzan 
 song, the splendid arms, the woven garlands, the air 
 of triumph before the battle, and the trophy and the 
 sacrifice after the fight. When peace followed war, 
 he craved the excitement of the great Greek games, 
 the emotions of the almost impossibly beautiful in 
 art, the heart-beating of the reckless player throwing 
 for high stakes, the physical intoxication of wine, and 
 the intellectual intoxication of the theatre; and when 
 these palled he lost patience with peace and became 
 the most gratuitously quarrelsome of human beings, 
 taking offence at the hue of his neighbour’s cloak, 
 attacking a friend for an imaginary slight upon the 
 least of his innumerable vanities, and making war 
 about nothing, with the fine conviction of a thor- 
 oughly ill-tempered child that smashes its new doll 
 to atoms rather than be good for five minutes. 
 There is often something rudimentary and childlike 
 in very gifted men; a lack of patience that makes 
 the long way of thought intolerably irksome and 
 drives the man of genius to the accomplishment of 
 the apparently impossible by the shortest road. 
 
The Greeks 247 
 
 As the Greek was individually, so were the Greeks 
 in a body, wherever they established themselves, in 
 the fertile plains and undulating hills of Asia Minor, 
 in the wild mountains and isolated valleys of their 
 own Greece, and in that greater Hellas with which 
 this story has been concerned. They were always at 
 odds with each other, and they rarely fought a 
 foreign foe without seeing the faces of their born 
 countrymen in the ranks that opposed them; they 
 were alike incapable of submitting without a murmur 
 to the rule of a single master, and of governing 
 themselves as one whole by the orderly judgment of 
 the many. Wherever they appeared they excited 
 admiration and they often inspired terror; wherever 
 they dwelt, even for a brief term of years, they left 
 behind them works of lasting beauty; but whereas, 
 as artists, as poets, and as philosophers, they created 
 a standard that has made rivalry impossible and 
 imitation ridiculous, their government has left no 
 trace in the lands they once inhabited, and their 
 laws have had less influence upon the subsequent 
 law-givers of mankind than those of the Chinese or 
 the Aztecs. In their arts and in their literature 
 they worked for all time; in their government they 
 were opportunists and intriguers, when they were 
 not visionaries, and the type of their race having 
 disappeared from the world, the conditions under 
 which it lived are beyond the comprehension of 
 
248 The Rulers of the South 
 
 other civilized peoples. ‘These Greeks,’ said the 
 Roman, ‘can do everything to perfection, yet they 
 are the barbers and we are the pretors.’ The slight 
 foundation of truth contained in the paradox explains 
 the failure of the Greek race to reach that height 
 of domination to which many other races have at- 
 tained. When we see what they did for themselves 
 we cannot but wish that they might have obtained 
 the power to do as much for others, that they might 
 have outnumbered and outfought the Romans, spread- 
 ing over Italy, over Europe, over Asia, and Africa 
 as the Romans did. The vast monuments of Rome 
 would have been as perfect in beauty as they are 
 stupendous in dimensions; four-fifths or nine-tenths 
 of the best Greek literature would not have perished 
 utterly, or have been preserved in miserable frag- 
 ments; and the enlightenment of an Augustan age 
 might not, perhaps, have been closely followed by 
 the brutal horrors of a Nero’s reign. 
 
 But these are idle dreams. The Greeks filled the 
 south with their monuments and overspread it with 
 their civilization during more than four centuries, and 
 when the end of their story came they were no nearer to 
 extinction as a people than the Poles were when their 
 kingdom was divided among the nations of Europe. 
 They simply ceased to have any political existence and 
 became, with all they had, with their resources un- 
 diminished, their wealth unspent, their energies still all 
 

 
 
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The Romans 249 
 
 alive within them, the possession, body and soul, of a 
 race that had mastered the only art they could never 
 learn, the art of governing men; and thereafter, recog- 
 nizing once and for always their position as a part of 
 their conquerors’ property, they worked for him and for 
 Roman money as they had once laboured for glory and 
 for themselves ; and in the slow decadence of genius in 
 captivity, their supreme gifts were weakened by degrees, 
 then scattered, and then lost. Henceforth the history of 
 the south becomes for more than half a thousand years 
 the story of the Romans, from the days of Appius 
 Claudius who took Messina till after the times of 
 Christian Constantine. 
 
 The Romans 
 
 THE first Punic war, which was brought on by the 
 appeal of the Mamertines to Rome, and lasted twenty- 
 two years, was the turning-point in Roman history and 
 the beginning of Rome’s empire. The first Punic war 
 means the conquest of Sicily, and since Rome held 
 Messina and was in alliance with Syracuse, the struggle 
 took place chiefly in the western and southern part of 
 the island. It is no easy matter to sketch briefly a con- 
 test in which the winner lost seven hundred ships and 
 an untold number of men; it is impossible to condense 
 into a few pages anything more than the shortest 
 possible account of the principal battles fought, and this 
 
250 The Rulers of the South 
 
 I shall endeavour to do with as much clearness as the 
 difficult nature of the subject admits, henceforth calling 
 places by their Latin names or by their modern ones. 
 
 The war opened slowly. For more than two hundred 
 years Rome and Carthage had maintained towards one 
 another an attitude of distrust without hostility, and 
 when the two great powers were at last in open opposi- 
 tion for the possession of Sicily, they fenced and 
 manceuvred for some time, as if testing their relative 
 strength. Rome took Messina at the start, and having 
 got the valuable alliance of Hiero, proceeded to sub- 
 jugate the centre of Sicily, west of the little Syracusan 
 kingdom. Carthage held Agrigentum as an outpost 
 on the southern coast, Panormus was the centre of her 
 strength, and the strong position she maintained at 
 Lilybeeum was her base of supplies from Africa. In 
 the smaller cities inland which were under her control 
 there were few Carthaginians. 
 
 The Romans proceeded to attack Agrigentum, and 
 during a siege that lasted seven months, in the year 
 262 B.c., they would have been themselves cut off and 
 starved, but for the timely supplies sent them by Hiero. 
 The siege ended with a great battle in the hollow land 
 west of the city and above Porto Empedocle. After 
 long and stubborn fighting, the Romans succeeded in 
 terrifying the enemy’s elephants, as in the battle against 
 Pyrrhus at Beneventum, and the whole Carthaginian 
 
 army was soon in confusion, and was mercilessly cut to 
 
The Romans os 
 
 pieces. In the night that followed, the remainder of 
 the Carthaginians crept out of the city, crossed the be- 
 sieger’s trenches by filling a short extent of them with 
 sacks stuffed with husks, and succeeded in escaping. 
 
 
 
 ON THE ROAD AT GIRGENTI, FORMERLY AGRIGENTUM 
 
 In the morning the Romans occupied and plundered 
 the city without destroying it, as it was a valuable posi- 
 tion. They sold twenty-five thousand of the inhabitants 
 as slaves, and in that connexion it may be noticed that 
 the vast number of captives who suffered this fate in 
 
22 The Rulers of the South 
 
 successive wars formed, in time, that race of slaves 
 which long afterwards rose in power against Rome. 
 Carthage might now have proposed a peace which 
 the Romans would have accepted, had she not been the 
 greatest sea power of the age. She preferred to con- 
 tinue the struggle, and Rome understood at once that 
 without a fleet it would be impossible to get possession 
 of western Sicily and hold it. During the year 261 B.c., 
 the Romans accordingly equipped a number of ships, 
 no less than a hundred and twenty, and put to sea. 
 The first aim of the expedition was to seize Lipari, in 
 order to have a naval station in the neighbourhood of 
 Panormus. The squadron of seventeen Roman vessels 
 engaged in this undertaking surrendered to the Cartha- 
 ginian fleet without striking a blow, but soon afterwards 
 an engagement took place on the Sicilian coast in which 
 Carthage lost a larger number. From first to last, and 
 in spite of her great inferiority in shipbuilding and 
 seamanship, Rome only lost one naval battle during the 
 whole war, at Drepanum. After the first engagement, 
 the Romans were quick to see that their enemies were 
 superior in skill and rapidity, and they retorted by fitting 
 all their own vessels with strong grappling irons, an 
 invention which turned every naval engagement into a 
 hand-to-hand fight, in which the Romans were gen- 
 erally sure of success. The first time these were used 
 was in the same year, at Milazzo, under Caius Duilius, 
 who took or destroyed fifty Carthaginian vessels, of _ 
 
The Romans 253 
 
 which the beaks were taken to Rome and set up as a 
 trophy on the famous ‘columna rostrata ’ in the Forum ; 
 and it was decreed that ever afterwards, when Duilius 
 went home from any feast by night, he should be 
 accompanied by torch-bearers and musicians. 
 
 The Romans fought with varying fortune on the 
 island, while their fleet attacked Sardinia; and there 
 one of the many Carthaginian generals who bore the 
 name of Hannibal met them and was defeated, and suf- 
 fered for his defeat on the cross. But in Sicily the 
 Carthaginians strengthened themselves by fortifying 
 the ‘sickle’ of Drepanum, and Trapani, and bringing 
 down thither a number of the inhabitants of Mount 
 Eryx; and Drepanum and Lilybeum each defended 
 the other, so that the difficulty of seizing either was very 
 great. These things occupied two years. Then at last 
 the Romans made their first attack upon Panormus, 
 but could not take it, and their army marched up inland 
 and besieged a strong place called Mytistratum, on 
 one side of which was an ascent so steep that it was 
 almost a cliff, and seemed to need no defence. But 
 when the siege did not advance, a devoted man, M. 
 Calpurnius Flamma, climbed the rugged approach 
 with four hundred men, all sworn to die, in order that 
 while they drew the defenders to that side, the Romans 
 might take the place by the other; and so it happened, 
 and they all died like men, and the Romans won the 
 
 town. 
 
254 The Rulers of the South 
 
 At this time the only real base of operations upon 
 which the Romans could rely was Agrigentum, and the 
 necessity impressed itself more and more upon them of 
 getting possession of the great seaports in the west, an 
 object which could only be attained by means of a pow- 
 erful fleet. This they did not as yet possess, though 
 they obtained a naval advantage in 257 B.c., when they 
 sank or captured eighteen Carthaginian ships off Li- 
 pari. They had, however, an ample number of trans- 
 ports, and since the Carthaginians continually made 
 forays upon the Italian coast, it seemed practicable to 
 retaliate by sending an army to Africa. To this end 
 great preparations were made, and in the year 256 B.c., 
 three hundred and thirty Roman ships, many of which 
 must have been very lately built, set sail for Africa with 
 a hundred and forty thousand men. This great expedi- 
 tion was met by an even larger Carthaginian force near 
 the headland of Ecnomus, now Licata, on the south coast 
 of Sicily. As they came in sight of each other, the two 
 fleets fermed in line of battle: the Carthaginians divided 
 their vessels into three squadrons, which appear to have 
 moved forward simultaneously; the Romans advanced 
 in an entirely different order, which was then quite new 
 in naval tactics, the attack being led by the two Roman 
 admirals, whose squadrons followed them in more and 
 more extended order, so that the admirals’ ships united 
 to form the point of a wedge, behind which another 
 squadron brought up the transports, while a fourth pro- 
 
The Romans | 255 
 
 tected the rear. The plan of the Carthaginians was to 
 let their centre give way before the Roman wedge, 
 which was then to be caught and destroyed by the 
 Carthaginian wings. The result was disastrous to the 
 Carthaginian fleet; the Roman centre was completely 
 victorious at the first onslaught, and when attacked by 
 the Carthaginian wings, the latter were crushed by the 
 Romans’ second squadron. Carthage lost in this en- 
 gagement ninety-four ships, and made overtures for 
 peace, which were refused, however, and the Romans 
 sailed on unhindered to Africa. 
 
 This was the celebrated expedition under Regulus, 
 which, after many signal successes, was destined to 
 total defeat in the year 255 B.c. The whole Roman 
 force, excepting two thousand men, was destroyed, and 
 when Rome sent another fleet to rescue the remnant, it 
 also perished in a storm upon the Sicilian coast, between 
 Camarina and Pachynus. Taking quick advantage of 
 her enemy’s disaster, Carthage now recaptured Agri- 
 gentum and several other points of minor importance. 
 Defeat and disaster, instead of disheartening the Ro- 
 mans, roused them to enormous efforts, and in the 
 incredibly short space of three months two hundred 
 and twenty new ships were built and sent to sea. 
 
 In 254 B.c. the Romans took Drepanum, but failed 
 to hold it long, and at once turned their whole strength 
 against Panormus, which they blockaded by land and 
 sea. At that time the harbour occupied a part of the 
 
256 The Rulers of the South 
 
 present city, the sea running much further inland than 
 it now does, so that the neck connecting the height 
 now called Monte Pellegrino with the land was far 
 narrower than at present. While the Romans be- 
 leaguered the city, the Carthaginian general held the 
 promontory and the isthmus, and was supported by his 
 fleet, which was able to approach the neck from the 
 other side. The Romans made no serious effort to dis- 
 lodge him but turned their whole attention to the city, 
 which they before long starved to surrender. They now 
 controlled the three best harbours of the island, for Pa- 
 normus and Messina were theirs, while their alliance with 
 Hiero placed Syracuse at their disposal. Nevertheless, 
 Carthage still held Monte Pellegrino with a small force, 
 and apparently unmolested. In 253 B.c., after a second 
 attempt upon Africa, the Romans lost another large 
 fleet in a storm. After this, they for a time made no 
 further effort to establish their superiority by sea, but 
 in the following year, with only sixty transports, which 
 could not be classed as war-ships, they seized and held 
 the long-coveted island of Lipari. 
 
 The turning-point of the first Punic war came in the 
 following year, when the Romans defeated the whole 
 Carthaginian force in a great battle before Panor- 
 mus. The Carthaginians on Monte Pellegrino had 
 received large reénforcements from Africa, and at 
 last attempted to recapture the city. The Romans 
 awaited their approach under the walls and only 
 
The Romans 257 
 
 sent out a small detachment to harass the enemy’s 
 flank. When the Carthaginian elephants were at 
 close quarters, the Romans adopted their usual tactics, 
 maddening the beasts with darts and arrows until 
 the whole line was thrown into confusion. The main 
 body of the Roman army, which had been stand- 
 ing under arms, then charged, and the victory was 
 immediate and complete. The elephants adorned the 
 triumph of Metellus in Rome, and the Romans were 
 now masters of the greater part of Sicily. The 
 Carthaginians sued for peace, and hoping to obtain 
 it on good terms sent Regulus, whom they had held 
 four years a prisoner, to intercede for them in the 
 Senate. They had misjudged the man. Instead of 
 following their instructions, and fully aware of the 
 fate that awaited him, he urged the Romans to grant 
 no peace at any price. He spoke, he took leave of 
 his family and of his friends, and he calmly returned 
 to die a death of unimagined torture. 
 
 It now seemed certain that if Lilybaeum could be 
 taken, the war would be at an end, and in the follow- 
 ing year, 250 B.c.,a powerful fleet was sent out for 
 that purpose. The Romans proceeded to a regular 
 siege, which was destined to be long and tedious. By 
 the most skilful seamanship, and thorough knowledge 
 of wind and water, a Carthaginian leader entered the 
 harbour of Lilybzeum with fifty war-ships, in the face 
 of the Roman fleet of two hundred sail, and having 
 
 VOL. I S 
 
258 The Rulers of the South 
 
 supplied the city with provisions, sailed out again 
 with the same success, and anchored further north 
 in Drepanum, thus strengthening the already numer- 
 ous fleet that occupied that port. Immediately after- 
 wards, a certain Carthaginian seaman, surnamed the 
 Rhodian, ran the blockade again and again with a 
 single vessel, establishing a regular communication 
 between Carthage and the beleaguered city. The 
 superiority of the Carthaginian vessels was so great 
 that before long the blockade became utterly derisory, 
 and the Romans attempted to close the entrance of the 
 harbour by a dam. Before it was half finished a 
 first-rate Carthaginian ship ran aground upon the 
 work. The Romans promptly captured it, and turn- 
 ing their prize to advantage soon caught the Rhodian 
 blockade runner. 
 
 But they were not destined to immediate success, 
 for before long a southwesterly gale, which must have 
 blown with the force of a hurricane, wrecked their 
 siege engines, which were promptly fired by the Lily- 
 beians. The Romans now attempted to starve the 
 city to submission, being themselves supplied with 
 provisions by Hiero. In 249 B.c. a Roman army 
 safely reached Lilybeum by land from the interior, 
 and the general who now took command made an 
 attempt upon Drepanum by sea; it ended in the only 
 real defeat which the Romans suffered in any naval 
 engagement during the war. The disaster was due to 
 
The Romans 259 
 
 the Roman ships being so crowded together that they 
 could not use their grappling irons. In this year 
 misfortune pursued the Romans, and they lost another 
 large fleet during a gale on the south coast, while the 
 Carthaginian squadron that was observing them suc- 
 ceeded in running under the lee to the eastward. 
 The attempt upon Drepanum had failed, and the 
 Roman losses were enormous, yet Eryx was taken 
 and held, and the position is a commanding one. 
 Once more the Romans retired temporarily from the 
 sea, with the result that the enemy gained new cour- 
 age to face them on land. At this time appears on 
 the Carthaginian side a man of genius, Hamilcar, sur- 
 named Barca, the ‘lightning.’ He once more seized 
 Monte Pellegrino, which the Carthaginians had aban- 
 doned, and retrieving the ill-fortune of his  prede- 
 cessors he kept the Romans at bay during the greater 
 part of six years. It was not until 243 B.c. that Rome 
 called upon her citizens to build ships at their private 
 expense, promising them full indemnity in case of 
 ultimate success. The rich citizens responded mag- 
 nificently to the call made upon them, and in 242 B.c. 
 two hundred vessels, built on the model of the cap- 
 tured blockade runners, suddenly appeared before 
 Lilybzeum, to the great surprise of the enemy. In 
 greatest haste, Carthage sent forth the last fleet she 
 was able to raise, for her resources had been severely 
 taxed, and she appears at that time to have been 
 
260 The Rulers of the South 
 
 grappling with difficulties at home. The engagement 
 which followed, and which was fought about the 
 islands off Drepanum, resulted in the most overwhelm- 
 ing defeat. Fifty Carthaginian ships were sunk, 
 seventy were captured with all hands on board, and 
 the victors sailed into the harbour of Lilybaum with 
 no less than ten thousand prisoners. 
 
 The first Punic war was over, and the Romans 
 remained in undisputed possession of Sicily, with the 
 exception of the small kingdom they left to Hiero, 
 their firm ally. Carthage was obliged, by the terms 
 of the peace, to pay the sum of three thousand two 
 hundred talents, equivalent to nearly eight hundred 
 thousand pounds sterling, in the space of ten years; 
 and besides Sicily, all the islands between Sicily and 
 Italy were to be abandoned to the Romans. The 
 latter interpreted the clause as including Sardinia, 
 and took possession of it within a few years. 
 
 The south had peace. Wise in all his ways, Hiero 
 returned as far as he could to the neutrality which 
 he had always wished to preserve, and while he was 
 forced to serve Rome and held his kingdom at her 
 pleasure, he was careful to avoid giving offence to 
 Carthage. He strengthened the friendships he had 
 formed with Egypt and with Rhodes. When a fear- 
 ful earthquake in the latter place destroyed a great 
 part of the capital and overthrew the famous Colos- 
 sus, he sent the Rhodians a hundred talents, which 
 
The Romans 261 
 
 are nearly twenty-five thousand pounds, in money, and 
 many costly vessels for the temples, and engines for 
 building, and he removed the export duties on corn 
 sent from Syracuse to Rhodes. Moreover he set up 
 two statues in the market-place there. Though Athe- 
 nzus gives no date for the building of the great ship, 
 the Alexandrian already described, it must have been 
 constructed during the twenty-four years’ peace which 
 followed the first Punic war. Among the presents 
 which Ptolemy sent to Hiero in return was the papy- 
 rus, which the latter planted on the banks of the river 
 Anapus, and though it is extinct in Egypt, and is not 
 found growing naturally in any other part of the 
 world, the river banks are full of it to this day, for 
 two or three miles, after more than two thousand 
 years. 
 
 If Syracuse were not one of the most beautiful 
 places in the world, that one sight should be enough to 
 take many a scholar there to-day. The stream is deep 
 and swift, and quite silent, running through the low land 
 where so many thousands of brave men have perished. 
 Clear as crystal it is, and ever cool, so that it is good 
 to drink of it even in the dog days; and the papyrus 
 grows as thick beside it as canes in the southern brake, 
 nine and ten feet high, gracefully straight, but often 
 drooping till the tufts of silky green wet their tiny 
 gold-green blossoms in the gliding water; green from 
 root to crown, the delicate stem, as thick as a man’s 
 
262 The Rulers of the South 
 
 wrist at the ground, tapers finely to the plume that 
 is a cloud of tangled curves. The stream is often 
 barely ten feet wide, and nowhere more than twenty 
 
 
 
 PAPYRUS IN THE RIVER ANAPUS NEAR SYRACUSE 
 
 till it widens to a circle in the spring of Kyane, five 
 fathoms deep, and clear as glass, the source of the 
 lower branch. The shade is deep and soft, and from 
 
The Romans 263 
 
 the bottom the thick river grass reflects a darker green 
 through the smooth surface. Shadowy dragon-flies, 
 black, and amaranth, and light sky blue, dart in and 
 out among the stems, or hover over the velvet-like 
 weed that floats in the shade under the bank. It is a 
 place where one feels that river gods and nymphs are 
 alive forever in the truth of poetry, which is itself 
 that fourth dimension in our understanding wherein 
 all is possible, and all that is possible is beautiful, and 
 all that has beauty is true. 
 
 On the desolate southeast coast of Malta, looking 
 - towards the molten enamel of the southern sea, white- 
 hot under the pitiless sun, out of sight of humanity, 
 there are certain ruins of Phcenician temples, the places 
 of worship of Ashtaroth, or of Moloch, or of Baal. 
 Huge slabs of rock, split off from the mountain, and 
 neither carved nor plainly hewn, are thrust upright 
 into the stony soil, side by side, for walls, in strange 
 curves and rough half circles, like Druid stones, with 
 ereat blocks set here and there upon uncouth pedestals, 
 and masses of rock that figure nameless powers of 
 nature; and there are small chambers, within which 
 two persons can hardly stand, each having something 
 like an altar, and each once closed by a door of stone 
 to make a secret place. Under the blazing sky they 
 are furnaces within furnaces, desolations within desola- 
 tions, that were long ago abominable with the blood 
 of human victims; and they reeked with the burning 
 
264 The Rulers of the South 
 
 of human flesh that sent up yellow smoke in the cloud- 
 less glare of noon, and the stones echoed a wild litany 
 of shrieks, while the dark-faced priests looked gravely 
 on and gathered back their white robes from the 
 flames and brushed the sparks from their black beards. 
 There are also a few places like these in Sicily, lonely 
 and full of a horror, as though they were cursed. 
 
 That is what the Phoenicians left behind them in the 
 lands that were theirs, the Phoenician Carthaginians, 
 whose brazen god, set up in Carthage, grasped little 
 children in his hot brass hands by a hideous machin- 
 ery concealed within, and dropped them one by one 
 into the raging fire; the god to whom believers sacri- 
 ficed their first-born, the god to whom the boy Han- 
 nibal swore that he would hate the Romans while 
 he lived. 
 
 One who leaves those hideous ruins behind him, 
 and comes to Syracuse, may well feel that he has 
 returned to a human world where he can breathe 
 again, where he can linger on the steps of the vast 
 theatre and almost hear the lovely strains of the 
 Alcestis, the voice of Admetus, and the Chorus, and 
 the cheerful laugh of Hercules, coming up from the 
 wide stage; where he may muse away thoughtful 
 hours in the enchanted gardens of the Latomie, recall- 
 ing indeed how the unhappy Athenians languished and 
 died there in fearful captivity, but remembering how 
 many were set free because the magic of Greek verse 
 
The Romans 265 
 
 was familiar to their lips, and not forgetting the provo- 
 cation, when friend and foe were of the same race, 
 
 
 
 AMPHITHEATRE AT SYRACUSE 
 
 and the grasping came against the peaceful; where 
 he may float upon the silent stream in the papyrus 
 shade, and read in a vision the verse and the philos- 
 
266 The Rulers of the South 
 
 ophy, the history and the wisdom, all written down age 
 after age on the wafer-thin slips of fibre so skilfully 
 fastened each to each in pages and scrolls, and yet all 
 but a small part of what Greece left the world. 
 
 If Hiero could have made history, he would have 
 made war impossible and peace beautiful. All he 
 could do, he did, and while he lived he made a 
 garden, a temple, and an academy of his small king- 
 dom, and of Syracuse. Few years of absolute peace 
 were given him—=§in all not a quarter of a century — 
 for Rome was young, and Carthage was not beyond 
 her great prime, and the two powers were like vast 
 clouds in the intervals of a tempest, that lower and 
 threaten each other from their mountain ranges, and 
 are destined to meet in storm and lightning before 
 the air can clear. 
 
 Being deprived of her island colonies and of her 
 supremacy in the Mediterranean, Carthage turned in 
 a new direction in order to retrieve her fortunes 
 and replace her loss. Hamilcar Barca had not lost 
 the confidence of his fellow-citizens; he had fought 
 a brave fight and had withstood the growing force 
 of Rome as long as it had been humanly possible. 
 His country acknowledged his valour and received 
 him with mourning, but not without honour. As 
 soon as the injuries she had suffered during a war 
 of twenty-two years’ duration could be in part re- 
 paired, she intrusted him with a fleet and an army 
 
The Romans 267 
 
 wherewith to make new conquests. Hamilcar set 
 forth and conquered the Spanish seacoast, colonizing 
 as he went, and fighting his way on from the Greek 
 settlements in the Gulf of Lyons down the coast and 
 westward towards the Pillars of Hercules, the fore- 
 runner by a thousand years of the great Semitic 
 invasion. 
 
 Years passed, and still he fought, and still he won 
 new lands, till Carthage had a broad possession in 
 Europe, whence it was possible, though not easy, to 
 invade Italy from the north. Dying at last, Hamil- 
 car left in his son a greater general and a more 
 daring spirit than himself. For generations the great 
 house of the Barcides had given leaders to the 
 Carthaginian army; some had died the death of 
 soldiers in the field, some had come home in glory 
 and laden with spoil, and more than one had re- 
 turned to expiate defeat upon the cross. Neither 
 rank nor wealth nor a descent from heroes could 
 protect the unfortunate from the wrath of a people 
 whose altars ran with human blood, and who could 
 throw their first-born to the flames as burnt sacrifices 
 to Moloch. In Hannibal were concentrated at once 
 the gifts of his own soldierly race and the spirit of 
 the Carthaginian people. It was as if, for the final 
 struggle now at hand, the whole nation had distilled 
 its genius and its energies to their essence in one 
 man. From the day when he set forth, at the age 
 
268 The Rulers of the South 
 
 of twenty-six years, till the final destruction of his 
 army at Zama, Hannibal was the soul and life of 
 his country; to his enemies his name meant all that 
 Carthage was; to his countrymen it stood for all 
 they hoped and looked to win in future years. 
 
 Hiero was in extreme old age when the war broke 
 out again. We may fairly suppose with Holm that 
 his diplomatic spirit was not altogether displeased by 
 the news. Before all things he was a Syracusan and 
 a patriot, and while he loved peace and used it for 
 his country’s good, as few have done, he must have 
 looked with apprehension upon the vast predominance 
 of Rome. On the other hand, his son Gelon, while 
 devotedly attached to his father, differed with him 
 altogether in his views of the situation, and would 
 gladly have gone over to the Carthaginian side. 
 But Hiero, though he probably wished that Rome 
 might be held in check by an adversary of nearly 
 equal strength, lest Syracuse should lose its inde- 
 pendence altogether, was wise enough to see that 
 Rome meant civilization, of a kind, whereas Carthage 
 carried with her everywhere a strange mixture of 
 commercial methods which were altogether selfish 
 and injurious to others, and of religious institutions 
 which were as terrible as they were barbarous. The 
 king’s old age must have been embittered by his 
 foreknowledge of what was sure to happen after his 
 death, and he appears to have done all in his power 
 
The Romans 269 
 
 to give stability to the position he had given his 
 kingdom. He could not be wholly neutral, any more 
 than he could be at heart wholly pleased by Rome’s 
 success. 
 
 In the year 219 B.c. Hannibal set forth. The little 
 Greek colony of Saguntum, now Murviedro, on the 
 Spanish coast, had allied itself with the Romans, and 
 Hannibal’s first aggressive act was to take it by siege, 
 which was of course a violation of the peace of 242 
 B.C. Rome at once sent an embassy to Carthage to 
 demand satisfaction; the spokesman gathered his 
 cloak in his hands like a sack and held it up to the 
 assembled council, saying, that he brought peace or 
 war, as those who heard him might choose. They 
 answered that the choice should be his, not theirs. 
 He shook out the folds of his cloak before them and 
 bade them take war, since they would have him choose, 
 —war only, war at once, and war to the death. 
 
 It is not within the province of the story of the 
 south to tell how Hannibal crossed the Pyrenees and 
 marched along the southern coast of France, nor 
 how he effected the passage of the Rhone, and 
 lost more than half his army before he reached the 
 Italian side of the Alps. Once in Italy, the natives 
 of the north joined him without hesitation, and he 
 drove the Romans southwards step by step, defeat- 
 ing them again and again from the river Ticinus 
 
 down to southern Cannze. While he made his famous 
 
270 The Rulers of the South 
 
 triumphal progress overland, the Romans still held 
 Sicily and the islands, and it is amazing that while 
 suffering such defeats on the one hand they should 
 have been able to drive a Carthaginian fleet from the 
 Sicilian shore on the other. But Hiero had received 
 notice that the attempt was to be made, and every 
 headland of the west was guarded, while the small 
 Roman fleet that was in Lilybzeum was provisioned for 
 ten days and held in readiness to sail at any moment. 
 On a fair moonlight night the Carthaginian ships 
 stood in towards the shore, but their white sails be- 
 trayed them; from cape to cape the beacon signals 
 shot up their flames, and in an hour the Roman fleet 
 was under way. When day broke the battle began, 
 and the Carthaginians were driven to flight, after losing 
 seven of their vessels. Before the news of the victory 
 had travelled far, a Roman consul arrived in Messina 
 on his way to the rescue and was met by old King 
 Hiero, with all his ships of war and with every ex- 
 pression of gladness and promise of help. He was 
 anxious to impress upon the Romans from the first 
 that he meant to stand by them as he had done long 
 ago. But when it was known that Lilybeum was 
 already safe, the consul sailed across southward and 
 fell upon Malta, where he captured a Carthaginian 
 force of two thousand men, whom he immediately 
 sold as slaves in Sicily. It had been the first inten- 
 tion of Rome that he should attack Carthage from 
 
The Romans | ol 
 
 Lilybeum; but Hannibal had by this time crossed 
 the Alps, and the consul was ordered to sail round 
 the east coast of Italy as far as Ariminum, now 
 Rimini, to land there and march against Hannibal’s 
 troops. Even in the next year, 217 B.c.. when Rome 
 was losing the disastrous battle of Thrasimene and 
 was forced to elect a dictator, a hundred and twenty 
 ships were sent to harry the African coast. MHiero 
 did more to help the Romans in the second Punic 
 war than is commonly remembered. In the same 
 year he sent five hundred Cretans and a thousand 
 light-armed infantry, and in 216 B.c. a Syracusan 
 fleet arrived at Ostia with ambassadors, and seventy- 
 five thousand bushels of wheat, fifty thousand of barley," 
 a thousand slingers and archers, and a golden statue 
 of Victory weighing three hundred and twenty pounds. 
 But the present was not of good augury, for on the 
 second day of August, in the same year, the Roman 
 general Varro lost seventy thousand men in the almost 
 incredible defeat at Cannz, far to southward in Apulia, 
 where the swift and shallow river Aufidus, the Ofanto 
 of our times, sweeps through the Pezza di Sangue, 
 which is the ‘field of blood’ to this day, and where 
 the rivulet still flows which Hannibal crossed on a 
 causeway of corpses. 
 
 Then a Carthaginian fleet sailed up and ravaged the 
 coast of Hiero’s dominion, and he appealed for help in 
 
 vain, for the Carthaginian ships were also threatening 
 
272 The Rulers of the South 
 
 Lilybzeum in the west; but Rome could do nothing, nei- 
 ther for him nor for her own preetor in Sicily, and at the 
 last it was Hiero, the ever willing, who sent help instead 
 of receiving it. But his days were numbered. His son 
 Gelon died very suddenly, and he himself not long 
 afterwards, in the year 215 B.c., a very old man, 
 deeply mourned by his people. 
 
 While Rome was slowly gathering strength after her 
 cruel loss, and while Hannibal idled away golden hours 
 in the soft Capuan plain, Hiero’s grandson, Hierony- 
 
 - mus, a spoiled boy of fifteen years, began to reign in 
 
 Syracuse, at first under the guidance of fifteen guar- 
 dians whom Hiero had appointed in his will, but soon 
 flone, through the intrigues of court favourites who 
 hoped to attain their ends by declaring him of age. 
 Soon the boy began to array himself in purple and to 
 wear a crown, and went about with a life-guard in the 
 true tyrant fashion, and his boyish displeasure turned 
 suddenly to cruelty at the least provocation. So the 
 courtiers conspired to kill him, but he was warned of 
 his danger, and tortured one of the courtiers to betray 
 the rest; who, being very strong and very cunning, 
 bore much before he would speak, and then accused the 
 only loyal man in the palace, who was not in the con- 
 spiracy and was promptly put to death, for he was 
 staunch to the Romans, and the king hated him. 
 
 This being done, Hieronymus turned to the Cartha- 
 
 ginians and offered his alliance, promising that he would 
 
The Romans 203 
 
 help them to conquer Italy, if they would promise him 
 all Sicily in return for his help; and Carthage agreed 
 to this, as she would have agreed to any terms, without 
 the least intention of carrying them out. So Hierony- 
 mus began to make war upon the Roman possessions in 
 Sicily, not dreaming that the real conspirators were his 
 advisors, who had sworn to make Sicily once more a 
 republic; and the revolution broke out at Leontini. 
 There, as the king rode through a narrow street towards 
 the market-place, he was treacherously separated from 
 his life-guards by one of themselves, and the conspira- 
 tors fell upon him and slew him. But when they had 
 done the deed, some proclaimed the republic and others 
 took the crown and the blood-stained mantle from the 
 boy king’s dead body, and galloped to Syracuse, and 
 rode through the quarter of Tyche and through Achra- 
 dina, showing these things to the people, who rejoiced 
 greatly. And the people went up to the temple of the 
 Olympieum and armed themselves with all the splendid 
 weapons, both Gallic and Illyrian, which the Romans 
 had sent as presents to King Hiero, praying the Olym- 
 pian Zeus to bless their swords, that they might fight for 
 their freedom, their country, and their gods. On that 
 same day they got possession of a part of the island of 
 Ortygia, and on the next morning they summoned the 
 governor, who was the young king’s uncle by marriage, 
 to surrender and acknowledge the republic, and he 
 agreed. 
 
 VOL. T 
 
274 The Rulers of the South 
 
 On the day after that, he solemnly gave up to the 
 people the keys of the palace and of the treasure house, 
 and the people chose generals as of old, most of whom 
 had been among the conspirators; but the governor 
 himself received as many votes as any of the rest. He 
 therefore planned to make himself master, but was 
 betrayed, and the generals murdered him without delay. 
 Then suddenly the city was in confusion, for he had 
 been popular because he had spoken well and had 
 given up the keys at once; and they called upon the 
 man who betrayed him to tell all he knew. But this 
 fellow accused Harmonia, the sister of the dead king, 
 and another false witness appeared and accused all the 
 women of the royal house; and the people rose tumult- 
 uously to slay them. Two were murdered at once, but 
 the third, who was Heraclea, fled with several young 
 daughters into the little temple of the palace; and first 
 she begged for her life, but seeing that she was to die, 
 she piteously pled for her daughters. They slew her by 
 the altar, but the maidens were swift of foot and ran 
 from the murderers for their lives, and wounded they still 
 fled on, through the courts of the palace, shrieking, till at 
 last the people hunted them tocorners, one after the other, 
 as dogs hunt weak and wounded animals, and they died. 
 
 After this, the people chose new generals, and the 
 mercenary soldiers who were there forced them to 
 choose two Carthaginian officers; yet suddenly the old 
 attachment to Rome made itself felt, and messages 
 
The Romans 275 
 
 were sent to the Roman general in Sicily, to undo 
 what Hieronymus had done and ask a renewal of the 
 alliance. But Rome had already seen that although 
 Hannibal could not conquer alone, he might be vic- 
 torious with the help of Syracuse; and while the 
 people hesitated and quarrelled among themselves, a 
 Roman fleet of a hundred sail was already in sight off 
 Megara, which is Agosta, under one of Rome’s great- 
 est generals, Marcus Claudius Marcellus. He was of 
 that great Claudian house that gave Rome more sol- 
 diers of genius than any other, and from which sprang 
 all the Claudian Czesars; he had fought in the first 
 Punic war, and in Gaul he had slain with his own 
 hand Vindomar the king, and had brought home the 
 spoils to the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, a feat accom- 
 plished three times only, — by Romulus, by Aulus Cor- 
 nelius Cossus, and by himself. 
 
 But no sooner was Marcellus in sight than the Car- 
 thaginian fleet appeared from the opposite direction, 
 and as the rival forces faced each other on the sea, 
 so within Syracuse the opposite factions quarrelled, 
 manceuvred, intrigued, and betrayed each other. The 
 Carthaginian officers who had been elected generals 
 whispered that there was a plot to betray the city 
 to the Romans; but as the people armed themselves 
 to go and defend the walls, a man who had their 
 respect rose up and spoke to them, and convinced 
 them that whereas their alliance with one party or 
 
276 The Rulers 6f the south 
 
 the other was a matter of choice, there could be no 
 doubt as to which friendship had proved to be of the 
 most value in the past, since the city had been far 
 more prosperous under Hiero than under his grandson, 
 Hieronymus. The people were inclined to accept this 
 view, and agreed to a peace with Rome, which was 
 immediately broken when one of the generals, being 
 sent with four thousand men to strengthen the garri- 
 son of Leontini, crossed the border into the Roman 
 possessions on his own responsibility, and proceeded 
 to plunder the country. The Romans now defended 
 themselves and demanded satisfaction of Syracuse, but 
 the Syracusans answered them, saying that they could 
 not hold themselves responsible for what was done 
 in Leontini. By way of retort Marcellus immediately 
 took that city, which had indeed declared itself inde- 
 pendent of Syracuse. In the capital the disturb- 
 ances continued, and while the Romans endeavoured 
 to bring the government to reason, it became more and 
 more evident that there was indeed no government at 
 all with which to treat. Marcellus sent ambassadors 
 at last to the gate with his ultimatum, but they were 
 not admitted, and received a scornful message from 
 the walls. They might come back, they were told, 
 when those who sent them were masters of Syracuse. 
 
 Once more Syracuse was besieged. By sea, Mar- 
 cellus blockaded the port and attacked the sea wall 
 of Achradina with strange engines, built up from the 
 
The Romans 27 
 
 decks of his war-ships, with ladders and stages by 
 which he hoped to scale the ramparts. The low cliff 
 along which the wall was built is nowhere less than 
 thirty feet in height to-day; the wall above it could 
 scarcely have been less than fifteen or twenty feet 
 high, and was probably more. In many places the 
 cliffs are ‘steep to,’ as seamen say, and it was easy 
 enough to bring the vessels, bows on, to the rocks; it 
 was another matter to set up ladders four feet wide, 
 hoisted by tackles from the mastheads, and having at 
 the top a platform on which four men could stand. 
 The situation of these four soldiers cannot have been 
 an enviable one at the best, yet the undertaking might 
 have succeeded but for the superior skill of the aged 
 Archimedes, who had outlived Hiero’s kingdom, and 
 the revolutions that had followed its fall, and whose 
 marvellous ‘activity and powers of invention kept the 
 Romans at bay for many months. As their ladders 
 moved up below the walls, and the soldiers began to 
 climb up from the decks, vast wooden arms suddenly 
 stretched out from the ramparts, dropped huge blocks 
 of stone or weights of lead upon the besiegers with 
 unerring skill, and immediately disappeared again, 
 while not a defender was to be seen. Archimedes 
 invented the sort of loop-hole generally known by its 
 French name ‘meurtriére,’ and which, being but a 
 narrow slit on the outer side, widens rapidly within, 
 so that a man may shoot through it in almost any 
 
278 The Rulers of the South 
 
 direction, at his ease. It soon became evident that the 
 city could not be taken from that side. 
 
 By land Appius Claudius had no better success. 
 Archimedes invented a sort of automatic iron hook 
 which became the terror of the Romans, for it could 
 pick up the besiegers from the ground below the 
 walls and hurl them down again by means of ma- 
 chinery worked from within. Moreover, the ascent to 
 the ramparts on the north side was steep, and it was 
 easy to throw down masses of stone and other mis- 
 siles upon those who attacked. Both generals, after 
 having hoped to take the city in a few days, -were 
 obliged to content themselves with the old-fashioned 
 plan of starving it out by a blockade. Meanwhile, 
 the Carthaginians seized Agrigentum, and one of the 
 Carthaginian officers in Syracuse succeeded in cross- 
 ing the Roman lines with a considerable force, in 
 order to join the allies, but was checked by Marcellus. 
 Nevertheless, the Carthaginian forces encamped within 
 eight miles of Syracuse, while a fleet of fifty-five 
 vessels entered the great harbour. 
 
 The struggle began to assume greater dimensions. 
 While Hannibal was still lingering in Capua, Rome 
 sent the first legion to Panormus, to join and strengthen 
 Marcellus. A Roman legion consisted at that time of 
 four thousand two hundred men. The Carthaginians 
 fancied it would be an easy matter to destroy so 
 
 small a force, and marched to meet it, following 
 
The Romans 279 
 
 the coast to Messina, and Cape Pelorus; but by a 
 rapid movement Appius Claudius was there before 
 them, and fearing to give battle they retired into the 
 interior, with the intention of seizing as many of the 
 Roman cities as possible. A number of these cities 
 were indeed inclined to sympathize with the Cartha- 
 ginians. Morgantia gave the example by opening her 
 gates to Rome’s enemies. Henna, now Castrogiovanni, 
 the highest inhabited point of Sicily, and perhaps 
 the most inaccessible after Eryx, would have done 
 the same; for the inhabitants pressed the Roman 
 commander, who had but a small force, to surrender 
 at once. He professed himself willing to hear the 
 arguments of the assembled people, and bade them 
 meet him in the theatre on the following day. They 
 did so; he surrounded the place with his little garri- 
 son, and with an energy as ruthless as it was prompt, 
 he massacred the greater part of the inhabitants on 
 the spot. These things took place according to Livy 
 in 214 B.c., but Holm places the massacre at Henna 
 in the following year. 
 
 The condition of things which had characterized 
 more than one previous siege of Syracuse was now 
 renewed. The besiegers were unable to make the 
 blockade effective, and the city was constantly sup- 
 plied with provisions from without. Within, the de- 
 fenders were divided into parties. Both in the city 
 and in the Roman camp the tedious length of the 
 
280 The Rulers of the South 
 
 struggle produced a certain indifference and careless- 
 ness. The Romans attempted to set on foot a con- 
 spiracy among the Syracusans by which they should 
 be admitted treacherously. It was betrayed, and the 
 leaders were put to death. <A singular accident or 
 chance brought about the final result. The question 
 of releasing to the Syracusans an important prisoner 
 led to a parley which took place near the walls, not 
 far from the little harbour of Trogilus. During the 
 conversation, which lasted some time, one of the 
 Romans who was not concerned in it amused himself 
 by counting the courses of stone in the wall of the 
 city where it was lowest, owing to some irregularity 
 of the ground. A mental calculation of the possible 
 height of each course led him to the conclusion that 
 the rampart could be reached with fairly long scaling 
 ladders at that place. It chanced that the feast of 
 Artemis was at hand, which would last three days, 
 during which it was a foregone conclusion that the 
 greater part of the garrison would be either feasting 
 or sleeping off the effects of wine. A _ thousand 
 picked men were sent to the spot indicated, after 
 midnight, and they got over the wall without diff- 
 culty, opened one of the smaller gates, and admitted 
 a large number of Romans. At daybreak Marcellus 
 was master of Epipole, and standing upon the height 
 gazed down for the first time upon the vast and 
 beautiful city that lay at his feet; and it is told that 
 
The Romans 281 
 
 his eyes were filled with tears, though he was an 
 old soldier, both for joy over the great deed he had 
 done, and for sadness over the ancient glory of the 
 city. For he thought of the two Athenian flcets 
 that had been sunk by Syracusans, and of the two 
 mighty armies, led by two famous generals, who had 
 perished there, and of the many wars waged with the 
 Carthaginians, and of the great tyrants and kings 
 who had ruled, and more than all of Hiero, almost 
 the last of them, who had been so staunch a friend 
 to the Roman people; and as he thought on all 
 these things, he already saw in his imagination the 
 most beautiful city of his time in flames, plundered, 
 reduced to ashes, levelled with the ground. But he 
 yet hoped to avert such fate of war, and he sent 
 certain Syracusans who were in his camp to parley 
 with the city and advise a surrender. 
 
 The fall of Syracuse is a confused story of plot and 
 counterplot, of betrayal, and all possible treachery. 
 The beleaguered city took courage at first, when 
 Carthaginian troops appeared before the walls, and it 
 seemed as if the Romans were themselves to be be- 
 sieged ; beaten in each attack, the allies hoped great 
 things from a Carthaginian fleet of many hundred sail 
 that reached Pachynus, now Capo Passero, and lay 
 under the land for shelter during a storm, but as soon 
 as the weather moderated the ships sailed on to Italy. 
 
 The situation grew desperate; the malarious fever raged 
 
282 The Rulers of the South 
 
 in both armies, but made the more victims among the 
 Carthaginians, who were encamped in lower land. 
 Marcellus had already been obliged to burn the quar- 
 ters of Tyche and Neapolis in order to destroy the 
 shelter they might have given the enemy in case of an 
 attack, and he held Epipolz; so that of the five quar- 
 ters, which, as Livy says, were cities in themselves, 
 only Achradina and Ortygia still held out. They par- 
 leyed, and their citizens plotted; new generals were 
 elected, and one was a Spaniard, Mericus, a friend to 
 the Romans; he admitted them to Ortygia treacher- 
 ously, by night, giving up the portion of the wall in- 
 trusted to him. Then Achradina yielded; and at first 
 the Roman soldiery could not be controlled, though 
 they were bidden to plunder without slaughtering the 
 people. Archimedes perished, and many others, but 
 Marcellus buried the great engineer with honour and 
 ceremony, and to this day imaginative persons point 
 out a tomb which they call his, but which is not, for 
 Cicero has described the real one most minutely, and 
 how he found it overgrown with brambles, but knew it 
 by the sphere and cylinder, and by the half of the in- 
 scription that remained, and of which he possessed a 
 complete copy. 
 
 Syracuse fell in the autumn of 212 B.c., two hundred 
 and three years after the first landing of the Athenian 
 expedition ; the whole Syracusan territory was annexed 
 to the Roman dominions, and the capital became a 
 
1 
 a 
 ‘ 
 
 
 

 

 

 
The Romans 283 
 
 mere provincial city. Yet the war was not over, and 
 though Marcellus took back to Rome as much spoil 
 as Carthage herself could have yielded, he was not 
 
 b) 
 
 allowed a triumph, but only an “ovation,” because 
 he was obliged to leave his army behind him. In the 
 procession, amid many objects of beauty, there was 
 carried a painted picture of Syracuse; before the rest 
 went the two men who had betrayed the city, and who 
 were rewarded with the Roman citizenship and rich 
 gifts of land and houses; and eight elephants walked 
 in the procession to testify to the victory over the 
 Carthaginians. 
 
 As for Agrigentum, which had served the enemy as 
 a base of operations since the beginning of the war, it 
 was not taken till 210 B.c., and it might have held out 
 longer if it had not been betrayed to the Romans by a 
 discontented general, a Numidian, whom the Cartha- 
 ginian commander had removed from office. He ad- 
 mitted the Romans by the sea gate. The citizens who 
 had favoured Carthage were beheaded, the rest were all 
 sold as slaves. 
 
 So far as Sicily was concerned, the second Punic 
 war was over, though eight years elapsed before the 
 struggle closed at Zama, in Africa, with the total de- 
 struction of Hannibal’s army. 
 
 It has been justly said that the character of the 
 Romans became much more cruel after this period, that 
 
 they visited the former defection of the cities on the 
 
284 The Rulers of the South 
 
 mainland with merciless severity, and ruled Sicily with 
 unrelenting hands. With the extension of Roman ter- 
 
 ritory, the conquest of Spain, the universal naval supe- 
 
 
 
 A LONELY SPOT ON THE SHORE OF EASTERN CALABRIA 
 
 riority acquired at such fearful cost, came a state of 
 things in which the importance of states once indepen- 
 dent was reduced to the smallest proportions, and their 
 wealth was drained to feed Rome’s enormous hunger. 
 
The Romans 285 
 
 The Sicilians complained, many Syracusans came to 
 Rome to make representations to the Senate; they 
 compared Marcellus to the destroying fires of Etna and 
 to the terrors of the Straits, of Scylla, Charybdis, and 
 the tidal currents; they not only accused him, they 
 calumniated him, and they told false tales of pretended 
 readiness to deliver Syracuse to him, saying that he 
 had wished to take their city by force, out of vanity, 
 and had preferred to conquer it by the treachery of a 
 coppersmith and a Spaniard, rather than to receive its 
 willing submission, in order to slake his thirst for blood 
 and satisfy his greed for booty, and that he had treated 
 Leontini with unexampled cruelty at the very outset of 
 the war; they concluded by demanding the restitution 
 of their property, so far as any of it still existed. They 
 had friends among the Romans, men who envied Mar- 
 cellus his glory and hoped much for themselves, and 
 who spoke against him in the Senate; but they ob- 
 tained nothing, for Syracuse was in Rome’s possession 
 now; Rome had got it by the hand of her great gen- 
 eral, and what she once held she kept. Failing in 
 their mission, the subtle Greeks turned suddenly to 
 flattery and fawning, and lest worse should befall them 
 thereafter, they chose Marcellus to be their especial 
 patron and protector. 
 
 In order to understand what followed, —the condition 
 of the south after its final conquest by Rome, the wars 
 of the insurgent slaves, and the misfortunes to which 
 
286 The Rulers of the South 
 
 Sicily was subjected under the przetorship of Verres, — 
 it is necessary to have at least a superficial idea of 
 the machinery by which Rome governed her first prov- 
 ince, as well as those which she subsequently acquired. 
 The principle of this government was of the simplest 
 description, for it consisted in placing the whole power 
 in the hands of a trusted servant of the state, who 
 could be held accountable for his acts only to the 
 Roman Senate, and who possessed in his province 
 the powers of a consul, which he could practically 
 extend to the omnipotence of a dictator. This official, 
 after the system assumed its permanent form, was in 
 fact a man who had served his year as pretor in 
 the city, and then obtained the office denominated pro- 
 pretor of a province by lot. The term of this service 
 was supposed to be a year, but it could be prolonged 
 by the Senate, and during its duration he who obtained 
 it was commander-in-chief of all the troops in the 
 province, with powers of life and death over all per- 
 sons residing there, whether Roman citizens or not. 
 He combined in his own person a number of offices 
 which in Rome were held by separate individuals, he 
 was the supreme judge, and was superior to all 
 courts. The home government indeed limited his 
 actions in certain ways. He was required to abstain 
 rigorously from all transactions which could affect his 
 personal interests; he was forbidden to buy slaves in 
 
 his province, excepting to replace such as died in 
 
The Romans 287 
 
 service; he was not to engage in any financial opera- 
 tions on his own account; and finally, he was neither 
 allowed to marry a woman of the province nor to 
 take his own wife with him. It will be seen that 
 everything was interdicted to him which could be 
 supposed to influence his judgment in any way. As 
 in the United States at the present time, it was in- 
 tended that the constant replacing of one official by 
 another should make impossible that corruption which 
 is often the result of leaving the same person to 
 exercise the same function in the same place for 
 many years together. As for his pay and allowances, 
 the former was considerable and, according to Cicero’s 
 reckoning, may be estimated at more than sixty thou- 
 sand pounds sterling of modern money, of which the 
 purchasing power was then at least two and a half 
 times as great as itis now. The allowances consisted 
 in a sum of public money for his original outfit, in a 
 residence which the province was bound to provide 
 _ for him, and in free entertainment for himself and his 
 large retinue during all his official journeys. It is 
 unnecessary to speak of his subordinates in detail. 
 The second person in the province was the questor 
 or treasurer, who presided over the collection of rev- 
 enue and the provincial budget, and who was sup- 
 posed to be co-responsible with the pretor for the 
 manner in which the public money was expended. 
 The pretor in office was surrounded by a court of 
 
288 The Rulers of the South 
 
 considerable state. Three distinguished citizens, termed 
 Legates of the Roman people, were named by the 
 Senate to accompany him, and to them he could dele- 
 gate his civil authority, but not the power of life and 
 death. He had of course a military guard, and he 
 was allowed to choose at his pleasure a number of 
 young men of rank who were commonly called his 
 pretorian cohort, and who under his direction fitted 
 themselves for a political career. Besides these he 
 had a small army of scribes and clerks and other 
 assistants, designated collectively his apparitors; he 
 also had six lictors and a staff of heralds, physicians, 
 augurs, and interpreters. 
 
 After the Punic wars a considerable number of 
 Roman citizens resided in Sicily and occupied them- 
 selves in commerce, farming, and the lucrative busi- 
 ness of undertaking government contracts. In the 
 case of a bad pretor, these citizens were as much at 
 his mercy, in fact, as the mere provincials, but in 
 theory they were protected by their right of appeal- 
 ing to the Roman people, a right not always derisory. 
 It is remarkable, however, that in times of peace 
 Sicily was governed without any outward show of 
 power, without the presence of any large body of 
 soldiery, without garrisoned towns as strongholds in 
 case of insurrection, and was practically kept in sub- 
 jection merely by the fear of Rome. Of modern 
 nations England alone seems able to inspire a similar 
 
 respect in some of her possessions. 
 
The Romans 289 
 
 The first care of the Romans, after the fall of 
 Syracuse and before the overthrow of Carthage, was 
 to develop in Sicily those great resources of agri- 
 culture by means of which Hiero had been able to 
 render them such signal service, and the first przetors 
 made constant journeys through the length and breadth 
 of the island in order to assure themselves that the 
 cultivation of corn and other cereals was conducted 
 with energy and good judgment. It was from this 
 time that Sicily began to be called the granary of 
 Rome. Moreover, until the battle of Zama, the 
 Romans must have felt that there was an element 
 of insecurity, if not of instability, in their domination, 
 against which it was necessary to guard themselves 
 with the utmost foresight. They endeavoured also to 
 strengthen themselves by recalling those Greeks who 
 had fled during the long wars, and in 208 B.c., dur- 
 ing the games of the one hundred and forty-third 
 Olympiad, they caused an announcement to be made 
 to the effect that if these exiles would return, their 
 former possessions should be given back to them. 
 It appears that the proposition was accepted. 
 
 Before the state of Sicily became finally settled, 
 Scipio made it the base of his operations against 
 Africa. It is somewhat hard to understand that 
 Hannibal should have been able to remain in Italy, 
 treating a part of the south as a conquered country, 
 long after all Sicily was in the hands of the Romans, 
 
 VOL. I U 
 
290 The Rulers of the South 
 
 and that Scipio should have had some difficulty in 
 obtaining permission to make an expedition against 
 Carthage; but the reader who desires an explanation 
 of these facts can find it in any history. Hannibal 
 might have found it at one time more difficult to 
 retire from Italy than to remain where he was, and 
 if there was still any uncertainty about the fate of 
 the great island, it was to be decided in battles 
 fought elsewhere. ‘To the last, though little concerned 
 in the fighting, Sicily was made to contribute the 
 greatest part of the provisions necessary for the 
 expedition. Before attempting it, Scipio collected 
 from all the Sicilian coast merchant vessels for trans- 
 ports, and loaded them with cargoes of provisions. 
 The fleet and army were provided with cooked food 
 sufficient for a fortnight, and corn and other pro- 
 visions for a month longer, and with fresh water for 
 forty-five days. There were forty ships of war and 
 four hundred transports collected to sail from the 
 harbour of Lilybeum. The city and harbour were 
 crowded to overflowing, for persons of all conditions 
 had flocked thither from other parts of the island to 
 see the departure of the fleet. Among the soldiers 
 were many who had been in the great defeat of 
 Cannz, and who trusted that under Scipio’s general- 
 ship they might redeem their reputation. Yet the 
 utmost order was maintained throughout the prepara- 
 tions, and the most strict commands were issued with 
 
The Romans 291 
 
 a view to keeping the fleet together during the 
 passage. The squadrons were to sail in a regular 
 order by day and by night, and lights were to be 
 carried to distinguish the classes of vessels from one 
 another; one light for a war-ship, two for a transport, 
 and three for the admiral’s own vessel. When all 
 was ready, at daybreak on the day of departure, 
 silence was imposed upon the vast assembly by a 
 herald, and Scipio, after sacrificing upon his own 
 ship in the sight of all, addressed a solemn prayer 
 for victory to the gods, and cast the remains of the 
 victims into the sea. The trumpet sounded the final 
 signal, and all the four hundred and forty vessels set 
 sail with a fair wind. 
 
 This was in 202 B.c.; fifty-six years later the city 
 of Carthage was finally destroyed, after a siege that 
 lasted three years, during which the Romans built a 
 stone wall across the harbour, and ultimately walled 
 in the doomed city. Such resistance shows well 
 enough that even the defeat at Zama had not de- 
 stroyed the resources nor the vitality of the great 
 Phoenician nation. 
 
 During the time which intervened between the two 
 wars, the south was going through those slow changes 
 which led to the wars of the revolted slaves, from the 
 moral effect of which Sicily never altogether recovered, 
 and which were the first beginning of a certain law- 
 lessness among the country population which is felt at 
 
292 The Rulers of the South 
 
 the present day. I am not aware that any writer has 
 taken this point of view, but it is a reasonable one, 
 nevertheless. Reviewing the whole previous history of 
 the island, it is clear that until the Roman conquest 
 was completed, the Sicilians had never been united. 
 Not only had the Phoenician element been in opposition 
 and often at war with the Greek, but both had been, 
 from time to time, at odds with the Sicelians, who, 
 though hellenized like the Sicilian Phoenicians, pre- 
 served, like them, the prejudices and characteristics of a 
 distinct race. Besides these there were the Mamertines, 
 the descendants of a wild band of discharged mercena- 
 ries, who were responsible for the outbreak of the first 
 Punic war, and who would not naturally live on good 
 terms with the other three divisions of the population. 
 All these were made one by force under the Roman 
 domination, and the condition of a common subjection 
 united all those who did not profit by it in that common 
 hatred of authority which is the mainspring of the 
 Mafia to-day. It is hardly necessary to say that the 
 great majority of those who were oppressed were 
 slaves, and that the numbers were constantly increasing 
 at a time when the slave trade was immensely profit- 
 able. In Delos, the central- slave’ marketeorPethe 
 fEgean, ten thousand slaves were bought and sold 
 in a single day. They were collected from all the 
 shores of the Mediterranean, and often from far up 
 
 the interior of Africa, Pirate vessels of all sorts 
 
The Romans 293 
 
 engaged in the business, as being easier under most 
 circumstances than robbery on the high seas, besides 
 being perfectly legal. 
 
 It seems impossible to form an estimate of the 
 number of slaves owned in Sicily, still less in Italy, at 
 any one time. Holm, who has collected information 
 from every quarter and has probably left no source 
 unexplored, says that there were Carthaginians who 
 owned as many as twenty thousand slaves. A freed- 
 man of Augustus, whose property was reduced, left 
 over four thousand at his death. The usual authorities 
 state that two hundred were a fair number for an 
 ordinary citizen. There were, of course, a good many 
 small farmers in the interior of Sicily, who owned very 
 few, and worked in the fields themselves; but the 
 general tendency was towards extensive culture as con- 
 trasted with intensive culture, and towards those very 
 large holdings which have continued to exist in the 
 south to the present day. The Nelson property in 
 Sicily, inherited by Lord Bridport, Duke of Bronte, 
 is now eighty miles round, and there were doubtless 
 even larger estates under the Romans, worked altogether 
 by slaves, at a time when there were no free tenant 
 farmers. It is safe, I think, to assume that, at the 
 very least, two-thirds of the whole population were 
 slaves at the time of the slave wars. 
 
 No one can suppose for a moment that any moral 
 authority could control such a body of bondsmen, 
 
294 The Rulers of the South 
 
 many of whom were doubtless rough men of great 
 strength and savage instincts, who feared nothing but 
 pain and starvation, and respected nothing but the 
 master’s display of force. We do not know on what 
 principle they were selected for different occupations, 
 but it is certain that those who suffered most were 
 ordinary farm labourers, who worked in irons under 
 ruthless overseers, receiving a pound of barley or wheat 
 daily, with a little oil and salt, for their fare, and being 
 lodged in wretched quarters, often under ground. In 
 Rome, only runaways were branded like thieves, on the 
 principle that in trying to escape they were stealing 
 themselves from their masters; but in Sicily all were 
 branded alike with their owner’s marks, like cattle. 
 It is certain, however, that the slaves who herded 
 cattle were mounted, and armed for the defence of 
 herds and flocks, like the mounted herdsmen of the 
 present time in the Roman Campagna; and to this day 
 the southern herdsman invariably carries a small axe, 
 a very dangerous weapon nearly of the size and model 
 of an Indian tomahawk. It is a privilege peculiar to 
 him, in a country where it is a punishable offence for 
 a labourer to carry a pointed knife. 
 
 Holm argues acutely that the only possible way in 
 which a slave could improve his condition was by turn- 
 ing highwayman. He had no other choice, since, being 
 branded in the face, he could not possibly pass for a 
 freeman anywhere in the known world at that time. 
 
The Romans 295 
 
 It is a singular fact that modern Sicilians of the lower 
 classes, with whom I have talked long and familiarly, 
 attribute the ineradicable tendency to brigandage to 
 the oppression of the large landholders, saying in 
 Holm’s own words that when the peasant can no 
 longer live he has no choice but to turn robber. This 
 is of course not universally true, but it indicates a 
 surprising duration of the same conditions under widely 
 different institutions. Between the state of the slave 
 in the Roman times and that of the legally oppressed 
 small tenant of to-day there is not much to choose, in 
 theory; in practice, there is the difference between the 
 lash and the law. — 
 
 Now in ancient Sicily a singular position of affairs 
 was soon reached. Slaves ran away and formed 
 bands of brigands, but they very naturally attacked 
 the weak and almost defenceless small free farmers 
 and left the rich and powerful unmolested. Many of 
 the runaways were slaves of Roman knights, and the 
 authorities let them alone, because if any one but the 
 owner punished a slave, the owner could bring an 
 action to recover damages for a personal injury. On 
 the other hand, when the brigands had murdered a 
 small farmer and plundered his land, they immediately 
 disappeared into the mountains, and the nearest rich 
 man found it convenient to appropriate the ownerless 
 property ; so that there may even have been an under- 
 standing between the great landlords and the brigands, 
 
296 The Rulers of the South 
 
 such as has been seen in Sicily in our own times, 
 between the bandits and small landlords, for the 
 purpose of plundering the rich. 
 
 
 
 IN CASTROGIOVANNI TO-DAY 
 
 The first outbreak of the first slave insurrection had 
 its origin in Henna, now Castrogiovanni, which rises 
 from the great valley of the interior like a volcano, 
 opposite its twin height, Calascibetta. There, in a pal- 
 ace that was half a stronghold, dwelt a rich man called 
 
The Romans 297 
 
 Damophilus with his wife Megallis. Their great estates 
 lay far below, cultivated by thousands of slaves, and 
 in the city there were others perhaps as rich and pow- 
 erful as themselves. These two, however, were known 
 throughout the country for the splendour of the state 
 they kept and the barbarous cruelty with which they 
 treated their human chattels. They had one daughter, 
 their only child, of a temper very different from 
 theirs, for she was kind and gentle. Now among the 
 slaves of another master in Henna there was one 
 Eunus, a Syrian of some education and skilled in the 
 tricks of Oriental magic. It is hard to judge of the 
 man’s character from the account Diodorus has left us. 
 Among the many oppressed he was an enthusiast for 
 liberty, where all were ignorant he possessed a little 
 learning, where there was no hope he pointed to a far- 
 off glimmer of freedom. To his companions he seemed 
 half a god, to his masters he appeared to be a clever 
 conjurer; he had learned the secret of eating fire and 
 blowing it from his mouth, and among his fellow- 
 slaves he enhanced the solemnity of his utterances by 
 this means, and they listened with reverence and awe 
 to prophecies that were accompanied by such a portent. 
 The great men of Henna, when they feasted in com- 
 pany, used to send for him and make him exhibit 
 his skill; and with an earnestness which amused them 
 and convinced the slaves who were present in the hall, 
 
 he used to prophesy amidst a shower of sparks that he 
 
298 The Rulers of the South 
 
 should one day be king. Then the guests laughed and 
 jestingly implored that he would treat them graciously 
 when he should come to his kingdom; and he answered 
 with much dignity that he would show mercy to all 
 present. So they, being well pleased, gave him choice 
 titbits from the feast and bade him remember there- 
 after that they were his friends. 
 
 _ At this time, when he had attained to a great repu- 
 tation, the suffering slaves of Damophilus and Megallis 
 came to him secretly and inquired whether the gods 
 would be gracious to them if they revolted. Eunus 
 consulted the oracles of the future for them, and bade 
 them revolt at once. In an incredibly short time four 
 hundred slaves under the command of the fire-eating 
 soothsayer set the whole city in an uproar; thousands 
 of slaves joined them as soon as their intentions were 
 understood, and before night the streets of Henna ran 
 with the blood of the slave-owners, of their wives and 
 of their children. For the rabble spared no living 
 thing, and when Damophilus and his wife were found 
 in one of their country houses, for the revolt had 
 begun in their absence, a band of slaves brought them 
 with their hands bound behind them into the city 
 and led them to the theatre to be judged. The master 
 died an easy death, for while he was eloquently plead- 
 ing his own cause two of his own slaves sprang upon 
 him with swords, and as the one stabbed him to the 
 heart the other struck off his head at a blow. But the 
 
The Romans 299 
 
 lady Megallis was given over to her own female slaves, 
 and they tortured her as she had tortured them and 
 worse, and when there was little life left in her they 
 threw her, still breathing, from the cliff. Her daughter 
 was not hurt. These things being done to the full 
 satisfaction of the multitude, the word of Eunus was 
 fulfilled, for they elected him forthwith to be their 
 king. His first royal act was to order a general 
 massacre of slave-owners, and with his own hand he 
 slew his own masters; but, strange to say, he kept his 
 word to those who, when guests at their table, had 
 treated him kindly. The only free men who were 
 spared in Henna were the armourers, whose skill was 
 needed in order to supply the insurgents with weapons, 
 and who were now themselves made slaves. Eunus 
 took the title of Antiochus, and in three days raised 
 a nondescript force of. six thousand men, armed chiefly 
 with slings, axes, scythes, skewers, and pointed staves 
 hardened in the fire. 
 
 It has already been said that the Roman power was 
 maintained in the island more by the fear of Rome’s 
 name than by the presence of any military force. The 
 Sicilian freemen had well-nigh forgotten the use of 
 arms in the long peace, there were few troops in the 
 island, and these were stationed at such places as 
 Lilybeum, Panormus, and Messina. The Sicilians 
 were taken by surprise, and before they could organize 
 any means of defence the rising had assumed the 
 
300 The Rulers of the South 
 
 most dangerous proportions. A Cilician named Cleo, 
 who had been a highway robber in his home, but was 
 
 engaged in horse-breeding in Sicily, was attracted by 
 
 
 
 CALASCIBETTA AT SUNSET 
 
 the prospect of plunder, raised five thousand men as 
 well disposed as himself, in the neighbourhood of 
 Agrigentum, and proceeded to join forces with Eunus, 
 
The Romans 301 
 
 leaving a broad tract of destruction behind him as he 
 went up the interior. The junction was effected before 
 the preetor of the island was able to get together a 
 force of eight thousand men. The slave army met 
 him, twenty thousand strong, and he was defeated. 
 Soon afterwards no less than two hundred thousand 
 slaves were in arms. 
 
 The indifference of the great landholders to the 
 safety of the small free farmers, whose little posses- 
 sions they coveted, has been already explained. It had 
 produced its natural result, and the free farmers soon 
 saw that if they joined themselves to the insurgent 
 slaves they could have ample revenge. They rose in 
 great numbers, and the insurrection speedily became a 
 general revolution of poverty against wealth. As often 
 happens in such cases, this meant anarchy. The poor 
 freemen of the city, wholly ignorant of the condition 
 of the small farmers, whom the slaves regarded as their 
 allies, plundered them wholesale, and the result was a 
 sort of general and indiscriminate guerilla warfare. 
 
 It was evident that the Roman garrison of Sicily 
 was totally unable to cope with the difficulty; more- 
 over, slaves revolted at the same time in Greece and 
 Macedonia and in other places; it was said that a slave 
 conspiracy was on foot in Rome itself. 
 
 This state of things had already lasted the greater 
 part of six years before the Romans succeeded in 
 
 gaining a decided advantage. Publius Rupilius, the 
 
302 The Rulers of the South 
 
 consul in 132 B.c., who had begun life himself as a tax- 
 gatherer in Sicily, finally quelled the first outbreak. He 
 besieged the slaves in Tauromenium, and reduced them 
 to such straits that they devoured their women and 
 children, and at last began to eat each other. Their 
 commander was a certain Comanus, a brother of Cleo, 
 the horse-breeder. Slavelike, he abandoned his com- 
 rades and escaped from the city, but was taken and 
 brought before the consul. Being asked questions 
 about the state of the city, he bent down, drawing his 
 cloak over his head as if to shade his eyes and collect 
 his thoughts, and then, for he was a very strong man, 
 he set his hand to his throat and crushed his windpipe 
 in his own grip, so that he fell dead at the consul’s 
 feet. Soon afterwards the city was betrayed to the 
 Romans by a Syrian, and the greater part of the slaves 
 were hurled from the cliff. Last of all Cleo and _ 
 Eunus retired to the impregnable city of Henna, where 
 the outbreak had begun. Being almost starved to 
 despair Cleo had the courage to attack the Romans 
 in the open, but he was beaten and the city surren- 
 dered. Untold thousands of slaves were massacred, 
 but Eunus escaped with less than a thousand men only 
 to be hunted down by the Romans at last. His com- 
 panions killed each other; but Eunus himself, his cook, 
 his baker, his bath servant, and his jester, were taken 
 alive by the Romans, and it is said that Eunus was 
 condemned to be bitten to death by vermin in a dun- 
 
 geon. So ended the first slave war. 
 
The Romans 303 
 
 The wars of the slaves in Sicily were not isolated 
 attempts to obtain freedom, to be referred to local 
 causes only. Whether any understanding existed be- 
 tween the oppressed classes throughout Rome’s domin- 
 ions, to bring about a general revolution, it is impossible 
 to determine. In times of insurrection and change, it 
 often seems as if many movements were directed by 
 one leader, when there is, in fact, no leader at all, but 
 when the natural understanding in different parts of 
 the world has been produced by the spreading of an 
 idea which brings about similar results in similar con- 
 ditions. The same thing happens in the domain of 
 science. Newton, Leibnitz, and Descartes invented 
 almost simultaneously, but in very different ways, the 
 method which goes by the name of the Differential 
 Calculus. Great minds reach similar conclusions in 
 similar circumstances; the mind of a people may be 
 considered to be a great mind made up of millions of 
 units, almost all insignificant, if taken separately, but 
 superlatively logical when acting as a whole. If this 
 were not true, representative government would be 
 nothing but the rule of ignorance or, at best, of medi- 
 ocrity. But the instinct of a nation is almost always 
 as unerringly logical as the instinct of a wild animal. 
 It is not necessary to suppose that between the years 
 139 B.c. and 99 B.c. there was any general and secret 
 understanding by which the slaves of the Romans 
 
 agreed to rebel at the same time, from Asia Minor to 
 
304 The Rulers of the South 
 
 Sicily, while the Gracchi attempted to overthrow the 
 aristocracy in Rome itself. 
 
 On the other hand, those who have lived in India 
 and the far East know how fast news travels among the 
 people in countries where there is either no telegraph 
 at all, or where it is certainly not at the service of the 
 agricultural population. I recollect that when Sir 
 Louis Cavagnari was murdered in Kabul, in 1870, 
 the news was told in the bazaar at Allahabad before 
 the English authorities received it by the telegraph, 
 which then covered more than half the whole distance 
 between the two places. The conditions in the out- 
 lying parts of the Roman possessions were more like 
 those of India than is generally realized, and it should 
 not surprise any one to learn that news often travelled 
 from point to point at the rate of several hundred miles 
 a day. Such a possibility implies a much more rapid 
 exchange of ideas than might at first be expected, and 
 it must not be forgotten, in the case of the slaves, that 
 they had relatives and friends in Asia, in Africa, and 
 in Spain, from whom they had been forcibly carried off 
 into servitude, and who must have used every means 
 which affection could suggest for communicating with 
 them. Merchants came and went in their ships, 
 soldiers were ordered to different provinces, and back 
 again, slaves themselves accompanied their Roman 
 masters on long journeys, and took messages to 
 the friends of their fellow-slaves, and brought back 
 
The Romans 305 
 
 news on their return. Thus there was constant com- 
 munication between the oppressed classes from one 
 end of the Roman dominions to the other, and a con- 
 stant sympathy between them was maintained thereby, 
 which could not fail to manifest itself sooner or later 
 in more or less simultaneous action. 
 
 It seems credible, too, that something of the spirit 
 of the Pythagorean brotherhoods may have survived, 
 though the majority of the slaves probably never heard 
 of the philosopher himself; and that they may have 
 used signs and may have had peculiar customs by 
 which they recognized each other. ‘Thieves’ slang’ 
 still serves thieves as a certain means of recognition, 
 and every one who has lived in Sicily knows that 
 the ‘Mafiusi’ use special names for a number of 
 familiar objects and articles of daily use. 
 
 It is at all events certain that the movement of the 
 slaves was very extensive throughout the Roman world, 
 and that they displayed tactics which, though not of 
 the highest order, imply the existence of organization. 
 This was notably the case during the second slave war 
 in Sicily. Before the first was over, and when Henna 
 was still in the hands of the insurgents, an outbreak 
 took place in Asia Minor which may be regarded as 
 more or less accidental, for it was not begun by the 
 slaves themselves. Attalus, king of Pergamus, had 
 bequeathed his kingdom to the Roman people by will. 
 His son, considering himself deeply wronged, attempted 
 
 VOL aL x 
 
306 The Rulers of the South 
 
 to rouse the nobles to arevolution, and failing to do so, 
 appealed to the slaves and the poor, promising them 
 freedom and riches. He was, of course, conquered by 
 the Romans. The insurrection of Vettius in Campania 
 in 104 B.c. seems to have been more closely connected 
 with the real slave movement. Vettius was a Roman 
 knight of some wealth, living on his estates in the south. 
 In an evil hour he was attracted by a beautiful slave 
 girl, and what was at first the mere caprice of an idle 
 country gentleman grew by degrees into one of those 
 uncontrollable passions that breed in the feverish air 
 of the south. The girl was faithfully devoted to her 
 slave people, and dreamt of winning their liberty. Her 
 lover might have given his own bondsmen freedom 
 for her sake, but she wanted more than that, and 
 she began to persuade him that the slaves of Italy 
 would make him their king if he would lead them, and 
 face the Romans if he would fight with them, and that 
 the empire of the world was almost within his grasp. 
 In the privacy of his Campanian villa, absolute lord 
 of all he saw, Vettius listened to the lovely Greek girl 
 day after day, and he watched the sturdy slaves going 
 about their work, and he saw that they would make 
 good soldiers, who would fight to the last breath for 
 their liberty. Secluded from the world, everything 
 seemed possible, and all that he heard by the voice 
 he loved seemed sure, for there was no one to answer 
 
 the woman. So he got together a great quantity of 
 
The Romans 307 
 
 arms and gave them to his slaves, bidding them free 
 their fellows throughout Italy; and they made him 
 their king. But he appointed one of them, a Greek 
 called Apollonius, to be his general, and this dastard 
 betrayed him to the Romans, and he slew himself 
 rather than fall into their hands. | 
 
 About the same time the Roman senate was actually 
 taking steps to check the slave trade and to restore to | 
 liberty a number of persons then in slavery. It was 
 decreed unlawful to make a slave of any free man or 
 woman belonging to an allied nation, and whenever the 
 case should arise, the governors of the provinces were 
 ordered to set such persons free. Ina short time more 
 than eight hundred Sicilian slaves obtained their free- 
 dom under this law, and it was natural that many 
 thousands should claim the same advantage, whether 
 they had a legal right to it or not. The measure had 
 been passed too hastily, and the result was that it 
 seemed necessary to suspend it for a time. . An im- 
 mense number of slaves who had presented themselves 
 in the hope of being emancipated were ordered to 
 return to their masters. They knew what awaited 
 them if they obeyed, and they took sanctuary in the 
 sacred grove of the mysterious Palici, where they were 
 protected as in a city of refuge by the immemorial 
 tradition of sanctity which clung to the place. There, 
 from hot, still pools, the intermittent springs send up 
 from time to time high jets of steam and boiling mud, 
 
308 The Rulers of the South 
 
 and then again these sink down and the froth subsides 
 in the earthy cauldron and all is very still; for thus it 
 pleased the twin gods to manifest their power. ‘These 
 pools are near the place now called Palagonia. 
 
 It is believed that from their safe retreat the slaves 
 treated with their masters, in order that they might be 
 taken back without suffering punishment for their 
 attempt to gain freedom; but that, with the true Greek 
 instinct for treachery, they agreed among themselves in 
 a conspiracy to rise against their owners at a certain 
 time. And so they did; for not long afterwards the 
 slaves of two landholders in Halicyz, which is now 
 Salemi, murdered their masters in their sleep, and rous- 
 ing the slaves of neighbouring farms got together a 
 force of two hundred and fortified themselves on a pre- 
 cipitous height to await events. Presumably, they ex- 
 pected news of other risings in the neighbourhood, but 
 they had either anticipated the time agreed upon, or 
 their friends lacked courage, for none stirred. The 
 preetor appeared with a body of soldiers to storm the 
 place, but finding it stronger than he had expected, he 
 bought the services of a condemned criminal who had 
 escaped justice and turned bandit, and this man was | 
 received in a friendly way by the slaves, with his troop 
 of brigands, and he immediately betrayed them. The 
 runaways fought to the death, and those who survived 
 the combat that ensued threw themselves over the 
 
 precipice rather than be taken alive. 
 
The Romans 309 
 
 The general rising took place a short time afterwards. 
 Again a number of slaves murdered their master, 
 eighty against one man; and in a few days two thou- 
 sand were under arms. They beat a detachment of 
 Roman infantry in the first engagement, and before 
 long their numbers swelled to twenty thousand foot and 
 two thousand horse, the latter being, of course, the 
 armed and mounted herdsmen of the great slave- 
 owners. Their leader was one Salvius, a soothsayer, 
 and he promptly attacked the strong place, Morgantia, 
 now Giardinelli, on the southern slope of Monte Judica, 
 overlooking the great Catanian plain. He promised 
 freedom to the slaves within if they would join him; 
 but their masters promised it to them, also, and so out- 
 tempted the tempters, for the slaves in the city rightly 
 judged that there would be time enough to run away if 
 their masters did not keep the promise made, as indeed 
 happened afterwards, when the siege was raised and the 
 besiegers retired again to the groves of the Palici. 
 
 But meanwhile another leader had arisen in the 
 west, had gathered ten thousand men, and attacked 
 Lilybeeum. He was the steward of a great estate, an 
 astrologer, and a man of unquestionable courage and 
 ready resource. Before Lilybeeum he failed, of course, 
 and he suffered a reverse when he withdrew from the 
 siege; but still he gathered more and more followers, 
 and many of the poor freemen came into his camp, till 
 at last he exchanged embassies with Salvius, who had 
 
310 The Rulers of the South 
 
 proclaimed himself king under the name of Trypho, 
 and presently the two joined forces in a place called 
 Triocala, the ‘thrice fair.’ But there King Trypho 
 thought it wiser to throw King Athenio into prison and 
 to rule alone, and he built a wall round the town, with 
 a moat, and erected a little palace, and wore purple, 
 and was accompanied by lictors. All these things hap- 
 pened in 104 B.c. 
 
 It was not until the following year that the Romans 
 sent an army to attack the slave capital, and the 
 magnitude of the force shows what was thought of 
 the insurrection in Rome. It consisted of fourteen 
 thousand Romans and Italians with two thousand 
 Bithynians, Thessalians, Lucanians, and others. King 
 Trypho now set King Athenio at liberty; what is 
 more surprising is that Athenio does not seem to 
 have resented his long imprisonment. He advised 
 meeting the Romans in open battle, and charging at 
 the head of two hundred horsemen he rode like a 
 madman through the Roman ranks, leaving a _ broad 
 river of blood where he had passed. In the desperate 
 charge he was wounded in many places and fell at 
 last, and when the shout went up that he was dead, 
 the slave army fled in dismay. Yet the Romans did 
 not pursue them, and they had time to retire upon 
 Triocala, when it was found that Athenio was still 
 alive. By skill, by bribery, and by actual fighting he 
 kept the Romans off, and when Trypho died in the 
 
The Romans | 311 
 
 following year, Athenio became the sole king of the 
 slaves in his stead. 
 
 He now almost got possession of Sicily and ravaged 
 the country in all directions, besieging cities and 
 making himself master of more than one strong 
 place. The apparently inexplicable inactivity of one 
 preetor after another was accounted for well enough 
 in Rome on the simple theory that each was bribed 
 in succession by Athenio, and each was accordingly 
 exiled at the end of his term of office; and when at 
 last a man was found in the Consul Manlhus Aquillius, 
 the power of the slaves had grown so great that it 
 required two years of preparation, and hard fighting, 
 to crush it out of existence. 
 
 The end of Athenio was as romantic as his short 
 and brilliant career had been. In the final battle 
 which decided his fate he exposed his life with the 
 recklessness of a man who stakes a kingdom on every 
 sword-thrust. On the other side Aquillius fought no 
 less bravely for a baser motive; he had refused 
 bribes, most probably, where his predecessor had 
 accepted them, but only in order that by a complete 
 victory he might have better opportunities of enrich- 
 ing himself, for he was the man into whose all-greedy 
 mouth Mithridates is said at last to have poured 
 molten gold, so that he died. Nevertheless, he fought 
 like a brave man, and in the battle he met Athenio 
 face to face; they fought one another hand to hand, 
 
312 The, Rulersvot thes south 
 
 the Roman for gold, the Greek for freedom, while 
 men looked on and held their breath. Then the 
 Greek wounded the Roman in the breast, so that he 
 had great scars to show long afterwards, when he 
 was accused; but the Roman killed the Greek and 
 got the victory. 
 
 After that he reduced the slaves’ remaining strong- 
 holds one by one, and when the last thousand men 
 surrendered on condition that their lives should be 
 spared, Aquillius sent them all to Rome, to fight with 
 wild beasts in the arena; but there, scorning to die 
 the death of men condemned, they slew each other 
 by the altars of the circus with the weapons that 
 had been given them for the fight, and when they 
 were all dead their leader Satyrus took his own life. 
 Thus ended the great struggles for freedom which 
 were fought by the slaves in Sicily during the forty 
 years between 139 B.c. and 99 B.c., that is to say 
 during more than a generation of men born in slav- 
 ery, the sons and grandsons of those who first rose 
 against the Roman oppression under Eunus the con- 
 jurer and soothsayer. 
 
 They were not all heroes; their revolutions gen- 
 erally began with treacherous murders of men asleep 
 and grew by monstrous and wholesale plunder; their 
 first leader died a coward’s death, and mioreminan 
 once they all turned and fled in battle before the 
 Romans’ orderly advance. Yet they deserve the sym- 
 
The Romans e1R 
 
 pathy of mankind for the sufferings that made them 
 rebel, and for the courage many of them showed 
 when their end was at hand. They had been trained 
 to bear shackles, not arms, to receive blows, not to 
 deal them, to think as convicts think, not as free- 
 men; the armed overseer was their daily companion 
 and his whip was familiar with their flesh; it was 
 no wonder that they stabbed in the dark what was 
 too strong for them by daylight, and conspired to 
 murder those whom they were at first too weak to 
 fight. If anything can make assassination pardon- 
 able it is the condition of the oppressed slave; and 
 in the south, though there were thousands of rough 
 Africans who tilled the soil in chains, there were 
 many, too, who belonged to quite another race and 
 class, Greeks from Asia Minor, skilled in every art, 
 delicately trained and intellectually by far the supe- 
 riors of men whose property they had become by the 
 evil violence of pirates and robbers, or by the un- 
 happy chances of disastrous war; and with them 
 were many of their women, their sisters, their wives, 
 and their daughters, of free blood and of good line- 
 age, reduced with themselves to the social rank of 
 items in an inventory, and living at the best in the 
 mean condition of favourite animals. The provoca- 
 tion to murder must have been indeed more than a 
 man could bear; and in the end many died very 
 bravely, for men who are ready to throw themselves 
 
314 The Rulers of the South 
 
 from cliffs and precipices rather than be taken alive 
 desire freedom more than they dread death, even 
 though it be out of fear of living, and in the scale of 
 bravery the names of Athenio and Satyrus may stand 
 as high as many that are better remembered. 
 
 It 18 related that after the end of the vslaverwar. 
 the enormous number of unburied bodies and the 
 vast quantities of blood that had moistened the ground 
 produced a plague of grasshoppers that ravaged the 
 whole country. Holm considers this to be a somewhat 
 fabulous tale, but says that it gives a good idea of the 
 condition of Sicily. Entomologists may determine its 
 possibility or explain what insect was taken for a 
 grasshopper; it is at least certain that agriculture was 
 temporarily checked by some visitation of the kind, 
 which may well have had its origin in the frightful 
 condition of many battlefields, where no attempt had 
 been made to bury the dead. 
 
 Holm has given his opinion of the state of the 
 island and of the results of the slave war in a passage 
 which I cannot refrain from translating, for no his- 
 torian has more carefully weighed the evidence of 
 history nor formed upon it opinions which seem more 
 just. 
 
 “Nevertheless,” he writes, “it may justly be said 
 that the island had, on the whole, profited by the 
 slave wars. Sicily was on the high road to become the 
 mere pastureland of a few great men, as was already 
 
The Romans 215 
 
 the case with many provinces of Italy. That which 
 should have been prevented when the island became 
 a ‘predium’ of the Roman _ people, instead of a 
 country given over to the Roman nobles, had actually 
 happened more and more and in the course of time. 
 The mighty slave wars arrested the land on this de- 
 scending course. In these struggles it was especially 
 the rich that suffered; the death of such numbers of 
 slaves was a direct loss to them, but the wars cleared 
 the air for the poor freemen. This result of the war 
 is not a mere subjective construction; we may infer 
 it from the orations against Verres, which, though 
 containing numerous individual statements that are 
 false, have nevertheless an undeniable value as _ por- 
 traying the condition of the island in Cicero’s time. 
 According to Cicero’s description, Sicily is an island 
 in which, on the whole, the well-to-do middle class pre- 
 ponderates, but in which excessive wealth is unusual. 
 In this connexion it is a striking fact that there is 
 hardly any mention of valuable works of art. With 
 few exceptions no statues were owned by private citi- 
 zens, whereas many possessed a silver saltcellar or a 
 silver drinking-vessel. This preponderance of the 
 middle class is a result of the slave wars, which pro- 
 duced a thorough clearing among the slaves and there- 
 fore also in the conditions of farming. No doubt 
 many persons remained rich, in spite of the bad times, 
 
 especially Roman landholders whose estates were not 
 
316 The Rulers of the Scuth 
 
 exclusively in Sicily; but the worst masters had been 
 the native imitators of the Romans, and those were 
 altogether ruined if, indeed, they still existed at all. 
 The middle-class citizens and the poor citizens thus 
 found a field for their activity, and Sicily could again 
 have a more healthy existence, both on its own 
 account and with respect to Rome, which it was to 
 supply with corn.” | 
 
 The civil wars of Rome proceeded naturally from 
 the hatred of one class for another. Had the two 
 been less evenly matched, the disturbance might have 
 produced all the phenomena of the French Revolution, 
 but Sulla and the aristocrats were as strong as Marius 
 and the democracy, and stronger; and while it is 
 always the instinct of the lower class to destroy the 
 upper class altogether, the upper class, being unable 
 to live without the help of the social inferiors whom 
 it has such good reason to fear, necessarily aims at 
 keeping them in a state not far removed from servi- 
 tude. An upper class that has no means of control- 
 ling a lower class has no claim to be called an upper 
 class at all, and is doomed either to destruction or to 
 ridicule. In most modern countries the so-called aris- 
 tocracies have chosen to be ridiculous rather than to 
 be destroyed: The finaly triumph of (sulladicmeaes 
 destroy the power of the lower class, it controlled it. 
 The true leader of the people was to be Julius Ceesar. 
 
 In Sicily the struggle had ended with Athenio’s 
 
The Romans 317 
 
 death, and the island took no active part in the civil 
 wars, but was governed alternately by the contending 
 parties. When Marius, being on his way to Africa, 
 wished to obtain water at Drepanum, he met with an 
 energetic refusal on the part of the governor; a little 
 later, his party was in power and the governor was one 
 of his most active supporters; a little later again Sulla 
 was in power, and the Marian governor retired hastily at 
 the approach of Cneius Pompeius with six legions and 
 a hundred and twenty ships; and the mild behaviour 
 of Pompeius on this occasion is historical. The only 
 city that resisted him was Thermz on the north coast, 
 and when he was about to reduce it to submission, the 
 chief man of the city came to him, demanding that 
 the whole blame of the resistance should be laid upon 
 himself. Pompeius was touched and forgave him. 
 Only on two or three occasions the youthful Roman 
 general behaved with a coldness that approached 
 cruelty, conversing calmly with political prisoners 
 whom he had already condemned to death. 
 
 When Sulla undid what Caius Gracchus had done, 
 and gave back to the Senate the jurisdiction which the 
 reformer had succeeded in placing in the hands of the 
 Roman knights, the governorship of Sicily was no 
 longer given to a pretor, but to a proprztor, who 
 resided in the island altogether and exercised his 
 power more continually than the pretors had done; 
 for while the latter had relied much upon the services 
 
318 The Rulers of the South 
 
 of tax farmers, who had every interest in hoodwinking 
 their superior in order to enrich themselves, and in 
 accusing him unjustly when he seemed to them un- 
 reasonably honest, the propreetor was able to extort 
 money without their services, or at all events while 
 controlling them for his own ends. This is the change 
 a I tlic Ld eee 
 cial government that _ 
 led to the frightful abuse 
 of power of which Verres 
 was found guilty. 
 Those who know Sicily 
 even superficially must 
 easily realize that its con- 
 
 
 
 ditions of prosperity could 
 change with surprising quick- 
 ness in the alternations of peace 
 and war. It was an altogether 
 agricultural country, but it was, 
 Pe or AC e and is still, the richest “inj the 
 NEAR CATANIA Mediterranean. I will compare 
 
 it, in its ditferent sstatessaiome: 
 
 great foundry or manufactory. Everything required 
 for the production of valuable merchandise is present, 
 waiting to be smelted, cast, turned, and finished. 
 Furnaces glow, hammers ring, lathes move silently 
 and quickly, a thousand artisans are at work; and 
 
 wealth is created hourly and instantly by sure and 
 
The Romans 319 
 
 industrious hands. Presently comes the check; there 
 is war, and the enemy is at hand, or the men 
 strike and go away in a body. The place is the 
 same, and yet it is all at once a dreary wilderness, 
 the fires are gone out, the wind howls through 
 the vast deserted sheds, the machinery rusts in the 
 silence, and it all looks as if only a miracle could 
 bring back the extinguished life. Yet all things are 
 ready for the making of wealth, as they were before. 
 The enemy retires, or the strike is over, and in a day 
 the factory is once again in the roar and blast of 
 production, alive and awake. 
 
 Thus also Sicily lay waste from time to time, and 
 awoke again to instant riches at the golden touch of 
 peace. There is not a valley in the whole island 
 where men have not lain in ambush to kill other men, 
 nor a field that has not been dyed crimson, nor a 
 lovely defile of the mountains whose rivulet has not 
 run red. Within the narrow seagirt space, six hun- 
 dred miles round, Greeks and Pheenicians, Cartha- 
 ginians and Romans, Byzantines, Goths, Saracens, 
 Normans, Frenchmen, Catalans, freemen, and slaves 
 fought almost unceasingly for more than two thou- 
 sand years; and in every brief interval of rest the 
 rich soil brought forth its fruit a hundred fold, the 
 blood-stained meadows blossomed again, and the battle- 
 field of many nations was again the garden of the 
 world, Excepting Rome and the surrounding plains 
 
320 The Rulers:-of-the South 
 
 there is surely no like area in Europe wheremso 
 many have died by violence; there is none where 
 life is so ever ready to begin again. 
 
 It is, therefore, not strange that after the slave 
 wars Sicily should have accumulated great wealth, 
 especially as the island was, on the whole, well gov- 
 erned during that period, between the years 99 B.c. 
 and.73 3.c.. During the latter part of thisytimesme 
 office of quzestor, treasurer, in the western division, 
 was held by Cicero, then a young man of thirty years, 
 six years older than Julius Cesar. It was during his 
 quzestorship that he acquired the profound knowledge 
 of Sicily which he displayed in his speeches against 
 Verres, one of the most atrocious robbers of any age. 
 It was then that he wandered in the neighbourhood . 
 of Syracuse, accompanied by a flattering court of 
 distinguished Syracusans, who were not anxious to 
 show him the tomb of Archimedes overgrown with 
 brambles, because the great engineer had been an 
 enemy to the Romans, and were quite willing to let 
 the mild-mannered, book-loving quzstor give himself 
 all the credit of the discovery. Of Cicero’s earlier 
 and later life it is useless to speak here, but it is 
 necessary to dwell a little upon the evil career of the 
 great criminal from whose robberies the cities of 
 Sicily never entirely recovered. Cicero’s speeches, on 
 which the evidence against him rests, undoubtedly 
 
 contained exaggerations, and were necessarily preju- 
 
The Romans cpl 
 
 diced, but the consequences of Verres’ government 
 are undeniable. It must be remembered, too, that 
 Verres was found guilty on the evidence of the thou- 
 sands of witnesses who appeared against him, and 
 that he escaped to Marseilles, where he spent the 
 rest of his life, before the hearing was over. Only 
 two of the seven speeches were delivered; the rest 
 were compiled from the records of the case, but not 
 spoken. The great Hortensius, engaged to defend 
 the accused, abandoned the case, though he was 
 reckoned the most eloquent lawyer of his day, with 
 the possible exception of Cicero himself. 
 
 Verres was of noble birth, the son of a senator, 
 who shared the plunder with him and defended him 
 in the senate during his outrageous proceedings in 
 the provinces, At the age of thirty, or little less, 
 the young man was questor in Northern Italy, being 
 then a partisan of Marius; but when he saw that 
 Sulla was getting the better of the struggle, he 
 promptly deserted to him, and was well received. 
 He did not omit to steal all the public money then 
 in his keeping, for which deed, in consideration of 
 his accession to the party of Sulla, the latter never 
 called him to account. Next, in the year 80 B.c., he 
 was sent as legate to Asia Minor under Dolabella, 
 a man of his own stamp, and it became his business 
 to steal and extort money for his superior and 
 himself. 
 
 VOL. I § 
 
322 The Rulers of the south 
 
 He possessed the most admirable taste in matters 
 of art, and, like=more than one famous thierwenesnad 
 the spirit of a collector. Beside his love of statues 
 and pictures, his gross vices sink into insignificance ; 
 his greed of money, and his cruelty in obtaining it, 
 alone rival his passion for works of beauty. He shut 
 up the chief official at Sicyon in a closet and smoked 
 him with green wood till he was almost dead, merely 
 to obtain gold. He stole pictures and statues in 
 Achaia; he took a quantity of gold from the temple 
 of Pallas in Athens; he carried off the best statues 
 from the temple of Apollo in Delos; he plundered 
 Tenedos, Chios, and Samos, and positively ravaged 
 Pamphylia. His operations were conducted on a 
 gigantic scale, and he carried off the treasures of the 
 temples in carts and in broad daylight. When the 
 treasurer of the province died, Dolabella made Verres 
 pro-treasurer, and in this office he extended his op- 
 pression throughout Milyas, Pisidia, and parts of 
 Phrygia. As guardian, he robbed the only son of 
 his best friend when the latter was dead; he robbed 
 his enemies, the public, and the treasury, and returned 
 to Italy with such a sum of money as enabled him 
 to obtain a prztorship in Rome. He now turned his 
 talents towards obtaining bribes in the cases which 
 came before him for decision, and in robbing the 
 fund for public buildings. On the ingenious excuse 
 that the columns of the temple of Castor and Pollux 
 
The Romans 323 
 
 were not all exactly perpendicular, though the error 
 could only be detected by means of the plumb-line, 
 he succeeded in upsetting a contract for the con- 
 struction, in favour of another contractor, in which 
 transaction he pocketed large sums of money. But 
 in comparison with what he did afterwards, his doings 
 in Asia Minor and in Rome must be looked upon as 
 mere exercises, in which he obtained the experience 
 necessary for a career of destructive robbery that has 
 never been equalled. So, in modern Naples, and per- 
 haps elsewhere, thieves set their children to pick the 
 pockets of a lay figure that rings bells at the least 
 incautious touch. 
 
 In 73 B.c. Verres obtained the propretorship of Sicily 
 by lot. He held it three years, and left his mark 
 of desolation upon its cities for centuries, if not for- 
 ever. During the term of his office, the insurrection 
 of the gladiators and slaves under Spartacus required 
 all Rome’s energy, and since Verres kept Sicily in 
 subjection, and there were no signs of an outbreak 
 under his governorship, he was allowed to do as he 
 pleased until the measure of his iniquities was full, 
 and he was finally called to account. 
 
 The story of his three years’ government in Sicily, 
 as told by Cicero in the Verrine orations, reads alter- 
 nately like a fairy story and like a tale of almost 
 prehistoric barbarism. It is a strange fact that when 
 the staid Roman temper broke out and overstepped 
 
324 The Rulers" of thes souty 
 
 all bounds, Romans went to lengths of fantastic dis- 
 play on the one hand and of horrible cruelty on the 
 other which surpassed what we know of Greeks or 
 Phoenicians. Cicero draws a picture of Verres during 
 his stay in Syracuse, and of his official journeys, in 
 which we see the Roman propretor carried by eight 
 stalwart slaves in a litter, lying upon cushions stuffed 
 with rose leaves, clad in transparent gauze and Maltese 
 lace, with garlands of roses on his head and round 
 his neck, and delicately sniffing at a little net filled 
 also with roses, lest any other odour should offend his 
 nostrils. He had an artistic soul, and delighted in 
 details that pleased the sense. He loved beauty, and 
 wherever he went the fairest of the Sicilian ladies 
 were his guests, while he robbed their fathers, their 
 husbands, and their brothers. This important busi- 
 ness, which was, indeed, the main one of his life, 
 was everywhere managed with precision and despatch. 
 He was never at a loss for an excuse for extorting 
 money from a rich man. One of his methods was 
 to seize upon valuable favourite slaves of great land- 
 holders, accusing them of conspiring against him and 
 condemning them to death at his pleasure, only that 
 their masters might ransom them at ten times their 
 value. Or, he would accuse of conspiracy a slave 
 who had no existence, and then imprison the master 
 for not producing the fictitious delinquent. The un- 
 fortunate owner had the choice of ransoming himself 
 
The Romans R25 
 
 at a ruinous price or of languishing in prison for an 
 unlimited length of time. He spent the winter and 
 generally the summer in Syracuse, where there is no 
 winter's day without sunshine and no summer’s noon 
 without the cool sea breeze. In the warm months 
 he pitched his tents of fine linen at the entrance of 
 the harbour, most probably under the shadow of the 
 Plemmyrian promontory, where the breeze blows all 
 day, and there he spent his time dressed in the ef- 
 feminate tunic and purple cloak of the Greeks, in 
 the company of his youthful son, who gave promise 
 of imitating his father, surrounded by his cohort of 
 flatterers, panders, and henchmen, curled and_per- 
 fumed like himself. The Syracusan ladies came to 
 his feasts, and sometimes complained bitterly when 
 the daughter of a comic actor was treated with as 
 much ceremony as themselves; but still they came, 
 and lingered, and came again. 
 
 It was an organized robbery, and Verres needed a 
 base of operations and a harbour of export, whence 
 he could ship his booty to his Italian estates. These 
 appear to have been conveniently situated for the pur- 
 pose in the neighbourhood of Velia, once Elea, the 
 home of philosophy, but now, if it has a name, called 
 Ascea. There, a little to the south of Licosa point, 
 the small stream of the Alento swells to a torrent in 
 winter and shrinks to a rivulet under the summer sun, 
 
 when the air is poisoned with the southern fever. The 
 
326 The Rulers of the South 
 
 fishermen beach their boats upon the sandy shore 
 where Verres landed the wealth of Sicily from the 
 great freight ship he had caused the Sicilians to 
 build for him, for this sole purpose. But the base 
 of operations he chose in Sicily was Messina; and in 
 order that the Mamertine inhabitants might be friendly 
 to him, and might not hinder his proceedings, he spared 
 their city when he plundered all the rest, and excused 
 them from contributions of corn and from supplying 
 a man-of-war for the Sicilian fleet, which they would 
 otherwise have been bound to do. Moreover, they 
 were not obliged to supply soldiers and sailors for 
 the service. In other cities he made a regular charge 
 for giving the supposed soldiers and seamen perma- 
 nent leave, at a fixed price, by the. year. It is need- 
 less to say that besides the price of the leave given, 
 the ingenious governor pocketed the pay which would 
 have been due if the men had served their time. 
 
 He neglected the fleet altogether, and the conse- 
 quence was that Cilician pirates infested the waters 
 about the island. Considering what has been done 
 before and since in Sicily, it may well be supposed 
 that Verres had a standing agreement with the pirates 
 themselves. Once, however, in a fit of conscientious- 
 ness, he allowed two of his officers with ten men-of- 
 war to capture, near Megara, a pirate vessel so heavily 
 laden that it was not able to get away. He appro- 
 priated the cargo, which consisted of the most valuable 
 
The Romans 207 
 
 booty, to his own use, picked out the old and useless 
 men among the crew and threw them into prison, gave 
 the young and handsome ones to his friends as slaves, 
 and sent six musicians, who were found among them, 
 to Rome, as a present to his lawyer, Hortensius. As 
 for the captain of the pirates, no one ever saw hin, 
 but some time afterwards, Verres caused a poor Roman 
 citizen, who was perfectly innocent, to be executed for 
 his crimes. When Syracuse rose in indignation and 
 demanded the execution of the pirates, the governor 
 took a number of other persons from prison and caused 
 them to be put to death with their heads covered, lest 
 they should be recognized. 
 
 He was now obliged by public opinion to take some 
 action against the pirates, and he sent out a small 
 squadron in pursuit of them. The vessels sailed out 
 with flying colours, and with every appearance of being 
 fit for the expedition; but in reality they were short 
 handed, and were so completely unprovided with pro- 
 visions that when they reached Pachynus, a few miles 
 to the southward, the whole company went ashore to 
 seek for food, and, finding nothing better, they dug 
 up the scrub palms and ate the roots. At the first 
 news that pirates were in the vicinity, the commander 
 cut his cable rather than lose time in getting the 
 anchor up, made sail, and, having the best vessel, 
 was out of sight almost before the ships he commanded 
 could get under way. The pirates overhauled them 
 
328 The Rulers of the South 
 
 on the high sea, took the men prisoners, and burnt 
 the vessels. The news was known in Syracuse late 
 at night, when Verres had retired to rest after an 
 orgy; but no one dared to wake the sleeping gov- 
 ernor. He was roused by the voices of the multitude 
 without, and, when he appeared at dawn in military 
 dress, he barely escaped being torn to pieces. Four 
 pirate vessels quietly sailed into the harbour of Syra- 
 cuse, and, coming close to the shore, their crews pelted 
 the infuriated crowd with the roots of the scrub palms 
 found in the ill-fated Roman vessels. The pirates 
 departed in peace, and before long the unfortunate 
 captains of the Roman ships were ransomed. Verres, 
 of course, arrested them and condemned them to death 
 as an example, and they were handed over to the exe- 
 cutioner, who exacted a large sum of money from their 
 relatives in return for his promise that they should 
 have an easy death. Being dead, their bodies became 
 the governor’s property, and he exacted a second ran- 
 som for them by threatening to let them be devoured 
 by dogs and wolves. 
 
 It is easy to imagine the sort of persons by whom 
 Verres was surrounded, men ready for every deed, 
 accessible to every bribe, and quick to invent means of 
 extortion. Allowing for the changes of time and the 
 differences in his situation, these fellows represented 
 the life-guard of a tyrant; bound to him by every 
 
 personal interest, and sharing, in a small degree, in 
 
The Romans 329 
 
 the profits of every crime. Cicero has preserved their 
 names with some of their characteristics. I shall 
 spare the reader both, and go on to tell how in a short 
 time Verres made himself master of the wealth of the 
 island by their assistance. One of his favourite 
 methods was to get possession by legal frauds of 
 large sums of money and other treasures left by 
 will both to individual heirs and to temples. On 
 one occasion he presented a large inheritance to the 
 people of Syracuse with a great show of munificence, 
 but was careful to reserve the greater part of it for 
 himself. It was an easy matter, also, to find persons 
 who had been tried under the previous pretor, but 
 had been found not guilty, and to extort ransoms 
 from them, on promise of not trying them again. 
 One of the most atrocious acts of Verres was his 
 robbery of Sthenius, the honourable citizen of Therme 
 who had won the sympathy of Cneius Pompeius by 
 frankly assuming the blame of his fellow-citizens’ con- 
 duct. He was a collector of works of art, and had spent 
 much of his life in gathering beautiful pictures and 
 statues, Corinthian and Delian bronzes, and the like. 
 Verres, when he was his guest, saw all these things. 
 judged them good enough for his own collection, and 
 seized upon them at once. It was not until he 
 attempted to carry off the statues that belonged to 
 the city itself that Sthenius opposed him. Verres 
 retorted by causing a false accusation to be brought 
 
330 The Rulers of the South 
 
 against him, and in spite of the efforts made in Rome 
 in Sthenius’ favour, found him guilty and appropri- 
 ated his whole fortune. In gratitude to Aphrodite, 
 Verres presented her shrine at Eryx, now San Giuliano, 
 with a beautiful figure of Eros selected from the 
 spoil. 
 
 Before long another opportunity of wholesale robbery 
 presented itself. The rebellion which had broken out 
 in Spain under Sertorius, one of the former generals 
 of Marius, was at an end, and Verres conceived the 
 ingenious plan of seizing ships that arrived from the 
 northern coast, on the ground that there were fugitive 
 Sertorians on board of them. The crews were thrown 
 into prison in the Latomie of Syracuse, and were 
 generally executed in the place of pirates who were 
 allowed to escape, while the cargoes of the vessels 
 became the governor’s property. From this time his 
 cruelties increased with his greed. He caused a Roman 
 citizen to be scourged and crucified, which was a crime 
 against the liberty of the Roman people; he beheaded 
 more than a hundred Roman citizens; he slew whom 
 he pleased, and in every case he seized the victim’s 
 goods. Moreover, he caused enormous sums to be 
 appropriated to erect statues to himself, not only in 
 the oicilianycitics Dub evens ilimwoinc 
 
 The most wholesale of all his robberies was that 
 of the corn which was supposed to be sent from the 
 island to Rome. He sent one-third to the capital, 
 

 
 OLIVE TREES IN THE 
 ; LATOMIA DE! CAPPUCCINI, SYRACUSE 
 
 
 

 

 
=. . = 
 
 DO 
 
 
 
The Romans 331 
 
 and sold the other two-thirds for his own benefit. He 
 ground the tax-gatherers, who were of course tax- 
 farmers, and the latter beat and starved the landholders 
 till they paid the uttermost measure they possessed. 
 Whole cities were laid under contribution in this way, 
 and the islands near Sicily did not escape. In three 
 years, according to Cicero, he stole about thirty-six 
 millions of sestertil, appropriated for buying corn over 
 and above that yielded by the tribute, and the sum 
 is equal to about two hundred and thirty thousand 
 pounds sterling. It would not be despised even by a 
 modern political swindler, and money was worth far 
 more then than now. For Verres, however, it was 
 only an item; the whole amount of his vast rob- 
 beries cannot well be guessed, much less correctly 
 calculated, either from Cicero’s statements or from 
 other sources. It may have amounted to a million of 
 pounds sterling, or to much more, if the value of 
 works of art be taken into consideration. Mark 
 Antony is said to have squandered eight hundred 
 millions of pounds sterling in his fifty-three years of 
 life, but at one time he disposed of Italy and Asia 
 Minor. 
 
 What is most astonishing is that, when Verres’ third 
 term of office was over, nothing was done, and his succes- 
 sor was appointed without comment. The Romans were 
 not easily moved to compassion by the wrongs of those 
 subject to them, Sicily was full of slaves, and Rome had 
 
339 The Rulers of the South 
 
 only lately crushed out the great rebellion of Spartacus 
 in the south of Italy. In Capua, the luxurious capital 
 of pleasure-loving Campania, one Lentulus Batiatus had 
 a company of Gallic and Thracian gladiators, among 
 whom was Spartacus, himself a Thracian of great 
 strength, courage, and military talent, and possessing 
 a sort of dignified superiority hardly to have been ex- 
 pected in one who had been born a shepherd and had 
 turned highwayman in his own country. A faithful 
 woman loved him and shared his life, and perhaps his 
 death; and she had the gift of divination, and prophe- 
 sied that he should become very great and terrible and 
 have a happy end; which things came true, for he was 
 the terror of the Romans and he died in battlems) ine 
 whole company of gladiators numbered two hundred, 
 and they conspired to escape from their bondage, but 
 only seventy-eight of them succeeded. These seized 
 upon the iron spits and carving-knives and whittles 
 which they found in a cook’s shop, and marched out 
 of Capua in broad daylight, for they were all trained 
 fighters, and very strong men, and it was better not to 
 hinder them. They met upon the road certain waggons, 
 laden with gladiators’ weapons, the same perhaps that 
 were to have been used by themselves in the coming 
 show. Having armed themselves, they marched south- 
 ward and took possession of the crater of Vesuvius, 
 then extinct and overgrown with grass and wild vines. 
 
 “The place was almost impregnable, and when. three 
 
The Romans eek) 
 
 thousand Roman soldiers attacked it on the most ac- 
 cessible side, the gladiators climbed down by the vines 
 on the other, came round the crater, and fell upon their 
 assailants in the rear, putting them to shameful flight 
 and getting possession of their weapons. Spartacus 
 
 
 
 VESUVIUS, ON THE DAY BEFORE THE ERUPTION OF MAY, I900 
 
 was the leader of the band. He proclaimed all slaves 
 to be free, and in an incredibly short space of time he 
 was ravaging all Southern Italy at the head of forty 
 -thousand desperate men. In the next year he had 
 Seventy. thousand, then a hundred thousand, and he 
 thought of attacking Rome itself. He defeated one 
 
334 The Rulers of the South 
 
 consular army after another, made many captives, and 
 forced the Romans to fight as gladiators for his amuse- 
 ment, as he had once fought for theirs. His plan was 
 to lead his army out of Italy in the end, and either to 
 plunder other countries or to return to his home. But 
 his men loved the south, as almost all fighting men 
 have always loved it, and in the south he met his death 
 at last. When it came to the end he was opposed to 
 Crassus in a great battle, and before it began he slew 
 his horse in the sight of his men, saying that if he won 
 the day he should have horses enough, but that if he 
 lost it he should need none. He lost the day, and 
 died, and they traced his last charge by the heaps 
 of the slain, but no one could find what was left of his 
 body. Then the Romans impaled six thousand of his 
 men upon stakes along the Appian way. And these 
 things took place while Verres was governor of Sicily, 
 besides much more that had the interest of life and 
 death for the Roman people. 
 
 When the time was past, however, the Sicilians 
 determined to bring Verres to justice if it were possible, 
 by demanding restitution of money extorted from them. 
 Verres belonged to the aristocratic party, which had 
 always employed for its defender the famous Hor- 
 tensius, called the ‘King of the Forum.’ Cicero had 
 made himself beloved by the Sicilians during his quees- 
 torship in the west, and he advised them to bring a col- 
 lective action. Excepting Messina, which Verres had 
 
The Romans 335 
 
 highly favoured, and Syracuse, all the principal cities 
 sent deputations to Rome to represent them. 
 
 It is not my intention to enter into all the elaborate 
 proceedings which made up the trial of the great 
 thief. His friends attempted everything legal and 
 illegal in the hope of preventing the case from coming 
 to a hearing. Cicero was without doubt the advocate 
 chosen by the Sicilian people for the prosecution, but 
 an accomplice of the accused made a formal attempt 
 to be chosen in Cicero’s place, and the first of the 
 Verrine orations was delivered in order to dispose of 
 this adversary. Cicero then asked for an interval 
 of one hundred and ten days before the trial, to admit 
 of his travelling through Sicily in order to collect 
 evidence. This was no sooner granted than the friends 
 of Verres trumped up a suit of a similar nature to 
 recover a claim for alleged extortions in Achaia, for 
 which an interval of only one hundred and eight days 
 was asked, in order that this suit might be called before 
 that of Verres, thus putting off the latter’s case indefi- 
 nitely. Cicero departed at once upon his journey, and 
 although the friends of Verres hindered him at every 
 step, especially in Syracuse, where the new governor 
 exercised a good deal of influence in favour of the 
 accused man, the great lawyer had no difficulty in 
 collecting such a mass of evidence as made the crimi- 
 nal’s acquittal almost impossible. On the other hand 
 the friends of Verres displayed the utmost activity ; 
 
336 The Rulers of the South 
 
 they made unsuccessful attempts to bribe Cicero him- 
 self, and, failing in this, they spread the report that 
 he had received the bribes which he had refused. The 
 judges were also above corruption. Verres, however, 
 by a liberal expenditure of money, succeeded in bring- 
 ing about the election of his lawyer, Hortensius; and 
 of his friend, Quintus Metellus, to be consuls in the 
 following year. The governor of Sicily was a brother 
 of this Metellus, and another brother was designated 
 as supreme judge of the court before which the case 
 was to be tried. The court itself, however, as is well 
 known, consisted practically of jurymen, which each 
 side possessed the right of challenging. The plan 
 of the defence was to protract the proceedings into 
 the following year, and this was not by any means 
 an impossibility, as the courts did not sit during the 
 long periods set apart for public games at the close 
 of the year, and it was expected that the prosecution 
 would consume many weeks in hearing evidence. Wit- 
 nesses had been collected from every part of the 
 Roman dominions, from Asia Minor, from Sicily, from 
 the islands of Lipari and Malta, and thousands of 
 persons, not themselves interested in the trial, had 
 travelled to Rome out of curiosity, to be present at the 
 great judicial conflict before the games began. The 
 suit at last opened in the temple of Castor and Pol- 
 lux in the Forum. It is said that the roofs of the 
 
 surrounding houses, the porticos and the steps of the 
 
The Romans a37 
 
 temples, were thronged by the vast multitude of those 
 who had been robbed by Verres, who mourned the 
 parents and brethren he had murdered, and whose 
 inheritance had been taken from them to swell his 
 enormous hoard. There were men, women and chil- 
 dren even from the shores of the Black Sea, from 
 Mount Taurus and from Greece; there were noble 
 Greeks and Phoenicians of ancient lineage, officials 
 ruined and wrongfully disgraced, and priests from the 
 temples whence the governor had collected his mag- 
 nificent gallery of statues, pictures and precious ves- 
 sels. Cicero was pressed for time; the games, which 
 must cause a suspension of the proceedings, were 
 at hand; his case was very strong, and he deter- 
 mined to let it rest upon the evidence alone. Instead 
 of making a long address, he began by the examination 
 of the witnesses, and from the first day the defence 
 was ruined. Hortensius made a feeble attempt to 
 change the course of the proceedings, and then almost 
 immediately threw up the case and advised Verres to 
 leave Rome. He did so without delay, and conveyed 
 himself and the greater part of his ill-gotten wealth 
 to Marseilles, where he was suffered to live unmolested 
 for many years. Had he awaited the verdict, he would 
 at most have been exiled, but he might have suffered 
 the confiscation of his property. Cicero composed the 
 remainder of the Verrine orations from the reports of 
 
 the trial and from his own notes, and published them 
 
 VOL. I Z 
 
338 The Rulers of the South 
 
 as an account of the greatest judicial triumph he had 
 as yet achieved. Verres lived to hear of Cicero’s exe- 
 cution under the proscription proclaimed by Mark 
 Antony, and which was his own death warrant, for 
 his name was on the list. It is recorded that he died 
 with the courage and equanimity of a good and 
 brave man, but he is by no means the only great crimi- 
 nal in history who has behaved with firmness and even 
 dignity when confronted with the executioner. 
 
 Thus ended the famous trial, not indeed with any 
 restitution of goods stolen and extorted from the 
 oppressed Sicilians, nor with any adequate punishment 
 of the chief offender, but at least in a public act which 
 was on the side of justice, and for which Rome deserves 
 some credit in the stormy days that preceded the final 
 overthrow of the republic. 
 
 In the great struggle between Julius Czesar and the 
 party of the Senate, Sicily played no great part. 
 When Julius Czesar determined to occupy the island, 
 Marcus Porcius Cato withdrew at once, advising the 
 Sicilians to make no useless resistance. Later, Pompey 
 the Great burned a number of Czesar’s ships when they 
 were fitting out in the harbour of Messina. In 47 B.c., 
 when Cesar carried war into Africa, Sicily was once 
 more a base of operations, and the conqueror gathered 
 his fleet in Lilybzeum, as both the Scipios had done 
 before him. It was his intention to extend the rights 
 of citizenship to the inhabitants of the island, and he 
 
The Romans 339 
 
 seems to have granted favours of this nature to sev- 
 eral cities; but his murder checked the extension of 
 civilization, and when Mark Antony passed a law 
 making all Sicilians Roman citizens it was merely for 
 the sake of obtaining a large sum of money, and was 
 never carried out. In 43 B.c., during Octavian’s wars, 
 Sextus Pompeius, the great Pompey’s son, succeeded 
 in getting possession of the whole island almost with- 
 out striking a blow, most probably by promising the 
 Sicilians the long-coveted rights of citizenship. 
 
 In the division of the Roman possessions among the 
 triumvirs, Augustus, still called Octavian, took Africa, 
 Sardinia, and Sicily. Sicily was of the highest impor- 
 tance to him as being the granary from which Rome 
 derived her corn, and being still in the possession of 
 Sextus it was evidently necessary for Octavian to drive 
 him out before taking any other steps to extend his 
 power. But he did not succeed at once; his fleet came 
 into conflict with that of Sextus in the Straits of Mes- 
 sina, where his officers and seamen were at a disad- 
 vantage owing to their ignorance of the currents, and 
 withdrew from the fight as far as the place now called 
 Bagnara. Sextus remained in possession. 
 
 After the battle of Philippi, Sicily was the only 
 part of the great Roman territory which was not yet 
 in the power of the triumvirate, and became a refuge 
 for all those who were unwilling to submit to its dic- 
 tation. The continuation of the civil war and the 
 
340 The Rulers of the South 
 
 differences which arose between the triumvirs left 
 Sextus for some time in undisputed possession of the 
 island, and before long he found it advantageous to 
 attempt an alliance with Mark Antony. The wise 
 Octavian, however, used more diplomatic means for 
 preventing such a friendship, and took to wife Scrt- 
 bonia, whose niece was the wife of Sextus. Antony, 
 who at first had not accepted the latter’s overtures, 
 now appealed to him directly for help, in order to 
 attack Southern Italy; but Octayian promptly recon- 
 ciled himself with Antony, and the latter sent Sextus 
 back to his island. He, however, fully understanding 
 the strength of his position, continued to control the 
 price of bread in Rome by hindering or facilitating 
 the export of corn from Sicily at his pleasure. He 
 at last succeeded in obtaining a sort of acknowledg- 
 ment of his rights over Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, with 
 the neighbouring islands, and Achaia, for a period as 
 long as that during which Octavian and Antony were 
 to hold the territories allotted to them; and in return 
 for these dominions and other advantages he was to 
 provide Rome with corn and he was to marry his 
 daughter to Octavian’s nephew. But the treaty was 
 unsound and the peace it concluded was of short 
 duration. It was signed at Baiz, close to Misenum, 
 in 39 B.c., and the generals feasted each other with 
 great rejoicing. 
 
 In the following year one of the generals of Sextus 
 
The Romans 341 
 
 betrayed Sardinia and Corsica to Octavian, who had 
 not meant to abide by the treaty if he could get any 
 advantage by breaking it. Sextus sent a fleet up 
 the coast to attack Octavian’s ships, and defeated 
 them off Cume, just north of Misenum; in a duel 
 which was fought between the two admirals, when 
 their ships had grappled each other, Menecrates, who 
 fought for Sextus, was wounded in the thigh with a 
 barbed dart and sprang overboard rather than be 
 taken; but his ships were victorious after his death. 
 More than once after this Octavian made attempts 
 to land in Sicily before he at last succeeded. He 
 lost most of a new fleet in a gale of wind in the 
 Straits of Messina, and set himself to make greater 
 preparations. He built and collected three fleets, one 
 at Baiz in the basinlike lagoon now calied the Mare 
 Morto or “dead sea,’ one at Tarentum, one in an 
 African harbour. The date of sailing was fixed, the 
 same for all three, and two were commanded by the 
 triumvirs Octavian and Lepidus in person. A furious 
 southwester destroyed most of Octavian’s ships in the 
 bay of Velia just north of Cape Palinurus, if not on 
 the awful rocks of the grim promontory; Antony’s 
 fleet ran back to shelter in Tarentum; that of Lepi- 
 dus, being before the wind, made Lilybzum, and he 
 marched across Sicily to Messina, claiming Sicily for 
 himself. When at last the others could put to sea 
 
 again, Octavian landed in Sicily and brought the war to 
 
342 The Rulers of the South 
 
 a decisive issue in a battle near Mylz, now Milazzo, in 
 the month of August, 36 B.c. Sextus Pompeius fled 
 to the East, and his domination was at an end. In 
 the following year, when attempting to found an 
 independent power in Asia, he fell into the hands 
 of one of Antony’s generals and was put to death. 
 The battle of Naulochus, near Milazzo, was not the 
 end of Octavian’s wars; he had not yet cleared the 
 world of his adversaries; Lepidus indeed surrendered 
 when his soldiers deserted him, and he begged for 
 his life upon his knees, but Actium had not yet been 
 fought and Antony had not stabbed himself in Egypt. 
 
 From the date of Octavian’s conquest the position 
 of Sicily began to change, and it was long before it 
 again assumed a similar importance in history. With 
 the empire began a period of peace and of agricultural 
 development which raised the island to the height of 
 prosperity; it had been demonstrated that no one 
 could hold Rome who did not hold the granary whence 
 Rome obtained her daily bread, and the emperors held 
 it fast for centuries and bestowed exceptional care 
 upon its good management. It had suffered severely 
 during the wars of Sextus Pompeius, and Augustus sent 
 a colony of Romans to Syracuse. The city, once 
 seventeen miles in circumference, comprising five cities 
 in one, had shrunk till it consisted of Ortygia and a 
 small part of Achradina, much as it is to-day. Colonies 
 were established in like manner in many other cities 
 
The Romans 343 
 
 of the island and even in Panormus, and the Latin 
 influence began to be felt throughout the country, 
 though not in such a manner as at first threatened the 
 venerally Greek spirit and the almost universal use of 
 the Greek language. Brigandage had become a per- 
 manent evil, and was never again stamped out. The 
 world-famous temple of Aphrodite on the war-worn 
 heights of Eryx lost its importance, and but a few 
 priests and priestesses remained there. In the interior 
 many of the smaller towns were become shepherds’ 
 hamlets. Holm criticises many of these statements, 
 which are taken from Strabo, as being much exagger- 
 ated, and the judgment of the master historian of 
 Sicily cannot be treated lightly. But we must not for- 
 get the simile of the factory, and for the time being, dur- 
 ing the wars of Sextus, the fires were extinguished, and 
 the country must have assumed that desolate air which 
 is characteristic of any agricultural region when agri- 
 culture is temporarily checked. The flocks and herds 
 live on, though they may not multiply, from year to year, 
 and the shepherd and herdsman drive their charge to 
 pasture in lonely valleys, preserving a sort of wealth 
 that does not easily perish all at once. But where no 
 corn is planted, no corn will grow, and where the stubble 
 of last year stands in the unploughed field, there it 
 will rot, while the plough rusts beside the desolate hut, 
 and the starving people wander among the woods and 
 
 mountains, living on roots and wild fruit, or snaring 
 
344 The Rulers of the South 
 
 the small game when they have the skill. If the 
 island had not suffered very much, Augustus would 
 not have thought it necessary to recolonize so much 
 of it. The Roman farmers were far less skilful than 
 the Greeks and the colonists were probably not the 
 best’ of the agriculturists; it was notte = teachwae 
 islanders that thousands of Italians were sent among 
 them, but rather to replenish the exhausted population, 
 and to revive the country, that its matchless soil might 
 bear corn enough to feed Rome, instead of only graz- 
 ing cattle which could be raised as well elsewhere. 
 It is stated that the colonists were given land that 
 belonged to the state, and that the original landholders 
 were not deprived of any property. To make this 
 possible, as it was, great tracts of ownerless country 
 must have been lying fallow. 
 
 Yet the cities were not ruined, and the old vitality 
 was not dead in them. With the increased safety of 
 the open country, the life spread out again in all direc- 
 tions, less Greek than before, and more Roman, but 
 classic still and full of a certain free beauty that could 
 not be stamped out by anything short of universal 
 destruction. The Greek blood was mixed and tainted, 
 but it was Greek still. Even to-day, there are towns, 
 such as Piana dei Greci, near Palermo, where the lan- 
 guage is spoken altogether, after nearly two thousand 
 and five hundred years. It is easy to guess how 
 thoroughly Hellenic Sicily must still have been in the 
 
The Romans 345 
 
 days of Augustus, when Greek was the fashionable 
 language of Roman society, and Greek art was the 
 delight of every man who was rich enough to own 
 a statue or a picture. It is hard to understand why 
 Romans thought it such bitter hardship to be exiled 
 to Sicily that they sometimes preferred death to such 
 a fate. They must have loved their city with some- 
 thing more than patriotism, with the almost childish 
 attachment of the true Parisian for Paris. 
 
 Until the completion of the Roman conquest Sicily 
 had preserved a sort of independence of character, with 
 peculiarities of manners and customs which were not 
 only Greek, but individual and different from all that 
 characterized the southern mainland. It was the 
 intention of Augustus to make the south altogether 
 homogeneous with the rest of Italy, and though this 
 was never completely accomplished either by him or 
 his successors, it was chiefly by his efforts that the 
 great change was brought about. Before the Roman 
 conquest, it would not have occurred to any one to 
 think of Sicily otherwise than as an extension of Greece ; 
 since then, it has been impossible to consider it except 
 as a part of Italy. It never was at any time the resi- 
 dence of a Roman emperor, but some of the more 
 important emperors visited it from time to time. 
 Augustus spent some months in the island in 22 and 
 21 B.c. at the time when he created the Roman colo- 
 
 nies. Caligula is recorded to have fled from Messina 
 
346 The Rulers of the South 
 
 by night, frightened by an eruption of Etna, and to 
 have celebrated games in Syracuse. Hadrian was in 
 Sicily 126 A.D. and it is an undoubted fact that he 
 made the ascent of the volcano at this time. Septimius 
 Severus, before becoming emperor, was proconsul in 
 Sicily. 
 
 The Roman influence to which the island was now 
 subjected was strong enough to check the develop- 
 ment of Greek culture, though not to destroy the 
 Greek character of the people; and though an occa- 
 sional rhetorician such as Cecilius of Calacte or Sex- 
 tus Clodius acquired some reputation, Sicily produced 
 neither poets nor historians of importance, and the 
 art of that period shows rapid degeneration. 
 
 Although it may be said on the whole that what 
 remains of ancient monuments in the island is by 
 nature Greek, yet with the exception of the great 
 temples, and not even excepting all of these, there 
 is not much that has not suffered from what the 
 Romans doubtless called improvement. In Syracuse, 
 for instance, it seems certain that the Greek theatre 
 was ‘improved’ by the Romans, and that the original 
 simplicity of the noble stage was marred by the intro- 
 duction of more or less degenerate ornaments. The 
 same and more may be said of the amphitheatre, 
 -which must have been repeatedly enlarged and 
 adorned. 
 
 The theatre of Taormina is one of the most com- 
 
The Romans 347 
 
 pletely Roman buildings in Sicily, though it undoubt- 
 edly occupies the site of the Greek theatre which 
 preceded it. If it is one of the most beautiful spots 
 in the whole known world, this is not due to the skill 
 of the Roman builders, but rather to the astounding 
 contrasts of nature which fall within the view, the 
 vast height of the snow-capped volcano, the smooth 
 enamel of the southern sea, the bold but strangely 
 graceful curves of the hills on the right, the sheer 
 fall of the land on the left, the incredible wealth of 
 colour in nature, and the depth of the airy perspec- 
 tive in which every separate distance has a separate 
 value, from the furthest line of the horizon to the 
 soft outlines of the Calabrian hills, from the misty 
 crown of Etna to the near fortress of Mola high on 
 the right; and then, nearer still, to the rich brown 
 ruin of the Roman stage at the spectator’s feet. Stand- 
 ing on the highest tier of the theatre, a single column 
 rears its graceful shape against the distance, insignifi- 
 cant before the whole, as a moment in the midst of 
 eternity, but lovely with all the beauty that a single 
 moment may contain. No Greek would have reared 
 a gallery of columns above the theatre, but one may 
 well forgive the bad taste of the Roman architect for 
 the sake of the something romantic which never could 
 have been Greek, and which clings to the ruins of 
 his work. The traveller pauses and asks himself, per- 
 
 haps in vain, why it is that a stronger human inter- 
 
348 The Rulers of the South 
 
 est lies in the ruins of Roman buildings than in any 
 
 of the exquisite monuments preserved to us from 
 
 
 
 THE HIGHEST TIER OF THE THEATRE AT TAORMINA 
 
 Grecian times; why the Coliseum, which is really 
 hideous, has a far stronger hold upon our feelings 
 
 than the Parthenon, which expresses the highest con. 
 
The Romans 349 
 
 ception of genius; why the single column in the 
 theatre of Taormina touches the heart, whereas the 
 superb theatre of Syracuse, faultless at almost every 
 point, only imposes upon the judgment and_ pleases 
 the taste ; or why the fame of Hera at Girgenti, noble 
 and perfect under a perfect sky, has not the power 
 of stirring deep memories with a thrill of imaginative 
 life which is felt in every shadowy corner and gloomy 
 recess of the catacombs below San Giovanni in Syra- 
 cuse. The more often such a question presents itself, 
 the harder it is to answer. Romance and beauty are 
 neither the same, nor do they proceed from the same 
 source; the one is often most abundantly present 
 where the other is most completely lacking; beauty 
 of form, of thought, and of execution was almost a 
 prerogative of the early Greeks. This is so certain 
 that the mere word Greek is often used in English 
 and in other languages as synonymous with beautiful. 
 We say ‘Greek features, and we mean the. most 
 perfect features found in humanity; we say Greek 
 -art, and we mean the highest things that art has 
 ever thought or done; Greek philosophy is the source 
 of all our philosophic thought, the Greek epic poem 
 is almost unrivalled and wholly unsurpassed, the Greek 
 play is the inimitable model after which the playwrights | 
 of the world have shaped their tragedies and their 
 comedies ever since. Yet, to most men, the Greeks 
 
 themselves, as we seem to know them, with their 
 
350 The Rulers*ot the south 
 
 refinements, their sensitive taste, their talent for 
 treachery, and their genius for art, are no more sym- 
 pathetic than the Japanese, who possess many of 
 the same characteristics, much of the same sensibility, 
 and an artistic culture which in its way is quite as 
 unrivalled as anything of which Greece could boast. 
 The parallel might be carried far, and the recent 
 general interest which the world has taken in Japan 
 has collected abundant materials for an extensive com- 
 parison, of which the Japanese themselves may be 
 justly proud. But so far as human nature is con- 
 cerned, so far as their thoughts appeal to our thoughts, 
 their motives to our motives, their ideal of honour to 
 ours, they might as well be inhabitants of another 
 planet; and they doubtless smile at the unceasing 
 efforts of modern Europeans to understand them, pre- 
 cisely as the subtle Greek was secretly amused by the 
 Roman’s clumsy attempts to imitate him. 
 
 No one has ever successfully defined romance. It 
 may, perhaps, be that indefinable something in thought, 
 word, and deed, and in the monuments that recall 
 both deeds and thoughts, which makes us feel akin 
 with the hero, the poet and the saint; that some- 
 thing which produces in the reader of history or fic- 
 tion the intoxicating illusion that identifies him with 
 the chief actor in the story, which makes the traveller 
 pause upon the spot where some great fight was fought 
 ages ago by men of his race, and wish with a longing 
 
The Romans 351 
 
 which he can neither understand nor control, that he 
 too might have lived then to strike a blow in their good 
 cause, to shed his blood with theirs, to fall where they 
 so memorably fell. It is that something which seizes 
 upon a whole audience that witnesses in a play the 
 conflict of its own passions—that something which 
 no audience, however cultivated, however trained in 
 classic thought, ever quite feels for a Greek play like 
 ‘Cedipus Tyrannus,’ though it be played in a modern 
 language, by the greatest actors of modern times, 
 though its theatrical form is so perfect that every 
 modern writer would imitate it if he could, and though 
 its story is full of the most breathless and unflagging 
 interest. 
 
 We do not readily realize how much Christianity has 
 had to do with our conception of manly honour. It 
 has influenced also our feeling for the romantic much 
 more than we may be inclined to admit. A¢sthetically 
 speaking, as well as socially, Christianity is the link 
 that connects us with the ancients, and the connexion 
 has been through Rome and Italy, not through Greeks 
 or Asiatics. With Eastern Christians, the contrary 
 has taken place, and one need only look at the dif- 
 ference between us and them, with regard to social 
 honour, to understand that our standard is Roman, and 
 theirs Greek, that we feel sympathy for Regulus, while 
 they find their ideal in Pericles, if not in Alcibiades ; 
 and that this difference is fundamental, lasting, and 
 
352 The Rulers of the South 
 
 almost unvarying. For us, the high-water mark of 
 romance is in the middle ages, somewhere between 
 the first and last Crusades, but somehow we feel that 
 the romantic began in that sort of prevision of Chris- 
 tian honour and self-sacrifice, sometimes found among 
 Romans, but never, I think, among Greeks, — the idea 
 of. honour. that made Virginius stab his daughter in 
 the Forum, that prompted Curtius to spring armed 
 into the gulf, and sent Regulus back to certain death 
 for the sake of his plighted word. This connexion of 
 the thought of honour with Rome is one of those 
 matters, more of sentiment than of history, more of 
 instinctive feeling than of demonstrable fact, concern- 
 ing which it is not good to argue too much, lest one 
 be led away into finding specious reasons, where the 
 true reason eludes the thinker. The undeniable and 
 evident. corollary, however, is that Christianity is, in 
 some way or- other, the bridge over which we lead our 
 thoughts back to the ancient world. 
 
 This link-or bridge connects the reign of Augustus 
 and the Augustan age with the times of Constantine, 
 and includes a period which is fraught with legends 
 of good men and bad, during which the south has 
 no political history worth recording, but during which 
 its whole nature and appearance were inwardly and 
 outwardly changed by the preaching of Christianity, 
 by the examples of the many martyrs, and by the 
 steady growth of a new morality which, from small 
 
The Romans isle’ 
 
 beginnings and in opposition to what seemed over- 
 whelming odds, gradually encroached upon the ancient 
 system, threw it into confusion, and finally drove it 
 out altogether. That period is a sort of long miracle 
 play, in which devoted men appear as the chief char- 
 acters; apostles, missionary bishops, and saintly pres- 
 byters on the one side, and, on the other, emperors, 
 preetors, proconsuls, and luxurious Romans, the en- 
 slaved multitude of the nameless poor ranged with 
 the first, against the dimly splendid power of Rome. 
 In such a conflict history becomes personal narrative, 
 and the individual leader stands out from the con- 
 fusion of the struggle, the centre of action, of interest, 
 and of glory, the natural type and predestined repre- 
 sentative of the Christian man, the champion and 
 protagonist of Christian freedom against heathen slav- 
 civ) 50, too, im Homeric times, the leaders stood 
 out before the hosts on each side and challenged one 
 another, and the story of war was the record of their 
 deeds; while the ranks of Greeks and Trojans, un- 
 noticed and unsung, fought obscure battles for life 
 and death, and made the history which their chiefs 
 adorned. 
 
 First came the rumour of Christianity from Pales- 
 tine, travelling westward, as all new things travel, 
 away from unchanging Asia, towards all change and 
 progress and advancing thought. For the most it 
 came by slaves, who told each other tales of wonder, 
 
 VOL. I 2A 
 
354 The Rulerssorm thes. out 
 
 tugging in chains at the galley oar, in the foul air 
 between decks, or working in irons in the southern 
 fields; tales that sounded like fairy stories of a time 
 that never was and never could be, in which all men 
 were to be set free, but not by force, nor in violent 
 insurrection, nor by blood-shedding; and with the 
 stories came the greater truth, for which the poor 
 longed vaguely without understanding it, the truth of 
 immortality and of a larger freedom among the dead, 
 but altogether beyond death. A few of these ru- 
 mours reached educated men also. A French writer 
 of great talent has told an imaginary anecdote of 
 Pontius Pilate, coming back to Italy when deposed 
 from his procuratorship, full of care and trouble 
 and tormented by political questions that were to him 
 of vital importance. Near Baiz, I think, he met an 
 old friend, a reader and philosopher, and after some 
 conversation this man asked him about Jesus, and 
 about his condemnation to death. But Pilate’s look 
 was vague, he could not remember. ‘Jesus?’ he 
 asked. ‘I do not recollect the name.’ 
 
 The story is the fiction of a gifted writer, designed 
 to show how small an impression the greatest event 
 in the world’s history made upon the mind of a pro- 
 saic Roman official, preoccupied for his own reputa- 
 tion which was at stake; but there is a typical truth 
 in it which makes it seem possible at first’ sight. 
 
 The story of the introduction of Christianity into 
 
The Romans 355 
 
 Sicily and the south is an inextricable confusion of 
 truth and legend. Some say that the Apostle Peter, 
 having founded the commonwealth of Antioch, sent 
 out two bishops as missionaries to Sicily; and that 
 one, who was called Pancras, came to Taormina and 
 landed upon the beach where the first Greek colonists 
 had drawn up their ships eight hundred years earlier. 
 Whether this be so or not, there is little evidence and 
 no proof; but it has been believed by many and the 
 statue of the holy man stands upon the beach to this 
 day. To shelter it from wind and weather, it has 
 been moved a little inward and placed by the wall of 
 the small church. The inscription says that it was 
 set up in 1691 in honour of the first bishop of all 
 Sicily, ordained. by Saint Peter in the fortieth year 
 of our Lord. The second bishop who was sent out 
 was Martian, also saint and martyr, and he came to 
 Syracuse and overthrew temples and built a church 
 and wrought many wonders. In the first place he 
 gathered together his converts in a great subterranean 
 chamber which is beneath the church of San Giovanni 
 near the walls of Achradina, not far from the baths of 
 Venus, where the marvellous statue of the goddess 
 which is in the museum of Syracuse was found among 
 the fragments of forty-two marble columns, a hundred 
 years ago; near to the place, too, was the synagogue 
 of the Jews; and it is said that Saint Martian chose 
 this spot as a convenient one from which to preach 
 
356 The Rulers of the South 
 
 the gospel to Jews and Gentiles alike. It is indeed 
 a place of many holy memories, for Saint Paul came 
 hither after his shipwreck in Malta and dwelt here 
 three days, and hither it was said that Saint Peter 
 himself came, on his way to Rome. 
 
 Here, too, is the burial-place of the very early 
 Christians, and it is not now thought that it had been 
 previously used by the Greeks. There is no city of 
 the dead in all the world more solemn, more silent, 
 or more suggestive of that peace which especially 
 distinguishes Christian burial-places from all others. 
 The Parsees’ Tower of Silence, built up to represent 
 the loneliness of the hill summit whereon the ele- 
 ments of man should be dissolved into the elements 
 of the universe, is horrible with death within, and is 
 made hideous without by flocks of vultures and 
 loathsome birds of prey. The tombs of the Romans 
 and the Greeks were places of gay resort upon the 
 public way, the urns within them held a handful of 
 ashes and a few pinches of dry dust, flowers were 
 trained round the walls, and in the miniature gardens 
 were set up three couches and a table for the feasts 
 anniversary of death. Below, the road, the crowd, 
 the chariot of the rich, the cry of the fruit-seller) the 
 tramp of the soldier, the laughter of boys and girls. 
 There was no peace there; there was only the evi- 
 dent and determined will to hide from the living the 
 conditions of death, What Swinburne has called ‘the 
 

 
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The Romans 357 
 
 lordly repose of the dead,’ the peace of the body on 
 earth, the departure of the soul to a place of refresh- 
 ment, light, and peace in heaven, is a solely Chris- 
 tian conception. Nowhere perhaps can one so well 
 understand what it means, as in the catacombs of 
 Rome or Sicily, and those of Syracuse are nobler, 
 more permanent, and, strange to say, of far greater 
 extent. 
 
 Corridor and chamber follow each other indefinitely, 
 each vaulted hall surrounded by deep niches, within 
 which graves deeper still have been hollowed in the 
 living rock. It is not the crumbling tufa of the 
 Roman Campagna, it is the same splendid rock in 
 which the Greeks carved the tiers of their great 
 theatre, and in which the Romans hewed the rough 
 tombs that border the highway above it. Here, below 
 the surface of the earth, it is a strange sensation. to be 
 in what one may well call a city, carved in one-piece 
 out of one stone. Here and there, at first, a bright 
 light falls through apertures in the larger chambers, 
 each separated from the next by a dark- passage lined 
 with graves. There are graves in the rocky floor, and 
 to the right and left, and one above another in tiers 
 to the spring of the solid vault; and one may go on 
 and on, without end, mile after mile, through the unex- 
 plored silence, and many believe that the passages 
 reach even to Catania, more than thirty miles away. 
 
 Here Saint Martian lived and preached, and_ by 
 
358 The Rulers of the South 
 
 the sea-shore, not far away, it is said that he was 
 put to death, not by heathens, but by the Jews; and 
 that in the first place they laid him bound in a boat 
 and set fire to it, and pushed it from the shore, but 
 that, when they had seen that the fire had no power 
 over him, they brought him to the beach again and 
 strangled him. 
 
 In Taormina, Saint Pancras, says the tale, destroyed 
 a temple by the sign of the cross, and silenced an 
 oracle by fastening a letter upon the neck of the 
 god’s statue; and he made many converts, including 
 the prefect of the city, and lived many years from the 
 year 40 A.D., in which he was ordained by Saint Peter, 
 until the year about 100, when’ he was martyred in 
 the reign of Trajan. ; 
 
 Next after the first two missionary bishops and Saint 
 Luke the evangelist, comes the story of Saint Paul, 
 authentic beyond all doubt and now known to be 
 accurate beyond all dispute. The greatest authority 
 on navigation who has lived in this century, the late 
 Professor Breusing, devoted much space in his work 
 on the navigation of the ancients to a careful study 
 of Saint Paul’s voyage as described by the Apostle. 
 The fact that Breusing was an eminent philologist as 
 well as a mathematician and a navigator, gives great 
 weight to his opinions and conclusions. He has de- 
 monstrated to the complete satisfaction of all mariners 
 
 that Saint Paul’s story is as accurate an account of 
 
The Romans 359 
 
 what happened to the ship on which he sailed, as 
 could be put together from the log and dead reckon- 
 
 
 
 HARBOUR OF MALTA 
 
 ing of a modern sailing vessel on a stormy voyage. 
 This being the case, we are obliged to admit that. 
 
360 The Rulers of the South 
 
 the Apostle’s extraordinary technical correctness must 
 have extended to other matters spoken of in his ac- 
 count, and the most sceptical unbeliever cannot have 
 the smallest ground for doubting that Saint Paul spent 
 three days in Syracuse as he himself states. With 
 Breusing’s book in hand I have visited the little bay 
 at the western end of Malta, ‘where two seas met,’ 
 that is to say, close to the channel between Malta 
 and Gozo, where the ship was run aground ‘and the 
 fore part stuck fast and remained unmovable, but 
 the hinder part was broken with the violence of 
 the waves. And the soldiers’ counsel was to kill the 
 prisoners lest any of them should swim out and escape, 
 but the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them 
 from their purpose; and commanded that they which 
 could swim should cast themselves first into the sea, 
 and get to land: and the rest, some on boards, and 
 some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came 
 to pass, that they escaped all safe to land.’ Thence it 
 was that, after spending three months in Malta, Saint 
 Paul came to Syracuse in the Castor and Pollux, a 
 ship of Alexandria that had wintered on the island. 
 
 The little Maltese cove is unchanged, and on the islet 
 before it stands a colossal statue of the Apostle. The 
 prudent English administration has fastened to the ped- 
 estal a notice warning visitors not to molest the rab- 
 bits. All round about, the wild ‘ecballion’ blooms 
 
 under the summer sun, its healing root sucking the 
 
The Romans 361 
 
 scant nourishment it needs from the stony soil, and 
 the ceaseless breeze fans the short wild grass that 
 here and there can find a hold. A few fishermen land 
 on the rocks below. It is a very lonely, quiet place, 
 bathed in the most intense light, and as one pauses 
 in the shadow of the great statue it is hard to fancy 
 it as it must have been on that wild night so long 
 ago, when the surf pounded upon the beach in the 
 cove and the spray flew in sheets over the islet, and 
 the Apostle, whose grotesque image is a landmark 
 now, was in danger of being slain by the Roman sol- 
 diers lest he should swim ashore and escape; it is hard 
 to think that it can ever have been so cold that the 
 shipwrecked saint and the prisoners were very grate- 
 ful to the fisher folk for building them a fire, before 
 which they dried their garments and warmed them- 
 selves. But the blazing island can look black enough 
 in winter, and most seamen would rather face the 
 ocean in any mood than the Malta Channel in a south- 
 west gale. Half the charm of the south is in its 
 quick changes from wealth to poverty, from blooming 
 garden to sun-bleached desolation, from languorous 
 calm to sudden and destroying fury. 
 
 We must take for granted, from the results, much 
 that concerns the spreading of Christianity in the 
 early centuries, and which can never be known in 
 detail. It seems certain that the new faith found very 
 favourable ground in Sicily, and if, as some suppose, 
 
362 The Rulers of the South 
 
 the ultimate conversion of the island proceeded rather 
 from Rome than directly from the East, it is neverthe- 
 less certain that Sicily was one of the first places 
 where the influence was felt. The reason for the 
 rapid growth of the religion in the island is not far 
 to seek. The objection of Rome to Christianity was 
 political, not ethic. Rome was ruled by a despotism, 
 and Christianity was distinctly socialistic. In Rome, 
 religion and state were very closely allied; the 
 Romans were extremely tolerant of all forms of poly- 
 theism and theism in which they could detect a 
 resemblance to their own religious practices and 
 beliefs, in which a visible sacrifice was offered before 
 the visible image of a god, and which, though not 
 agreeing closely with their own, did not offend them. 
 Even the Jews offered sacrifices and had a ceremonial 
 upon which the Roman could put an _ interpretation, 
 though it was a false one; and the Jews never made 
 the smallest attempt to convert heathens to Judaism. 
 But the Christians met in secret places, they slew 
 no victims on their altars, they regarded all heathen 
 sacrifices with abhorrence, they worshipped a man who 
 had died the death of a criminal, under accusation 
 of stirring up revolt and of blaspheming the deities 
 of existing religions, and they whispered that all men 
 were born free and should be equal hereafter, a 
 tenet which seemed monstrous alike to the despot 
 and his subjects. Looking at the matter with such 
 

 
 
 
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 SHORE, LOOKING DOWN THE AT TAORMINA 
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 ‘ 
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 . 
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 yen So 
 
 
 
 
 
The Romans 363 
 
 fictitious indifference as a believer can assume for 
 the sake of argument, it is certainly not strange that 
 the Christians should have been persecuted by the 
 government of the Emperors. For that government 
 had the most to fear from a general socialistic move- 
 ment of the slaves and of the poor. The Romans 
 believed, or chose to believe, that the Christians had 
 no religion at all, but had formed a vast conspiracy 
 for the purpose of overthrowing the government; and 
 it is natural that this impression should have been 
 created by men who met secretly, who used expres- 
 sions that had no meaning to Roman ears, who had 
 passwords and signs by which they recognized each 
 other even at a distance. It cannot be supposed that 
 an ordinary Roman of the early times could under- 
 stand what a man meant by touching his forehead, his 
 breast, his left shoulder and his right, in a word, by 
 crossing himself. The gesture was a secret means of 
 recognition; it did not suggest the cross to those who 
 saw it, and if any heathens knew what it meant, it can- 
 not have suggested. anything but an adherence to the 
 revolutionary principles they attributed to Christ, and 
 a readiness to die the same death rather than submit 
 to existing law and authority. Christianity, therefore, 
 suffered much more as a secret society, suspected of 
 being an extensive conspiracy against imperial and 
 despotic government, than on account of the beliefs 
 which it really inculcated; and the persecutions by 
 
304 The Rulers of the South 
 
 which it was sought to repress it from time to time, 
 as it grew more powerful, proceeded from a political 
 conviction that it had a tendency to undermine author- 
 ity, and not in the least from any prejudice on the part 
 of the Romans against a religion different from their 
 own. Violent and cruel means were usually taken for 
 putting down any insurrection or mutiny. When the 
 soldiers of Mummius ran away in the battle with the 
 gladiators under Spartacus, the general who next com- 
 manded them paraded them all on a meadow and 
 ordered every tenth man to be beheaded on the spot. 
 At the termination of the same war, when Pompey 
 boasted that he finally crushed out the great rebellion, 
 he impaled six thousand prisoners on stakes planted 
 along the Appian way at regular intervals. After the 
 second slave war in Sicily many of the survivors were 
 condemned to fight with wild beasts in the circus, 
 though they had surrendered on condition that their 
 lives should be spared. They slew each other, and 
 their leader took his own life, rather than submit to 
 what seemed an ignominious death. It would be easy 
 to multiply instances of cruelties as great as any in- 
 flicted upon the Christians, all of which appeared 
 necessary to the Roman government on purely political 
 grounds. The fact that the performance of a sacrifice 
 was the usual test in the case of the Christians, and 
 that they were in actual fact put to death for refusing 
 to take part in such a religious ceremony, does not 
 
The Romans 365 
 
 affect the argument in the least. The martyrs indeed 
 refused to sacrifice on purely religious grounds, but the 
 Romans condemned them to death with a purely politi- 
 cal purpose. The fact of the refusal had no religious 
 significance in the eyes of the judges; it was merely 
 an irrefragable proof that the accused really and truly 
 belonged to a great organization, of which all the 
 members were supposed to be bound by the most 
 solemn oaths to die rather than to submit to authority 
 in that shape. An almost exactly parallel case has 
 happened in Russia, in our times, when a Christian 
 sect bound itself not long ago to refuse any military 
 service whatsoever, because all war, for which all 
 military service is intended, is contrary to the spirit 
 of Christianity. The Russian government naturally 
 refused to regard the matter in the same light, and 
 severe penalties were inflicted upon men who were 
 convinced that they were suffering something like mar- 
 tyrdom for a religious cause, by a government which 
 was equally persuaded that they wished to defy its 
 authority. The logic of these facts, while it demon- 
 strates that a very unfair amount of odium has fallen 
 upon the imperial government of Rome for its action 
 with regard to Christianity, does not in the least detract 
 from the glory of those who suffered. Moreover, as 
 has doubtless occurred in almost every country where 
 it has been thought necessary to enforce unusual and 
 rigorous measures, it often happened that the officials 
 
366 The Rulers of the South 
 
 who were designated to execute them made use of their 
 power to satisfy their lust, their greed, or their desire 
 for vengeance, and that those whom they condemned 
 became the victims not only of their own devotion to 
 their faith, as well as of political necessity, but also 
 of the passions that individually animated their un- 
 scrupulous judges. It may well be doubted whether 
 the most enlightened government would tolerate the 
 existence of a secret organization of such dimensions 
 and importance as were attained by Christianity in the 
 early centuries of the Empire, if that organization 
 manifested its beliefs by refusing to conform with some 
 generally accepted regulation or practice. 
 
 Justice therefore requires that, without at all depre- 
 ciating the merit of those early Christians who suf- 
 fered themselves to be torn to pieces and tortured 
 in a thousand ways for the true faith, we should 
 also admit that the government which inflicted such 
 sufferings was acting, to the best of its knowledge, 
 for the preservation of law and order. 
 
 - But, as in all cases where an elaborate system for 
 the maintenance of power throughout an immense 
 territory comes into conflict with a movement directed 
 and sustained by the mainsprings of human nature, 
 the latter was destined to get the mastery in the 
 end, and in the course of a few centuries the whole 
 Roman Empire was practically Christianized. The 
 most remarkable fact in connexion with this universal 
 
The Romans 307 
 
 change of belief is that, although a great number of 
 Christians were at one time or another put to death, 
 there was at no period of the development any 
 open struggle which could be called a religious war, 
 such as devastated Europe in the sixteenth century, 
 when kingdoms and principalities that believed more 
 or less the same things fought each other to the 
 death because they chose to believe the same things 
 in different ways. After Constantine had accepted 
 Christianity without imposing it by force, Julian the 
 Apostate rejected it without proscribing it or perse- 
 cuting it. Neither Mary of England nor Elizabeth 
 acted with such moderation under similar circum- 
 stances. Constantine was too wise and good a Chris- 
 tian, sentimental though he was and always remained, 
 to shed innocent blood in the hope of spreading the 
 gospel of peace; Julian understood the nature of 
 Christianity too well to suspect it of being a con- 
 spiracy against the Empire. The unbeliever did not 
 exhibit the senseless rage of the Puritan and Huguenot 
 iconoclasts; the believer was far above the bigotry of 
 a Catherine de’ Medici-or a Philip the Second. 
 
 It is not necessary to depreciate the qualities, such 
 as they were, which made Rome’s domination a means 
 of civilizing the known world, in order to exalt the 
 merits of the Christian martyrs, whose constancy to 
 an absolutely pure faith and whose sufferings in its 
 cause justly earned them the title of the Holy for all 
 
368 The Rulers of the South 
 
 time; any more than it would be just to’disparage the 
 saintliness of many who, in later ages, would have 
 borne as much for the same cause, if it had been 
 
 condemned to the same persecution. Christianity was 
 
 most persecuted in those centres of the vast Empire 
 
 
 
 AMANTEA, WESTERN CALABRIA 
 
 where it was believed to be a source of greatest danger 
 to the government; and while many suffered, many 
 also took refuge in the quiet of the provinces, so that 
 it is not unreasonable to believe that a great number 
 of Christians escaped to Sicily after the great perse- 
 cution of Nero; and if they were not the founders 
 of the Church in the island, they were probably the 
 
The Romans 369 
 
 first active propagators of the faith who laboured there. 
 We hear of a number of atrocious martyrdoms in 
 Sicily, it is true. The heartrending stories of Saint 
 Agatha and Saint Lucy are too horrible to be told; 
 but the atrocities therein recorded are referable directly 
 to the evil passions of corrupt officials, and do not seem 
 to have formed parts of extensive persecutions. The 
 laws against Christians often remained inactive for 
 long periods at a time, and were then suddenly 
 unearthed from obscurity and put into force by gov- 
 ernors and prefects as a means of extorting money, or 
 of gratifying worse desires, precisely as happened many 
 centuries later in Christian Europe with regard to the 
 laws against the Jews. The first Sicilian martyrdoms 
 of which there is a certain record known to me took 
 place in 164, under Marcus Aurelius, who was certainly 
 not a.persecutor. The: martyrs were Victor and 
 Corona. The next fell under Decius, about 250, when 
 Saint Agatha and three others were put to death. 
 In Diocletian’s reign, and therefore at least as late as 
 284, seventy-five Christians were martyred in Sicily ; 
 in 307 took place the horrible tragedy of Saint Lucy 
 in Syracuse, and Saint Nympha was executed in 310, 
 after which no further martyrdoms are recorded. 
 Compared with the wholesale butcheries of Christians 
 in Rome such a list is insignificant, including as it 
 does eighty victims in the space of one hundred and 
 _ forty-six years. 
 
 VOL. I 2B 
 
370 The Rulers of the South 
 
 It is not hard to understand that during the long 
 peace enjoyed by Sicily, which extended practically 
 from the beginning of our era to the year 440, the 
 island should have been completely and homogeneously 
 Christianized. About the year 280 Syracuse was 
 plundered by a body of roving Franks who had stolen 
 a few Roman men of war, but it was not till a hundred 
 and sixty years later that Sicily was laid waste by the 
 Vandals under Genseric. The West Goths had already 
 taken possession of Italy. Alaric had thrice success- 
 fully besieged Rome, and at last had sacked the city; 
 and then, by southern Cosenza, he had suddenly died, 
 and his men had buried him in the bed of the river and 
 had turned the stream again over his resting-place. He 
 was a Christian, but an Arian. Had he lived, he 
 would have conquered Sicily and his rule might have 
 been good, for in peace he was just and merciful. But 
 Sicily fell to Genseric, another Arian who came over 
 from Africa, breathing religious hatred against Chris- 
 tians of all other denominations. The heresy of Arius 
 called into question the equality of God the Son with 
 God the Father; the orthodox bishops had condemned 
 it, and the followers of its originator longed for 
 revenge. The result was a persecution of the orthodox 
 Christians such as perhaps did not take place in Sicily 
 under the’ Empire. Theodosius, indeed, made an 
 effort to rescue the island, but the Huns were upon 
 
 him, and he turned away to defend dominions nearer 
 
The Romans 371 
 
 home. The Arian Vandals retired, leaving destruction 
 behind them, and when, on their way to plunder Rome 
 itself, they attempted to land in Sicily a second time, 
 they were repulsed. But not for long. In 456 they 
 fought a great battle against the Romans near Girgenti 
 and were beaten; yet the peace that had followed did 
 not save Sicily from further devastations. A few years 
 later Genseric overcame and destroyed the Byzantine 
 fleet, and it was not until the Vandals had laid waste 
 all the coasts of Italy and Sicily during seven years 
 more, and had possessed themselves of a large part 
 of the island, that peace ensued at last. It-was not 
 even a peace between the invaders and the Empire, 
 for the Empire was dying in the feeble hands of the 
 last Emperor of the West, whose name, Romulus Augus- 
 tulus, seemed to recall Rome’s regal and imperial 
 beginnings, and to denote her fall in the puerile diminu- 
 tive terminations. The peace was concluded between 
 Vandals and Goths, between Genseric and Odoacer, 
 who agreed to pay the Vandals a yearly sum, as it 
 were, for the use of Sicily as a granary. 
 
 With this peace of 475 the story of the Romans 
 reaches its natural conclusion, since there was to be 
 no Rome again in the old sense for many years, not 
 even when Charles the Great had gathered together 
 the fragments of broken tradition, the remnants of 
 forgotten glory, and the shreds of dismembered em- 
 
 pire, to weld and solidify the whole into something 
 
ee The Rulers of the South 
 
 that was to last a thousand years, which was to call 
 itself the Holy Roman Empire, but which was never 
 again to rule the world from the Palace of the 
 Cesars. The next Rome was ‘to be the sRomeme: 
 the popes. About five hundred years elapsed between 
 the flight of Sextus Pompeius and the peaceable acces- 
 
 
 
 ROCCA IMPERIALE, EASTERN CALABRIA 
 
 sion of Odoacer the East Goth. During that time 
 Sicily had for the most part remained in her old 
 tributary position as the granary in chief to the 
 capital; and the far descendants of the slaves who 
 had ploughed and sown the land for Rome, in the 
 days of Augustus, were Christian bondsmen tilling 
 the same soil for a Gothic king. The moral change 
 
The Romans eye 
 
 had been profound and enduring, the material differ- 
 ence in the conditions of the population in the one 
 period and in the other was insignificant. Christianity 
 was a moral force, but not then a practical civilizer. 
 Its spreading had been accompanied by a retrogres- 
 sion which it had not caused, but which it was power- 
 less to hinder, and with the stern Roman rule, which 
 had so often tried in vain to stamp the new faith 
 out of existence, there had disappeared also the 
 Roman organization and discipline, and orderly dis- 
 tribution of wealth, which, by their civilizing influence, 
 should go far to redeem the empire from the con- 
 tempt of modern times, if not from the execration of 
 ecclesiastical writers. 
 
 Until the Vandal invasion the island was not less 
 fertile than before, and the depredations of Genseric’s 
 horde can only have produced one of those tem- 
 porary interruptions in the agricultural activity of the 
 country which I have more than once compared to 
 a suspension of work in a great factory. But the 
 cities had suffered much and continually, ever since 
 Verres had carried off their treasures and stolen their 
 wealth, and with the gradual diminution of superfluous 
 ready money, the power of beautifying the cities had 
 diminished and disappeared; a further reduction of 
 resources had made it impossible to restore monu- 
 ments and public buildings which had been injured 
 
 by time; and at last the total absence of means had 
 
aan The Rulers6r ther south 
 
 resulted in that state of things which any one may 
 see at the present day in the Ottoman Empire. As 
 in Constantinople in our own times, so it was in 
 Syracuse, in Palermo, in Girgenti, and in Messina, in 
 the days of the Gothic kingdom. For lack of ready 
 money, the Turk looks on indifferently, while some of 
 the most beautiful buildings now existing fall to pieces 
 from sheer neglect, while a fleet of modern war-ships 
 rusts and rots at anchor in the Golden Horn, while 
 an empire which should be fertile lies fallow for lack 
 of capital. If Cicero found the tomb of Archimedes 
 hidden in a wilderness of brambles, it needs no lively 
 fancy to imagine what Syracuse had become in the 
 days of Odoacer the Goth. It was the duty of Sicily 
 to raise corn, and it was her only business to see that 
 it was safely shipped to Italian ports. She had 
 become accustomed to a condition of servitude in 
 which her labour was as poorly paid as was con- 
 sistent with the existence of her population; she sent 
 out merchandise by the thousand shiploads, but had 
 neither the power to exact payment for it nor to refuse 
 what was demanded of her. The cities became mere 
 places for embarking cargo, safe harbours lined with 
 docks and quays, the almost imperishable work of 
 Roman engineers, surrounded by granaries that were 
 sometimes beautiful disused temples, by the offices 
 of the corn-factors, and by the miserable habitations 
 
 of the dock slaves, longshoremen, and sailors, who did 
 
> 
 
 THE THEATRE OF TAORMINA 
 
 
 

 
Dah ae 
 “ ? a 
 
 Ss } 
 
 
 
i 
 
 
 
The Romans a6 
 
 the work of the port. From time to time, perhaps, 
 a strolling company of Greek players gathered a little 
 audience in the theatre where Dionysius, Hiero, and 
 the beautiful Philistis had listened to the deathless 
 verses of Sophocles and Euripides; and the _ poor 
 actors gave garbled versions of great plays that were 
 ill tolerated by the heathen-hating bishops, but which 
 perhaps touched the long-lost chords of memory in 
 those who heard. For the most part the theatre was 
 deserted, and the grass grew in the wide market- 
 place round the ruins of Timoleon’s tomb.  Chris- 
 tianity, bred in the subterranean galleries and cham- 
 bers of Achradina, had risen to the surface like a 
 young plant in spring, and stretching out its tendrils, 
 was appropriating to itself all that it found in its 
 way; it was turning temples into churches, and race- 
 tracks into cemeteries, and theatres into places of 
 public prayer; but as yet it had not come to its 
 flowering nor acquired an outward esthetic beauty 
 of its own. Where cities were going to decay, faith 
 alone was not able to rebuild them, and the Church 
 was content to lead a peaceable and austere existence 
 among ruins. 
 
 The business of Sicily was not commerce in the 
 true sense, and brought with it none of the rewards 
 of commercial enterprise. It was the business of 
 supply carried on under compulsion and without profit. 
 Yet it did not at any time wholly cease; the value of 
 
 PG 
 
376 The Rulers of the South 
 
 the island to him who could hold it was, potentially, 
 as great as ever; Sicily never became a desolate and 
 fever-stricken waste like the Roman Campagna, the 
 Pontine marshes, or the plain where Sybaris ‘once 
 bridged the river. The Greeks had made it, the 
 Romans had used it, barbarians and pirates of many 
 lands had plundered it, but its vitality was indestruc- 
 tible, and the springs of its ever renewed prosperity 
 could not be dried up. It was yet to be, what it had 
 been for more than a thousand years, the garden of 
 the Mediterranean, the chief jewel in Italy’s crown, 
 and the coveted possession and treasure of each race 
 that strove for it and held it for a while against the 
 
 world. ‘ 
 
Gro NOLOGICAL LABLE 
 
 B.C. 
 1200 (about) 
 
 800 (about) 
 
 735 
 734 
 ay 
 715 
 ches Cea 
 700 (about) 
 
 700 (about) 
 700 (about) 
 700 (about) 
 
 700 (about) 
 690 
 648 
 ROO tee Lok 
 570 (about) 
 485 
 480 
 478 
 473 
 468 
 467 
 
 VOLUME I “ 
 
 Farming developed by the Sicelians. 
 
 Cume founded by the Greeks. 
 
 Naxos founded by the Chalcidians. 
 
 Syracuse founded by the Corinthians. 
 
 Sybaris founded by the Achzans. 
 
 Crotona founded by the Achzans. 
 
 Tarentum founded by Spartans, called Partheniz. 
 
 Catania, Leontini, and Zancle founded by Chal- 
 cidians and Jonians. . 
 
 Megara Hyblaa founded by the Dorians. 
 Rhegium founded by the Messenians. 
 
 Metapontum, Poseidonia, and Terina founded by 
 the Achaans. ) 
 
 Selinus founded by Dorians from Megara. 
 Gela founded by Dorians from Rhodes. 
 Himera founded by Ionians. 
 
 Akragas founded by Dorians. 
 
 Pythagoras born at Samos. 
 
 Gelon becomes tyrant of Syracuse. 
 
 Hamilcar of Carthage besieges Himera. 
 
 Hiero succeeds Gelon as tyrant of Syracuse. 
 Pindar visits the court of Hiero. 
 
 Death of Hiero and accession of Thrasybulus. 
 
 Simonides dies at Syracuse. 
 377 
 
378 
 BG 
 
 465 
 
 456 
 415 
 413 
 409 
 406 
 
 406 
 
 405 
 397 
 395 
 
 367 
 356 
 
 353 
 346 
 343 
 
 Chronological Table 
 
 Syracuse, Akragas, etc., become independent 
 commonwealths. 
 
 Ducetius heads a rising of Sicelians. 
 “Eschylus dies at Gela. 
 
 Athenian expedition against Syracuse, led by 
 Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lamachus. 
 
 The Syracusans, led by Gylippus the Spartan, 
 defeat the Athenians. 
 
 The Carthaginians, led by the second Hannibal, 
 take Selinus and Himera. 
 
 Hermocrates returns from exile, and is killed at 
 Syracuse. 
 
 Hannibal dies of the plague, and Akragas sur- 
 renders to his father Himilcon. 
 
 Dionysius becomes tyrant of Syracuse. 
 
 Dionysius declares war against Carthage. 
 
 Dionysius defeats the Carthaginians and destroys 
 their fleet. 
 
 Death of Dionysius, and accession .of his son, 
 Dionysius II. 
 
 Dionysius II. dethroned by his brother-in-law, 
 Dion. 
 
 Dion assassinated by Callippus. 
 Second tyranny of Dionysius II. 
 
 Timoleon deposes Dionysius II. and interrupts 
 the tyranny. 
 
 Timoleon defeats the Carthaginians. 
 Death of Timoleon. 
 
 Agathocles makes himself tyrant. 
 Death of Agathocles. 
 
 Archimedes born. 
 
 Pyrrhus, called in by the Syracusans, defeats the 
 Carthaginians. 
 
 Pyrrhus leaves Sicily. 
 
NO 
 ON 
 iS) 
 
 260 
 255 
 
 254 
 253 
 242 
 215 
 213 
 212 
 
 212 
 
 210 
 
 139 
 132 
 
 104 
 
 99 
 
 79 
 73 
 
 (about) 
 
 Chronological Table 379 
 
 Hiero II. made king of Syracuse. 
 Theocritus is at the court of Hiero. 
 
 The Mamertines appeal from Messina to Rome 
 for aid. 
 
 First Punic war begins, called in Rome “the 
 Sicilian war.” 
 
 The Romans besiege Akragas, thenceforth known 
 as Agrigentum. 
 
 First Roman fleet built. 
 
 The Romans, led by Regulus, are totally defeated 
 by the Carthaginians. 
 
 The Romans take Drepanon, thenceforth known 
 as Drepanum. 
 
 The Romans lose a fleet. 
 The Romans take Lilybzum. 
 
 Hiero II. dies, and is succeeded by his grandson, 
 Hieronymus. 
 
 The Romans massacre the inhabitants of Henna. 
 Syracuse taken by Marcellus. 
 
 Archimedes slain by a common soldier after the 
 fall of Syracuse. 
 
 The Romans take Agrigentum, and Sicily becomes 
 a Roman province. 
 
 Scipio of Africa assembles his fleet at Lilybaeum 
 before the battle of Zama. 
 
 Sicilian slaves revolt against the Romans. 
 
 Publius Rupilius, the consul, puts down the first 
 servile insurrection. 
 
 Insurrection in Campania led by the knight 
 Vettius. 
 
 Manlius Aquillius, the consul, finally crushes 
 out the servile revolts. 
 
 Cicero is questor in Sicily. 
 Verres obtains the propretorship of Sicily by lot. 
 
380 
 
 B.C, 
 70 
 47 
 
 43 
 39 
 
 126 
 
 Chronological Table 
 
 Verres is tried in Rome, and retires to Marseilles. 
 
 Julius Caesar assembles his fleet at Lilybaeum for 
 his African campaign. 
 
 Sextus Pompeius becomes master of all Sicily. 
 
 Treaty between Sextus Pompeius, Octavian, and 
 Mark Antony signed at Baie. 
 
 Sextus Pompeius expelled by Octavian. 
 
 Augustus, formerly Octavian, visits Sicily. 
 
 Saint Pancras, first bishop of Sicily, said to have 
 been ordained by Saint Peter. 
 
 Hadrian visits Sicily. 
 Saint Victor and Saint Corona martyred under 
 Marcus Aurelius. 
 
 Saint Agatha and three others martyred by the 
 pretor Quintianus. 
 
 Syracuse plundered by roving Franks. 
 Seventy-five Christians martyred under Diocletian. 
 Saint Lucy martyred at Syracuse under Galerius. 
 Saint Nympha martyred under Galerius. 
 Alaric the Goth dies at Cosenza in Calabria. 
 Sicily laid waste by the Vandals under Genseric. 
 The Vandals defeated by the Romans near Agri- 
 gentum. 
 
 Peace concluded between the Vandals and Goths 
 under Genseric and Odoacer. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abas, ii. 77-78 
 
 Abul Kare, 11. 198 
 
 Acestes, i. 5 
 
 Achradina, i. 95 
 
 Aci Castello, i. 6 
 
 Actzon, i. 37 
 
 Adelasia, ii. 250 
 
 Adenulf of Aquino, 1i. 158 
 
 Adernd, i. 199 
 
 Admetus, 1. 264 
 
 Adrianus, Patrician, ii. 10o-1or 
 
 Adverarda, ii. 169 
 
 fEneas, i. 6 
 
 fEschylus, i. 83-85, 183 
 
 /Etna, city of, i. 87, 97, 98, 100 
 
 Etna, nymph, i. 3, 4 
 
 Agatha, Saint, i. 369 
 
 Agathias, il. 35-36 
 
 Agathocles, i. 13, 39, 76, 207-226; ii. 114 
 
 Aghlab, ii. 75, 109 
 
 Agriculture — 
 in Sicily, development of, by Sicelians, 
 
 1,50 
 in time of Pope Gregory the Great, il. 
 52-53 
 
 under Augustus Cesar, i. 342-344 
 under Hiero the Second, i. 236 
 under Roman domination, i. 289 
 under the Vandals, i. 373 
 
 Agrigentum, i. 37, 250, 255, 283. See 
 Akragas 
 
 Akragas, -1. “37, 79, 101, 1s9-162, See 
 Agrigentunt 
 
 Alardo, ii. 311 
 Alaric, i. 143 ii. 370 
 Alaymo, li. 325-326 
 Alcestis, i. 264 
 Alcibiades, i. 93, 104, 107-117, 126--127, 351 
 Alexander the Great, i. 76, 238, 261 
 Alexandrian, the ship, i. 238, 261 
 ‘ Alexiad,’ the, ii. 164 
 Alfonso of Aragon, ii. 344 
 
 the Magnanimous, ii. 348 
 ' © All-harbour,’ the, i. 71 
 Alpheius, 121 
 
 Alps, Hannibal crosses, i. 269 
 Amalafrida, il. 3 
 Amalasuntha, il, 11 
 Amalfi, ii. 141 
 Amari, ii. 73, 200, 241, 248, 271, 277, 290 
 Amasis, 1. 50, 52, 54 
 Anacreon, 1. 46, 47 
 Anapus, i. 119, 121, 261-263 
 Anastasius the Librarian, ii. 112 
 Anaxilas of Rhegium, i, 70, 78 
 Anaximander, i. 48 
 Ancona, il. 27, 273 
 Andreas, ii. 59 
 Andrew of Hungary, ii. 337-341 
 ‘ Angels, not Angles,’ 11. 43 
 Angelus, Bishop of Troia, ii. 148 
 ‘Annals of Aragon,’ ii. 350 
 Anne of Austria, il. 270, 336 
 Anselm of Canterbury, ii. 249 
 Antandros, i. 223 
 Antiochus, 1. 299. See Eunus 
 Antiochus, governor of Sicily, i. 65 
 Antipope — 
 Anacletus, ii. 260, 261 
 Benedict, ii. rg1, 194 
 Honorius, ii. 236 
 John of Velletri, ii. 190 
 Antony, Mark, i. 231, 338-342 
 Anxur, i. 8 
 Apennines, battle of the, ii. 28 
 Aphrodite, i. 330; il. 55 
 Apollo, 1. 34, 198; 1. 55 
 Apollonius, i. 307 
 Apparitors, i. 288 
 Aprile, Francesco, ii. 345, 348 
 Apulia, i. 21, 146-154; il. 246 
 Aquila, ii. 297, 303 
 Aquillius, Manlius, i. 311-312 
 Aquino, Count of, it. 186-187 
 Arabs, Sicily taken by, to 
 lack of social constitution, i. 22 
 Archias of Corinth, 1. 37, 242 
 Archifred, ii. 231 
 Archimedes, 1. 13, 238-242, 277, 278, 282 
 tomb of, i. 320 
 Archytas, i. 190 
 
 351 
 
382 
 
 Ardoin, ii. 142, 145 
 Arete, 1. 190 
 Arethusa, the spring, i. 120; i. 82 
 Argirizzo, li, 219, 223, 224 
 Argyros, il. 151 ff., 173 ff., 217 
 Ariminum, 1. 271. 
 Arisgot of Pozzuoli, il. 233 
 Aristomache, 1. 193 
 Aristotle, i. 9, 63; il. 118 
 Arius, i. 370 
 Art— 
 Barocco, 11. 360-361 
 Egyptian, i. 41 
 first developraent of, in Sicily, i, 87 
 Saracen-Norman, li. 254-257 
 Artabanes, il. 28 
 Artemis, 1. 3 
 temple of, i. 6 
 Ascoli, i. 1477 
 Ased, il. 72-73 
 Ashtaroth, 1. 70, 263 
 Athalaric, 11. 4, 5, 11 
 Athenzus, 1. 82 
 Athene) 1.3311 55 
 Athenio, i. 309-312, 314 
 Athens, 105-107 
 Athletes, Greek, i. 43 
 Atossa, 1. 54 
 Attalus, i. 305 
 Attila, i. 2 
 Aubert, Bishop, ii. 126 
 Aufidus, i. 271 
 Augusta, harbour of, 1. 36 
 Austrasians, ii. 15 
 Austria, Duke of, ii. 311-314 
 Autharis, il. 37 
 Aversa, il. 137, 145, 339, 343 
 
 B 
 Baal, 1. 263 
 Baal-Moloch, i. 2 
 Babylon, 1. 42 
 Bacchylides, 1. 80, 82 
 Baiz, treaty of, i. 340 
 Balbus, Michael, 11. 71 
 Barbarossa, Emperor, il. 272-273, 279 
 Pirate, il. 354, 358 
 Barbatus, Saint, ii. 58 
 Bari, il. 131, 173, 214, 216, 219-225 
 Barletta, 11. 350,351, 352 
 ‘Barocco’ art, il. 360, 361 
 Basil, Emperor, 11. 100, 102. 106 
 of Gerace, il. 208 
 Basle, ii. 290 
 Batiatus, Lentulus, 1. 332 
 Bayard, Chevalier, ii. 351, 356 
 
 Index 
 
 
 
 
 
 Beatrice, ii, 188 
 
 Bel, temple of, i. 42 
 
 Belgium, i. 236 
 
 Belisarius, ii. 4, 6, 11--16, 18-21, 24 
 
 Belshazzar, 1. 55 
 
 Beltram, il. 339, 342 
 
 Ben Arwet, 11. 241, 242, 244, 246-247 
 
 Benedict the Tenth. See A ntzpope Benedict 
 
 Benevento, ii. 171, 307, 308 
 
 Beneventum, Pyrrhus defeated at, i. 228, 250 
 destroyed, ii. 17 
 
 Bentley, 1. 62 
 
 Bernard of Clairvaux, ii. 261-262 
 
 ‘ Besieger of Cities,’ i. 224 
 
 Bessas, ii. 19-21 
 
 | Bishops, ii. 50 
 | Bisignano, it. 168 
 
 Bizanzio, ii. 219 
 
 Black Bands, the, ii. 356 
 
 Blanche of Navarre, ii. 344, 346, 362 
 
 30ethius, ii. 10, 99 
 
 Bohemund of Antioch, ii. 
 250 
 
 Bomilcar, i. 219 
 
 ‘ Beok of Roger,’ il. 265 
 
 Bordeaux, ii. 329, 330, 331, 332 
 
 Bourbons, the, ii. 270, 336, 359 
 
 Bouvines, battle of, ii. 290 
 
 Braccio del Salvatore, ii. 200 
 
 Breusing, Professor, i. 243, 358-360 
 
 Bridport, Lord, i. 293 
 
 Brigandage, 1. 294-295, 343; il. 379-383 
 
 Brindisi, ii. 220 
 
 Bronté, i. 3, 2933 11. 47-48 
 
 Brotherhood, Pythagorean, i. 
 305 
 
 Buatére, Gilbert, ii. 131 
 
 Buddha, i. 44, 51 
 
 Buffon, i. 241 
 
 Burgundians, ii. 15 
 
 Butera, taken by Saracens, ii. 75, 248 
 
 195, 239, 246, 
 
 58-61, 68, 
 
 Le 
 
 Cabrera, Bernardo, il. 344-348, 362 
 Cacilius of Calacte, i. 346 
 
 Cesar, Augustus, i. 339-343, 345, 352 
 Cesar, Julius, i. 338-339 
 
 Calabria, i, 21; il. 246 ff. 
 Calascibetta, ii. 203, 204, 242 
 Caligula, 1. 345 
 
 Callipolis, i- 69 
 
 Callippus, i. 195 
 
 Cambrai, treaty of, ii. 357 
 Cambyses, i. 41, 54, 55 
 
 Camona, i. 68; ii. 363, 368 
 Campagna, ii. 14, 195 
 
Index 
 
 Cannz, i. 269, 271 
 battle of (1019), ii. 133, 148 
 battles of (1041), ii. 148-150 
 Canossa, li. 171 
 Capo Colonne, i. 66 
 Capo-mafia, ii. 370 
 Carcinus, i, 206-208 
 Cariati, ii. 193 
 Carmel, Mount, i. 51 
 Carthage, i. 69, 212 ff. 
 destroyed, i. 291 
 Caruso, ii. ror 
 Cassandra, i. 83 
 Cassiodorus, 11. 9-10 
 Castor and Pollux, ship, i. 360 
 Castrogiovanni, i. 171, 279, 296; il. 203, 211, 
 233, 235, 242, 263, 285, 297 
 Byzantines defeated by Moslems at, ii.75 
 taken by Great Count Roger, ii. 247 
 Castrovillari, ii. 248 
 Catacombs of Saint Martian, ii. 143 
 of San Giovanni, i. 79 
 Catania, 1. 97, 98, 171; 11. 11, 240, 244 
 coins of, 1. 79 
 Catapults, long-range, i. 172 
 Cato, Marcus Porcius, i. 338 
 aaudexs 1,233 
 Cavagnari, Sir Louis, i. 304 
 Cefalu, ii. 206 
 Cerami, battle of, 11. 211-212, 214 
 Cerignola, battle of, ii. 352 
 Chaleis, 1. 35 
 Chaldzans, i. 49 
 Charlemagne, 1. 371; ii. 65, 67, 68, 297 
 Charles the First of Anjou, i. 10, 14, 16; ii. 
 269, 270, 291, 293, 298, 299, 
 302-333 
 Second of Anjou, ii. 333 
 Constable of Bourbon, ii. 355, 356, 
 ays 
 of Durazzo, ii. 338, 342, 343 
 the Fifth, Emperor, ii. 335, 352-359 
 Second of France, the ‘ Bald,’ 
 li, 128 
 Third of France, the ‘ Simple,’ 
 i, 103 ili. 127 
 Eighth of France, ii. 349 
 Christianity, introduction and influence, i. 
 351-372 
 ‘ Chronicon Sicilum,’ the, ii. 75 
 * Ciceri,’ ii. 321 
 Cicero, i. 315, 320, 323, 335-338 
 Civil wars, Roman, i. 316 
 Civitate, ii. 179, 181 
 Claudius, Appius, i. 232-233 
 Caius, i. 232 
 
 383 
 
 Cleo, i. 300, 302 
 Clodius, Sextus, i. 346 
 Clytemnestra, i. 83 
 Cologne, Archbishop of, ii. 134 
 Coloni, ii. 52 
 Colonna, the, ii. 282, 336-337 
 Prospero, ii. 351 
 Vittoria, il. 356 
 Colossus of Rhodes, i. 260 
 ‘Columna rostrata,’ i. 253 
 Comanus, 1. 302 
 Commerce — 
 introduced to Sicily by Phoenicians, i. 9 
 in time of the Vandals, 1. 375 
 under Hiero the Second, i. 236-237 
 Comnena, Anna, ii. 164-166 
 Confucius, i. 44, 51 
 Conrad the Third, Emperor, ii. 140, 154 
 Fourth, Emperor, ii. 269, 295, 
 298, 299 
 Fifth, ‘ Conradin,’ Emperor, ii. 
 269, 301, 302, 303, 309-314 
 Constance of Hauteville, ii. 251, 268, 278, 
 282, 284-286 
 Constans the Second, ii. 57-59 
 Constantine, Emperor, i. 352, 367 
 the Third, Emperor, ii. 59-60 
 Constantinople, i. 10; ii. 8, 151, 217, 254 
 Coral, i. 21 
 Corcyra, i. 224 
 Cordova, Gonzalvo de, ii. 349, 352, 361 
 Corfu, i. 224 
 Corsicayi.) 12 
 Cosenza, ii. 215, 248 
 Cossus, Aulus Cornelius, i. 275 
 Cotrone. See Crotona 
 ‘Count of the Patrimony of Italy,’ ii. 38 
 Counts in Sicily, ii. 4-5 
 Crassus, 1. 334 
 Cremona, ii. 290 
 Crimisos, 1. 5 
 Croesus, 1. 50 
 Cromwell, Oliver, ii. 99 
 Crotona, 1. 43, 64-66, 80 
 founded, 1. 37 
 plundered by Agathocles, i. 224 
 tributary to Gelon, i. 76 
 Crusade — 
 Children’s, 11. 292-293 
 First, ii. 249-250, 253-254 
 Fourth, ii. 287 
 Second, ii. 263 
 Seventh, ii. 315 
 Cuba, the, ii. 284 
 Cume, i. 26, 78; ii. 35 
 naval battle off, i. 341 
 
384 
 
 Curazzo, Abbot of, ii. 282 
 Curtiusyie352 
 Cutrera, Antonio, il. 365 ff. 
 Cyclops, 1. 6 
 Cyrus, i. 41, 54 
 D 
 Dedalus, i. 4 
 Dahn, Felix, it. 10, 12, 23 
 Damarete, 1. 75 
 Damas, 1. 208 
 Damon and Pythias, i. 185 
 Damophilus, i. 297, 298 
 Darius, 1. 41, 54 
 Decius, i. 369 
 Delarc, Abbé, ii. 127, 129-131, 146, 239, 250 
 Delos, i. 292 
 Demeter, 1. 2, 197 
 Demetrius of Macedonia, 1. 22 
 Demosthenes, i. 137, 140, 142-145 
 Descartes, i. 303 
 Desclot, Bernat, 11. 324, 332 
 Desiderius, Abbot of Monte Cassino, il. 191, 
 236, 237 
 ‘Deus ex machina’ 
 lus, 1. 84 
 ‘Die Nautik der Alten,’ i. 243 
 Digby, Everard, 11. 100 
 Dinocrates, i. 220, 223-224 
 Diocletian, i. 369 
 Dion, i. 188-195 
 Dionysius the Elder, i. 13, 16, 39, 86, 162- 
 187 
 Second, i. 185, 187-190, 192, 
 199 
 Dolabella, i. 321, 322 
 Doria, Andrea, ii. 356 
 Drepanon, 1. 2 
 Drepanum, naval battle at, i. 252 
 Drogo; 11.9130) tie, 250, OO dist 2 
 Drouet, 11. 320 
 Ducetius, i, 100-101 
 Duilius; 1. 252, 253 
 Durazzo, ll. 215, 216, 245 
 Charles of, 11. 338, 342, 343 
 
 originated by A%schy- 
 
 E 
 Ear of Dionysius, i. 184 
 Kast India Company, Greeks in the south 
 compared to, 1. 38-39 
 Ecnomus, Mount, i. 213 
 naval battle off, i. 254 
 Edrisi, ti. 265 
 Egesta, 1. 5 
 Egypt, civilization of, i. 41 
 Elymos, 1. 5 
 Enna, i. 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 Index 
 
 Entebla, i. 201, 202 
 Epicharmus, i. 83 
 Epipole, 171 
 Eremberga, ii. 205, 250 
 Eryx, Mount, i. 2, 6, 173, 176 
 Este, chronicle of, ii. 339 
 Eumenides, 1. 85 
 Eunus, i. 297-302 
 Euphemius, 11. 71-74 
 Euphrates, 1. 42 
 Euripides, i. 150 
 Euryalus, fortress of, ii. 115 
 Evisand, ii. 244 
 Exainetos, 1. 159 
 F 
 Falcandus, ii. 276 
 Faro, ul. 143 
 Fatimites, il. 109 
 Fer, Hugo, ii. 292, 293 
 Ferdinand of Aragon, the ‘ Just,’ ii. 345, 
 349 
 the Catholic, i. 10; ii. 270, 335, 
 52 
 First of Naples, ii. 344 
 Festival and Games of Freedom, i. 97 
 Feudal system, iil. 139-140, 251 
 Field of Blood, ii. 133 
 Fieramosca, Ettore, il. 351 
 Fiorentino, Castel, ii. 296, 297 
 First Punic war, i. 231-236, 249-260 
 Flamma, M. Calpurnius, 1. 253 
 Florence, ii. 303, 362 
 Francis the First of France, ii. 354, 355, 356, 
 358 
 Frangipane, il. 311 
 Franks, ii. 28, 37 
 Frederick of Aragon, ii. 314 
 the First, ‘ Barbarossa,’ Emperor, 
 ll. 272-273, 279 
 Second, Emperor, i. 13; ii. 
 267, 286 ff., 298 
 Second of Sicily, ii. 270 
 Froudsberg, ii. 357 
 
 G 
 Gaeta, ii. 290, 352 
 Gaillard, M. H., ii. 355 
 Galera, ii. 191, 194 
 Garganus, il. 124 
 Garibaldi, 11. 222, 270, 373 
 Gauls, i. 234 
 Gela, 1. 8, 37, 69 
 Gellias of Akragas, i. 159-162 
 Gelon, son of Hiero the Second of Syracuse, 
 i. 268, 272 
 tyrant of Syracuse, 1. 39, 69 ff., 75-76 
 
Index 385 
 
 Genoa, ii. 290 Henry the Second, Emperor, ii. 133-136 
 Genseric, i. 14, 370, 371; ii. 2,5, 8 Third, the ‘ Black,’ Emperor, ii. 
 George of Antioch, admiral, ii. 263, 264 161-163, 170 ff., 189 
 
 Saint, ii. 212 Fourth, Emperor, ii..189, 192, 
 Georgius Cedrenus, ii. 100-101, 107 246, 253, 278 
 Gerace, ii. 207 Sixth, Emperor, ii. 267, 269, 282- 
 Gerami, ii, 211-212 285 
 Gerard, ii, 168-169, 178 Eighth of England, ii. 354, 355, 
 Gherardesca, Ugolino della, ii. 312 358 
 
 Gibbon, ii. 12, 40, 260, 261 Heraclides, i. 191, 192, 194 
 Gildilas, ii. 5 Herme, mutilation of the, i. rro-111 
 Girgenti, i. 37; ii. 74, 204, 213, 247 Hermocrates, i. 104, 145, 157-158 
 Gisulf, ii. 175, 195-196 Hermodamas, i. 45, 57 
 Gladiators, revolt of, i. 332-334 Hesione, i. 5 
 Godfrey, son of Judith of Evreux, ii. 250 Hiero of Syracuse, i. 78, 86, 93 
 Golden Shell, the, i. 71; ii. 113, 116, 226 the Second, i. 86, 228 ff., 260-261, 272 
 Goletta, ii. 357 Hieronymus, i. 272-273 
 Gordianus, ii. 42 Hildebrand, ii. 171, 190-191, 194 ff., 236. 
 Goths, i. 10, 11, 22-23; ii. 1-35 See Pope Gregory the Seventh 
 Gracchi, i. 304 Himera, 1. 3, 37, 66, 71-72 
 Gracchus, Caius, i. 317 battle of, 102 
 Granary of Rome, Sicily called the, i. 21, destroyed, 156-157 
 
 289; il. 39 Himilcon, 1. 161, 167-169, 174-179 
 Grappling-irons, first used, i. 252 Hippo, i. 203 
 Grasshoppers, plague of, i. 314 Hippocrates, i. 69 
 Great Captain, the, ii. 349 Hippotes, i. 5 
 Great Count. See under Roger Hodgkin, ii. 23, 47-49 
 Great Schism, ii. 67 Holm, Adolf, i. 8, 28, 67, 112, 182, 185-186, 
 Greek Orthodox Church, ii. 67 226, 234, 314-3163 ii. 23 
 Gregorius Asbesta, il. 67 Holy Ghost, Church of the, ii. 318, 321 
 Grisar, Professor, ii. 47 Horace, i. 14; 11. 123, 255 
 Guaimar, ii. 130, 140-141, 153 ff., 174 Hortensius, 1. 321, 334, 336, 337 
 Guelphs, ii. 303 Hugh of Jersey, ii. 242 
 Guiscard, Robert, ii. 163 ff., 172, 176, 193, Humphrey of Apulia, ii. 139, 142, 172, 
 
 246, 280 176, 183 
 Guy of Salerno, ii. 175, 182, 232 Huns, i. 370 
 Gylippus, i. 134-146; ii. 74 I 
 Ibn-al-Hawwas, ii. 199, 201, 215 
 Ibn-at-Timnah, ii. 199, 204, 206, 207 
 Ibn-el-Athir, ii, 253 
 Ibn Haukal, ii. 116-123, 227 
 Ibn Khaldoun, ii. 77, 78 
 Ibrahim, ii. 70 
 Ibycus, i. 45 
 Icetes, i. 199, 203, 204, 226 
 Idalian Venus, i. 6 
 Ignatius, Patriarch of Constantinople, ii. 
 
 H 
 Hadranum, i. 199 
 Hadrian, i. 346 
 Hemus, i. 8 
 Hallam, i. 58 
 Hamilcar, i. 69-73, 201 
 Hamilcar Barca, i. 259, 266-267 
 Hamud, ii. 247 
 Hannibal, the second, i. 154-157 
 Hannibal, son of Barca, i. 264, 267 ff. 
 * Harbour of God,’ ii. 3 
 Harmonia, i. 274 
 Harun al Rashid, ii. 108 
 Hasdrubal, i. 201 
 Heinz, ii 295 
 Heliopolis, i. 42, 53 Isabel of England, ii. 299 
 Henna, i. 171, 279, 296; ii. 74 Isabella of Aragon, ii. 270 
 VOL. I 2c 
 
 67 
 ‘I Mafiusi di fa Vicari,’ 11. 368 
 , Images, war of the, il. 55, 60-66 
 Individuality of Greeks, i. 102, 245 246 
 Indulph, ii. 35 
 
 Ghibellines, i. 10; ii. 303, 309, 310 Hepheestus, i. 2, 34 
 Inessa, 1. 104 
 
386 
 
 Ischia, i. 26 
 Isthmian Games, i. 202 
 Italus, i. 9 
 
 4; 
 
 Jacob, Bishop of Catania, 11. 65 
 James of Aragon, il. 305 
 
 Majorca, il. 332 
 Japanese and Greeks compared, 1. 350 
 Joan the First of Naples, ‘Mad Joan,’ il. 
 
 335-344 
 Second of Naples, 11. 344 
 Joanna of England, ii. 279, 281 
 John, grandson of Vitalian, ii. 34 
 of Castile, 11. 335 
 Procida, ii. 316, 317, 318 
 the Moor, ii. 299, 301 
 Jourdain, ii. 242, 243, 244, 245, 250 
 Judith of Evreux, ii. 205, 209, 250 
 Julian the Apostate, i. 367 
 Justin, ii. 8-11 
 the Second, ii. 42 
 Justinian, ii. 6, 11, 15-41, 42, 53 
 the Second, ii. 60° 
 
 K 
 Kalsa, ii. 227 
 Katherine of Aragon, il. 335 
 Kasr el Hadid, 11. 77 
 Kasr Janna. See Henna 
 Khalessah, ii. 118 
 Kores1.3 
 Kronos, 1. 2 
 Kyane, i. 3, 262 
 Kylon, i. 60 
 L 
 La Cava, i. 256 
 Lestrygones, i. 2, 34 
 Lamachus, i. 114, 115, 117 
 Laomedon, i, 5 
 Latomia dei Cappucini, i. 147 
 Latomie, i. 147, 264, 330 
 Lauria, Roger di, li. 332 
 Lee, Nathaniel, i. 102 
 Legates, i. 288 
 Legion, Roman, i. 278 
 Leibnitz, i. 303 
 Leo the Isaurian, Emperor, 11. 60 
 Leontini, i. 69, 79, 103, 104, 171; il. 75 
 Lepidus, i. 341-342 
 Leptines, i. 174 
 Lesbos, 1. 48 
 Lewis the Second, king of Franks, 11. 102 
 Seventh of France, ii. 263-264 
 Ninth of France, ii. 269, 298, 304, 
 
 315 
 
 
 
 Index 
 
 Lewis the Twelfth of France, ii. 349, 350 
 Thirteenth of France, ii. 270, 336 
 Fourteenth of France, ii. 336 
 
 Lilybeum, besieged by Rome, i. 257-258 
 
 Czesar’s fleet at, i. 338 
 
 Lipari, i. 224 
 
 naval battle off, i. 254 
 
 Locusts, plague of, in Sicily, ii, 75 
 
 Logothetes, ii. 15 
 
 Lombards, ii. 28, 37, 63 
 
 Lothair, Emperor, ii. 261 
 
 Louis Napoleon, i. 217 
 
 Lucan, li. 280 
 
 Lucera de’ Saraceni, ii. 294, 297 
 
 Lucy, Saint, i. 369; 11. 144 
 
 Luigi of Taranto, ii. 343 
 
 Luitprand, ii. 64 
 
 Luke, Saint, 1. 358 
 
 Lydia, 1. 50 
 
 Lyons, council of, il. 295 
 
 M 
 Mabrica, ii. 216 
 ‘Mad Joan,’ 11. 335 
 Maffiusi, i. 305 
 Mafia, i. 68, 292; 11. 363-385 
 Magians, i. 49 
 Mainon, i. 225, 226 
 Majo of Bari, ii. 271, 274 
 ‘Malmsey,’ ii. 52 
 Malta, ii. 78, 248, 270 
 ‘Malvasia’ grapes, li. 52-53 
 Mamercus, 1. 203, 204 
 Mamertines, i. 226, 230-231, 292 
 Manfred, 11. 269, 295, 299-309 
 Maniaces, George, ii. 142, 144-145, 151-154 
 Manuel, Emperor, ii. 264, 272 
 Marcellus, Marcus Claudius, i. 240, 242, 
 275-276, 280-283; ii. 115 
 Marcus Aurelius, i. 369 
 Mare Morto, i. 341 
 Margaret of Navarre, il. 277 
 Marius, i. 316, 317, 321 
 Markwald of Anweiler, ii. 286, 287, 288 
 ‘ Marriage of Hebe’ of Epicharmus, i. 83 
 Marsala, ii. 3, 233 
 Marseilles, 1. 38 
 Martian, i. 355, 357-358 
 Martin the First of Sicily, ii. 335, 344 
 Second of Sicily, ii. 335 
 Martorana, Church of the, ii. 255, 361 
 Massilia, 1. 38 
 Matilda, Countess, ii. 188 
 Matthew, Chancellor, ii. 278, 283 
 Mausoleum of Hadrian, il. 13, 22 
 Mazzara, il. 240, 242 
 
 
 
Index 387 
 
 Medici, Catherine de’, ii. 99 
 Giovanni de’, il. 356 
 Medina, ii. 54 
 Megallis, i. 297, 299 
 Megalopolis, i. 216 
 Megara Hyblea, i. 36 
 Mehdia, ii. 274 
 Meles, ii, 131-133 
 Melfi, ii. 146, 195, 238 
 treaty of, il. 194 
 Memphis, i. 42 
 Menecrates, i. 341 
 Merenptah, i. 9 
 Messina, i. 2, 18, 37, 79,3 ii. 279-281, 292 
 battle of, i. 230-231 
 massacre of French in, ii. 321-322 
 occupied by Romans, i. 232-233 
 taken by Great Count, ii. 202 
 Normans, ii. 143 
 Saracens, li. 75 
 Metapontum, i. 37 
 Metellus, Quintus, i. 257, 336 
 Methodius, ii. 65-66 
 “ Meurtriére,’ i. 277 
 Michael, Patriarch, ii. 180-181 
 Milan, ii. 15, 357 
 Milazzo, i. 6 
 naval battle off, 1. 252 
 Mileta, ii. 208 
 Mileto, ii. 207 
 ‘Milk Hill,’ ii. 31 
 Milo, i. 60, 64 
 Miltas, i. 190 
 Minos, i. 4 
 Mirabbet, ii. 292, 293 
 Misilmeri, battle of, ii. 222 
 Mithridates, i. 311 
 Mnesarchus, i. 45, 52 
 Modica, captured by Saracens, ii. 75 
 Mohammed, ii. 53 
 the Second, ti. 254 
 Mohammedanisn,, ii. 54, 69, 142 ff. 
 Moloch, i. 263 
 Monasteries in Sicily, ii. 46 
 Moncada, John, ii. 345 
 Monembasia, ii. 52 
 Monotheism, 1. 49 
 Monreale, ii. 214, 255, 257, 278 
 Monte Cassino, il. 134, 135, 154, 282, 300 
 Gargano, ii. 124-126 
 Lettere, ii. 29 
 Poloso, ii. 216 
 ‘Morals upon Job,’ ii. 44 
 Morgana, i. 16 
 Morgantia, i. 279 
 Motta Santa Anastasia, ii. 347 
 
 
 
 Motye, 1. 173-176 
 
 Mugello, ii. 16 
 
 Miihlberg, battle of, ii. 354 
 Mummius, i. 364 
 
 Muntaner, Ramon, ii. 324, 332 
 Muratori, il. 297, 299, 302, 322, 342 
 Muro, ii. 337 
 
 Murviedro, i. 269 
 
 Myle, i. 6 
 
 Mysteries of the ancients, i. 48 
 Mytistratum, 1. 253 
 
 
 
 N 
 
 Naples, i. 10, 26; ii. 18, 309, 312 
 Narses, li. 6, 27-37 
 
 Naulochus, battle of, 1. 342 
 Navy, Norman, ii. 225 
 
 Naxos, i. 31, 36, 69, 171 
 Neapolis, i. 95, 119 
 Nebuchadnezzar, i. 41 
 
 Nelson, Lord, 121 
 
 Nemours, Duke of, ii. 351, 352 
 Nero, i. 368 
 
 Newton, Sir Isaac, i. 303 
 Nicetas, il. 90, 99 
 
 Nicias, 108-109, 114, 115, 117, 122-146 
 Nicotera, ii. 242, 246 
 
 Noto, ii. 242, 248 
 
 Novello, Guido, ii. 303 
 Nympha, Saint, i. 369 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 Octavian. See Cesar, Augustus 
 
 Odes, Pindaric, i. 82 
 
 Odoacer, i. 371, 372, 3743 ii. 2, 3, 6-7, 9 
 
 ‘C&dipus Tyrannus,’ i. 351 
 
 Ofanto, ii. 133, 271 
 
 Olympic Games, i. 43, 64, 79-80 
 
 Olympius, exarch, ii. 57 
 
 Omerta, ii. 361 
 
 Ophellas, i. 218 
 
 Orations against Verres, i. 315, 320, 323, 
 335-338 
 
 Orestes, 1. 6; ii. 2 
 
 Oroetes, i. 55 
 
 Orsini, ii. 317, 336-337 
 
 Ortygia, i. 3, 95, 119, 169 
 
 Ostrogoths, ii. 2 
 
 Otto the Fourth, Emperor, ii. 289 
 
 Ouranos, i. 2 
 
 rE 
 
 Palagonia, i. 308 
 Palatine Chapel, the, ii. 255 
 Paleologus, ii. 317 
 
388 
 
 Palermo, i. 16; ii. 11, 258, 362 
 Arab life in, 1. 22-23 
 besieged by Guiscard, ii. 227-232 
 chief city of Sicily, ii. 114 
 Emperor Frederick the Second born in, 
 11. 285 
 in tenth century, 117-124 
 taken by Saracens, ii. 75 
 Palici, grove of, i. 307-308, 309 
 Pancras, Saint, i. 31, 355, 358 
 Pandolph the Fourth of Capua, ‘ Wolf of 
 the Abruzzi,’ ii. 137, 140-141, 154, 
 154 ff., 169 
 Panormus, 1. 103, 250, 256 
 Papyrus, 1. 42, 119, 121, 261-263; ii. 113 
 Parma, battle of, ii. 295 
 Parthenon, ii. 255 
 Patrimonies, ii. 38-39 
 Patrinus, John, ii. 87 
 Pavia, il. 38, 58, 290 
 battle of, 356 
 Paul, Saint, i. 358-360 
 Pelagius, ii. 20, 24 
 Pelasgians, i. 8 
 Peloponnesian War, i. 103 
 Perenos, Duke of Italy, ii. 215-216 
 Pergamus, i. 305-306 
 Pericles, i. 351 
 Persephone, i. 3, 197; ii. 203 
 Perugia, ii. 22 
 Pesaro, ii. 19 
 Pescara, Marquis of, ii. 356 
 Petalism, law of, i. 99 
 Peter the Apostle, i. 353, 356 
 Hermit, ii. 254 
 Saint, Patrimony of, ii. 38 
 Tomb of, ii. 45 
 Second of Aragon, ii. 288 
 Third of Aragon, i. 10; ii. 269, 314, 317, 
 323-333 
 Subdeacon, ii. 46-47 
 Pezza di Sangue, i. 271 
 Pherecydes, i. 48 
 Philip the First of France, ii. 251 
 Second of France, ‘ Augustus,’ 11. 
 280, 290 
 Fourth of Spain, ii. 270 
 of Hapsburg, ii. 336 
 Macedon, i. 185 
 Philippi, battle of, i. 339 
 Philistis, i. 229 
 ‘ Philosopher King,’ ii. 291 
 Philosophy, of the ancients, i. 49 
 of Pythagoras, i. 58, 58-61 
 Phoenicia, i. 50 
 Photinus, ii. 71 
 
 Index 
 
 Photius, ii. 67, 181 
 Phyton, i. 181 
 Piana dei Greci, i. 344 
 Pierleone, ii. 260, 261 
 Pilate, Pontius, i. 354 
 Pindar, i. 80, 82-83 
 Pirates, Barbary, ii. 354 
 . Cilician, and Verres, i. 326-328 
 Greek, i. 26 
 were slave-traders, i. 292-293 
 Pisa, ii, 212, 261 
 Pisistratus, 1. 47 
 Plato, 1. 63, 188-189 
 Plemmyrium, 119 
 Pliny, ii. 129 
 ‘Plus oultre,’ ii. 355 
 Pluton, i. 3 
 Poetry, lyric, i. 80 
 Policastro, il. 215 
 Polycrates, i. 45, 46, 52, 55 
 Polyphemus, i. 2, 5, 33, 34, 224 
 Pompeii, il. 129 
 Pompeius, Cneius, i. 317, 338 
 Sextus, i. 339-342, 372 
 Pope — 
 Agatho of Palermo, ii. 60 
 Alexander the Second, ii. 212, 236 
 Third, i. 272 
 Fourth, ii. 303 
 Sixth, ii. 350 
 enedict the Eighth, ii. 131, 132-136 
 Ninth, ii. 161, 170 
 Clement the Second, ii. 162-163, 170 
 Fourth, ii. 306, 315 
 Sixth, ii. 338 
 Seventh, ii. 356 
 Conon, ii. 60 
 Damasus the Second, ii. 170 
 Gregory the First, the ‘Great,’ il. 35, 
 38 ff., 42 ff, 53 
 Second, ii. 63-64 
 Sixth, ii. 161 
 Seventh, ii. 236, 239. 
 Hildebrand 
 Ninth, ii. 293, 294 
 Honorius the Third, ii. 293 
 Innocent the Second, ii. 261 
 Third, ii. 286, 287, 289 
 Fourth, ii. 299, 301 
 John the First, ii. 10, 12 
 Leo the Second, ii. 60 
 Fourth, ii. 111 
 Ninth, ii. 170-173, 
 188 
 Tenth, ii. 353 
 Thirteenth, ii. 111 
 
 See 
 
 176-181, 
 
Index 
 
 Pope — 
 
 Martin the First, ii. 57-58 
 Fourth, ii. 316, 322, 333 
 Nicholas the First, ii. 67 
 Second, ii. 191 
 Third, ii. 317 
 
 Sergius the First, ii. 60 
 Stephen the Ninth, ii. 189-190 
 Sylvester the Third, ii. 16x 
 Urban the Fourth, ii. 303-306 
 Victor the Second, ii. 188-189 
 
 Ponte Guiscardo, ii. 209 
 
 Portella di Mare, ii. 378 
 
 Poseidon, i. 2 
 
 Poseidonia, i. 37 
 
 Pretorian cohort, i. 288 
 
 Preetors, 1. 286, 287-288 
 
 Procopius, ii. 23, 24, 30-35 
 
 Proculus, i. 240 
 
 Propretors, i. 286-287, 317-318 
 
 Provincial system, Roman, i. 286-288 
 
 Ptolemy Soter, i. 224 
 
 Punic war, cause of first, i, 231 
 
 * Pyrrhic victories,’ i. 227 
 
 Pyrrhus, i. 14, 224, 226-228 
 
 Pythagoras, i. 44-61 
 
 Pythias, Damon and, i. 185 
 
 Questors, i. 287 
 
 R 
 Ragusa, ii. 75 
 Rainulf of Aversa, ii. 137, 139 ff., 146, 
 153 
 Tricanocte, ii. 159-160, 169 
 Rametta, li. 143, 202 
 Randazzo, i. 3; ii. 326 
 Randolph, ii. 157-159 
 ‘Ransom of Hector,’ i, 186 
 Raspe, Henry, ii. 295 
 Ravello, ii. 147, 362 
 Ravenna, ii. 12, 14 
 Raymond, Count of Provence, ii. 245, 251 
 Reggio, ii. 23, 183, 196, 247 
 Regulus, i. 255, 257, 351, 352; ii. 107 
 Renascence, art of the, ii. 359-361. 
 René of Anjou, ii. 344 
 Répostelle, Guillaume, ii. 131 
 Rhegium, i. 37, 76, 180 
 Richard of Aversa, ii. 169, 176, 186 
 Capua, ii. 191, 235-238 
 the First of Normandy, ii. 
 139, 205 
 Second of Normandy, ii. 131 
 Lion-hearted, ii. 279, 280-282 
 of San Germano, ii. 277, 278, 283 
 
 138- 
 
 
 
 
 
 389 
 
 Richer, Abbot, ii. 154-156 
 Ricimer, ii. 1-2 
 Ricottaro, ii. 369 
 Rimini, i. 271 
 Ring, Polycrates’, i. 52 
 Ritter, 1. 62 
 Robert of Bari, ii. 312, 313 
 Clermont, ii. 25 
 Flanders, ii. 313 
 the Second of Normandy, 
 ‘ Devil,’ ii. 137 
 the ‘ Wise,’ ii. 337 
 Roeth, i. 62 
 Roger Bursa, ii. 239, 246, 259 
 the Great Count, ii. 115, 183, 197, 
 230 ff., 246-247, 251, 361 
 of Hoveden, ii. 280 
 King of Sicily, i. 13, 14, 16; ii. 250, 
 259-267, 359 
 Rollo of Normandy, ii. 127 
 Romagna, ii. 245 
 olhiomaress i045 ; 
 Rome, i. 235, 3453 li. 17 14, 44, 357 
 Romulus Augustulus,i 71; ii. 2 
 Rossano, ii. 21 
 Rupilius Publilius, i. 301-302 
 
 the 
 
 S 
 Saguntum, i. 269 
 Saint Elmo, lights of, i. 198 
 Saint Sophia, mosque of, ii. 119 
 Salamis, battle of, i. 41, 74-75, 102 
 Salerno, ii. 129 
 Salt mines, i. 2t 
 Salvius, i. 309-310 
 Samnites, i. 234 
 Samos, i. 45 
 San Germano, ii. 263 
 San Giovanni, catacombs of, 1. 355, 356, 357 
 San Giovanni degli Eremiti, ii. 318, 321 
 San Giuliano, 1. 330 
 San Marco, il. 167, 168 
 San Pantaleo. i. 174 
 Sant’ Agata, ii. 140 
 Santa Maria del Carmine, Church of, ii, 
 313, 314 
 Santa Maria |’ Incoronata, ii. 260 
 Saracens, ii. 70-124, 209 
 Sardinia, li. 11 
 Satyrus, 1. 312, 314 
 Scalea, ii. 184-185 
 Schisd, Cape, i. 31 
 Scipio, Publius, i. 183, 289-291 
 Scribonia, i. 340 
 Scylla, ii. 196 
 Second Punic war, 1. 268-283 
 
39°" 
 
 Segesta, i. 92-93, 103-107, 222-223 
 Selinus, i. 37, 71, 73, 89-90, 154-156 
 Seljuks, ii. 217, 263 
 Semiramis, gardens of, i. 42 
 Sentinum, battle of, i, 234 
 Severus, Septimius, 1. 346 
 Serlo, il. 211, 233-234 
 Sertorius, i. 330 
 Slax, il. 273 
 Sfida di Barletta, the, ii. 350 
 Shelley, i. r21 
 Ships of the Greeks, i. 27 
 first five-banked, i. 172 
 of the Normans, ii. 225 
 Sicanians, i. 4, 7 
 Sicelians, i. 8, 29, 32 ff., 292 
 Sicilian Vespers, i. 10,68; ii. 262, 269, 318-321 
 war of the, ii. 321-333 
 Sicilian war, i. 232 
 Sidon, i. 50, 51 
 Sigelgaita, ii. 195, 204, 232, 239, 246 
 Sikelos, i. 2 
 Simichus, i. 66 
 Simonides of Ceos, i. 80-81 
 Slave insurrections, 1. 297-312 
 Slave-market at Delos, i. 292 
 Slavery in Sicily, ii. 52 
 Smerdis the Magian, i. 54 
 Socratess1. 63 
 Sophocles, i. 83 
 Spanish Succession, war of, 1. To 
 Sparta, Alcibiades at, i. 126-127 
 Spartacus, i. 323, 332-334, 364 
 Specific gravity discovered, i. 240 
 Spinus, ii. 25 
 Stabian Castellamare, 1. 18 
 Stephen, Bishop of Acerenza, ii. 148 
 Stephanos, il. 144-145. 
 Sthenius, i. 329-330 
 Suffetes, i. 70 
 Sulla, i. 316, 321 
 Sulphur mines, i. 21 
 Sword of Damocles, i. 185 
 Sybaris, i. 37, 43, 60, 63, 64 
 Sybarites, 1. 64 
 Sylvia, ii. 42 
 Symmachus, il. ro 
 Synod of — 
 Chalcedon, ii. 41-42 
 Constantinople, ii. 41 
 Payiayipetor 
 Syracuse, i. 37, 79, 94-96, 101 
 besieged by Athenians, 117, 130 ff., 146 
 colonized by Corinthians, i. 201 
 destruction of, by Moslems, ii. 53, 79 ff , 
 II2-113 
 
 
 
 
 
 Index 
 
 Syracuse — 
 taken by Romans, i. 276-283 
 under Hiero, 1. 86 
 
 ok 
 
 Tagliacozzo, battle of, ii. 310 
 Tancred of Hauteville, ii. 138-139, 267, 270 
 Sicily, ii, 279-283 
 Taormina, i. 31; ii. 240, 243, 244 
 Taranto, ii. 151, 154, 196 
 Tarantula spiders, ii. 214 
 Tarentum, i. 14, 17, 182 
 Tauromenium, i. 31, 66, 302 
 ‘Taurus, 1. 36 
 Teano, Count of, ii. 166° 
 Teias, 11. 29, 32-33 
 Temple of — 
 Aphrodite, i. 343 
 Apollo, i. 322 
 Artemis, i. 6 
 Athene, i. 91-92. 
 Bel, i. 42 
 Castor and Pollux, 1. 336 
 Hera at Crotona, i. 224 
 Hera at Girgenti, i. 349 
 Idalian Venus, 1. 6 
 Licinian Hera, i. 66 
 Pallas, i. 322 
 Saturn, ii. 255 
 Segesta, i. 88, 92, 223 
 Temples of — 
 Akragas, i. 88 
 Selinus, i. 88 
 Temples, Phoenician, i. 263-264 
 Terina, i. 37 
 Termini, 159, 207 
 Terracina, i. 8 
 Terranova, 1. 213. 
 Thales, i. 45, 48, 50 
 Theatre of Taormina, i. 346-349 
 Thebes, i. 42 
 Theocles, i. 29 
 Theocritus, i. 13, 16 
 Theodora, ii. 19 
 Theodora Senatrix, ii. 162 
 Theodoric, ii. 2, 3, 6-10, 23, 37 
 Theodorus, i. 46, 47, 52 
 Theodosius, Emperor, i. 370 
 monk, describes siege of Syra- 
 cuse, li. 79-98 
 Theodotus, ii. 75 
 Therme, i. 207 
 Theron of Akragas, i. 69, 78 
 Thira, 11. 77 
 Thrasybulus, i. 94-96 
 Thrasydzus, 1. 86-87 
 
 See Gela 
 
Index 
 
 Thrasimene, battle of, i. 271 
 Thucles, i. 29, 36 
 Thucydides, i. 9, 110 
 ‘ Thunder-town,’ the, i 3 
 Thymbris, Mount, 1. 36 
 Tiberius the Second, Emperor, ii. 44 
 Ticinum, ii. 35 
 Ticinus, i. 269 
 Tiles, books written on, i. 42 
 Timocrates, i. 191: 
 Timoleon, i. 196-205 
 Tivoli, ti. 21 
 Toéni, Raoul de, ii. 131, 132 
 Tomacelli, ii. 324 
 Tomb of — : 
 Archimedes, i. 320 
 Saint Peter, ii. 45 
 Tombs, Greek and Roman, i. 356 
 Christian, i. 357 
 Torres, ii. 345 
 Totila, ii. 16-28 ' 
 Tower of Silence, Parsees’, i. 356 
 Trani, ii. 160, 161 
 Count of, ii. 238 
 Trapani, i. 2, 19, 105, 240, 243 
 Trent, ii. 290 
 Trezza, i. 6 
 Tribunali, Palazzo dei, ii. 346, 362 
 Trilogy, tragic, i. 85 
 Trinakros, i. 2 
 Triocala, i. 310 
 Tripoli, ii. 263 
 Trogilos, i. 36 
 Troia, ii, 134 
 Troina, ii. 205, 206, 207, 209-211 
 Trypho, i. 310 
 Tudextifen, ii. 147 
 Tunis, 1. 216; 11. 274, 315, 357 
 Tuscany, ii. 303 
 Two Sicilies, i. 10;-ii. 262, 334 
 Tyche, i. 95, 119 
 
 U ‘ 
 Ulysses, i. 5, 6, 26, 217, 224 . 
 Unities, the three, i. 85-86 
 Utrecht, peace of, ii. 270 
 
 v 
 
 Vandals, i. 11, 370-371, 373 
 Varro, i. 271 
 Venice, ii. 16, 273 
 Venosa, ii. 147, 246 
 Verona, ii. 16, 310 
 battle of, ii. 2 
 Verres, i. 10, 23, 286, 318, 321-338; ii. 5,129 
 
 Alsi 
 
 Versification among the ancients, i. 46 
 Vesuvius, ii. 129 
 Vettius, i. 306-307 
 Victor Amadeus, i. 10 
 Vienna, ii. 6, 284 
 Villani, ii. 322 
 Vindomar, i. 275 
 Virginius, i. 352 
 Vitalian, i. 240; il. 34 
 Vitiges, iil. 12, 15 
 Vulcan, i. 33 
 
 W 
 Walter of the Mill, i. 278 
 
 Brienne, ii. 287 _ 
 War of the Images, ii. 55 
 War chariots, first appearance of, i. 176 
 William of Apulia, ii. 152, 259 
 Bras-de-Fer, 11. 139, 142, 146, 150, 
 152-161 
 the First of England, the ‘Con- 
 queror,’ il. 205 
 of Evreux, ii. 205 
 Grantmesnil, ii. 248 
 Hauteville, ii. 187 
 Holland, ii. 295 
 Montreuil, 11. 235 
 Salerno, ii. 184 
 the First of Sicily, the ‘ Bad,’ ii, 
 267, 271-276 
 Second of Sicily the ‘ Good,’ 
 il. 267, 268, 276-279 
 Third of Sicily, ii. 268, 283 
 the Swine, ii. 292, 293 
 Wolf of the Abruzzi. See Pandolph of . 
 Capua 
 Wolsey, ii. 354 
 Worms, assembly at, ii. 170 
 
 x 
 Xerxes, 1. 50, 54, 69 
 Ximenes, Cardinal, ii. 353 
 
 Z 
 
 Zacynthus, i. 1g0 
 Zama, battle of, i. 268, 283, 289, 201 
 Zancle, i. 2, 18, 37, 69. See Messina 
 Zante, 1. 190 
 Zeno of Elea, i. 14 
 Emperor, ii. 2 
 Zeus, 1, 3 
 Zeuxis, i. 66 
 Zisa palace, ii. 275, 362 
 Zoroaster, i. 44, 51 
 Zurita, li. 350 
 

 

 

 

 

 
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