Forces for a Battel Hanno commanded the right Wing and with him was the Sacred Band of Carthaginians the Chariots and Horse being placed in the Front and Bomilcar commanded the left Agathocles was glad the Enemy was so forward to ingage and that their Confidence made them neglect those safe counsels of permitting his desperate Army to spend it self in its own fury and waste by delaies therefore declines not the fight but uses his greatest diligence in his preparations and orders of this Battel upon which depended the fortune of Syracuse and all his hopes knowing that Fear and Confidence have their birth in the first events and that by the issue of this first encounter he should administer to Fame to preoccupate the minds of men in concluding the fortune of the whole War He orders his Battel according to the manner of the Enemy For having learned the temper of the two Generals a necessary part of the arts of a Leader and of which Annibal afterwards made great use in his war in Italy forming his designs according to the humour of him who commanded the Enemies battel he commits the charge of his right wing to his son Archagathus that was to ingage against Bomilcar where an insolent treacherous Captain and diffident Souldiers promised the fewest dangers and least opposition and he himself commands the left to confront Hanno where were all things that are to be expected in a good Leader and resolute Souldiers And because many of his party wanted arms he supplies them with this invention he causes them to take the coverings of shields and to distend them with sticks and rods and to stuff them out in the form of a shield and gave them to such as wanted and were in the rear not as fit for use but to elude the Enemies sight who at a distance could not judge them other then real shields And lest his Souldiers should be discomfited by that terrible prospect of their enemies number and horse For the eyes most commonly are the first that are overcome in every battel he had another invention to secure their minds of Victory for he caused many Owles which he had provided for that purpose to be let flie in several places of the Camp which flying round about the Army and alighting sometimes upon the helmets sometimes upon the shields of the Souldiers was taken for an auspicious augury because this kind of bird was consecrated to Minerva a warlike Goddess And withal he causes it as an interpretation of the Omen to be rumoured that she had assured him of an happy success These devices though they seem trifles and empty projects yet often prove great moments to wonderful successes they raising in the spirits of an Army great Confidence and by that Confidence they overcome For a Confidence that is derived from the conceived care and promises of Heaven and to which a Deity gives the first Original is most active and vigorous because a Prediction doth not onely raise an infallible hope and promise an assistance from Heaven but also doth by those hopes tacitely admonish to brave resolutions Therefore the Romans who could boast of more Victories then any other Nation used to raise a Confidence in their Forces by the waies of Religion for they never would create their Consuls for their Expeditions levy their Armies begin their marches or join in Battel without their Auguries and Auspicies And without doing some such thing never did any of their wise and noble Captains attempt any great action conceiving it difficult to be successful in it unless their Souldiers did first apprehend that the Gods were on their part And herein doth this Confidence differ from that which ariseth in an Army from the consideration of their own strength and contempt of the enemy this commonly is pregnant with neglect of discipline and too much security but the former never disarms it self either by negligence or rashness for the Commanders who knew the uncertainty of human affairs and how much vanity there was in such Auguries used them onely to heighten the rude multitude and themselves in the mean while were careful of taking every advantage for Victory Agathocles that had omitted no part of care for his Army was ready and prepared either to fight or chase not heavy with luggage not greedy of spoil intent upon the commands of their Leader and observing his very nods not anxious for safety nor too presumptive of Victory soon found the effects of his invention to have raised the confidence of his Souldiers For upon the first charge they stoutly repulsed the Punick Chariots upon their own Foot and bravely receiving their Horse forced them to flight and when Hanno had brought up his Foot doing all that the Love of his Country and Glory exacted from him for he thought to have gotten the Victory by his alone Wing with many wounds they slew him being sooner forsaken by Fortune then Valour and with him fell the courage of the whole party which were put to flight onely the Sacred Band did for a while stoutly endeavour to make good the retreat In the other wing Bomilcar did but faintly assault the Enemy and scarce stood upon his own defence not seeking the Victory but the Empire of Carthage which he conceived their overthrow would facilitate and their low condition impose on his shoulders and then he doubted not with ease to send the Syracusans out of Africk Therefore as soon as he heard of Hanno's death he divulges it among his own party and commands them to retreat to a neighbouring Hill which being very disorderly performed the Sacred Band being now no longer able to sustain the victorious Greeks they were at last all totally routed every one running the next way to Carthage and casting away their arms which they had taken for their defence as if they feared their own assistances The Sicilians pursued them not far but greedily returned to the rifling of the Camp where among the other spoils they found the preparations not for War but for Victory those Fetters which had been provided for their Slavery This increased the hatred of the Enemy and heightned the joy of the Victory by the prospect of the dangers they had escaped For although we rather wish an uninterrupted flourishing fortune yet such doth not affect us with so high a sense of pleasure as that which Providence raises us unto from the utmost dangers This likewise administred occasion of discoursing and wondering at the Justice of that over-ruling power of the World that had thus shewed the vanity of humane power and counsels and bound the proud Carthaginians in those fetters which they had provided for a despicable Enemy As also how quick the returns of Prosperity may be after the most desperate misery That there is no condition so low but may have hopes nor any so high that is without the reach of fears The Tyrant while his forces were intire in Sicily was overthrown by the Carthaginians yet with
buying his life and hired his servants to his murder for he seemed to upbraid the Roman weakness that could not overcome a Spanish Thief by noble waies And as they hated the unworthy waies of poison and Treason to finish a war so while they were uncorrupted in their Discipline they were Religiously scrupulous in the beginning of any for they never sent forth their Armies till they had sought for justice in the tracts of Peace and after the publick promulgation of their intent Such also was the Integrity of the Achaeans before they had fore-warned their enemy to a defence Machiavel commends the Simplicity of the ancient Florentines that enterprized no hostility on their neighbours till they had by ringing a Bell for the space of a whole moneth admonished their enemy to a peaceable satisfaction or a brave resistance But every Tyrant makes his war impious if not in the cause yet in the management and more like thieves then Princes aim onely to deceive not to conquer their enemies Agathocles being thus successfully wicked at Messene designs Agrigentum for his next prey his false Ambition not suffering him to continue that Peace which his Necessity had forced him to make with them But the Carthaginian Fleet consisting of sixty sail of ships hovering upon the coasts of Sicily diverted his arms from revenge on the Carthaginian territories whose Countries he wasted with fire and sword took some of their Garrisons by force and others were delivered upon composition This Hostility betwixt Carthage and Syracuse made Dinocrates who since Sosistratus's death was become the chief of the Syracusan Exiles and the other Confederates hope for the assistance of the Punick arms against this restless Tyrant To them therefore they sent an Embassie with bitter complaints against Amilcar and invectives against Agathocles The last they set forth as a merciless perjured and bloody Tyrant The other they accused as a Traitor that by secret compact had delivered up the lives and fortunes of the Carthaginian friends into the hands of a most cruel enemy and that as the earnest of this Treachery Syracuse a potent and rich City an emulous contender with Carthage for the Empire of Sicily was first betraied into his hands and under the name of Peace many other confederate Cities had since been exposed to his rapines If therefore that Mighty Common-wealth and wise Senate should not be more vigorous to punish their treacherous servant and to quench the Tyrant's thirst of Empire with his own blood they would soon feel in Africk the dismal effects of their neglect of Sicily This Embassie inraged Carthage and they were more keenly resolved to make Amilcar satiate their anger with an ignominious punishment But either by a natural or a voluntary death he prevented the unjust fury of his own Citizens who had condemned him before he could plead his innocency So barbarously ungrateful are most Commonwealths to their chiefest servants who if they thrive abroad are ruined at home by Jealousie and Envy if they are not successful then the Capricioes of Fortune are accounted the miscarriages of their Generals and their Unhappinesses esteemed for Crimes None were more infamous in this way of cruelty then the Carthaginians who often expiated the dishonour of their overthrow with their Commander's head Therefore * Aur. vict de viris illust Annibal that commanded the Navy in their first Roman war being beaten and losing his Navy makes hast to Carthage to prevent any other messenger of his misfortune and in the Senate declares onely the state of his and the Enemies forces as they were before the fight and inquires what they would command to be done they all cried out he should fight I have saith he and am beaten and so escaped the punishment of the Cross But this Amilcar was either a person of a sluggish soul and so veiled his cowardize under the name of Peace and vainly thought that specious name would please a people that made war for gain Or else of more fine counsels then resolute action and thought the discovery of his mysteries would justifie his practices that he had laid his designs so deep that in time they would easily undermine all the power of the Syracusan Potter without the cost and hazard of the Punick blood and treasure But counsels too finely spun are easily broken and so deep a contrivance agrees not with the impatience of the Vulgar to whom speedy undertakings seem alwaies most heroick and slow yet sure practices are interpreted by them as the motions of false or base spirits Or else Amilcar might be too conscious that his coverous soul had been corrupted with the bribes and promises of Agathocles a vice which Aristotle taxes in the Carthaginian Government and therefore neglected the care of an Apology which too evident crimes did render vain and a contempt of death unnecessary And thus fell Amilcar Dinocrates with the other Exiles waited not idly for the effect of their Embassie and the Carthaginian preparations which they knew would be slow but were very active for their own restitution And therefore he sent forth a party under the Command of Nymphodorus to Centorippa a Garrison of Agathocles where he held a Correspondence with some of the City who promised to deliver up the town to him upon condition of restoring their Liberty The Governour had discovered the plot yet suffers Nymphodorus to enter the town by night where he cuts him off with his whole party Agathocles was not more glad for the defeat of the Exiles then for the opportunity he now had to seize upon the wealth of the Citizens as being ingaged in a Conspiracy against him which he greedily takes from them with their lives as being too great lovers of Liberty to breath in the same air with a Tyrant This loss broke not the courage of Dinocrates but he having yet about three thousand foot and not less then two thousand horse possesses himself of Calaria whether he was invited by a party of the City where immediately he drives out the Faction that was for Agathocles and incamps before the Town The Tyrant upon the first intelligence sent Pasiphilus Demophilus with a party of five thousand against him These ingaging with the Exiles commanded by Dinocrates and Philonides who led the several wings of their Army the victory was for some time doubtful but at last the Tyrants fortune prevailed for Philonides being slain and his wing routed Dinocrates was forced to retreat Pasiphilus in the pursuit kills many of the enemy and recovers Calaria Where like his Master's servant he omitted no act of cruelty and extortion upon the miserable Citizens For the Ministers of a Tyrant are educated by him to the nature of mastives that they should onely fawn upon him that feeds them and be cruel and bloody to every one else Proud with this Victory Agathocles hastens with all the forces he could make to fight the Carthaginians that were drawn out into the field and had
the hopes of the Sicilians to be delivered from Agathocles who had surprized Gela and murdered the Citizens and afterward fighting Amilcar is overthrown His counsel of transferring the War into Africk His preparations for that design The difficulties of getting forth of the Haven An Eclipse frights his Army which he dexterously interprets gets safe to the shore of Africk where he burns his Ships The Punick Fleet gather up the beaks of his Vessels and send them with the news to Carthage which before was terrified with the affrighted relations of the Africans They chuse two Generals to oppose the Sicilians The Reason of such a choice They fight Agathocles and are overthrown The Carthaginians refer their loss to their angry Gods whom they endeavour to appease send for aid from Amilcar who in vain besieges and assaults Syracuse when the news came of the Tyrants Victory Who wins more upon the Carthaginians while Amilcar intending to storm Syracuse is taken and kill'd His baffled Army divides and the Agrigentines aspire at the Empire of the Island The Tyrant's Army dangerously mutinies which he luckily appeases and turns their fury upon the Enemy whom he also follows and beats in Numidia He invites Ophellas to the War and basely murders him Bomilcar attempting the Tyranny at Carthage miscarries and is crucified Agathocles assumes the title of a King and masters the Uticenses by an inhumane Stratageme LIB III. AGathocles returns to Sicily to obstruct the Success of the Free League against which he thrives till Dinocrates declares himself for it who forces the Tyrant to retreat His fortune declines in Africk his Army beaten and besieged Agathocles preparing to return thither gets two Victories under the pretence of a Thanksgiving for which he discovers and murders all that he could not confide in at Syracuse Afterwards he sails to Africk where all was desperate From whence after some vain attempts a strange Terrour of his Army and his own Imprisonment he basely flies back to Sicily leaving his two Sons to the fury of his deserted Army who when they had slain them make Peace with the Carthaginians The Tyrant landing in Sicily destroyes Aegesta commands another Massacre at Syracuse Pasiphilus revolts from him which frights him into a Treaty with Dinocrates in which he offers to relinquish the Tyranny The Treaty not taking effect he fights the Army of the League and by treachery overthrows them and murders seven thousand that did surrender upon composition He receives Dinocrates into favour and employes him He takes away the consecrated Treasure at the Isle of Lipara invades the Brutii and is beaten surprizes Croton associates with Pirates and confederates with Demetrius by whom he is perswaded to renew his War with Carthage He is prevented by death through the Conspiracy of Maenon and Archagathus his Grandchild because he had made his younger Son Agathocles his Successour in the Tyranny Maenon poisons the Old Tyrant and Archagathus kills the Young one His Tortures End and Character The state of Syracuse after his Death TYRANNVS Perfidia Crudelitas THE TYRANT OR The Life of AGATHOCLES LIB I. THE security and comforts of humane life consist in Society Society cannot be preserved without Order For although by it men are secured from a forein force yet in it are they subject to intestine injuries and when Necessity makes no warre abroad Ambition and Covetousness will raise some at home These being so impetuous and restless affections in the breasts of men that they never leave them even after the largest acquisitions For man naturally is greedy of every thing yet so weak that he can acquire but few so that the desire being too great for the power of acquisition there arises a dissatisfaction with the present condition when it is secure and an endeavour of altering it though with the ruine of another's fortune This immoderate desire in some men of more then they have produces a fear in others of losing what they doe enjoy and from both these arise Jealousies Enmities and Injuries which in the issue undermine Societie and render it more dangerous then Solitude and make Communities of men more obnoxious to ruine then heards of Beasts Therefore Order must set bounds to some mens Lusts and fences for the security of others Order cannot be observed without Government which is the Intrusting some persons with the care and power of maintaining this Order And that it may the more effectually attain its End Heaven hath declared it as its own Institution and impressed upon it the lustre of Divine Authority But as Pearls though they have their Original from the dew of Heaven yet must be formed and solidated in the Sea and the wombe of a Shel fish which as it is more or less disposed by Nature for such a production renders the Jewels proportionably great and orient So Government though it derives its extract from a Divine Institution yet because it is to be managed by Men which are subject to Corruption doth often prove too uncertain a guard for so great a treasure as is the publick good and common safety Because the Trustees of this power may either through the depravedness of their affections distort it to the satisfaction of their private lusts or by an imprudent menage give umbrages of suspicion that they will pervert it to the common ruine So that such impotent persons being in Government bewitched with the sweetness of Command and passionate to inlarge or preserve that power in the unlawful exercise thereof make frequent invasions upon the Liberty of others And those that are under Government pinched with the difficulties of obeying such unequal Commands and labouring to keep their liberty entire strive to extend it even to Licence till it becomes inconsistent with Government Hence arise Discontents Jealousies and Changes of Government which to sick minds like the turnings in bed to sick bodies are hoped for remedies and what men cannot find under one kind of Magistracy they will seek in another and therefore do either contract or enlarge the subject of their trust of Power according to the sense of their present Grievances If a Community at first either by Choice or Necessity are united under one Head in a Monarchy while He or his Successors intend the publick good for which they were designed the memorie of their first Institution and the sense of the present Benefits provoke from their Subjects not corrupted with too much Felicity nor debauched with the subtle Slanders which Seditious persons cast on their Prince a Veneration next to that which is due to Heaven an Universal Love and a delight to obey being the constant Returns to their Cares and Hazards for the publick Security But because all worldly things are in a continual Motion and there is either a progress to perfection in that which is good or else a precipitate declination to evil and men are most easily corrupted in the supremest Fortunes where Lusts may have the advantage of being armed with
being no greater Liberty then to be well governed But the desire of Greatness was too importunate in Agathocles For ambitious spirits are not easily contented with what is offered to whom the present enjoyments seem contemptible when greater things may be hoped for and at last they endeavour too hastily to exceed their own hopes which is the ruine of many that might have attained to Supremacy had they not preferred too speedy and dangerous courses to such that are more slow yet sure mediums to power And therefore these arts which would have covered moderate crimes in others made him more suspected by his Citizens that he was a person of too bold hopes and no longer fit to dwell in a free City for he made use of all his Successes and abilities to render himself great in the common fame and popular among the Souldiers So that his Vertues as well as his Vices made him unfit for that Society For Industry and Sagacity are no less dangerous then Vanity and Luxury to a Common-wealth when they are used to attain a Tyranny To prevent therefore the ambitious designs of this and other her Citizens the Common-wealth of Syracuse had invited from Corinth Acestorides a person of a clear fame and unquestioned Honesty to take upon him the Government for a time that he might ballance the several Factions of their State and give vent to those swelling hopes of her most turbulent members who now were grown too big for a civil and ordinary management hoping to find him like to Timoleon that knew how both to conquer Tyrants and to submit to a civil Government a rare agreement in one breast for the nature of man is willing to indulge that in himself which he hates in another But Acestorides though he wanted not integrity for his trust yet failed in courage and resolution to perform it For finding Agathocles the greatest object at that time of the common jealousie and that Liberty and he were inconsistent in one City For that City cannot be accounted free where any one Citizen can terrifie the publick Magistrates he did not dare to remove him by a Trial and course of Justice but intended to take him off by a secret Conspiracy and therefore published an Edict whereby he banished him from that Commonwealth and commanding him to leave the City by night he laid an Ambush in the way that might kill him in his passage supposing the darkness would conceal the authors of his death and his Banishment would occasion an uncertainty in all reports that should be divulged whether he were alive or dead and so suspend the minds of the Vulgar rabble to whom his Vices as well as his Vertues had indeared him and who would be forward to mutiny in his revenge Agathocles that was not unacquainted with any fraudulent practices did easily suspect the plot and therefore to prevent it chuseth out one of his servants that was most like to himself in the outward proportion of body and harnasses him with his own armour mounts him upon his own horse and sends him out of the City that way which he conceived was forelaid and he himself disguised with poor and ragged apparel departs in a more unfrequented path Those that were appointed to dispatch him conjecturing by the arms and horse that they had encountred with their designed prey set upon the Servant and kill him supposing that they had rid Syracuse of their fears and hate But Agathocles's following actions soon made them sensible of their errour and did upbraid the weakness of Acestorides who did not dare to use the sword of Justice against him whom he thought unworthy to live and put the security and Liberty of the Commonwealth upon the uncertainty of a Plot. Agathocles being gone the unsteady multitude grow weary of that warre which he had perswaded them unto against the Banditi who assisted by the power of Carthage were able to renew their invasions after many defeats Therefore they immediately receive them into the City again and conclude a Peace with the Carthaginians but revoked not the sentence of Banishment against Agathocles which now by the return of his enemies he conceived would be irreversible He therefore hath recourse to his old auxiliaries of Thieves and desperate Vagabonds whom necessity and his former conduct had fitted for any Villany who readily flocked about him in hopes of more licentious rapines and to these he gathers all the disbanded Souldiers whom the present Peace had made useless and forming an Army of these he grew terrible both to the Carthaginians and Syracusans wasting their Territories firing their Villages and plundering the weaker and unfenced Towns and Cities And that he might colour his outrages with some pretext of Justice he espoused the quarrels of all those Cities that were either enemies to or emulous of the power of Syracuse to this end was made Praetor of the Murgantines who had an ancient hatred against them and had been his sanctuary in his Banishment Under the species of their quarrel he did so eagerly prosecute the warre and his own designs that he took Leontium and blocked up Syracuse it self This reduced them to such streights that they were forced to seek for succour and aid from Amilcar the Carthaginian General He either to keep alive those flames wherewith the Sicilians did consume one the other was willing to adde some fewel to the fire or else in humanity and of a generous spirit would assist a noble though adverse City when distressed by her own Citizens sending thither such a sufficient supply as made Agathocles despair by force to bring it to his subjection He therefore applies himself to his more safe and secret arts of deceit and desires Amilcar that he would mediate betwixt him and Syracuse that he might be restored again to his own City and houshold Gods and not be necessitated by such unpleasing waies to preserve his life and liberty But together with these honest pretexts he made more obliging promises of service and gratitude to Amilcar if he would be the happy instrument of his return home Amilcar undertakes the office and easily perswades the wretched Syracusans to consent to that which without his assistance they should be forced to submit unto upon more unequal conditions His restitution therefore was agreed unto by the People upon some seturity of their Peace and Liberty which to give them he was led into the Temple of Ceres the most sacred Deity among the Sicilians and there solemnly swore that he would doe nothing contrary to the Democratical Government of Syracuse This was the onely security which they could at that time have from Agathocles Which is indeed a sufficient tie upon such souls as are indued with a sense of Vertue or have any fear of a Deity but Oaths are too weak fetters to restrain ambitious Spirits or such as intend a Tyranny For He that resolves to be unjust towards men will slight the testimony and vengeance of Heaven But
to him or fear anger and hate towards the Senate He invokes their faith and compassion of him and complains of his hard Fate that it was never safe for him to love the People and that none was ever an enemy to the Common-wealth but they would be likewise the contrivers of his destruction For do you not hear saith he how my execution and your punishment is already decreed and how the Senate hath sent these their most subtle Agents to draw me back to the place of slaughter and to contrive the scene of your massacre They envy us the honour of dying upon our enemies swords in defence of our Country's Liberty and we must brutishly fall as sacrifices to their insolent Lusts and our blood be spilt to testifie that such Monsters ruled us In vain do we arm and expose our selves to death to keep off a forein yoke when such ungrateful wretches devote us to ruine at home Are we not patient enough in our slavery when we offer our selves to all the dangers of warre that they may be secure in their effeminate pleasures and wantonly lavish that wealth which is the price of our blood but must we also be basely sent out of the world that they alone may enjoy it When will these men know the just bounds of commanding or we fully apprehend the misery of our ignominious thraldome Then pausing as if he had been interrupted with tears which he shed the Vulgar rout hindered any further progress in his speech with loud clamour each one according to the sense of his Interest or Passion exclaiming against the Vices of the Senators some charged them with Cruelty others railed at their Covetousness and another sort did condemn their Pride and Perfidiousness and therefore they jointly cried out That he should not wait till such inhumane vipers did return to a love of their own City but speedily revenge his own and their injuries that he had already offended enough against his trust in dealing so gently with such as deserved as little of mercy as they shewed of justice Agathocles suffers not their present rage to cool knowing that wicked attempts are to be done with a sudden fury though good counsels gather strength by delay and seeing they understood the causes of hatred he would likewise quicken them with the hopes of Spoil Go saith he and be your own Avengers make the Tyrants feel what they decreed you should suffer Let the wealth of Senators that know no modesty in their commands be the rewards of such generous Souls that can endure no Slavery Leave them no friends or confidents which may bewail or revenge their death nor children to inherit their Crimes with their Wealth Then immediately not to give space to the bad to repent nor to the good if there were any there to consider and in abhorrency of the fact to unite against him he commands the Trumpets to sound a charge as if he were sacking an Enemies Town The caitiff Army having this full licence to satisfie their revenge covetousness and lust soon fell to the execution and left nothing undone that a conquered City feels from an enraged Enemy They guarded all the posts of the City and shut up the Gates that none might escape their fury then they slew all the most daring and popular Citizens who hearing the tumult came forth unarmed into the streets to inquire the cause Then the houses streamed with the blood of the owners the Innocent fell with the Guilty and every one was slain that had something to satisfie the expectation of his murderer He that had no enemy met with death at the hand of his friend and a good name was a mark for ruine The Altars of the Gods were coloured with the blood of those that fled to them for refuge as Victimes to an incensed Deity The aged men and ancient matrons were led about in scorn by their miseries to make up the merrier part of this Tragedy And that nothing of unhappiness might be unfelt by the miserable Syracusans Rapes were mingled with Slaughters he that was the Assassinate of the Husband would be the Ravisher of the Wife and he that reeked with the blood of the Father would quench his flames of lust with the dishonour of the Daughter Their rage and lust was so high against the people that at last it grew hot among themselves and he was accounted an enemy that had got the more precious booty When any Virgin or Youth whom beauty made conspicuous fell into the hands of this barbarous rabble they were commonly torn in pieces by the violence of those who contended for their first abuse and then became the quarrel and armed the Ravishers to their mutual ruine Others while they hasted away with the gold and silver of the murdered owner were themselves a prey to a stronger arm Thus death and ruine reigned in Syracuse and the first day there were no less then four thousand of the most eminent Citizens that by honest arts had won the affections of the people murdered Some were apprehended and slain at the gates through which they thought to flie Others met death from which they fled in climbing over the town wall by too much fear and hast breaking their necks and limbs About six thousand escaped and some of them got safe to Agrigentum and other neighbouring Cities where the relation of their miseries did move a great deal of pity but the inhumane Souldiers would yet make them sensible of their fury in their remaining parts with more contumely ravishing their Wives and Daughters because they themselves had escaped with their lives This Cruelty lasted for two daies Agathocles's thirst of blood being not sooner to be quenched or because his authority was not yet so great as to forbid those crimes which he might with ease command or he was willing to indulge the lufts of his Army beyond all hopes of pardon that so they might not expect safety but in the conduct and preservation of him who had authorized their wickedness But when this base rabble of men did seem to be satiated with villany as having no more subjects to practice on to conclude the Tragedy he sends for all those Citizens whom he had secured and who had been reserved to feed his own eyes with their blood Of these such as he had most injured and whose vertues he might most fear were slain before him others less considerable he banished Onely one Dinocrates a bold and faithless person so like him in vices that the similitude had been the ground of a former acquaintance though now he was a stranger to his design he freely sets at liberty which was not the effect of Clemency or Friendship Vertues that Tyrants are not capable of but to provide a refuge for himself in the future For even the most barbarous and bloodiest villains in diffidence of a change of affairs will provide some private favour against the publick hatred This was Agathocles's first scene of Dominion
their Countries receive from Fortune And Heaven seemed by the Storm to have onely presented to Amilcar an opportunity to Glory that his great Vertues might appear in adverse accidents On the other side Agathocles was not so much troubled at these great preparations of the Enemy though they did far exceed his forces as at the conscience of his own Perfidiousness which examples he feared would provoke an imitation in his own Vassals For he suspected the revolt of most of the Towns he had garrison'd that they being secured to him by no stronger a bond of subjection then a Fear of his Cruelty which is but an ill mistress of Obedience would soon surrender themselves up to the Carthaginians and that the injured Cities would embrace this opportunity of Revenge and combine with the Enemy His greatest sollicitude was to secure Gela of which he was most jealous and which was likeliest to give the first Example of a Revolt and might most securely doe it the Africans being incamped within their Territories and the loss of twenty of his Ships together with all their lading being taken by the Enemy in that harbour increased his fears and made him more sollicitous to secure that City by a Garrison This he did not dare openly to attempt lest the Geloans who watched an opportunity to honest their Revolt should take this advantage of delivering themselves up to the Carthaginians which would be of great loss to him and emolument to his Enemies He therefore attempts them by Stratageme Some of his most daring Souldiers he habits as Peasants and Pedlers that seemed to mind no business less then a surprize these he sends into the Town by several waies and small companies with their arms concealed as coming to traffick and continues the supply of them till he conceived them equal to the Cities strength and able to secure the gates for his entrance After them he follows with his whole Army and entring without any resistance he presently summons the people and in a fierce and short speech charges them of contracting with the Old Enemy for the slavery of all the good people of Sicily Then not to give them time to prove their Innocence for it was not their Faith he desired but their Mony and their Town he immediately gives order to his Souldiers to slay the wealthiest Geloans which were above four thousand and makes a Proclamation that whosoever had Mony or Plate and did not immediately bring it forth to him should suffer the tortures that were due to the Betraiers of their Country This Slaughter and Terrours furnish'd the Tyrant with a vast sum of Mony but a greater Hatred for though by these waies he terrified all his Vassals yet this was but a weak security for their Allegiance the Sicilians being rather overcome then subdued and it is easier to make Subjects then to keep them Men may submit to the force of arms but they will never obey but a just power Agathocles himself also did doubt the effects of this Cruelty therefore that the number of the slain might not be known he buries the dead bodies in the Town-ditch Leaving a Garrison in Gela he marches towards the Enemy who had incamped on the Hill Ecnome or the wicked hill for the Tyrant Phalaris having formerly there kept his Engine of Torment the Brazen Bull he had made the place infamous by his Cruelty which did now seem to expiate the ignominy by affording ground to those that were ready to punish a bloodier Villain then he that first dishonoured it Over against them on another hill that had also been a fortification of Phalaris did Agathocles pitch his Tent. Betwixt both Armies ran the River Himera which either used for their defence while they forbore fighting which was for some time because the place had struck a terrour into both parties for at that time there was a tradition of an ancient Prophecy that in that place there should fall a great number of men in battel and the Prediction not being so clear as to discover on which side the loss should be both Armies were suspicious of their fortune and not daring in a full body to pass the River their Superstition and fear kept them from ingaging At length this accident drew them forth The Libyans whose Valour is wholly out of themselves and their confidence in the swiftness of their horses did usually pass the River to forage in the Enemies quarters Agathocles not to lie idle nor betray any fear by his quietness was tempted to the like and therefore sends a party upon the same design into the Punick quarters these having done their business returning heavy with booty a party of the Carthaginians issued out of their Trenches to recover the spoil This the Syracusan had foreseen and therefore had laid an Ambush near the River who when the Africans were eager in the pursuit and had inconsiderately passed the River suddenly assaulted them and chased them back to their own Trenches Agathocles who had seen all the action grew insolent with the success of his Stratageme and thought that now Victory courted him and intending to take the advantage of this disorder of the Enemy drew forth his whole Army to assault them within their Fortifications Which being done with extraordinary speed they had filled up the ditches broke down the Trenches and entred the Camp before the Carthaginians that were surprized could range themselves in order for defence But confusedly as it is usual in sudden assaults disposing themselves in that place and Order which Fortune and their Courage did present they stoutly endeavoured to avoid the ignominy of being beaten within their own defences But the Greeks as eagerly followed their advantages quickned with the hope of ending the War with this one Conflict so that their courage and number still increased within the Camp and the Africans hindred by their own disorders losing ground they were not far from Victory until Amilcar ranged and in good order opposed to them the Mercenaries of the Balearick Islands who slinging stones of above the weight of a Mina and being exact at the scope which they intend it being their onely weapon and their continual practice from their infancy poured such a showre of stones upon the Greeks that forced them to quit their ground and forsake the Trenches Agathocles notwithstanding despaired not of success but in another quarter assaults the Camp and when he had filled up the ditches and was almost master of the trenches behold another party of Carthaginians that were but just then landed as they drew near to the Camp hearing the shouts and noise of them that were fighting made hast and set upon the Enemies in the back so striking a terrour greater then their strength upon the Greeks who were yet stoutly opposed in the Front that they believed that they were assailed by a bigger Army then they did assault and therefore sought for safety by flight as despairing of victory over so numerous an Enemy
is that which doth adjust the proceedings of this Commonwealth against our Old Enemy the faithless and barbarous Carthaginians a people made for the plague of the World and with whom Peace is more dangerous then War For their Religion is Cruelty and by a cursed emulation they are more bloody then the Gods they worship being inhumane to their own Children and barbaronsly ingrateful to their most faithful Commanders How miserable then must it needs be to be their Slaves These when Africk had nothing left but Sands and Desarts which had not submitted to their violent and perfidious arts to recreate their wanton thirst of blood and treasure have invaded Sicily pretending no other cause of war but our generous love of Liberty and their boundless desire of Tyranny To whose attempts had the Gods been pleased to favour our just arms we had put an issue at the Battel of Himera and forced them to bound their Insolencies with the Sea But Fortune not their Valour snatched the Victory frrm us there and hath now brought them to our Walls where unless we behave our selves as persons worthy of Liberty we must endure the heaviest Slavery and in chains be the abject spectators of the Rapes of our Wives the Murders of our Children aged Parents see them wanton with that Wealth which hath been the price of our sweat blood For how can we expect a tolerable Peace from them who make War not for Glory but for Wealth and Lust And in vain should we expect Faith from them that are the Examples of Perfidy to the whole world So that the continuance of the War as well as the beginnings are not matter of our choice but necessity If any shall imprudently condemn us that we rather provoked then expected the Punick Arms they are forgetful of the duty of a wise Prince who ought to foresee dangers and not decline a present Hazard to prevent a future Ruine Nor can that people escape the censure of being imprudent which is so in love with a present Peace that they will sit still untill their Enemie hath by inslaving all their less potent Neighbours made himself too strong for their resistance Such resolutions therefore that are necessary are not subject to blame or praise neither are they to be measured by the Event for many times sage Counsels want that desired Success which often attends those that are indiscreet And if the approbation of either should depend upon the Issue men would be incouraged to erre and disheartned from giving their Country those safe advices which are the resolves of Prudence Since therefore it was neither in our power nor should it have been our choice to have avoided the War and that the Gods would not give Victory as the Merit of our Cause if we will retain our Liberty which should be more precious then our Lives there remains nothing now to doe but stoutly to wait for the return of our Fortune and with patience endure the miseries of a Siege which I doubt will be very great yet I that have learned to be unhappy can easily endure for it is some alleviation of misery to know the greatness of our Misfortune but my spirit is grieved for those of the Good people that must be shut up with me and must be necessitated to endure those unaccustomed dangers and continual fears Therefore I require all such as think themselves unequal to so adverse a fortune to forsake the Town and secure themselves and their goods where they can hope for most Peace and Safety All those that were Rich whose abundance made them soft and who feared to hazard their Wealth to maintain the Tyrants Greatness and such whose Hate of him made them willing to leave the den of such a Monster were credulous of what he said and accepted of this profer'd Liberty But they soon learnt that a Tyrant is never to be believed even in his most melting expressions or lowest condition for he had appointed his Mercenaries to kill them as they offered to depart and to seize their goods Thus by a compendious Villany he delivered himself of sixteen hundred men which he did not dare to trust in the Town and inriched himself with their Goods which they were removing farther from him Having by these wicked arts provided all things necessary for his purpose the rest that he could not order he permits to Fate knowing that something must be ventured and that many things which exceed the providence of man are often by Fortune disposed for the best These his provisions and Souldiers together with himself and his Son Archagathus he brings a shipboard so waiting for an opportunity to get out of the Haven resolving to take his counsels for that from the accidents of Fortune for many times such counsels do discover themselves in working which in a bare expectation had been for ever lost The concealment of his Design was no less wonderful then the boldness of it for he had communicated his intentions to none either through his natural Pride or fear of discovery and disappointment or doubting the contradiction of his Friends and Counsellors which is the common bane of Counsels For men commonly through opiniastrete dislike and labour to overthrow those designs which though never so noble proceeded not from themselves Or fearing the discouragement of his Army For Vulgar spirits are alwaies enemies to difficult undertakings Therefore for some or all these reasons he suppressed his Intentions onely giving forth that he had found out a new and safe way of Victory This great concealment caused several discourses among the Speculativi Some conceived that this way was to sail into Italy and there gather up such whom great necessities made hazardous and with them to attempt the fortune of a second Battel Others that his intent was to land his little party in some other places of that Island that were under the African Empire and so divert the Enemy from the Siege of Syracuse But all concluded those unhappy men as lost and devoted to destruction that were forced to follow the Rashness of such a Commander that seemed infatuated to ruine So they wept over their Friends and Kindred whose miserable departure from among the living seemed to be respited onely by the Carthaginian Fleet that then lay in the mouth of the Haven This Obstruction had so long delaied Agathocles that he grew almost mad to get forth he saw it was impossible and to stand still was dangerous Therefore when his restless Mind had presented many plots and upon the rejecting of one had suggested another and none would attain his end at length Fortune administred such an advantage as his own Reason or Power could never have invented or made For some of the Victualling vessels that had been sent forth to bring Provisions to the City were now returning and being come somewhat near the shore were discovered by the Enemy who presently with their whole Fleet made up to take them and
alwaies believed greater then they are and when the truth cannot be discovered Fear doth conjecture many false dangers as also that he might permit his Souldiers to take a full prospect of the Country which through their whole march appeared so delightful and rich that it did rather refresh then weary their drooping spirits For the whole Country abounded with Vineyards Orchards of all kind of Fruits Gardens and places of Pleasure The Fields and manured grounds seemed to labour under the burden of the crop the Pastures with variety of Cattel boasted the riches of the owners every piece of ground was exactly watered with Rivers and Aqueducts adorned with stately and magnificent houses which bragged of as much Riches within as there was plenty without This being the Country whither the wealthier Carthaginians made their diversions when they were wearied with the tumult and business of the City The happiness of the soil soon raised the hopes of the Sicilians when they saw there were equal rewards for their labours and large booties for their Victories Then all began to praise and commend the prudence of Agathocles and duty with the love of Obedience returned to every breast So unsteady are the motions of Vulgar souls whose considerations being fastned to the present objects vary according to their appearances Agathocles makes use of this present temper and therefore giveth a sudden storm to the City which through long Peace had outlived the knowledge of an Enemy and all experience of War and at this time thought of nothing less then an Invasion and so was soon master'd by the desperate Greeks to whom their Leader gave the plunder of the Town that so he might raise their Courage and feed their hopes by the booty From thence he marches to a City called White Tunis which was about two hundred and fifty miles from Carthage and makes it fall under the same fate as the other did they being also circumvented by the security of Peace and mischiefs of War The Army being now inriched by the spoils of these two Cities would have them garrison'd as places to deposite their pillage Agathocles that knew how destructive this would be to his enterprize and that the more hopes they had of a refuge they would have the less courage to fight tells them that the booty which they had as yet got was but poor and contemptible to those vast treasures one Victory over the Enemy would afford and that until that were past no place could be secure but afterwards every Village would be a safe depository to the conquerour And urging this with such authority as his success had now heightned he causes them to demolish those two Towns and incamps in the field lest the retirements of the City should soften them by Luxury before the encounter which he expected from the Enemy In the mean while the Carthaginian Fleet that rode about the shore to wait the issue of the Sicilians landing when they had seen them burn their Ships did at first triumph supposing that their fears had driven them to such desperate counsels but when they saw them draw off from the shore and march up into the neighbouring country they then conjectured at their design and judged that the flames of those ships would kindle a fire in their Commonwealth and therefore wish'd they could have quench'd them with the Sicilian blood or their own tears Thus expressing their fears and sorrows with great lamentations and hanging the prowes of their Gallies with skins which was the ceremony of sadness when any great misfortune befell their City they gathered up the brazen beaks of the burnt ships and sent them with the Intelligence of what had happened to the Senate But before this advice came Carthage was alarmed by the affrighted Peasants and Fugitives of the sacked Towns who fled thither for succour and shelter from the destructive Greeks and as it is usual they had magnified every thing to the greatest terrour The whole City was amazed with this unexpected Invasion and could not reconcile this sadder news with the Intelligence of their late Victory at Himera but by supposing their condition worse and that by the fortune of a second Battel they had lost all their forces both by Sea and Land For otherwise they conceived Agathocles would never have dared to assail his Conquerours at their own gates or could have been so rashly greedy as for some hasty spoils of Africk to have left Syracuse a prey to the besiegers nor could he have passed the Sea had his enemies Fleet been yet unattempted These sad apprehensions filled all minds with horrour and confusion The Senate with fear and hast was gathered into the Piazza and the people with hideous clamours flocking about them requiring them maturely to consult the safety of their Republick which seemed now upon the Verge of Ruine The excess of fear in every Order made them undervalue their own strength and the greater diligence and the more arts every one used to conceal it made them appear more evidently fearful They discoursed how that they had no Army of Mercenaries ready to oppose the Enemy their Nobless was sluggish luxurious and by a long Peace softned to effeminacy their more hopeful Youth were either lost in the Shipwreck or emploied in the Island the Populacy were wholly ignorant of arms and now so terrified that they would never dare to flesh themselves on an experienced Enemy hardned with former perils heightned with spoils and as they suspected with a mighty Victory Therefore in this doubtful state of affairs some were of advice to send Commissioners to treat with Agathocles concerning Peace and by that advantage to inform themselves fully of their Enemies strength Others were of opinion that they should defer any such Treaty till they were acquainted with the state of their own Army and so to manage themselves accordingly But while they were distracted with these different counsels the messengers from the Admiral arrive at the Haven who giving them a particular account of what had happened and shewing them the beaks of their Enemies Ships did allay their fears but heightned their indignation against their Sea-Officers that through baseness or folly had suffered a baffled Enemy to invade Africk and venting their fury in a censure of them with more calm spirits they fall to consult of fitting Remedies for the present Mischief The knowledge of their own and Agathocles's condition made them despise their half-conquered Enemy therefore scorning to treat with him of Peace they resolved upon the finishing of the War To this end as more jealous of their Liberty then doubtful of Victory which is seldome obtained by divided Commands they appoint two Generals Bomilcar and Hanno Persons of different tempers and opposite Factions The first cruel faithless ambitious and impatient of equality the other more desirous of Glory then Power of a civil Modesty fierce against an Enemy but tender of his own Citizens Bomilcar was chosen because his Greatness
force a reverence when they saw a Person of so great experience and that had for a long time been the chief fountain of severity and reward or whether he should go by such a way of fear and trembling as would conceal all his arts of dissembling and speaking and so be more powerful to mitigate the incensed Rabble For it is the custome of the Vulgar to be changed by sudden and unusual appearances and be as prone to pity as they were immoderate in anger This last way was thought most expedient and therefore laying aside all his Robes and ensigns of Power squallid and deformed with fear with a countenance composed to tears yet full of Pride and Anger he comes into the midst of the Souldiers who were presently moved with the miserable habit of him whom before they enyied He speaks to this purpose Had the Gods exacted my life as a Sacrifice for my Armies safety or destin'd me to fall in executing revenge on the Enemies of Syracuse their Decrees had been but the answer of my Praiers who have already devoted my life to yours and my Country's service But to be sold by those whom I have preserved in Liberty and made Lords of Africk that my death should be their ignominy whom I have led and taught the waies of glory gives me just canse to complain of their severity It is not that I fear death for I need no other witnesses then your selves how often I have provoked it for your emolument Nor am I frighted to become the mockery of that Enemy on whose Ruines I have already raised such pillars of Glory as cannot be wasted by the malignity of Time or undermined by the dishonour of my Grave But your eternal infamy that have sold your Captain and the Slavery of our Commonwealth which will lose a most industrious and faithful instrument of her preservation are the greatest terrours my destruction brings Besides the dismal effects that it will have even upon Vertue it self and be destructive to the society of following generations for my blood spilt in this mutiny will confirm the licentious insolence against Magistracy and discourage the pious zeal of Children for their Fathers honour It is true indeed the too much Piety of my Son hath raised this Tumult by more duty then consideration For dangerous events do follow even honest actions if Prudence do not moderate the course of Justice But his greatest crime was that he anticipated your fury and prevented your revenge of your own injuries For though the Majesty of a Prince and the honour of a Magistrate were but empty names and vain shadows yet it is your concernment that He which is your Commander should not be esteemed the worst of men as that drunken Railer would have rendred me because that Society is near a dismal dissolution whose Chief or Prince may be safely defamed But it is in vain to complain since the Gods have decreed the end of this glorious Enterprize by my death For who will dare to lead you to fire the Gates of Carthage and to find your arrears in ransacking her Riches when you have applauded the dishonour and conspired the betraying of your most faithful Servant Or what need the Carthaginians fear your arms when by these base arts for by better they cannot they can ruine your best Officers and make you bind their yokes upon your own necks I desire to live no longer to see your Infamy nor will I experience the Cruelty or Clemency of any other but free and satisfied with my own integrity and glory will anticipate all danger Onely I desire you that the short time your cruel and faithless Enemy will suffer you to survive me you will remember Me among the brave Examples and put me in the number of those that by an honourable end have escaped the publick Miseries Having ended his Speech he drew out his Sword and put it to his breast as if he had intended to have killed himself which was acted with so much life for he was an excellent Mimick that the rude Multitude unacquainted with the arts of Tyrants and their too much fear of death thought it was real Therefore with loud acclamations and striking their spears upon their shields which was the way whereby the Greek Souldiers did use to express their desires they cried out that he should forbear the ruine of himself and them that they did acquit him of all accusations and with a shout begged and gave pardon at once desiring him to re-assume his Royal habiliments which while he puts on he weeps and thanks the changeable Multitude that so soon was differing from it self and that before being nothing but Fury did now become all Patience For every Multitude is moveable especially that of Souldiers so that the remedies of Sedition are as easie as the beginnings of it The Tyrants Speech having recovered so much pity as served him for Authority and seeing the return of Obedience and that the Souldiers were now fit to receive commands he presently turns the remainder of their fury upon the Enemy who were expecting the issue of their practices and the Revolt of the whole Army of which they had received some already Whom when they saw marching out they conceived to be such as had forsaken the Tyrant and were coming over to them for the speed of Agathocles had prevented any news of the change in the City and when he was come near them he tells his Souldiers that now they should expiate their seditious fury and blot out their treason with the blood of the authours and turn their crime to their honour Then sounding a charge he chaces the Africans to their own tents who being deceived with this surprize made no resistance but left many of their fellows dead upon the place as testimonies of the Sicilians Repentance Though Agathocles had thus dexterously escaped this great danger and revenged himself on the Africans without any other loss then of two hundred Authours of the Sedition that had revolted to the Enemy yet was his hatred still alive of the whole Army that had put him to such affrightments and could he have been safe he would have contrived their universal ruine So implacable are the Spirits of Tyrants Yet notwithstanding he intends to divide them whom the contemplation of their number often incites to Sedition and makes them scorn to ask that pay which they see they can force Therefore leaving the rest of the Army with his Son to secure Tunis and the acquisitions thereabout he takes with him eight thousand Foot and four hundred Horse and follows the Carthaginian Forces who were gone into Numidia to suppress some Insurrections among their revolting Subjects Where though by their speed they had reduced many to Obedience and by moderating their commands recovered the Affections of others yet did they not dare to give battel to the Greeks but incamped themselves on an Hill defensible by nature and incompassed about with Rivers of a
difficult passage Then they commanded their Numidians that were in arms for them after their manner of fighting still to follow the Sicilians and by many sudden assaults to retard their march But Agathocles sending out his Slingers and Archers to encounter with them leads his other Forces forward to find the Enemy who being certified of his approach sent out a party to hinder his passage at the River where they slew many of his men But the Sicilians though less in number yet greater in resolution and heightned with many Victories forced their passage and stoutly maintained the fight with the Carthaginians In the mean time those Numidians that were on either side forbore the fight being of an unsteady Faith like their sandy soil neither united among themselves nor constant adherers unto others and standing like Spectators of the Combate and as so many Vultures watching to prey upon the falling Carcasses they determined to rifle the Camp and luggage of which party soever was worsted At last the day inclining to Agathocles he pursued the Africans to their Camp which being well fortified they bravely defended and returned more wounds then they did receive yet was the Tyrant obstinate to force them within their defences hoping to compleat the Victory so happily begun The Numidians seeing the Carthaginians so well preserving their Camp though they lost the field immediately turn their hopes upon Agathocles's Tents where killing those few that were left for the guard of them they took all the Prisoners and spoil and like birds of prey when they had got the spoil made no delay but hasted away The Tyrant hearing of this drew off from the Carthaginians to succour his own Camp but their haste and the approaching Night delivered them from his revenge and they escaped with the greatest part of the spoil Agathocles therefore to supply the loss his Army had sustained by the Numidians did equally divide among the Souldiers his own booties lest they should mutiny In this Battel were taken a thousand Greeks whereof five hundred were Syracusans who in hatred of the Tyrant had served the Carthaginians These being all imprisoned in a Garrison fearing the Cruelty of the Tyrant by night set upon the guards but being worsted retired into a strong place which they intended to defend till they might have good Articles Agathocles hearing of it draws up his whole Army against them whom the fear of present death made forgetful of the Perfidiousness of the Tyrant and so they yielded up themselves upon his Oath that he would spare their Lives which they had no sooner done but he kills them every man Notwithstanding all these Overthrows the Carthaginians were not broken in their Courage and Resolution for Empire which is alwaies the guise of great spirits not to vary with their fortunes and therefore did so little repent of their unhappily-defended Liberty that they chose rather to be overcome then not to attempt at Victory A temper they retained as long as they had a City For in their last War with the Romans before ever they would yield to quit their City they pulled down their Houses for timber to build a Navy and when they wanted Iron and Brass they melted their Gold and Silver for the same uses and their Matrons cut off their Hair to make cordage for their Engines This undaunted resolution their sending forth fresh Armies their wariness of engaging the hardiness and experience which by their continual Conflicts they had acquired the difficulties of this last Skirmish and the much blood the Victory cost him made the Tyrant see how unequal such a petit Prince as he and a single City that was blocked up and could afford him no support for so vast designs were to so mighty a Commonwealth that seemed inexhaustible in her Treasures and store of men and that at this rate they could longer hold out with their Overthrows then he with his Victories for his Forces were worn out with the Successes and there could be little trust in the Souldiers he gathered from the conquered people He therefore casts about to get those succours somewhere else that he could not expect from home Among those whom he thought on none appeared so fit for his design as Ophellas who having been one of the Commanders of Alexander in the partage of that Empire had seized upon Cyrene in Libya and had made himself Prince thereof with which it was known that he was not contented and therefore had many projects to enlarge his Dominion and make himself eminent This man Agathocles judged fittest for his purpose and easiest to be imposed upon For Ambition infatuates and while it presents the lustre of Greatness dazles the Reason that it cannot see the dangers and difficulties in the acquisition nor look into the practices of those that tempt them To him therefore the Tyrant sent Ortho a Syracusan as Ambassadour to cajole him into this war and as a reward of his dangers makes profer of all the acquisitions he had already made or should hereafter make by their joint Forces in Africk For he conceived Sicily an Empire large enough for his ambition who modestly thought too great a Command was dangerous and in great possessions men made themselves too obnoxious to the strokes of Fortune He had made this war upon the Continent onely to divert the Africans from the Island and to blot out the ignominy of his overthrow at Himera not to settle a Kingdome there which was divided by so vast a Sea from his principality of Syracuse If hereafter his desires should be enlarged with his Fortunes he had Italy nearer him a place fitter for his designs and where he had better pretensions and there he should exercise his valour and enlarge his Empire but all Africk he would leave to Ophellas as fittest for the King of Cyrene This wrought the desired effect on Ophellas who having been long waiting for such an opportunity greedily swallowed the bait For men are more desirous of acquiring that which is anothers then careful to preserve their own This made him not reflect upon the party with whom he had to doe but as one of the lesser birds of prey who are eager to seize on that which their nature incites them to but do not look unto a greater fowl which is above them and seeks to swallow them with their spoil so he onely considering the Empire of Carthage did not mind the infamous Perfidy of Agathocles but hastily concludes a League with him and provides for the Expedition To this end he sends Mony and Officers to Athens from whence he had married a Wife of the stock of the famous Miltiades that by the favour of her Friends they might levy Souldiers there and gather up some other un-emploied Grecians who were easily perswaded to this enterprize for they found Greece a most troublesome place wasted and harrassed by the several pretensions and wars of Alexander's Commanders and therefore hoped for a more safe and easie
with more terrour and less spoil then they had before to retire towards Archagathus that was now amazed with Ruines on every side For the Carthaginians by their frequent Incounters arriving to more experience and greater hardiness and by their many Losses learning safer counsels had wholly changed their arts and customes of fights They were now more wary in their engagements forbore forward onsets and used the arts of a Veterane Army For many wars that are too violent in their first fury vanish by delaies and Armies that cannot charge their Enemies are consumed by their own wants and wast in their own fury They likewise resolved no more to venture their whole force in one body but divided them into three several parties whereof one was to march by the Sea-coast the second was appointed to secure the In-land Towns and the third was emploied in the upper Libya By this counsel they secured their City from the dishonour and molestation of a Siege For the Enemy would not dare to lie down before it when so many parties were unconquered in the Field Nor did they fear a storming of it wherein there was such a multitude their walls and fortifications very strong and the Sea affording much protection by washing the foundations of her rampires Besides by sending out these Parties they should ease that scarcity of Provision which began to afflict them all the Country about being wasted by the Warre and the number of people almost infinite that fled thither for safety from the Cruelty of the Sicilians Their Credit also which is of great moment in all Wars would be kept up by having so many Armies in the Field And lastly which was of most advantage it would necessitate their Enemies to divide into so many small Parties as would be less considerable and easily baffled All which Ends they did attain For their Stores were proportionable to their lesser number Their Confederates now revered that power which could not be spent by so sepeated Losses and were incouraged in their Fidelity when they saw so powerful a defence ready to protect their faith so that many who before were afraid to own any correspondence with them now freely administred large Succours And Archagathus as they expected to keep up his Fathers fame was forced to break his Army into as many pieces as might obviate the enterprizes of his Enemies one whereof was to secure the Sea-coast another was commanded by Aeschrion and He himself leaving a guard at Tunis marched with a third Thus all Africk was filled with arms and now raised in expectation of a speedy issue Hanno that commanded the Punick Forces in the In-land expedition meets with Aeschrion and drawing him into an Ambuscade routs him and kills him with four thousand foot and two hundred horse those that escaped sled five hundred furlongs till they came to Archagathus Himilcon that was sent into the upper Libya waits at a certain City for Eumachus who was returning with his Army heavy with plunder The Greeks no sooner came near the Carthaginian but they offered him battel Himilcon refuses not but knowing their prosperous greediness had made them proud and unwary intends to assault them by a stratageme which proved as happy in the event as it had been in the project For leaving part of his Army in the Town with orders to sally forth when he began to flie and to charge the Enemy in the rear when they pursued him with the other part he marches forth and fights the Greeks near their own Camp whence after a small opposition be flies as if he were worsted Eumachus as confident of the Victory though he could see little reason for the Enemies so speedy flight and therefore might have suspected some unusual arts without any order follows them Which being seen by that party which was left in the Town they immediately issued forth with a great noise by that giving notice to Himilcon to stop his flight and so terrified the Sicilians that they being charged on all sides and daunted with the surprize presently fled But not being able to recover their Camp the way to it being intercepted by the Africans they drew up on a neighbouring Hill where there was no water where their Enemies besieging them they were partly by thirst and partly by the sword almost all consumed so that of eight thousand foot scarce thirty and of eight hundred horse not forty escaped to carry the sad news to Archagathus a Person too insolent in his Prosperity with any equality of mind to bear these great Losses He having this intelligence draws back all his forces to Tunis gathers up the relicks of the beaten Parties recalls the other that he had sent out and fortifies himself till his Father should come to relieve him to whom he had sent this afflicting news These great Losses were more dreadful in the consequences for most of the Confederates that were the friends of the Syracusans Fortune not of his Cause soon withdrew themselves and fled farther from his ruines onely some few that did more fear the Punick Revenge then affect the Friendship of the Greeks stai'd till they might reconcile themselves to the Carthaginians by a more seasonable and treacherous Defection The Enemy also drew up all their forces close to his Camp both to heighten his necessities and increase his sears Himilcon besieged him so as he could not forage abroad and Artabas that had the charge of the Sea-coast came up so close that he cut off all hopes of relief by Sea So that the Army not being able to break out nor having Provisions to sustain them within raged among themselves and languished by their own force through want of action Terrour Famine and Sedition filled the whole Camp and the baffled Souldiers as is usual in such distresses referred their Miseries not to their own Baseness but to the Vices and Weakness of their Commander His former Cruelty made him suspected that he betraied those Souldiers to the Enemies sword who would have formerly bathed theirs in his blood for the murder of Lyciscus Afflicted spirits are capable of any jealousie Though it is probable he had no other guilt then the want of a Commander's Vertues For by the defects and Vices of a Ruler the most prosperous condition of a Society may be overthrown as by his Vertues the most oppressed may be easily raised and there is nothing either good or bad in a Commonwealth which may not be altered or alleviated by the Vertues of the Prince Agathocles hearing the desperate condition of his Army in Africk prepares to hasten thither to apply some Remedies and therefore commends his affairs of Sicily which Dinocrates's good conduct of the Free League had extremely disturbed to the care and fortune of Leptines And having gotten as many Souldiers as he could aboard seventeen Vessels he waited for an opportunity to get out of the Haven that was then blocked up by thirty Carthaginian Ships which was made more prosperous and
easie then he could have hoped for at the same time there had gotten into the Haven by night eighteen Ships which he had hired of the Tuscans Their fortunate coming raised the Tyrant's courage to a resolution of fighting the Enemy To perform it he commands the Tuscans to continue in the Haven till he had drawn the Africans in pursuit after him So making out with full Sails the Carthaginians made up towards him and the Tuscans after them Agathocles when he saw the Tuscans near the Enemy turns back his Vessels upon them also which unexpected assault both behind and before did so break their spirits that they thought not of fighting but of flight five of their Ships being immediately taken and the Admiral also ready to be boarded who to prevent the ignominy and misery of Captivity presently killed himself An act more rash then stout For it is the temper of a brave Soul alwaies to hope which if he had done he had escaped as did his Ship which a brisk wind brought off from the Enemy without any farther loss This success at Sea made the passage to Africk safe opened the Trade of Syracuse which was very sensible of her wants and so raised the Tyrants hopes in his Fortune that he designs another attempt upon his Enemies at Land Therefore he commands Leptines forth to wast and forage about all the Regions of those Cities that were at fewd with him but especially of Agrigentum where he was informed that the late defeat given to Xenodicus had broken no less his credit then his force his Adversity having heightned the clamours of an opposite Faction against him which the envy of his Prosperity had first formed If Leptines therefore could draw him forth to fight the Tyrant promised himself an assured Victory over a factious Enemy For where the Souldiers distrust their General and he likewise is displeased with them his Orders are disputed and their Obedience given according to their own counsels Every one will be ready to command and advise and none to execute It is the mutual confidence which begets resolution in all parties and draws success along with it Leptines acts according to his instructions and by fire and sword wasting the Regions of Agrigentum forces into the Town many sad informations where the Enemy was Xenodicus whom his former fortune and the present odium had made more wary did forbear any attempts to restrain the fury of the provoking Enemy nor would he lead his forces to another trial of fortune with those that were so lately their Conquerours preferring safe counsels with Reason to rash which onely Chance could make prosperous He would not hazard the Safety and Liberty of his City for the spoil of the Country nor gratifie his Enemies so far as to satisfie their expectation by accepting of a Battel For he considered that though the Number of his men were not inferiour to the Enemy yet their Courage was and the Softness of men bred on Stalls and Shops not to be compared with the hardiness and experience of such that were acquainted with the toils of War But being pressed on by the Factions of his own Citizens and continual reproaches of Baseness and Treachery from his own Army which when it hath laid aside the modesty of discipline is extremely impatient of not fighting he was forced to be the companion of other men's Rashness and therefore leading out his Army he did engage the Enemy and was as soon routed For those that were so fierce before the encounter were fearful in the dangers of it and being more fit for a Sedition then for a defence of their City they soon fled leaving behind them of their fellow-Citizens five hundred foot and fifty horse Xenedicus with the loss of this Battel lost his Country also for being continually assaulted with the accusations of his Enemies he was forced to leave his own City and by a voluntary exile planted himself at Gela. These two Victories could not yet make the Tyrant secure but he designs a more base and bloody upon his own Vassals who he doubted in his absence might open their gates to receive in Dinocrates Thus wicked men alwaies fear and expect what they are conscious they do deserve and though some Tyrants may be safe for a while from the punishment of their Crimes yet none can ever be secure To provide therefore against such practices he projects how he may find out and murder those who were most averse to his Government In order whereunto he appoints a publick Sacrifice and Feast in pretence of a Religious gratitude for those two Victories that so the publick Jollity and excess of Wine might take off that guard which the Vassals of a Tyrant should observe and set upon their words and provokes them to a greater liberty of speech By this means he should more indear the Rabble unto him who commonly receive such publick Feasts as the base price of their Slavery and esteem such Rejoicings among the blessings of Peace and as the adequate wages for their many years of Bondage And besides he should discover the minds of such as had freer souls and their inclinations towards him His Preparations were answerable to his Design and the whole City being resolved into Mirth to provoke them to a greater freedome of speech himself laies aside his Imperial Vestments plaies the part of a Mimick and was profuse in Drollery jearing some of his company and acting their most ridiculous postures So that he did tickle the Vulgar rout as much as a Stage-play or the tricks of Jugiers And it was usual with him at other times to come into the publick Conventions and Assemblies without any guard and there to provoke the laughter of the people by trivial and plebeian jeasts and by mocking and personating some of those that were about him But at this time he made use of all his arts and the more to excite the petulancy of others he fell a jearing himself For taking up in his hands a golden Goblet he told the people that he left not off his Potter's trade till he found the way of making such Pots as those Glorying thus in his low beginnings because it boasted the subtilties of him that had raised himself from such an abject depth to so great an height or to shew how patient he would be of another's liberty in scoffing him that did make sport with his own Infamy or which is most likely it was in him as in all that have sinned beyond shame Ignominy is their last pleasure So that he was never moved nor did blush at that which was the fortune of his birth when he gloried in the wickedness of his life For when he lay at the Siege of a great Town the Souldiers in the Garrison as it is usual to extimulate their adversaries with reproaches and the Vulgar wits are pleased with petulant scoffs to vex those whom they cannot strike would call Agathocles Potter and Kilneman and ask
him when his trade would furnish him to pay his Souldiers He would unmoved reply that he would doe it as soon as he had taken their Town With such pastime did he entertain his guests These tricks of the Tyrant were variously interpreted according to the humours of the Spectatours Some that were of a credulous and slavish temper took them for the evidences of a Popular spirit and a Civil habit of mind and comparing him with Dionysius he seemed more like a just and lawful Prince whose Right and Innocency is his guard and who uses the ministry of men for Majesty not Security then a Tyrant to whom Distrust is his greatest and most singular defence For Dionysius was so afraid of giving any opportunity to the people's hate for revenge that he suffered the hair of his head beard to grow to an indecent length because he did not dare to trust his throat to the razour of a Barber and when it came to be troublesome he singed it off with a Candle But this his Successour did seem to them to have more noble arts and freer waies to secure himself and his Empire Others who remembred his former Cruelty and Pride and were acquainted with the arts of Tyrants did look upon these present practices as very ominous For Usurpers never seek to please the people but while they are binding the yoke upon their necks nor are they ever kind but when they are about to kill And as the Tragical Poets never bring the Gods on the Stage but to make some dismal Catastrophe so Princes when they descend so low as to practise upon the people by becoming their mockery some horrid scene is to be acted by them They esteemed not his appearing in publick without a Guard to be any effect of a Vertuous management of his Power but rather an insolent triumph over their Liberty that it might appear he had so debased their spirits as that they did not dare to assault a naked Tyrant By these and the like discourses every one discovered his judgement which Agathocles either by his own Observation gathered or by the information of his Spies persons whose baseness was esteemed beneath caution whom he had dispersed about among the people to provoke and watch others to their Ruine And the number of those in whom he found any footsteps left of their dying Liberty was about five hundred whom together with some other of the most eminent Syracusans he invites to another Feast and by his Mercenaries murders them mingling their blood with the wine Besides the deliverance from so many supposed Enemies and the seisure of their Wealth the Tyrant supposed he had gotten another advantage that by this means he had raised such a Distrust and Jealousie among the Citizens which is one of the most especial Arts of Tyrants that they would not dare to trust one another with any secret practice against him who had such diligent Observers and so exact Informers that would betray the most simple speeches of a Feast and Mirth to their inhumane Master By this appears the curse of Heaven upon that miserable people who are subject to an Usurping Tyrant who conscious of the greatness of his own Crimes and that no condition can alleviate the publick hatred towards him will no less in his joyful then sad times practise their Miseries To secure that condition which is prosperous as well as to prevent an approaching Ruine still habituates him to murder the innocent and oppress the miserable either his Pride or his Fear driving him to inhumane courses After this bloody Feast the Tyrant together with his Son Heraclidas hastens to Africk where he finds his Army half famished all filled with confusion and despair and capable of nothing but fears To raise up their Spirits and relieve their Wants he would have led them out to some action but there was no way either for Victory or Plenty but by first breaking the Punick Forces which had block'd up all passes in such sure defences as were impossible for so profligated an Army to overcome He therefore applies himself to all those arts which might tempt the Enemy from their Fortifications to give him Battel in the Field and presents them with many advantages But the Carthaginians that abounded with whatsoever was necessary chearful in the fresh remembrance of their late Victories and faithful among themselves would not hazard a Battel to overcome that Enemy who pressed by wants and weakned with Seditions would fall by their delaies Agathocles when he saw all his attempts made the scorn of his Enemies that the credit of his Arms was now fallen into contempt that Victuals did more and more fail in his Camp to recover his glory and recall the spirits of his Souldiers he was resolved to try rash counsels since good advices succeeded not and he would force the Enemy in their Trenches Therefore sick with delay and impatient of hope he leads out his Army which consisted of twelve thousand Greeks as many Gauls and Tuscans ten thousand Libyans who were of no setled faith to either party and with these he assaults the Carthaginian Camp Though their impatience for their wants and their dejected spirits were not to be allaied or raised by any charms of Courage nor would admit any formall speech yet did he as briefly as he could while he drew them out desire them to Remember their former and later Victories that they now stood upon the theatre of their Glory and trampled upon the ashes and bones of the Punick Armies therefore now they should go with courage and for ever cut off that faithless and conquered Enemy who did confess themselves their vassals by not daring to look upon them in an open Field They were now not so much to think of a Battel as to execute revenge and that by taking those despicable Prisoners within their own Tents they did scale the Walls of Carthage put an end to that tedious War and reap the harvest of all their toils With these sick hopes he led them on to the assault which the Carthaginians were prepared to receive and having the advantages of ground of their works and the excess in number did easily repulse the Sicilians who a long time maintained their Charge and followed their attempt but all in vain Agathocles seeing no hopes drew off his starved Legions to their own Tents but was pursued by the Carthaginians who spent all their fury upon the Greeks and the other Strangers but spared the Libyans that by such an indulgence they might be invited to a revolt They continued the execution as long as the day and their anger lasted having killed three thousand of the Enemy the rest with sorrow and fear got safe to their Camp where they found the same wants they left but made more intolerable by their wounds and shame The loss of this day and the terrours of the following night made the Tyrant quite desperate and drove him out of Africk The night
following this Battel was unquietly spent in either Camp The Africans proud of the return of their Fortune gave themselves up to Feasts and Sacrifices and with Songs and triumphant noises made the Valleys and neighbouring Woods to resound their mirth And not to provoke their Gods in an inhumane gratitude they offered up the choicest and comeliest of their Prisoners in a sacrifice to them While these abominable Victimes were consuming on the Altar a strong wind suddenly arises and carries the flame to the hangings of their holy Tent which stood next to the Altar from thence the flame spread it self to the Generall 's Tent and afterwards catch'd hold of those Tents of the Officers that were nearest to it This unexpected and violent chance fill'd all with confusion and many of the Souldiers who endeavoured to quench the flame or to remove their arms and luggage were consumed by the fire for the wind growing higher had spread it upon the Souldiers huts which being made of dry earth and thatched with reed were soon on a flame so that it became stronger then the Army could master and many were intercepted in it Heaven as it were exacting revenge for their Cruelty to the poor Captives making them perish in those impious flames which they had kindled for others Those that had gotten out to the sides of the Camp and from the fire were incountred with another fear not so real but as full of danger For the Libyans that were of Agathocles's party being resolved to leave him with his fortune and were about five thousand had just at the time that the fire began forsaken the Camp at Tunis and were coming to surrender themselves to the Carthaginians These being discovered by the Scouts and Guards were conceived to be the whole Army of the Enemy coming to assault their Camp by night and in this confusion by the Fire which their present fears made them imagine he might kindle This news being spread about the whole Camp every one thought the Enemy had gotten into the Trenches and that they were all betraied so that no way of safety was presented unto them but onely flight which being done without any order or respect had to their Commanders was so confused that some for hast broke their necks down the hill upon which their Camp was pitch'd others were angry at such as stood in their way and through the darkness of the night not able to discover whether they were Friends or Foes fell foul one upon another In this darkness amazement and confusion there were many slain and more wounded and the number of those that perished was accounted five thousand They that had escaped all dangers but their fears got safe to Carthage and filled the whole City with terrour relating the Army to be quite broken and mingling some truth with their affrighted apprehensions made all things desperate yet very uncertain Therefore they set open their Gates to receive their flying Souldiers yet carefully watching lest the Enemy should fall into the Town with them But the day discovered their errours and mitigated their fears though it increased their grief and jealousies when they saw the dead bodies of their Friends and the ashes of their Tents and goods they could not conceive it a chance or refer it to Providence but doubted whether it were not some open Enemy or some false Citizen that had occasioned so much Ruine it look'd so like a designed Mischief On the other side in the Sicilian Camp the remembrance of the overthrow had composed all to an horrid sorrow they had weak and faint fires a silence like to that of Tombs and Charnel-houses their few words were low and without any comfort the groans of the wounded were the loudest noise their thoughts various and distracted walking about their Trenches like men that could not sleep rather then as such that desired to watch Their very quiet was dreadful and presently were they deluded with as vain fears as those that had affrighted the Enemy For when the revolting Libyans did not dare to venture farther in the surrendring of themselves to the Carthaginians because they saw the Fire and heard that confused noise in their Camp they returned back towards their former quarters in the Sicilian Camp But their motion being discovered by the Centinels and Scouts who by reason of the darkness of the night could not discern what they were the terrour of the past day's overthrow suggested that they were the victorious Carthaginians coming to give a Camisade to their Army This Intelligence was carried to the Tyrant and the Alarm suddenly passed over the whole Camp Every one was distracted what course to take Some were to make good the Works others were for drawing forth the most still contradicted the rest without prescribing what else was to be done And as it happens in unhappy and disturbed counsels those things seemed best which they had neither time nor conveniency to act the continual messages of the affrighted Scouts did disturb their resolutions and every unusual accident altered and confounded their determinations By this time the flame of the Carthaginian Tents grew more conspicuous and the exceeding noise which their fears made conveyed them also to the Sicilian Camp Who then thought the Enemy was so near that it was in vain to deliberate but all were set upon flight So impetuously rushing out of their Tents they leaped over their Trenches which way soever their blind fear did direct them the noise which their own hast made did perswade them it was the coming on of the Enemies into the Camp and this doubled their hast noise and fears And each one laying hold upon another either to force them out of the way or to help themselves forward by their neighbours speed were conceived as apprehending enemies and presently were killed by their own fellows Some were so madded with their fears that they knew not which way they ran nor which to chuse and driving upon the returning Libyans fell to fight with one another as with the Foe This hurry continued all the night all which time their terrours and despairs admitted no deliberation or counsel till the day discovered the mockery of Fortune and that they had lost four thousand men in this confusion The Occurrences of this night did upbraid the weakness of an arm of flesh when two such potent Armies were routed and driven out of their strengths by a vain and empty Fear and put to flie when none did pursue and when either party did fear they were mutually feared Prudence doth sometimes alleviate the strokes of Fortune and a wise management may be good Discipline so confirm the minds of an Army that premeditated designs and projects of terrour may become weak and contemptible even to the surprized But a coincidence of so many various accidents in such a juncture of time neither can the weak sight of Humanity foresee nor possibly prevent The next day though the light had shown the Greeks the vanity
of their fears yet no less confusion remained on their spirits they were ashamed of their frights and unwilling to return to the place of their terrour and ignominy they walked up and down single and heavy their eyes cast down weary of company and afraid to be alone yet fuller of heaviness then shame Agathocles perceived this horrour and thought it no less then madness to oppose such dejected persons to the Carthaginians that were insolent with their Victory the memory of which did with the day restore them fully from the affrightments of the night Besides he found all the Libyans and his confederate Africans had left his hungry Tents and declining Fortune In those that were left he could have no confidence all being concerned either in the murder of Lyciscus or Ophellas therefore could not hope that either among themselves much less with him they could have any agreement which is the onely comfort and alleviation to the conquered These things considered the Tyrant was resolved to temporize with his Fortune and as he fled from the dangers of Sicily to the coasts of Africk so now he would save himself in the Island from the dangers of the Continent But then occurred to his thoughts the impossibility of withdrawing his Army with him He had neither time nor conveniency of Vessels for so great a charge nor was the Sea clearer from the triumphs of the Enemy then was the Land For they had recruited their Navy and recovered the empire of the Ocean so that without their good leave he could neither stay nor flie To make Peace with them in such a low condition of his affairs was the greater difficulty for they were so elevated with their present success that they knew not how to temper their Felicity by reasonable Conditions to the Authour of their Troubles and had already threatned such examples of Severity to the first Invaders of Africk as should terrifie the future Ages from their imitation Wracked and perplexed with these affrighting considerations not once entertaining the generous thoughts that Adversities are born with greater glory then deserted For such are the comforts of unhappy Vertues and innocent Souls he at last resolved to shift for himself and to carry onely with him his Son Heraclidas and some few privado's ministers of his Lusts and leave the rest to the malignity of their Destinies and the Cruelty of Carthage He pitied not his eldest Son Archagathus for his haughty soul and wicked attempt upon his Fathers Bed made the old Tyrant jealous lest if he were preserved longer he might extend his furious Lust to his Throne and practise upon his Life For knowing him to be his own Son he concluded him no less Ambitious and Perfidious then he was Lustful Which shews the Inquietude of Tyrants who when they have murdered all Vertue in others and by many Crimes secured themselves from the hatred of strangers yet want not jealousies of their own Children and are affrighted with dangers from their own bowels whose good and bad fame are equally dangerous to their cursed Parents For if by honest arts they reconcile the affections of the people they are then esteemed too popular to live under a Tyranny And the delaies which their Father's lives interpose to their conceived hopes are judged too importunate to be born by such as are able to cut them off If the evil dispositions of the Sire are traduced to the Soul of the Son then do they load the aged Tyrant with more publick hatred or terrifie him with fears of practising that on him which he hath done on others And thus was it with Agathocles who would at once rid himself of his Son and Fears Archagathus that knew his Father's nature and that all Tyrants blot out every impress of Nature having no affections but for themselves was very watchful over his actions and having some suspitions of the design he communicates his Jealousies to some Captains of the Army and conspires to intercept his slight The prodigious baseness of the act easily raised indignation enough to hinder it That a General should betray his Army and surrender them up to a provoked Enemy was a Crime not to be parallel'd Archagathus thought the injustice done to him more full of Cruelty that he who had ventured his life for his Father's Empire had been a partner in all his Flights and Miseries should now be left alone to the Danger whilest his Brother of lesser merits must be the onely companion of Safety Therefore more angry that he had not his part in the Villany then at the Villany it self he watched to hinder it desiring to be saved or perish together So that neither of these Monsters had any natural affection either of a Father or a Son but either would have provided for his own Safety though by the blood and infamy of the other When the Tyrant was ready to take shipping his Son gives Intelligence thereof to his complices who meeting together came all to the Tyrant Upbraided him of his baese purposes and charged him not to stir from the place he was in Then lest he should first practise upon the Souldiers and perswade them any thing to their own ruine which is no hard task on an unwary multitude they presently published and aggravated the treachery of the Tyrant that he would have left his Army without any hopes of succour order or means for their safety whom he had tempted to follow his capricioes and satisfie his thirst of power through such numerous Dangers and objected to so bloody an Enemy he would now barbarously sell to redeem himself neglecting the lives and liberties of those whose carcasses if dead he was bound to have buried The Souldiers when they heard this singular example of Wickedness and considered the consequences That none of them should return to his Wife and Children Country and Friends but like an headless trunk having no Commander without life or name in a strange Land must be the mockery of their Enemies were amazed and trembled no less then if the Camp had been taken and that they were now under the yoke But then Indignation called them from that Stupidity and in a great fury they hasted to seize upon the Tyrant whom they presently clap'd in chains Then being without any Commander not knowing whom to chuse or whom to trust when they had found such Perfidiousness in him whom they had obliged by so long and dangerous an obedience they were distracted with exceeding fears For a Multitude without a Governour is rash fearful and mad These were increased by the approaching night and by a strange and uncertain report that the Enemy were coming on to assault the Camp The care of the present Danger renewed the memory of the former and they were frighted almost to madness and as it useth to be in such Confusions every one hastily snatches up his arms and without any order marches out of the Camp distractedly leaving their defences cursing and railing upon
their faithless Leader the perfidious Agathocles The Guard that was upon the Tyrant no less amazed then the rest hearing him named and imagining that the multitude did call upon them to bring their Prisoner forth did immediately lead him into the midst of the Army loaden with chains This sudden spectacle did strangely affect the minds of the multitude Some were moved with Pity and Reverence of him who had so long commanded them For great emploiments leave a lustre even upon that person that hath lost them and Majesty doth accompany those in their distresses whom Fortune hath before proposed to admiration And sometimes if they be vertuous persons they like the Sun appear greatest at their setting and the refraction of a moist cloud of tears doth serve to enlarge their Greatness Marius's glory in his former commands could not be stifled in the Dungeon at Minturnae but once more overcame the Cimbrian Slave that was appointed to be his Executioner Mithridates's imprisonment had not so disarmed him but that the authority of his looks and the memory of his former Empire did affright the Gaul that was sent to murder him till by his own hands he confirmed the trembling Slave to execute the wicked commands of his perfidious Son Though Agathocles had no Vertues that deserved Pity yet his fortunes did excite a Reverence Others moved with the fear of the Enemy and hope of his Conduct joined with the rest and together cried out that they should take off his Chains and set him free This unexpected mercy and deliverance together with the miserable sight of the Army's fears and confusions would have wrought a commiseration in any breast that had had the least sense of humanity to have provided for the common safety or obliged to the same fate But Perfidiousness acknowledges no Merits and every Tyrant doth abjure Gratitude and Justice Therefore Agathocles was no sooner out of his Chains but while the Army was yet in confusion and none at leisure to observe him he makes hast to the shore And because he had before indangered his own preservation by endeavouring to save one of his Sons he now hates that natural Affection and leaves them both to endure the punishments of his Villany and with some few of his servants gets into a Ship and undiscovered sails away The Souldiers hearing of his escape seize upon both his Sons with their blood to satisfie for their Father's Crimes Archagathus thought to stop the execution by asking Arcesilaus that was the Tyrant's friend whom grief and indignation had now made the forwardest to revenge What Agathocles would doe to his Children that should murder his Sons The Syracusan answered it was enough for him that his Children did live some time after Agathocles's were slain And therefore to reap this comfort he speedily sheaths his sword in Archagathus's body Heraclidas was killed by those that had been the Souldiers of Ophellas The Greeks observed in this execution the exact Justice of Heaven that in the same moneth and on the same day that Agathocles had contrary to all faith and rites of Hospitality murdered Ophellas and seized upon his Army did he lose his own Army and had both his Sons slain Providence like a just Law-giver exacting double punishment for so great a Crime for he that had wickedly killed one Friend had two Sons justly destroied Thus having satisfied their Revenge they provide for their Safety and therefore chusing new Officers by them they treat with the Carthaginians and conclude a Peace upon these Articles That the Sicilians should deliver up all those places which had been taken in Africk That for the surrender they should receive three hundred talents That such of them as would serve the State of Carthage should be taken into pay That those who desired to return to Sicily should be transported thither and have houses and places to live in assigned to them at Soluns which was a City of their Dominion in the Island This Composition was faithfully observed to those that did submit unto it but such as were left in Garrisons and would not surrender vainly hoping the deceitful Tyrant would shortly relieve them were soon reduced by force The Captains whereof they crucified but yoked the common Souldiers like beasts to plough that ground and repair by their labours that Country which they had wasted by their arms This was the issue of the African War which had continued four years all which time Carthage with undaunted courage and various success maintained her Liberty and laboured to preserve her Empire against a subtle industrious and bloody Tyrant And Agathocles had the trial of the vicissitudes of all humane affairs having a long time been the terrour of Africk He had broken many Armies ruined great Cities depopulated large Countries moistned the parching Sands with blood humbled the Pride of Carthage and scarce left them any thing but their own walls yet was twice a Prisoner to his own Souldiers and in danger of death from his own Army and at last blotted out all the honour of his Atchievements by a most cursed Perfidiousness and too great a desire of Life deserting a brave Army betraying his own Sons ignominiously flying with one Ship and few attendants trembling in the memory of his Chains and the terrours of his Enemies as if he had been designed to be the example not onely of the Crimes but also of the Punishments of a Tyrant Stripped of all his forces with shame and fury Agathocles lands in Sicily where like a dying Viper his last bites were most fierce Ruine and destruction of others being the last pleasures of a falling Tyrant And as if the air and soil of Africk that is fertile of Monsters had made him more Monster then he was before that miserable Island felt a sharper fit of Cruelty when he was thus half destroied then when he was in his more flourishing fortune He seemed now not so greedy of the Rewards of Wickedness as delighted with Wickedness it self not being more angry that he had lost his own then that he had not got another's substance or that every one had not lost as well as he The first that felt his Inhumanity was the City of Aegesta towards which he leads out those Forces he had and demands a contribution so heavy as would wholly have impoverished the City though it was great and populous and had ten thousand families in it This Injustice did so exasperate the Aegestans that they often met among themselves to complain of such usage That though they were in Confederacy with him and so should be willing to relieve the necessities of their Associate yet were they not his Slaves that he should conceive all their goods to be his own They acknowledged that a League with a more potent party was but a kind of Subjection yet were they not so absolutely to obey as if they had been conquered by him The Tyrant was not ignorant of these complaints which their Grief made
Treaty Sometimes he denied the Garisons upon jealousie of his future pretensions sometimes he urged that he should for ever depart from Sicily and another time he required his Children for hostages Agathocles though he perceived the drift of the man and that he should prevail nothing by this Treaty but make them more eager in requiring what they knew he would deny did yet continue his practice that by his Commissioners he might debauch the Army buy off the faith of some raise diffidence of their General in others and stir up Seditions and Factions against him in the several Cities He insinuates by his agents that Dinocrates did not faithfully intend the liberty of Sicily but sought to have that power in himself which he envied and fought against in another that he was the great obstruction of the publick Peace and Happiness of every City by refusing such Articles which a Conquerour would not have denied to the vanquished and so he neglected the safety of all those Cities whose servant he was Whiles he laies these grounds for Victory there he concludes a Peace with the Carthaginians and delivers up all their Forts and Cities which he had seized upon in Sicily for the summe of three hundred talents and two hundred thousand measures of corn By this composition he was at liberty to employ all his thoughts forces against the Free League with whom he was resolved to try what his secret arts had done and offer them a set Battel in the Field although he had no more then five thousand foot and eight hundred horse which he did not so much trust to as he did unto his own practices and the Vices of the Enemy The Confederates were well pleased with the Tyrant's confidence who seemed to offer up his small number to the swords of twenty five thousand foot and three thousand horse which was their strength Therefore both parties did willingly engage at a place called Gorgium The Fight was stoutly maintained on both sides for some time and the Victory doubtful whether it should fall where was the greatest Number or the bravest Courage but at length the practices of the Tyrant began to work for two thousand of Dinocrates's Army that were corrupted by the Treaty in the very heat of the Battel went over to Agathocles's side Which did both raise the hopes and courage of his party and so terrifie the other with this unexpected Perfidiousness that every one doubting whether his next comerade were a friend or foe they trusted more in their flight then in their companions and were immediately routed Agathocles would not pursue his flying Enemies but by a seeming humanity to spare his deceived Country-men he sounds a retreat from the slaughter So that all the horse were gotten safe to Ambicus many of the foot by the benefit of the approaching night escaped quite away but the greatest part of them that were left in a body together had possessed themselves of an hill which they had fortified for their defence To these the Tyrant offers hopes of Pardon and Peace lest despair might kindle them to a dangerous obstinacy Necessity many times forcing men to miraculous acts therefore by some messengers he desires them to come to a Treaty Which as before he had entertained with them onely out of a desire of Peace so now he had no other motives but by that means to put an end to the miseries of his Country That although his condition were now better then it was then yet he knew how it became not just persons and generous spirits to change their honest desires with success He had never thought any cause of War could be just against the Sicilians and that therefore he chose rather to maintain their common interest and to undergoe so many dangers for them in Africk to break the Punick yoke which he had done had not some that envied the publick Happiness of the Island distracted him by assaulting his estate here while he was faithfully serving them there That now if they were weary of a tedious and fruitless War and were desirous to return to the comforts of Peace and the pleasures of their own homes laying down their arms they should find a free and safe passage But if they preferred the hatred of him to all the blessings of Quiet and would still retain their hostile affections together with their weapons they must make their way with the sword and he would extinguish their hate of him with their own blood For they had found by a sadder experience then he could have wished that there was no hope of success against him who with so small an handful of men through the assistance of the Gods without whose favour there could be no prosperity had overthrown their mighty Army The poor wretches though they knew that not any word was true and had many testimonies that not any Promise he would make he did intend to keep yet because they were hopeless of Victory desirous of Peace and contented with Safety were easily deluded by their hopes and fears to try once more his faith and accept what he offered before they desired a readiness which might justly have moved their suspicion For Tyrants are never forward to doe an act that becomes a vertuous person but they intend some horrid Impiety which would move blushes in a Fury The credulous Souldiers accepting his Oath for a safe convoy left their works and arms upon the Hill and came down to require the performance When they had thus parted with all their means of safety the Tyrant incompasses them about being to the number of seven thousand others say but four thousand with his own Souldiers all armed Then the miserable men perceived themselves cheated to their Ruine when they saw that they were hemm'd in by an Enemy insolent with Victory and terrible with their Arms and they themselves naked without any instrument either for revenge or defence they concluded themselves devoted to destruction Therefore falling upon one another's necks and shaking one another by the hand they gave and took the last salutes each one desiring his Friend and neighbour not to seek a different fortune in a common cause So invoking Heaven and the injured Gods to revenge their blood they were in that posture all killed by the command of the perjured Tyrant Thus was the Religion of an Oath used by Agathocles and constantly practised by all Usurpers onely to deceive men whom they fear should their intentions be open while they contemn that Deity which they invoke and attest So that Perjury is the evidence of base spirits and wicked souls and never falls upon those that fear no enemy or reverence any God Regulus shall be for ever memorable as long as Piety or Vertue are in the world that would not break his oath though made to such enemies who he knew would punish those Vertues which they should have admired and would reward his reverence of Heaven with such tortures as would have been