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
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
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
Some ran towards their Camp who being pursued by the Africans strewed all the way with their dead bodies Others fled by the banks of Himera and met with as certain a death as that they feared from the sword of their Enemies for thirsty through rage and toil of the Battel which happened to be at noon in the Dog-daies they drank so greedily of the brackish water that they immediately fell down dead they were not fewer who were found dead without any wounds all along the banks of the River then those that were wounded and slain in the rout Agathocles having lost above seven thousand and the Carthaginians but five hundred Thus Providence did as it were strive by re-iterated strokes to curb the present insolence of this inhumane Tyrant First by snatching the Victory almost out of his possession in such a juncture bringing an unexpected force that did both confound his orders and break his vigour upon such uncertain moments does the fortune of Battels and the fate of Kingdomes depend And secondly he did increase the loss and destroy the hopes of a second attempt by cutting off those whose unwounded bodies might have renewed the fight Agathocles himself reserved for a longer plague to mankind escaped to his Tents where gathering up the pieces of his broken Army he burns his Camp and hastens to Gela but caused a report to be raised that he was fled to Syracuse this afforded him an opportunity of some small Revenge upon three hundred Africans who being informed by the Prisoners that the Tyrant was retreated to Syracuse securely entred into Gela as suspecting no enemy in it but they found him and their destruction there together He had not shut himself up there because he could not get to Syracuse but upon design to draw the Carthaginians to besiege that place that he might gain time to fortifie and victual Syracuse for the future events of the war But Amilcar that at first had thought to have lain down before Gela hearing it was well mann'd and sufficiently stored to endure a tedious Siege changed his resolutions and applies himself to take in those other Towns which now courted him for acceptance Camarinae Leontium Catana and Tauromenium upon the first news of the Victory gave themselves up to the Carthaginian Commands a few daies after Messene Abacaenum and many other Cities submitted to Amilcar who courteously treating all and imposing easie conditions made them prefer the Punick a noble though a forein bondage to the ignominious service of an abject Potter and generally through the whole Island the Overthrow of Agathocles gave a liberty to all to express their hatred of him For when people cease to fear those that rule onely by it they begin to hate them And it was not so much the loss of one Battel as his own Perfidiousness and Cruelty that tore the yoke from the Sicilians necks Cruel Empires though they be absolute yet are not lasting The Tyrant hearing the daily defection of the Cities and that his own Wickedness and the Punick fortune had left him nothing but Syracuse he draws out all his forces from Gela and with haft retreats thither lest the Example of others and the Terrour of the Enemy might tempt it to the same faith There he emploies the remains of his Army to repair and fortifie the Walls to fetch as much Provision as they could from the adjoining Country and to fit all things necessary for a long Siege For his bold and restless soul that knew not how to live unless a Tyrant had revolved all things and perswaded to every trial For to men that have lost their first hopes any thing that is future doth seem best At last he projected to transfer the War from the Island to the Continent and when he was over-matched with but a part of the Carthaginian force in Sicily he would dare their whole strength in Africk This design which on another Enemy had been rash and dangerous did now appear safe and easie For the long Peace and Prosperity of the Africans had softned them to an impatience of enduring the toils of War and the too jealous arts of Empire which the Carthaginians used as to disarm all their Vassals and to embase by cruel Oppressions their less potent Confederates did assure him of but a weak opposition and that by such an unexpected Invasion he should obtain enough spoil to repair all his losses at home and that the success of one Battel would force his Enemies to call home their forces to guard their own Cities Therefore when it was the general expectation that he should submit to the conquering fate of Carthage his Mind seemed to grow greater by his Miseries and that he would still look Fortune in the face To execute this project he chuses out such of his Souldiers as he thought fittest for the enterprize and gave order that the Horsemen should provide themselves onely of Saddles and Bridles that when he should get some African horse they might not want necessaries to mount them for although in the late overthrow the loss fell most upon the Foot and he had saved all his Horse yet he wanted convenient time and Vessels to transport them Then to prevent any Treachery in his absence he made his brother Antander Governour of Syracuse and to secure him from Seditions and Revolts he divides every Family the Children from the Fathers and the Brothers one from another carrying one part along with him as Hostages for their quiet subjection that tarried at home for he conceived that though their Hate were never so high against him yet would they forbear any practices lest he should revenge their efforts upon those their Friends he had with him Then to increase both his Army and the Garrison he manumissed all the Slaves and put them into arms At home he thought they would be ready to discover the secret counsels of their Masters so they are often made use of by Tyrants abroad they would raise an emulation in the free-men to a Military hardiness and bold attempts His next care was how to get Mony and to this he forbore no Wickedness that he could imagine profitable He seizeth upon the Stock and goods of young Orphans forcing it from their Guardians declaring that he was fitter for that trust then they and promising that when they came of age he would restore all again more faithfully he forced a Loan from the richest Merchants despoiled the Women of all their golden Ornaments and robbed every Temple of the consecrated Offerings Then being informed of the discontents of many of the richest Citizens who referred all their present Troubles and Dangers to his insatiable appetite of Greatness he calls an assembly of the People and with a countenance composed to grief and tears he speaks after this manner to them That War is alwaies accounted just which is necessary and then Arms are deemed pious when they are the last refuge of those that use them This
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
the heat of blood many he hanged he dragged out and murdered those that fled to the Altars of the Gods for refuge vainly thinking that he might have some Religion that had devested himself of all Humanity Thus Tyrants manage their Warres not so much against particular Persons and Cities as against the Nature of man Nor did Agathocles think it enough to overcome the Uticenses unless he had also made them pollute their just arms in the blood of their Friends and Kindred The Romans bewailed and cursed those Civil Wars which did expose the Father's life to the sword of the Son and grieved that the Law of Warre did forbid that punishment which the law of Nature required He fell with glory like a Sacrifice for the publick safety that slew himself when he knew he had killed his Brother Nor did they more abhorre those vices in their own Citizens then they did hate them and scorn to make use of them in their Enemies For they conceived that no Victory where Justice and Vertue were not preserved entire And by their just practices even to their Foes they overcame those Cities and subdued those Spirits which no force of arms could ever have subjected and one Generous Example of Vertue hath flung open those Gates which no humane power could have pulled down Thus Camillus received the Falisci to obedience Fabritius removed Pyrrhus from Italy and Scipio's Continency reconciled all Spain to the Roman Empire Men more willingly submit to those whom being owners of so great Vertues they esteem it an impiety to overcome LIB III. AGathocles having by those bloody arts nefarious practices and force of arms brought to his obedience almost all Africa and left the Enemy little or nothing but their own City he neglects the attempting of that and abuses the obsequiousness of his Fortune in more inconsiderable designs infatuated in his counsels and not considering that the Members do more easily follow the Head then on the contrary the Head the Members that if Carthage had been taken the inferiour Cities must necessarily have followed her fortune but that being left free and intire she might provide for the cure of her wounds and watch opportunities for the recovery of her Empire But either the difficulties of assaulting Carthage or the necessities of Syracuse did divert him from such an enterprize and sollicite him to a return into Sicily where the Free League had confined his Tyranny within the walls of his own City For Xenodicus had hitherto prospered and restored the Democratical power to many Cities and raised up the confident hopes of all the Sicilians to live by their own Laws which is the true foundation of Liberty To stop therefore this current of freedome Agathocles hastens into Sicily with two thousand Souldiers leaving the command of his affairs on the Continent to his Son Archagathus At his landing he was entertained with the news of a Victory which his Captains Leptines and Demophilus with eight thousand two hundred foot and a thousand two hundred horse had gotten on Xenodicus who had lost a thousand five hundred of his men and was forced to shelter himself within the walls of Agrigentum The Tyrant makes use of this Victory and marches against those Cities that had shaken off his yoke and with the credit of the former Victory reduces Himera Selinus and Thermae Then drawing forth before Centorippa by night he was in hope to have surprized it through the practices he had with some of the Citizens but the plot being discovered he was forced by the better part of the City which were not polluted with such infamous Counsels to retreat with the loss of five hundred of his men Then being sollicited by some persidious inhabitants of Apollonia to come and take their City before he could reach thither the Conspiratours were discovered and apprehended and he was disappointed for the first day of his expectation But the next day not to depart without some attempt he assaults the Town and not without exceeding loss of men he takes it where killing most of the Apolloniates he plundered the whole City and left it as a monument of his Cruelty But the desires of Liberty though overwhelmed with all these Ruines were like fires less carefully extinguished which revive with a greater flame For the universal hatred of the Tyrant and thirst for Liberty moved Dinocrates to be an assertor of the Free League and he appeared like another Rock to dash in pieces the violent successes and to be a remora to the Tyrant's Security To Dinocrates therefore flocked all such as either desired to be free men or hated the Tyrant which were so many as Dinocrates's Army consisted of twenty thousand foot fifteen hundred horse all Veterane Souldiers and Actors in the late troubles of Sicily accustomed to the discipline difficulties of Warre or hardned with the miseries of Banishment With these he pitches his Camp in an open field and offers battel to the Tyrant but he knowing himself too weak to engage retreats to Syracuse still followed by his daring Enemy who cuts off his rear and wins upon him without loss of blood This was a great obstruction to Agathocles's designs for wars are managed much by fame and he that retreats is supposed to fly Together with this check to his affairs in the Island his fortune wholly declines on the Continent and that success which had so importunately followed him there did as suddenly leave him Where his Army continually wasted both in strength and courage Archagathus either failing in his Father's arts and the vertues of a Leader For an Army is to be valued at the rate of the Commander whom they will contemn if he be weak and ignorant of his charge and so neglect their duty and become insolent and contumacious or oppressed with the sins and fates of his Sire the punishment due to wicked Parents being entailed by the Divine Vengeance on their hateful Children He soon found his Insolencies undermined that had been built upon his Father's fortune His first enterprizes were auspicious but the issue was full of despair For having sent out a party under the conduct of Eumachus they had mastered many Cities in the upper Africk with much slaughter they had demolished their Walls captivated and sold the Inhabitants burnt their Houses and wasted their Fields and so proud with Victory and loaden with Spoils returned to Tunis But being sent out again the second Expedition proved not so fortunate for going beyond the bounds of their former Conquests and setting upon the City Miltine they were from thence driven with exceeding loss Then turning themselves against the Pithecusans a kind of people in Africk that have their names from the Apes whom they worship with the same reverence as the Aegyptians do their Dogs they took one of their strongest Cities and the rest yielded But the Libyans awakened with the continual clamours of their wasted Neighbours gathered into a great body and forced them
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
made it dangerous to pass him by in so honourable an emploiment but Hanno to watch over the others actions which not onely the love of his Country but also an ancient fewd betwixt their Families did assure them would be with the most exact circumspection His Integrity they hoped would so temper his Passions that he would not to his private Discords sacrifice the Publick Safety in the male-administration of his charge and his hate of Bomilcar promised a sufficient ballance to his aspiring soul who was suspected to affect the Tyranny but as yet wanted an opportunity to satisfie his Ambition Therefore they durst not trust him alone with such an extraordinary power as they must expect onely from his Modesty when he would lay it down A Vertue sometimes wanting in the Carthaginian Nobless who often attempted upon the Liberty of their Commonwealth Which some refer to the vitious constitution of their Government that preferr'd such to the highest trust whose cense was largest and so made Wealth not Vertue the mark for Honour For they thought the greatness of their interest in their Country would oblige them to a greater industry for its preservation This indeed is a remedy proper against a forein yoke but an incitement to domestick Tyranny For such as they will be watchful guardians to preserve their City from others so will they often make attempts upon it themselves And those that abound with Wealth when they see Glory and Power are the attendants of it grow insolent and esteem the Supreme power but their due Equality of Honour being not competent with the inequality of Fortune It was accounted the great preservative of the Roman Liberty that Riches came into no consideration when they came to chuse the Commanders of their Forces but they would fetch their Dictators from the plough and nominate those for Consuls whose estates were so scanty that the publick stock must defray the charges of their Funerals and provide portions for their fatherless Daughters These men after they satisfied the publick charge and eminently served their Commonwealth hasted home to look after their narrow fortunes and their few acres when they had yoked the Enemy returned to doe the like to their Oxen and to finish the Tillage they had begun and so became private persons and were obedient to the ordinary Magistrates contented with their turnips and desiring no more of the spoil of the conquered then a wooden goblet to use in Sacrifices So that they gave not the least jealousie of Tyranny to the people who still making their choice by the Merit of the persons had so many Virtuosi among them men glorious with several Victories that they were a guard for the Publick against each other Thus spoiling Riches of that glory which is given to it in a corrupt State they preserved their own Liberty and the Patrician Modesty till the love of Wealth entred and then followed the desire of Empire Others referred this to the base Ingratitude of the People which is the usual disease of all Democracies who rewarded their victorious Commanders with seditious Accusations and afterwards with the Cross and often did too severely punish the mischances of the unprosperous So that many that had the chief Command of their forces have prevented their unjust sentences with a voluntary renunciation of life and emploiment or to defend their Dignity sought to extinguish those flames which would have consumed their private houses with the ruine of the Publick and pulling down the frame of Government So that this Ingratitude and Severity did diminish the infamy and somewhat necessitate such undertakings But this infirmity never fell upon the Roman Commonwealth for while it was not corrupted by too great an Empire they were far from such unworthy Jealousies rewarding the prosperous Valour of their Commanders with such glorious Triumphs as did both satiate their thirsts of honour and not force them to seek the shadow of a name by being great Oppressors and also raised the hopes and spirits of their other Citizens to the like atchievements Which did both increase their Strength and Empire and also secure their Liberty by so many rivals of glory If ever they punished the unsuccessful it was with much humanity Such as lost their Armies by any criminal failance had the light corrections of a pecuniary mulct and were not forced to wash away the ignominy of an Overthrow with their own blood Such as through Misfortune Inadvertency or Ignorance brought wounds upon the Commonwealth were rather caressed and cheared then dealt severely with and had sometimes their charges renewed that they might redeem the Glory they had before lost He that by a rash and indiscreet desire of Victory had occasioned that terrible Overthrow at Cannae when he returned home in stead of a triumph had the Consuls and the whole Senate met him who though they could not congratulate his Victory did yet thank him for his valour that he had not despaired of the Commonwealth This proceeding of theirs towards their Generals was upon a good consideration Because they judged it to be a matter of great importance that such as were intrusted with affairs of so great moment as managing a Battel should when they were to make their resolutions have their minds free and without sollicitude of their Cities censure of their actions and therefore they would not increase their difficulties supposing that none could be gallant under the load of so many doubts and fears And as Carthage wanted this Wisdome of Rome so did she the Glory and Power and was afterwards forced to serve her rival of Empire The Generals being chosen they conceived too great dangers in the least delay and therefore made too much hast for they tarried not to levy souldiers from the Confederate Cities nor to take up such that were hardned with the country labours but took those of their own City whom the pleasures and abject arts of the City had made unfit for the toils of war such also whom the fortune of their Common-wealth and the news of the late Victory in Sicily had raised to so high a confidence that they conceived it rather a journy to fetch in Slaves then an encounter to conquer an Enemy therefore advising one another to give quarter to as many of the Greeks as were not obstinate to ruine they carried along with them twenty thousand pair of fetters to bind their Captives And they seemed to be careful of nothing more then lest their delaies would give opportunity to the Enemy to get away out of Africk and so defeat their hopes of spoil By this great confidence in themselves and contempt of the enemy in whom nothing can be safely despised for a neglectful contempt will alwaies make him stronger they were precipitated to an Overthrow For they immediately drew out into the Field being about forty thousand Foot one thousand Horse and two thousand Chariots and pitching upon an Hill not far from the Enemy they ranged all their