Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/433

SYKACUSAN SQUADRON. 41 1 but not less than twenty thousand, if we are tc accept the broad statement of Ephorus), exhorting each other not to think of mak- ing prisoners. But in the haste and exultation of pursuit, they became out of breath, and their ranks fell into disorder. In thia untoward condition, they found themselves face to face with the fresh body of reserve brought up by Hannibal, who marched down the hill to receive and succor his own defeated fugitives. The for- tune of the battle was now so completely turned, that the Hime raeans, after bravely contending for some time against these new enemies, found themselves overpowered and driven back to their own gates. Three thousand of their bravest warriors, however, despairing of their city and mindful of the fate of Selinus, dis- dained to turn their backs, and perished to a man in obstinate conflict with the overwhelming numbers of the Carthaginians. 1 Violent was the sorrow and dismay in Himera, when the flower of her troops were thus driven in as beaten men, with the loss of half their numbers. At this moment there chanced to arrive at the port a fleet of twenty-five triremes, belonging to Syracuse and other Grecian cities in Sicily ; which triremes had been sent to aid the Peloponnesians in the JEgean, but had since come back, and were now got together for the special purpose of relieving the besieged city. So important a reinforcement ought to have revived the spirit of the Himerreans. It announced that the Syracusans were in full march across the island, with the main force of the city, to the relief of Himera. But this good news was more than counter- vailed by the statement, that Hannibal was ordering out the Car- thaginian fleet in the bay of Motye, in order that it might sail round cape Lilybteum and along the southern coast into the har- bor of Syracuse, now defenceless through the absence of its main force. Apparently the Syracusan fleet, in sailing from Syracuse to Himera, had passed by the bay of Motye, observed maritime move- ment among the Carthaginians there, and picked up these tidings in explanation. Here was intelligence more than sufficient to ex- cite alarm for home, in the bosom of Diokles and the Syracusans at Himera ; especially under the despondency now reigning. Dio- kles not only enjoined the captains of the fleet to sail back imme- diately to Syracuse, in order to guard against the apprehended Diodor. xiii, 60.