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422 HISTORY OF GREECE. projects, the Syracusan leaders sent envoys to Cartl.age to remon- strate against them, and to make propositions for peace. But no satisfactory answer could be obtained, nor were the preparations discontinued. 1 In the ensuing spring, the storm gathering from Africa burst with destructive violence upon this fated island. A mercenary force had been got together during the winter, greater than that which had sacked Selinus and Himera ; three hundred thousand men, according to Ephorus, one hundred and twenty thousand, according to Xenophon and Timaeus. Hannibal was again placed in command ; but his predominant impulses of family and reli- gion having been satiated by the great sacrifice of Himera, he excused himself on the score of old age, and was only induced tc accept the duty by having his relative Imilkon named as colleague. By their joint efforts, the immense host of Iberians, Mediterra- nean islanders, Campanians, Libyans, and Numidians, was united at Carthage, and made ready to be conveyed across, in a fleet of one hundred and twenty triremes, with no less than one thousand five hundred transports. 2 To protect the landing, forty Cartha- ginian triremes were previously sent over to the Bay of Mot-ye. The Syracusan leaders, with commendable energy and watchful- ness, immediately despatched the like number of triremes to attack them, in hopes of thereby checking the farther arrival of the grand armament. They were victorious, destroying fifteen of the Car- thaginian triremes, and driving the rest back to Africa ; yet their object was not attained ; for Hannibal himself, coming forth imme- diately with fifty fresh triremes, constrained the Syracusans to retire. Presently afterwards the grand armament appeared, dis- embarking its motley crowd of barbaric warriors near the western cape of Sicily. Great was the alarm caused throughout Sicily by their arrival. All the Greek cities either now began to prepare for war, or pushed with a more vigorous hand equipments previously begun, since they seem to have had some previous knowledge of the purpose of the enemy. The Syracusans sent to entreat assist- ance both from the Italian Greeks and from Sparta. From the latter city, however, little was to be expected, since her whole 1 Diodor. xiii, 79. 2 Diodor. xiii, 80 ; Xenoph. Hellen. i, 5 21.