Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/240

216 HiSTOllY OJ" GiREECE. and they had no serfs. While therefore we fully believe, with Herodotus, that Gelo considered the small free proprietors as " troublesome yoke-fellows," — a sentiment perfectly natural to a Grecian despot, unless where he found them useful aids to his own ambition against a hostile oligarchy, — we must add that they would become peculiarly troublesome in his scheme of con- centrating the free population of Syracuse, seeing that he would have to give them land in the neighborhood or to provide in some other way for their maintenance. So large an accession of size, walls, and population, rendered Syracuse the first Greek city in Sicily. And the power of Gelo, embracing as it did not merely Syracuse, but so consider- able a portion of the rest of the island, Greek as well as Sikel, was the greatest Hellenic force then existing. It appears to have comprised the Grecian cities on the east and southeast of the island from the borders of Agrigentum to those of Zankle or Messene, together with no small proportion of the Sikel tribes. Messene was under the rule of Anaxilaus of Rhegium, Agrigen-* tum under that of Thero son of -^nesidemus, Himera under that of Terillus ; while Selinus, close on the borders of Egesta and the Carthaginian possessions, had its own government free or des- potic, but appears to have been allied with or dependent upon Carthage.i A dominion thus extensive doubtless furnished ample tribute ; besides which Gelo, having conquered and dispos- sessed many landed proprietors and having recolonized Syracuse, could easily provide both lands and citizenship to recompense adherents. Hence, he was enabled to enlarge materially the military force transmitted to him by Hippokrates, and to form a tiaval force besides. Phormis ^ the Msnalian, who took service under him and became citizen of Syracuse, with fortune enough to send donatives to Olympia, — and Agesias, the lamid prophet from Stymphalus,^ — are doubtless not the only examples of ' Diodor. xi, 21. ^ Pausan. v, 27, 1, 2. We find the elder Dionysius, about a century after- wards, transferring the entire free population of conquered towns (Kaulonia and Hipponium in Italy, etc.) to Syracuse (Diodor. xiv, 106, 107). 3 See the sixth Olympic Ode of Pindar, addressed to the Syracusan Agesias. The Scholiast on v. 5, of that ode, — who says that not Agesias himself, but some of his progenitors migrated from Stymphalus to Syra-