Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/249

' SICILIAN AFFAERS.-GELO AND HIS DYNASTY. 226 we cannot wonder that Gelo should take precautions for prevent- ing the onward progress of the Persians towards Sicily, which was already sufficiently imperiled by its formidable enemies in Africa. The defeat of the Persians at Salamis, and of the Car thaginians at Himera, cleared away, suddenly and unexpectedly, the terrific cloud from Greece as well as from Sicily, and left a sky comparatively brilliant with prosperous hopes. To the victorious army of Gelo, there was abundant plunder for recompense as well as distribution : among the most valuable part of the plunder were the numerous prisoners taken, who were divided among the cities in proportion to the number of troops furnished by each. Of course the largest shares must have fallen to Syracuse and Agrigentum : whUe the number acquired by the latter was still farther increased by the separate capture of those prisoners who had dispersed throughout the mountains in and near the Agrigentine territory. All the Sicilian cities allied with or dependent on Gelo, but especially the two last mentioned, were thus put in possession of a number of slaves as public property, who were kept in chains to work,i and were either employed on public undertakings for defence, ornament, and religious solem- nity, — or let out to private masters so as to affiard a revenue to the state. So great was the total of these public slaves at Agri- gentum, that though many were employed on state-works, which elevated the city to signal grandeur during the flourishing period of seventy years which intervened between the recent battle and its subsequent capture by the Carthaginians, — there nevertheless remained great numbers to be let out to private individuals, some of whom had no less than five hundred slaves respectively in their employment.2 The peace which now ensued left Gelo master of Syracuse and Gela, with the Chalkidic Greek to^ns on the east of the ' Diodor. xi, 25. ai 6e rroXeic ^'^C ^rf daf Korearrjaav rove dcaipe&ivrag ulxfJ'(i^^<^~ovg, Kal Tovg deSefievovc ■ tuv ipyuv 6ca tovtuv InecKSva^ov. For analogous instances of captives taken in war being employed in public works by the captors, and laboring in chains, see the cases of Tegea and Samos in Herodot. i, 66 ; iii, 39. ^ Diodor. xi, 25. Respecting slaves belonging to the public, and let out for hire to individual employers, compare the largo financial project coa ceived by Xenophon, De Vectigalibus, capp. 3 and 4. VOL. V. 10* 15oc.