Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/142

116 riTSTORY OF GREECE. and predictions when he consented to spare Herakleides. Mean while Dionysius had sent into Sicily a body of troops under Pha rax, who were encamped at Neapolis in the Agrigentine territory, In what scheme of operations this movement forms a part, w cannot make out ; for Plutarch tells us nothing except what hears immediately on the quarrel between Dion and Herakleides. Tc attack Pharax, the forces of Syracuse were brought out ; the fleei under Herakleides, the soldiers on land under Dion. The latter, though he thought it imprudent to fight, was constrained to hazard a battle by the insinuations of Herakleides and the clamor of the seamen ; who accused him of intentionally eking out the war for the purpose of prolonging his own dictatorship. Dion according- ly attacked Pharax, but was repulsed. Yet the repulse was not a serious defeat, so that he was preparing to renew the attack, when he was apprised that Herakleides with the fleet had de- parted and were returning at their best speed to Syracuse ; with the intention of seizing the city, and barring out Dion with his troops. Nothing but a rapid and decisive movement could defeat this scheme. Leaving the camp immediately with his best horse- men, Dion rode back to Syracuse as fast as possible ; complet- ing a distance of seven hundred stadia (about eighty-two miles) in a very short time, and forestalling the arrival of Herakleides. 1 Thus disappointed and exposed, Herakleides found means to direct another manoeuvre against Dion, through the medium of a Spartan named Gaesylus ; who had been sent by the Spartans, informed of the dissensions in Syracuse, to offer himself (like Gylippus) for the command. Herakleides eagerly took advan- tage of the arrival of this officer ; pressing the- Syracusans to ac- cept a Spartan as their commander-in-chief. But Dion replied that there were plenty of native Syracusans qualified for com- mand ; moreover, if a Spartan was required, he was himself a Spartan, by public grant. Gassylus, having ascertained the state of affairs, had the virtue and prudence not merely to desist from his own pretensions, but also to employ his best efforts in recon- ciling Dion and Herakleides. Sensible that the wrong had been on the side of the latter, Gaesylus constrained him to bind himself by the strongest oaths to better conduct in future. He engaged 1 Plutarch, Dion, c. 49