Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/161

AID ASKED FROM CORINTH. 13fl from without. And such indeed was the peri], that even to a calm observer, it might well seem as if the mournful prophecy of Plato was on the point of receiving fulfilment Hellenism as well as freedom becoming extinct on the island. To the invocation of Corinthian aid, Hiketas was a party ; yet an unwilling party. He had made up his mind that for his pur- pose, it was better to join the Carthaginians, with whom he had already opened negotiations and to employ their forces, first in expelling Dionysius, next in ruling Syracuse for himself. But these were schemes not to be yet divulged : accordingly, Hiketas affected to concur in the pressing entreaty sent by the Syracusans to Corinth, intending from the beginning to frustrate its success. 1 He expected indeed that the Corinthians would themselves decline compliance : for the enterprise proposed to them was full of dif- ficulty ; they had neither injury to avenge, nor profit to expect ; while the force of sympathy, doubtless not inconsiderable, with a suffering colony, would probably be neutralized by the unsettled and degraded condition into which all Central Greece was now rapidly sinking, under the ambitious strides of Philip of Macedon. The Syracusan envoys reached Corinth at a favorable moment. But it is melancholy to advert to the aggregate diminution of Gre- cian power, as compared with the time when (seventy years be- fore) their forefathers had sent thither to solicit aid against the besieging armament of Athens ; a time when Athens, Sparta, and Syracuse herself, were all in exuberant vigor as well as unim- paired freedom. However, the Corinthians happened at this juncture to have their hands as well as their minds tolerably free, so that the voice of genuine affliction, transmitted from the most esteemed of all their colonies, was heard with favor and sympa- thy. A decree was passed, heartily and unanimously, to grant the aid solicited. 2 The next step was to choose a leader. But a leader was not easily found. The enterprise presented little temptation, with danger and difficulty abundant as well as certain. The hopeless discord of Syracuse for years past, was well known to all the leading Corinthian politicians or generals. Of all or most cf these, the names were successively put up by the archons ; but all Plutarch, Timoleon, c. 2. * Plutarch, Timoleon c. 3.