Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/208

182 HISTORY OF GREECE. It was now the turn of Timoleon to attack Hiketas in his own domain of Leontini. Here his usual good fortune followed him The soldiers in garrison either discontented with the behavior of Hiketas at the battle of the Damurias, or awe-struck with that divine favor which waited on Timoleon mutinied and surren- dered the place into his hands -, and not merely the place, but also Hiketas himself in chains, with his son Eupolemus, and his gen- eral Euthymus, a man of singular bravery as well as a victorious athlete at the games. All three were put to death ; Hiketas and his son as despots and traitors ; and Euthymus, chiefly in conse- quence of insulting sarcasms against the Corinthians, publicly ut- tered at Leontini. The wife and daughters of Hiketas were conveyed as prisoners to Syracuse, where they were condemned to death by public vote of the Syracusan assembly. This vote was passed in express revenge for the previous crime of Hiketas, in putting to death the widow, sister, and son, of Dion. Though Timoleon might probably have saved the unfortunate women by a strong exertion of influence, he did not interfere. The general feeling of the people accounted this cruel, but special, retaliation right under the circumstances ; and Timoleon, as he could not have convinced them of the contrary, so he did not think it right to urge them to put their feeling aside as a simple satisfaction to him. Yet the act leaves a deserved stain upon a reputation such as his. 1 The women were treated on both sides as adjective be- ings, through whose lives revenge was to be taken against a poli- tical enemy. Next came the turn of Mamerkus, who had assembled near Katana a considerable force, strengthened by a*body of Cartha- ginian allies under Giskon. He was attacked and defeated by Timoleon near the river Abolus, with a loss of two thousand men, many of them belonging to the Carthaginian division. We know nothing but the simple fact of this battle ; which probably made serious impression upon the Carthaginians, since they speedily afterwards sent earnest propositions for peace, deserting their Sici- lian allies. Peace was accordingly concluded ; on terms however which left the Carthaginian dominion in Sicily much the same a* it had been at the end of the reign of the elder Dionysius, as well 1 Plutarch, Timoleon, c. 33.