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184 HISTORY OF GREECE. prestige of his perpetual success. Mamerkus could now find r.c refuge except at Messene, where he was welcomed by the despot Hippon. But Timoleon speedily came thither with a force ample enough to besiege Messene by land and by sea. After a certain length of resistance, 1 the town was surrendered to him, while Hippon tried to make his escape secretly on shipboard. But he was captured and brought back into the midst of the Messenian population, who, under a sentiment of bitter hatred and ven- geance, planted him in the midst of the crowded theatre and there put him to death with insult, summoning all the boys from school into the theatre to witness what was considered au elevating scene. Mamerkus, without attempting to escape, surrendered himself prisoner to Timoleon ; only stipulating that his fate should be determined by the Syracusan assembly after a fair hearing, but that Timoleon himself should say nothing to his disfavor. He was accordingly brought to Syracuse, and placed on his trial be- fore the assembled people, whom he addressed in an elaborate dis- course ; probably skilfully composed, since he is said to have pos- sessed considerable talent as a poet. 2 But no eloquence could surmount the rooted aversion entertained by the Syracusans for his person and character. Being heard with murmurs, and seeing that he had no chance of obtaining a favorable verdict, he sud- denly threw aside his garment and rushed with violent despair against one of the stone seats, head foremost, in hopes of giving himself a fatal blow. But not succeeding in this attempted sui- cide, he was led out of the theatre and executed like a robber. 3 Timoleon had now nearly accomplished his confirmed purpose of extirpating every despotism in Sicily. There remained yet Nikodemus as despot at Ken tori pa, and Apolloniades at Agyrium. Both of these he speedily dethroned or expelled, restoring the two cities to the condition of free communities. He also expelled from the town of JEtna, those Campanian mercenaries who had been planted there by the elder Dionysius. 4 In this way did he proceed until there remained only free communities, without a single despot, in the Grecian portion of Sicily. Of the details of his proceedings our scanty information per- ' Plutarch, Timoleon, c. 37. * Plutarch, Timobon, c, 31. Plutarch, Timoleon, c. 34. * Diodpr. xvi. 82