6 HISTORY OF GREECE. of a spear on his cuirass, was with difficulty picked up and carried off alive ; all his arms, except the cuirass, being left behind. He was obliged to raise the siege, and was long in recovering from his wound : the rather as his eyes also had suffered considerably from the snow. 1 So manifest a reverse, before a town comparatively insignifi- cant, lowered his military reputation, and encouraged his enemies throughout the island. The Agrigentines and others, throwing off their dependence upon him, proclaimed themselves autono- mous ; lanishing those leaders among them who upheld his interest. 2 Many of the Sikels also, elate with the success of their countrymen at Tauromenium, declared openly against him ; joining the Carthaginian general Magon, who now, for the first time since the disaster before Syracuse, again exhibited the force of Carthage in the field. Since the disaster before Syracuse, Magon had remained trnn- quil in the western or Carthaginian comer of the island, recruit- ing the strength and courage of his countrymen, and taking unusual pains to conciliate the attachment of the dependent native towns. Reinforced in part by the exiles expelled by Dionysius, he was now in a condition to assume the aggressive, and to espouse the cause of the Sikels after their successful de- fence of Tauromenium. He even ventured to overrun and i-avage the Messenian territory ; but Dionysius, being now re- covered from his wound, marched against him, defeated him in a battle near Abaka3na, and forced him again to retire westward, until fresh troops were sent to him from Carthage. 3 1 Diodor. xiv. 88. s Diodor. xiv. 88. fie ~u 6e TTJV urv^lav Tavrrjv, ' payavTivoi K a I rotif TU Atovvaiov Qpovovvrac fisraaTtjauftevoi, Tfjf il.ev&fpiac O, KOI rijf rov rvpuvvov avfipaxiaf aireoriicav. It appears to me that the words nal 'M.caa^vioi in this sentence cannot be correct. The Messenians were a new population just established by Diony- sius, and relying upon him for protection against Rhegium : moreover they will appear, during the events immediately succeeding, constantly in con- junction with him, and objects of attack by his enemies. I cannot but think that Diodorus has here inadvertently placed the word bleaorjvioi instead of a name belonging to some other community what community, we cannot tell.
- Diodor. xiv. 90-95.
