Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/68

42 HISTORY OF GREECE. The Carthaginian generals nffected to accept the terms offered, but stated (what was probably the truth), that they could not pledge themselves for the execution of such terms, without assem from the authorities at home. They solicited a truce cf a few days, to enable them to send thither for instructions. Persuaded that they could not escape, Dionysius granted their request. Ac- counting the emancipation of Sicily from the Punie yoke to be already a fact accomplished, he triumphantly exalted himself on a pedestal higher even than that of Gelon. But this very confi- dence threw him off his guard and proved ruinous to him ; as it happened frequently in Grecian military proceedings. The de- feated Carthaginian army gradually recovered their spirits. In place of the slain general Magon, who was buried with magnifi- cence, his son was named commander ; a youth of extraordinary energy and ability, who so contrived to reassure and reorganize his troops, that when the truce expired, he was ready for a second battle. Probably the Syracusans were taken by surprise and not fully prepared. At least the fortune of Dionysius had fled. In this second action, fought at a spot called Kronium, he underwent a terrible and ruinous defeat. His brother Leptines, who com- manded on one wing, was slain gallantly fighting ; those around him were defeated ; while Dionysius himself, with his select troops on the other wing, had at first some advantage, but was at length beaten and driven back. The whole army fled in disorder to the camp, pursued with merciless vehemence by the Carthaginians, who, incensed by their previous defeat, neither gave quarter nor took prisoners. Fourteen thousand dead bodies, of the defeated Syracusan army, are said to have been picked up for burial ; the rest were only preserved by night and by the shelter of their camp. 1 Such was the signal victory the salvation of the army, per haps even of Carthage herself gained at Kronium by the youth- ful son of Magon. Immediately after it, he retired to Panormus. His army probably had been too much enfeebled by the former defeat to undertake farther offensive operations ; moreover he himself had as yet no regular appointment as general. The Car- thaginian authorities too had the prudence to seize this favorable 1 Diodor. xv. 16. 17.