As for the soldiers whom he
had in his pay, he determined not to keep them idle, but to support them
by the plunder of an enemy's country. So while he himself returned to
Syracuse, to superintend the reconstruction of the constitution, and to
assist the lawgivers Kephalus and Dionysius in framing the best form of
polity, he sent the troops under Deinarchus and Demaretus to subdue the
western portion of the island, which had fallen into the hands of the
Carthaginians. Here they induced several cities to revolt from the
barbarians, and not only gained abundant pay and plunder for themselves
from their conquests, but were able to furnish funds for the approaching
war.
XXV. During this time the Carthaginian forces sailed to Lilybaeum with
seventy thousand men, two hundred ships of war, and a thousand
transports carrying engines of war, four horse chariots, provisions, and
other war material, as they meant no longer to use half measures, but at
one swoop to drive the Greeks out of Sicily. Their force indeed was
sufficient for the conquest of the Sikeliot Greeks even if they had not
been weakened by their internal strife.
Hearing that their own part of the island was being ravaged, they at
once in great anger marched to attack the Corinthians, under the command
of Hasdrubal and Hamilcar. News of this quickly reached Syracuse, and
the great numbers of the enemy caused such panic among the citizens,
that, numerous as they were, Timoleon could only induce three thousand
to get under arms and follow him.
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