For Akragas
and Gela, large cities, which after the war with Athens had been
destroyed by the Carthaginians, were now repeopled; the former colonists
led by Megellus and Pheristus, from Elea on the south coast of Italy,
and the latter by a party led by Gorgus, who sailed from Keos and
collected together the former citizens.
When these cities were being reorganised Timoleon not only afforded them
peace and safety, but also gave them great assistance, and showed so
great an interest in them as to be loved and respected by them as their
real Founder. The other cities also all of them looked upon him with the
same feelings, so that no peace could be made by them, no laws
established, no country divided among settlers, no constitutional
changes made that seemed satisfactory, unless he had a hand in them,
and arranged them just as an architect, when a building is finished,
gives some graceful touches which adorn the whole.
XXXVI. There were many Greeks, in his lifetime, who became great, and
did great things, such as Timotheus, and Agesilaus, and Pelopidas, and
Timoleon's great model, Epameinondas. But these men's actions produced a
glory which was involved in much strain and toil, and some of their
deeds have incurred censure, and even been repented of. Whereas those of
Timoleon, if we except the terrible affair of his brother, have nothing
in them to which we cannot apply, like Timaeus, that verse of
Sophocles--
"Ye gods, what Venus or what grace divine
Took part in this.
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