A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

TIMOLEON. TIMOMACHUS. 1141
was their alarm that Timoleon, according to Diodo- been pnt to death by Hicetas. This is one of the
rus (xvi. 78), could only induce twelve thousand greatest stains upon Timoleon's character, as he
men to march with him against the Carthaginians. might easily have saved these unfortunate women,
including in that number his mercenaries, and if he had chosen.
even of them one thousand deserted him on the After the death of Hicetas, and the treaty bemarch. Timoleon hastened to meet the enemy tween the Carthaginians and Timoleon, Mamercus,
with this small force, knowing that any delay, in being unable to maintain himself in Catana, fled to
the divided condition in which the Sicilians still Messana, where he took refuge with Hippon,
were, might prove fatal to him. The Carthaginian tyrant of that city. Timoleon quickly followed,
commanders were equally anxious to bring matters and besieged Messana so vigorously by sea and
to a speedy decision, confident of victory from land, that Hippon, despairing of holding out, attheir superior numbers. The Greeks found the tempted to escape by sea, but was taken and put
Carthaginians encamped on one side of the Cri- to death in the public theatre. Mamercus now
mesus or Crimissus, a river which flows into the surrendered, stipulating only for a public trial
Hypsa, on the south-western coast of Sicily. Ti- before the Syracusans, with the condition that
moleon drew up his troops on the brow of a hill Timoleon should not appear as his accuser. But
overlooking the Carthaginian army, who were on as soon as he was brought into the assembly at
the further bank of the river. The Carthaginian Syracuse, the people refused to hear him, and
commanders, impatient for the victory, began to unanimously condemned him to death.
cross the river in presence of the enemy. This Thus almost all the tyrants were expelled from
favourable circumstance determined the movements the Greek cities in Sicily, and a democratical form
of Timoleon. As soon as the Carthaginian army of government established in their place. Timowas divided by the stream, lie charged them leon, however, was in reality the ruler of Sicily,
with all his forces. The Carthaginians resisted for all the states consulted him on every matter of
bravely, but in the hottest of the fight a dreadful importance; and the wisdom of his rule is atstorm came on, attended with lightning, hail, and tested by the flourishing condition of the island
rain, which beat full in the faces of the Cartha- for several years even after his death. He reginians. Unable to bear up against the storm, and peopled the great cities of Agrigentum and Gela,
to hear the commands of their officers amidst the which had been laid desolate by the Carthaginians,
roar of the thunder, and the clattering of the rain and also settled colonies in other cities. He did
and hail upon their arms, the Carthaginians began not, however, assume any title or office, but resided
to retreat and make for the river; but pursued by as a private citizen among the Syracusans, to
the Greeks, their retreat soon became a rout; a whom he left the administration of their own
panic spread through their ranks; and the different affairs. Once, when his public conduct was atnations of which the vast army was composed, igno- tacked in the popular assembly by a demagogue of
rant of one another's language, and maddened by the name of Demaenetus, Timoleon is reported to
fear, used their swords against one another, each have thanked the gods for answering his prayer that
eager to gain the stream. Numbers were killed, the Syracusans might enjoy freedom of speech;
and still more were drowned in the river. The and when Laphystius, another demagogue, devictory was complete, and justly ranks as one of manded that Timoleon should give sureties to answer
the greatest gained by Greeks over barbarians. It an indictment that was brought against him, and
was fought in the middle of summer, B. c. 339. some of Timoleon's friends began thereupon to
The booty which Timoleon and his troops gained raise a clamour, Timoleon himself restrained then
was prodigious; and some of the richest of the by saying, that the great object of all his toils and
spoils he sent to Corinth and other cities in Greece, exertions had been to make the law the same for
thus diffusing the glory of his victory throughout all the Syracusans. A short time before his death
the mother country. Timoleon became completely blind, but the SyThe victory of the Crimesus brought Timoleon racusan people notwithstanding continued to pay
such an accession of power and influence, that he him the same honour as they had done before, and
now resolved to carry into execution his project of took his advice on all difficult cases, He died, ac.
expelling all the tyrants from Sicily. Of these, cording to Diodorus, in B.c. 337, in the eighth
two of the most powerful, Hicetas of Leontini, and year after his first arrival in Sicily. He was buried
Mamercus of Catana, had recourse to the Cartha- at the public expense in the market-place at Syraginians for assistance, who sent Gisco to Sicily cuse, where his monument was afterwards surwith a fleet of seventy ships and a body of Greek rounded with porticoes and a gymnasium, which
mercenaries. Although Gisco gained a few suc- was called after him the Timoleonteium. Annual
cesses at first, the war was upon the whole favour- games were also instituted in his honour. Timoable to Timoleon, and the Carthaginians were leon certainly deserves to be regarded as one of
therefore glad to conclude a treaty with the latter the greatest men of Greece, and it is not the
in B. C. 338, by which the river Halycus was fixed slightest eulogium paid to him, that Mitford, with
as the boundary of the Carthaginian and Greek all his prejudices against the destroyer of his fatdominions in Sicily. It was during the war with vourite tyrants, is able to detract so little from
Gisco that Hicetas fell into the hands of Timoleon. the virtues and merits of Timoleon. (Plutarch
He had been completely defeated by Timoleon at and Cornelius Nepos, Life of Tiomoleon; Diod. xvi.
the river Damurias, and was taken prisoner a 65-90; Polyaen. v. 3. ~ 8; Mitford, History of
few days afterwards, with his son Eupolemus. Greece, c. xxxiii.)
They were both slain by Timoleon's order. His TIMO'MACHUS (Tqiue/.aXos), an Athenian,
wife and daughters were carried to Syracuse; of the demus of Acharnae. In B. c. 366, he comwhere they were executed by command of the manded a body of Athenian troops, which, in conpeople, as a satisfaction to the mailes of Dion, junction with a Lacedaemonian force, had been
whose wife Arete and sister Aristomache had both appointed to guard the Isthmus of Corintll against
4D 3