XXIV.  The life of Syracuse being rekindled by this influx of citizens from all quarters, Timoleon determined to set free the other cities also, and to exterminate the despots in Sicily.  In the course of his campaigns against them he compelled Hiketes to renounce his alliance with the Carthaginians, to demolish his castle, and to live in Leontini as a private citizen.  Leptines, the despot of Apollonia and of several smaller towns, fearing to be taken by him, surrendered.  Timoleon spared his life, and sent him to Corinth, as he thought that it reflected credit upon his native city, that the despots of Sicily should be seen by all Greece living there as humble exiles.  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.  Besides these, there was the paid force, four thousand in number; and of these again about a thousand were overcome by their fears on the march, and went back, declaring that Timoleon could not be in his right senses, but must be insane to march with five thousand foot and a thousand horse to attack seventy thousand men, and to separate his force eight days’ journey from Syracuse, in a place where there was no hope of shelter for the fugitives or of honourable burial for the dead.  Timoleon treated it as an advantage that these men disclosed their cowardice before the day of battle.  He encouraged the rest, and led them with all haste to the river Krimesus, where he heard that the Carthaginians were concentrating.