XXVI.  As he was mounting a hill, beyond which he expected to see the camp and army of the enemy, there met him some mules loaded with parsley.  It occurred to the soldiers that this was a bad omen, for we generally use parsley for wreathing tombs; indeed from this practice arises the proverb, when a man is dangerously ill, that he is ready for his parsley.  Wishing to rid them from this superstition and to stop their fears, Timoleon halted them, and made a suitable speech, pointing out that their crown of victory had come of its own accord into their hands before the battle, for this is the herb with which the Corinthians crown the victors at the Isthmian games, accounting it sacred and peculiar to their own country.  For then parsley was used for the crown at the Isthmian games, as it is even to this day at those of Nemea, and the pine has only been lately introduced.  So Timoleon, having addressed his soldiers, as has been said, first crowned himself with the parsley, and then his officers and men did so likewise.  But the prophets perceiving two eagles flying towards them, one of whom carried a snake in its talons, while the other flew along with loud and inspiriting cries, pointed them out to the soldiers, who all began to pray and invoke the gods.

XXVII.  The time of year was the beginning of summer, near the solstice at the end of the month Thargelion.[A] A thick mist rose from the river, and all the plain was concealed in fog, so that nothing could be seen of the enemy, but only a confused murmur from the movement of that great host reached the hill.  The Corinthians, when they had reached the summit, paused and piled their arms.  Now the sun shone out, and the mist rose from the valley.  Gathering together, it hung in clouds about the hill-tops, while below, the river Krimesus appeared, with the enemy crossing it.

[Footnote A:  About May.]

First went the four-horse chariots in terrible pomp, all drawn up in battle array, while next to them followed ten thousand hoplites with white shields.  These they conjectured to be native Carthaginians by the splendour of their equipments and their slow and orderly march.  Following these came the other nations, turbulently and confusedly struggling across.  Timoleon, seeing that the river kept off the mass of the enemy, and allowed them to fight with just so many as they chose, pointed out to his soldiers how the enemy’s array was broken by the stream, some having crossed, and some being still crossing.  He ordered Demaretus to take the cavalry and charge the Carthaginians, to prevent their having time to form in order of battle.  But he himself marched down to the plain, having drawn up his force with the other Sicilian Greeks and a few strangers on each of the wings, but with his Syracusans and the best of the paid force under his own command in the centre.