Timoleon more renowned.  For these were some of the men who under Philomelus of Phokis and Onomarchus sacrilegiously took Delphi, and shared in the plunder of the temple.  As all men loathed them and shrank from them as from men under a curse, they wandered about Peloponnesus until Timoleon, being unable to get any other soldiers, enlisted them in his service.  When they reached Sicily, they were victorious in every battle which they fought where he was present.  After the most important struggles of the war were over, they were sent to reinforce others, and so perished and came to nought; and not all at once, but piecemeal, as if their avenging fate had given way to Timoleon’s good fortune for a season, lest the good should suffer from the punishment of the wicked.  Thus the kindness of the gods towards Timoleon was no less seen and wondered at in his failures than in his successes.

XXXI.  The people of Syracuse were much nettled by the insulting jests passed upon them by the despots.  Mamercus, who plumed himself on his poems and tragedies, gave himself great airs after conquering the mercenaries, and when he hung up their shields as offerings to the gods, he inscribed this insolent elegiac couplet upon them.

    “These, with purple wrought, and ivory, gold, and amber,
    We with our simple shields conquered and laid in the dust.”

After these events, while Timoleon was on a campaign in the direction of Kalauria, Hiketes invaded the Syracusan territory, did much damage and insult, and retired loaded with spoil, past the very walls of Kalauria, despising Timoleon, who had but a small force with him.  He, however, let him pass, but then pursued with his cavalry and light troops.  Hiketes, perceiving this, halted after crossing the river Damyrias, and drew up his troops along the farther bank to dispute the passage, encouraged to do so by the different nature of the ford, and the steepness of the hills on either hand.  Now a strange rivalry and contest arose among Timoleon’s captains, which delayed their onset.  No one chose to let any one else lead the way against the enemy, but each man wished to be first; so that their crossing was conducted in a disorderly fashion, each man trying to push by and outstrip the rest.  Hereupon Timoleon, wishing to choose the leaders by lot, took a ring from each.  These he threw into his own cloak, mixed them up, and showed the first which he drew out, which happened to be engraved with the figure of a trophy of victory.  When the young men saw this they raised a shout of joy, and would not wait for the rest to be drawn, but each man, as fast as he could, rode through the river and set upon the enemy.  Their assault was irresistible; the enemy fled, all of them throwing away their shields, and with the loss of a hundred men.