During the siege of Rhegium, the Romans entered into an alliance with Hiero of Syracuse, the first ever made with a Greek out of Italy. Hiero supported them vigorously; for it was his object to recover Messana. This would be much easier for him to do, if the people of Rhegium were destroyed, and he hoped to get from the Romans the furtherance of his ends. But the siege being protracted, the services of Hiero were half forgotten, and the Romans rather chose to do what formerly they would have been ashamed of.
The first occasion of the wretchedness which spread over Sicily, was the unfortunate expedition of the Athenian fleet to Sicily,—the νῆες ἀρχέκακοι, to speak in the words of the poet, the first link of the whole fatal chain. This expedition was a blunder; for even if it had been successful, it was extremely difficult to take advantage of it; yet it is pardonable in a people full of imagination, and which felt a strong call for action, to have allowed itself to be beguiled into such an enterprise. The Athenians were first called in by the Chalcidian towns, owing to the miserable hatred between the Doric and Ionic race, which is likewise found in the colonies; but the great expedition under Alcibiades was caused by the Segestæans, a Pelasgian or Doric people, at the foot of Mount Eryx in Western Sicily, which was hard pressed by the Selinuntians, who were Ionians: this expedition, as is well known, altogether miscarried. When the Syracusans had now become the sole masters of the island, the Segestæans, dreading their vengeance for having sought the help of the Athenians, betook themselves to the Carthaginians as their refuge; and these, with a large army, conquered Gela, Camarina, and other towns, and encamped before Syracuse, where at that time Dionysius became tyrant. After a war of many vicissitudes, in which Dionysius, during the second campaign, by the conquest of Motye (the surviving inhabitants of which became the founders of Lilybæum), seemed to get the upperhand, so that there was every appearance that the Carthaginians would be entirely swept from the island; the peace was concluded by which these were left in possession of the territories of Selinus and Himera, consequently of a third of Sicily. The country was now infamously governed by Dionysius the Younger, rent by domestic struggles under Dion, and again restored to peace by Timoleon. The latter defeated the Carthaginians, to whom the conquered province remained indeed, but on condition that the Greeks might recover their towns in it. Now follows a time of peace and happiness in Grecian Sicily; then the dreadful usurpation of Agathocles, and his stormy reign which was so full of change. This period has often been thought to have been one of mildness and justice; but it was rather an age which made the reign of Dionysius to be wished for again, an era of humanity and prosperity. Agathocles was no common man; but he was a monster: he wasted the marrow and heart’s blood of the country, that he might surround himself with splendour. The way in which Sicily was wasted under this tyrant, and afterwards, was so frightful, that one cannot understand, how tillage and population could have continued in such a country; and especially how Syracuse could have been one of the greatest cities in the world. His wars, on the whole, were marked by awful calamities; their renown for having been brilliant cannot be gainsayed: the peace which he made at last with the Carthaginians was fair enough. The hand of an avenging God was evidently upon him. Feuds broke out in his own family: he was poisoned, as we can hardly doubt, by his son or his grandson; but he did not die, he was only dangerously ill, and he was burned while yet half alive. The curse which lay on the house of Lysimachus, was also manifest in him. After his death, democracy was brought in again at Syracuse; yet it was not able to keep its ground, and the island fell into utter decay. The Carthaginians had laid Agrigentum waste in the days of Dionysius; it had somewhat recovered since, and after the death of Agathocles, it became independent under Phintias, a prince of its own. The condition of Sicily, even as early as the period described in the letters known under Plato’s name, was such, that the Hellenic races were threatened with being crushed by the Pœni and Oscans. This was after the death of Agathocles, and for this reason I believe that the so-called letters of Plato—the earlier ones at least, the seventh and the eighth—date from that time; for, old they are, and they still belong to the classical era, though they are not genuine, that is to say, not as old as Plato. Bentley says that there are two ways of proving the spurious character of a writing, from its contents, and from the language. Against the former, very little can be objected here; with regard, however, to the seventh and eighth letters, some discussion might be raised not only about the language, but also the contents, which evidently bear the stamp of an age later than that of Plato. We have, for example, the prophecy that the Greek race would perish, and in the whole island Oscan or Phœnician be spoken. Agathocles had carried on his wars by means of mercenaries who were most of them barbarians; many were Samnites, Lucanians and Oscans, under which last name, at that time, all the Sabellian peoples also were comprehended. We never find that Romans served in foreign armies; on the other hand, there were Etruscan troops in Sicily, especially Mamertines, which is the common name for the Oscan mercenaries, and indeed we meet with them there at a time when Rome was at war with their mother country. This shows quite a different relation of the individual to the state among the Romans, than among the other nations; and this also accounts for the power of the Romans. The feeble hands which, after the death of Agathocles, took the reins of government, were not able to manage these troops, and so they gave them money to return to Italy. While on their way, these came to Messana to embark. The people there, unmindful of the curse which, once upon a time, had been uttered against them by the Zanclæans, whom they had faithlessly driven out, received them into their houses; but they massacred the inhabitants, and set themselves up as a nation under the name of Mamertines, and many other Oscans flocked in to them. The outrages which these hireling soldiers committed, may be likened to those which took place in the year 1576, in the Netherlands, when the mercenary troops sacked whole towns to pay themselves for their wages: this was among others the fate of Maestricht. The Oscan colony was in a league with the people of Rhegium, and supported them; and the Romans only mastered them with the help of Hiero.
Hiero was of an old and noble race in Syracuse. Some there were, who, perhaps to flatter him, derived his pedigree from Hiero the son of Dinomenes; so that at a time when the state could be prosperously governed by a monarchy alone,—which could only be by a usurpation,—his circumstances peculiarly favoured him for it. He was first nominated general; and then, by the soldiers, king. They could not have wished for a better master. During his reign, which lasted nearly sixty years, was the first Punic war of twenty-four years; and, of course, the resources of his kingdom were most severely taxed. Nevertheless, he displayed so much good sense and economy, and he was withal such a mild ruler, that the Syracusans felt free, and, during the last twenty years of his government, happy. In his youth he was also warlike; but this habit he quite lost. One incident of his life, which is told by the scholiast on the Ibis of Ovid, is seldom noticed. He is said to have had Theocritus put to death on account of a satire, which is very likely to have been done by a Greek ruler of those days.
It was the object of Hiero’s endeavours to reduce the Mamertines. Syracuse had only a few dependent towns; Catana and Taurominium were allies. The Carthaginians had gotten Agrigentum, and had extended their frontiers as far as Gela and Camarina, as after the first peace with Dionysius; if Hiero could but have Messana, he hoped to have in the Romans a support against the Carthaginians. With these he was obliged to conclude a peace, in which he yielded to them the conquered places: he was, however, on very good terms with them, as far as outward appearances went. When by straining a point in his morality, he had got rid of his old mutinous mercenaries, whom he betrayed in the war, and allowed to be slaughtered by the Mamertines; he formed a new army, and taking the field against the latter, who had spread on the north-eastern third of the island, he won a decisive battle. To this refers the beautiful idyll Χάριτες of Theocritus, a poet, from whom we may form an idea of the freshness of spirit which there was then in Sicily. Hiero had peace with the Carthaginians, in order not to have them for enemies; and they forced upon him their support; they both of them together besieged Messana. Under these circumstances, the Mamertines saw no help. Hiero wished to exterminate them, as the destroyers of the Greek population; the Carthaginians had the same object in view, but not from the same reason. They also wanted to root them out; because as Oscans and Italians, these were of the same stock with the Romans, and might easily one day open to them the way into the island. Without doubt, they likewise thought of use Hiero merely as their tool, and to get the town for themselves; for, the fides Punica cannot after all so entirely be denied. In this dilemma, the Mamertines applied to the Romans. But it was absurd (ἄτοπον is the expression of Polybius) for the Romans, after having hunted down the allies of the Italians in Rhegium, to go and take the part of others who had done the self-same thing. The evil spirit of lust of power had, however, already got hold of the Romans: they were afraid, lest the Carthaginians should put themselves in possession of Messana, where, if these once gained a firm footing, they would find themselves sadly taken in by their false delicacy. And this is also true, that Carthage would have become for Rome, just as invulnerable as England was for Napoleon. The Carthaginians had betrayed their views on Italy when they sent the fleet to Tarentum. From Messana and its excellent harbour, they would have had an opportunity of easily sailing over to Calabria; whereas at present their nearest harbour was Panormus, from which they could not easily have undertaken such a daring enterprise. The Italians in Rhegium, it was contended, had disgraced the Roman name; but the sins of the Mamertines in foreign lands, Rome had nothing to do with. The most enlightened and moral policy would now have been, to exert themselves to make Hiero master of Messana, and to gain him over for an ally. This only seemed hazardous, because in that case, the Mamertines might have opened their gates to the Carthaginians.
The Roman senate had come to no resolution; nay it seems that from the fear of doing an unworthy act, or from motives of morality, it declined the offer. If the constitution had been the same as of yore, that μηδὲν ἀπροβούλευτον, nothing could be brought to the centuries, but what was laid before it by the senate, the affair would have been decided; but now the tribunes, without even calling upon the senate, could go at once to the people, and the latter resolved upon giving help to the Mamertines. Polybius accounts for this step by the circumstance that the people, being burthened with debts, had looked forward to a war, that they might enrich themselves; if this view be correct, it shows, that by this time already, the poorer classes had the upperhand in the assembly. Yet it is likely that Polybius puts forth that motive, only because he so thought it, and there may have been some others. At any rate, the resolution was foolhardy. The Carthaginians were masters of the sea, and the Romans had not one ship of war; they had even in the conquered sea-ports destroyed all the galleys of Etruria and of other countries, perhaps in order to prevent piracy, and to escape from the responsibility which might thus have fallen upon them. To transport their troops from Rhegium to Messana, they had no other vessels but a few triremes and penteconters belonging to Greek towns, as Polybius tells us. Pliny, on the other hand, says that the Romans had for this purpose in forty days built three hundred triremes; and indeed a small quantity would not have been enough. From Rhegium, the Romans treated with the Mamertines. These had already received into their town a Carthaginian general, but either without any troops at all, or with only very few: by what stratagem they got him away, is more than we know. Appius Claudius at first went over with a small body; soon afterwards, the whole of the army followed. The Carthaginians, whose fleet was lying near Pelorus, tried to hinder their passage; but the Romans took advantage of the wind and tide, and got speedily over by this mad daring. The Carthaginians, who had protected Messana against Rome, now united, as has been mentioned before, with Hiero, and both blockaded the town from different sides; probably the Carthaginians from the North, Hiero from the South. The communication between the two might be difficult; Messana being situated near a mountain of considerable extent, it was easy for the Romans to make a sally and to defeat Hiero separately. He made a stout resistance; but the Syracusan phalanx was not able to withstand the Roman legions. After this victory, the latter turned against the Carthaginians, and, as it seems, without any declaration of war. The Carthaginians retreated, and the Romans advanced without any hindrance. In the following year, 489, they reached the walls of Syracuse under Valerius Messalla, who is thus surnamed from Messana. Taurominium, Catana, and other towns opened their gates to them, and they made preparations likewise to besiege Syracuse; but Hiero still succeeded in making a peace. A very small state only was left to him, but he retained the sovereignty of it: he paid a small war contribution, and concluded an offensive and defensive alliance with the Romans.
Here should be the beginning of the first Punic war; but for the sake of connexion, it is usually dated from the passage over the strait.
END OF VOL. I.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The use of letters on the whole is very ancient. It has a threefold root:—in Egypt, (or perhaps in Æthiopia,) in Phœnicia, and in Babylon, all three of which are independent of each other. That in Europe writing is of more ancient date than the time in which we place Homer, is undeniable, as we have written monuments from such an early period, leaving, however, the question untouched, whether Homer had committed his lays to writing or not.
[2] Comp. concerning this chronicle Archive for Ancient German Historical Research, v. p. 146. Pertz has afterwards (1839) published it, Monum. Germ. Hist. Script. tom. iii. p. 695 sq.—Note of the German Editor.