Of the treasures sent by Gelon to Delphi, he tells us (vii. 163) that Gelon, fearing that the Greeks might succumb to the Persian, but considering it quite an impossible thing for the tyrant of Sicily to go to Peloponnese to be put under the command of Lacedæmonians, sent, immediately on hearing of the passage of the Hellespont by the Persians, a certain Cadmus with three ships to Delphi with much treasure and friendly words (καραδοκήσαντα τὴν μάχην ᾕ πεσέεται˙ καὶ ἤν μὲν ὁ βάρβαρος νικᾷ, τὰ τε χρήματα αὐτῷ διδόναι, καὶ γῆν τε καὶ ὕδωρ τῶν ἄρχει ὅ Γέλων˙ ἤν δὲ οἱ Ἕλληνες, ὀπίσω ἀπάγειν), and (VII. 164) we are told that when the Greeks won in the sea-fight, and Xerxes departed, Cadmus returned to Sicily, bringing all the treasure with him.
A fragment of the history of Ephorus (Frag. III Schol. Pind. Pyth. I. 146) gives the following account of the matter:—
Ἐκ δὲ Περσῶν καὶ Φοινίκων πρέσβεις πρὸς Καρχηδονίους [παραγενέσθαι] προστάσσοντας ὡς πλεῖστον δέοι στόλον˙ εἰς Σικελίαν τε βαδίζειν, καὶ καταστρεψαμένους τοὺς τὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων φρονοῦντας πλεῖν ἐπὶ Πελοπόννησον.
THE CARTAGINIAN INVASION OF SICILY.
Diodorus, xi. 1, says:—
“Ὁ δὲ Ξέρξης.... βονλόμενος πάντας τοὺς Ἕλληνας ἀναστάτους ποιῆσαι, διεπρεσβεύσατο πρὸς Καρχηδονίους περὶ κοινοπραγίας, καὶ συνέθετο πρὸς αὐτοὺς. ὥστε αὐτὸν μὲν ἐπὶ τοὺς τὴν Ἑλλάδα κατοικοῦντας Ἕλληνας στρατεύειν,
“Καρχηδονίους δὲ τοῖς αὐτοῖς χρόνοις μεγάλας παρασκευάσασθαι δυνάμεις, καὶ καταπολεμῆσαι τῶν Ἑλλήνων τοὺς περὶ Σικελίαν καὶ Ἰταλίαν οἰκοῦντας.”
These are the historical passages which bear on the subject.
Of non-historical passages, we have in the “Poetics” of Aristotle, 23, a reference to the coincidence in date of the battles of Salamis and Himera.
It is needless to say that we are here in the presence of evidence which, if not actually conflicting, is at any rate extremely difficult to reconcile.