, contention
having arisen between me and the Carthaginians, and when I charged you
to exact vengeance of the men of Egesta for the death of Dorieos the son
of Anaxandrides, 148 while at the same time I offered to help in setting
free the trading-places, from which great advantages and gains have
been reaped by you,--ye, I say, then neither for my own sake came to my
assistance, nor in order to exact vengeance for the death of Dorieos;
and, so far as ye are concerned, all these parts are even now under the
rule of Barbarians. But since it turned out well for us and came to a
better issue, now that the war has come round and reached you, there has
at last arisen in your minds a recollection of Gelon. However, though I
have met with contempt at your hands, I will not act like you; but I am
prepared to come to your assistance, supplying two hundred triremes
and twenty thousand hoplites, with two thousand horsemen, two thousand
bowmen, two thousand slingers and two thousand light-armed men to run
beside the horsemen; and moreover I will undertake to supply corn for
the whole army of the Hellenes, until we have finished the war. These
things I engage to supply on this condition, namely that I shall be
commander and leader of the Hellenes against the Barbarian; but on any
other condition I will neither come myself nor will I send others."

159. Hearing this Syagros could not contain himself but spoke these
words: "Deeply, I trow, would Agamemnon son of Pelops lament, 149 if he
heard that the Spartans had had the leadership taken away from them by
Gelon and by the Syracusans. Nay, but make thou no further mention of
this condition, namely that we should deliver the leadership to thee;
but if thou art desirous to come to the assistance of Hellas, know that
thou wilt be under the command of the Lacedemonians; and if thou dost
indeed claim not to be under command, come not thou to our help at all."

160. To this Gelon, seeing that the speech of Syagros was adverse, set
forth to them his last proposal thus: "Stranger from Sparta, reproaches
sinking into the heart of a man are wont to rouse his spirit in anger
against them; thou however, though thou hast uttered insults against me
in thy speech, wilt not bring me to show myself unseemly in my reply.
But whereas ye so strongly lay claim to the leadership, it were fitting
that I should lay claim to it more than ye, seeing that I am the leader
of an army many times as large and of shi