tirely razed, two hundred and
forty years after its foundation. He forced three thousand prisoners to
undergo every kind of ignominious punishments; and at last murdered them
all on the very spot where his grandfather had been killed by Gelon's
cavalry, to appease and satisfy his manes by the blood of these unhappy
victims.

These expeditions being ended, Hannibal returned to Carthage, on which
occasion the whole city came out to meet him, and received him amidst the
most joyful acclamations.

These successes reinflamed the desire, and revived the design, which the
Carthaginians had ever entertained, of making themselves masters of the
whole of Sicily.(615) Three years after, they appointed Hannibal their
general a second time; and on his pleading his great age, and refusing the
command of this war, they gave him for lieutenant, Imilcon, son of Hanno,
of the same family. The preparations for this war were proportioned to the
great design which the Carthaginians had formed. The fleet and army were
soon ready, and set out for Sicily. The number of their forces, according
to Timaeus, amounted to above six-score thousand; and, according to
Ephorus, to three hundred thousand men. The enemy, on their side, were
prepared to give the Carthaginians a warm reception. The Syracusans had
sent to all their allies, in order to levy forces among them; and to all
the cities of Sicily, to exhort them to exert themselves vigorously in
defence of their liberties.

Agrigentum expected to feel the first fury of the enemy. This city was
prodigiously rich,(616) and strongly fortified. It was situated, as was
also Selinus, on that coast of Sicily which faces Africa. Accordingly,
Hannibal opened the campaign with the siege of this city. Imagining that
it was impregnable except on one side, he directed his whole force to that
quarter. He threw up banks and terraces as high as the walls: and made
use, on this occasion, of the rubbish and fragments of the tombs standing
round the city, which he had demolished for that purpose. Soon after, the
plague infected the army, and swept away a great number of the soldiers,
and the general himself. The Carthaginians interpreted this disaster as a
punishment inflicted by the gods, who revenged in this manner the injuries
done to the dead, whose ghosts many fancied they had seen stalking before
them in the night. No more tombs were therefore demolished, prayers were
ordered to be made according to the pract