ice of Carthage; a child was
sacrificed to Saturn, in compliance with a most inhuman superstitious
custom; and many victims were thrown into the sea in honour of Neptune.

The besieged, who at first had gained several advantages, were at last so
pressed by famine, that all hopes of relief seeming desperate, they
resolved to abandon the city. The following night was fixed on for this
purpose. The reader will naturally image to himself the grief with which
these miserable people must be seized, on their being forced to leave
their houses, their rich possessions, and their country; but life was
still dearer to them than all these. Never was a more melancholy spectacle
seen. To omit the rest, a crowd of women, bathed in tears, were seen
dragging after them their helpless infants, in order to secure them from
the brutal fury of the victor. But the most grievous circumstance was, the
necessity they were under of leaving behind them the aged and sick, who
were unable either to fly or to make the least resistance. The unhappy
exiles arrived at Gela, which was the nearest city, and there received all
the comforts they could expect in the deplorable condition to which they
were reduced.

In the mean time, Imilcon entered the city, and murdered all who were
found in it. The plunder was immensely rich, and such as might be expected
from one of the most opulent cities of Sicily, which contained two hundred
thousand inhabitants, and had never been besieged, nor consequently
plundered, before. A numberless multitude of pictures, vases, and statues
of all kinds, were found here; the citizens having an exquisite taste for
the polite arts. Among other curiosities was the famous bull(617) of
Phalaris, which was sent to Carthage.

The siege of Agrigentum had lasted eight months. Imilcon made his forces
take up their winter-quarters in it, to give them the necessary
refreshment; and left this city (after laying it entirely in ruins) in the
beginning of the spring. He afterwards besieged Gela, and took it,
notwithstanding the succours which were brought by Dionysius the Tyrant,
who had seized upon the government of Syracuse. Imilcon ended the war by a
treaty with Dionysius. The conditions of it were, that the Carthaginians,
besides their ancient acquisitions in Sicily, should still possess the
country of the Sicanians,(618) Selinus, Agrigentum, and Himera; as
likewise that of Gela and Camarina, with leave for the inhabitants to
reside in t