tirely to the dreadful
havoc made by the plague among them; which (he observed) was a favourable
opportunity, of which the Syracusans ought to take advantage. Though the
tyranny and the tyrant were equally odious to Syracuse, yet the hatred the
people bore to the Carthaginians prevailed over all other considerations;
and every one, guided more by the views of an interested policy than by
the dictates of justice, received the speech with applause. Upon this,
without the least complaint made, or any declaration of war, Dionysius
gave up to the fury of the populace the persons and possessions of the
Carthaginians. Great numbers of them resided at that time in Syracuse, and
traded there on the faith of treaties. The common people ran to their
houses, plundered their effects, and pretended they were sufficiently
authorized to exercise every ignominy, and inflict every kind of
punishment on them, for the cruelties they had exercised against the
natives of the country. And this horrid example of perfidy and inhumanity
was followed throughout the whole island of Sicily. This was the bloody
signal of the war which was declared against them. Dionysius having thus
begun to do himself justice, (in his way,) sent deputies to Carthage, to
require them to restore all the Sicilian cities to their liberties; and
that otherwise, all the Carthaginians found in them should be treated as
enemies. This news spread a general alarm in Carthage, especially when
they reflected on the sad condition to which they were reduced.

Dionysius opened the campaign with the siege of Motya, which was the
magazine of the Carthaginians in Sicily; and he pushed on the siege with
so much vigour, that it was impossible for Imilcon, the Carthaginian
admiral, to relieve it. He brought forward his engines, battered the place
with his battering-rams, advanced to the wall towers, six stories high
(rolled upon wheels,) and of an equal height with their houses; and from
these he greatly annoyed the besieged, with his Catapultae, an engine(622)
then recently invented, which hurled, with great violence, numerous
volleys of arrows and stones against the enemy. At last, the city, after a
long and vigorous defence, was taken by storm, and all the inhabitants of
it put to the sword, those excepted who took sanctuary in the temples. The
plunder of it was abandoned to the soldiers, and Dionysius, leaving a
strong garrison and a trusty governor in it, returned to Syracuse.

Th