bey; that they desired to return to Hannibal; but as the
journey would not be safe, as armed Romans were ranging at large
through the whole of Sicily, that they requested to be furnished with
some escort which might convey them in safety to Locri in Italy; and
that thus they would confer a great obligation upon Hannibal, with
little trouble." The request was easily obtained, for they were
desirous of getting rid of these generals of the king, who were
skilled in war, and at once necessitous and enterprising. But they did
not exert themselves so as to effect what they desired with the
requisite speed. Meanwhile these young men, who were of a military
turn and accustomed to the soldiers, employed themselves in
circulating charges against the senate and nobles, sometimes in the
minds of the soldiers themselves, sometimes of the deserters, of which
the greater part were Roman sailors, at other times of men belonging
to the lowest order of the populace, insinuating, that "what they were
secretly labouring and contriving to effect, was to place Syracuse
under the dominion of the Romans with the pretence of a renewed
alliance, and then that faction and the few promoters of the alliance
would be supreme."

24. The crowds of persons disposed to hear and credit these
insinuations which flowed into Syracuse from every quarter increased
daily, and afforded hopes, not only to Epicydes but to Andranodorus
also, of effecting a revolution. The latter, wearied at length by the
importunities of his wife, who warned him, "that now was the
favourable time for seizing the government, while every thing was in
confusion in consequence of liberty being recent and not yet regularly
established; while a soldiery supported by the royal pay was to be met
with, and while generals sent by Hannibal and accustomed to the
soldiery might forward the attempt;" he communicated his design with
Themistus, who had married the daughter of Gelon, and a few days
afterwards incautiously disclosed it to a certain tragic actor, named
Ariston, to whom he was in the habit of committing other secrets. He
was a man of reputable birth and fortune, nor did his profession
disgrace them, for among the Greeks no pursuit of that kind was
considered dishonourable. He therefore discovered the plot to the
praetors, from a conviction that his country had a superior claim upon
his fidelity. These having satisfied themselves that his statement was
not false by indubitable proofs