uced an impression upon the
senate also. Some men of no small authority openly declared, that it
was very fortunate that the rapacity and cruelty of the Romans had
been made apparent in the case of the Leontines; that if they had
entered Syracuse, they would have committed the same or even more
horrible acts, as there the temptations to rapacity would have been
greater. All, therefore, advised that the gates should be closed and
the city guarded, but not the same persons were objects of fear or
hatred to all alike. Among the soldiers of every kind, and a great
part of the people, the Roman name was hated. The praetors, and a few
of the nobles, though enraged by the fictitious intelligence, rather
directed their cautions against a nearer and more immediate evil.
Hippocrates and Epicycles were now at the Hexapylum; and conversations
were taking place, fomented by the relatives of the native soldiers
who were in the army, touching the opening of the gates, and the
allowing their common country to be defended from the violence of the
Romans. One of the doors of the Hexapylum was now thrown open, and the
troops began to be taken in at it, when the praetors interposed; and
first by commands and menaces, then by advice, they endeavoured to
deter them from their purpose, and last of all, every other means
proving ineffectual, forgetful of their dignity, they tried to move
them by prayers, imploring them not to betray their country to men
heretofore the satellites of the tyrant, and now the corrupters of the
army. But the ears of the excited multitude were deaf to all these
arguments, and the exertions made from within to break open the gates,
were not less than those without; the gates were all broken open, and
the whole army received into the Hexapylum. The praetors, with the
youth of the city, fled into the Achradina; the mercenary soldiers and
deserters, with all the soldiers of the late king who were at
Syracuse, joined the forces of the enemy. The Achradina also was
therefore taken on the first assault, and all the praetors, except
such as escaped in the confusion, were put to the sword. Night put an
end to the carnage. On the following day the slaves were invited to
liberty, and those bound in prison were released; after which this
mixed rabble created Hippocrates and Epicydes their praetors, and thus
Syracuse, when for a brief period the light of liberty had shone on
it, relapsed into her former state of servitude.

33.