o Automatia,--the goddess
under whose auspices blessings and glory came as it were of themselves.
To her he offered sacrifices, and consecrated his house to her. He lived
in a house which the Syracusans had bestowed upon him as a special prize
for his successes as general, and also the most beautiful and pleasant
country seat, where indeed he spent most of his leisure time with his
wife and children, whom he had sent for from Corinth. For he never
returned to Corinth, nor mixed himself up in the troubles of Greece, nor
did he expose himself to the hatred of political faction, which is the
rock upon which great generals commonly split, in their insatiate thirst
for honour and power; but he remained in Sicily, enjoying the blessings
of which he was the author; the greatest of which was to see so many
cities, and so many tens of thousands, all made happy and prosperous by
his means.

XXXVII. But since, as Simonides says, all larks must have crests, and
all republics sycophants, so two of the popular leaders, Laphystius and
Demaenetus, attacked Timoleon. When Laphystius was insisting on his
giving bail for some lawsuit, he would not permit the people to hoot at
him or stop him; for he said that all his labours and dangers had been
endured to obtain for every Syracusan the right of appealing to the
laws. Demaenetus made many attacks in the public assembly on his
generalship; but he made him no answer except to declare his
thankfulness to the gods for having granted his prayer that he might see
all Syracusans in possession of liberty of speech.

Though he confessedly had performed the greatest and most glorious
actions of any Greek of his time, and though he had gained the glory of
having alone done that which the orators in their speeches at great
public meetings used to urge the entire nation to attempt, he was
fortunately removed from the troubles which fell upon ancient Greece,
and saved from defiling his hands with the blood of his countrymen. His
courage and conduct were shown at the expense of barbarians and despots;
his mildness of temper was experienced by Greeks; he was able to erect
the trophies for most of his victories, without causing tears and
mourning to the citizens; but nevertheless, within eight years, he
restored Sicily to its native inhabitants, freed from the scourges which
had afflicted it for so long a time and seemed so ineradicable. When
advanced in years he suffered from a dimness of sight, which s