Timoleon was called upon to act.

We have already told how Athens sought to capture this city and ruined
herself in the enterprise. After that time of triumph Syracuse passed
through several decades of terror and woe. Tyrants set their feet on her
fair neck, and almost crushed her into the earth. One of these,
Dionysius by name, had made his power felt by far-off Greece and nearer
Carthage, and for years ruled over Sicily with a rod of iron. His
successor, Dion, a friend and pupil of the philosopher Plato, became an
oppressor when he came into power. Then another Dionysius gained the
throne, a cowardly and drunken wretch, who repeated the acts of his
tyrannical father.

Such was the state of affairs in Sicily when Timoleon was dwelling
quietly at home in Corinth, a man of fifty, with no ambitious thought
and no ruling desire except to reach the end of his sorrow-laden life.
So odious now had the tyranny of Dionysius become that the despairing
Syracusans sent a pathetic appeal to Corinth, their mother city, praying
for aid against this brutal despot and the Carthaginians, who had
invaded the island of Sicily in force.

Corinth just then, fortunately, had no war on hand,--a somewhat
uncommon condition for a Greek city at that day. The citizens voted at
once to send the aid asked for. But who should be the leader? There were
danger and difficulty in the enterprise, with little hope for profit,
and none of the Corinthian generals or politicians seemed eager to lead
this forlorn hope. The archons called out their names one by one, but
each in succession declined. The archons had come nearly to their wits'
end whom to choose, when from an unknown voice in the assembly came the
name "Timoleon." The archons seized eagerly on the suggestion, hastily
chose Timoleon for the post which all the leading men declined, and the
assembly adjourned.

Timoleon, who sadly needed some active exertion to relieve him from the
weight of eating thought, accepted the thankless enterprise, heedless
probably of the result. He at once began to gather ships and soldiers.
But he found the Corinthians more ready to select a commander than to
provide him with means and men. Little money was forthcoming; few men
seemed ready to enlist; Timoleon had no great means of his own. In the
end he only got together seven triremes and one thousand men,--the most
of them mere mercenaries. Three more ships and two hundred men were
afterwards added.

And thus,