lf deserted
and the very market-place turned into a horse pasture. The same was the
case with other cities of Sicily. Even the fields were but half
cultivated. Ruin had swept over that fertile island far and wide.

Timoleon now sent invitations everywhere, inviting exiles to return and
new colonists to come and people the island. To make them sure that they
would not be oppressed, a new constitution was formed, giving all the
power to the people. The invitation was accepted. From all quarters
colonists came, while ten thousand exiles and others sailed from
Corinth. In the end no fewer than sixty thousand new citizens were added
to Syracuse.

Meanwhile Timoleon put down the other despots of Sicily and set the
cities free. Hicetas, his old enemy, was forced to give up his control
of Leontini, to which he had retired on the loss of Syracuse. But the
snake retained his venom. The Carthaginians were furious at the flight
of their fleet. Hicetas stirred them up to another invasion of the
liberated island.

How long they were in preparing for this expedition we do not know, but
it was made on a large scale. An army of seventy thousand men landed on
the western corner of the island, brought thither by a fleet of two
hundred triremes and one thousand transports. In the army were ten
thousand heavy-armed Carthaginians, who carried white shields and wore
elaborate breastplates. Among these were many of the rich men of
Carthage, who brought with them costly baggage and rich articles of gold
and silver. Twenty-five hundred of them were called the Sacred Band of
Carthage. That great city had rarely before made such a determined
effort at conquest.

Timoleon was not idle in the face of this great invasion. But the whole
army he could muster was but twelve thousand strong, a pitiable total to
meet so powerful a foe. And as he marched to meet the enemy distrust and
fear marched in his ranks. Such was the dread that one division of the
army, one thousand strong, mutinied and deserted, and it needed all his
personal influence to keep the rest together.

Yet Timoleon had in him the spirit that commands success. He pushed on
with his disheartened force until near the river Crimesus, beyond which
was encamped the great army of Carthage. Some mules laden with parsley
met the Corinthians on the road. Parsley was used for the wreaths laid
on tombstones. It seemed a fatal omen. But Timoleon, with the quickness
of genius, seized some of it,