13.111.3When Dionysius arrived at Camarina, he compelled the residents of that city also to depart with their children and wives to Syracuse. And since their fear admitted of no delay, some gathered together silver and gold and whatever could be easily carried, while others fled with only their parents and infant children, paying no attention to valuables; and some, who were aged or suffering from illness, were left behind because they had no relatives or friends, since the Carthaginians were expected to arrive almost immediately.
13.111.4For the fate that had befallen Selinus and Himera and Acragas note as well terrified the populace, all of whom felt as if they had actually been eyewitnesses of the savagery of the Carthaginians. For among them there was no sparing their captives, but they were without compassion for the victims of Fortune of whom they would crucify some and upon others inflict unbearable outrages.
13.111.5Nevertheless, now that two cities had been driven into exile, the countryside teemed with women and children and the rabble in general. And when the soldiers witnessed these conditions, they were not only enraged against Dionysius but also filled with pity at the lot of the unfortunate victims;
13.111.6for they saw free-born boys and maidens of marriageable years rushing pell-mell along the road in a manner improper for their age, since the stress of the moment had done away with the dignity and respect which are shown before strangers. Similarly they sympathized also with the elderly, as they watched them being forced to push onward beyond their strength while trying to keep up with those in the prime of life.
ch. 112
13.112.1It was for these reasons that the hatred against Dionysius was flaring up, since men assumed that he had so acted from this definite plan: by using the dread of the Carthaginians to be lord of the remaining cities of Sicily without risk.
13.112.2For they reckoned up his delay in bringing aid note; the fact that none of his mercenaries had fallen; that he had retreated without reason, since he had suffered no serious reverse; and, most important of all, that not a single one of the Carthaginians had pursued them. Consequently, for those who before this were eager to seize an opportunity to revolt, all things, as if by the foreknowledge of the gods, were working toward the overthrow of the tyrannical power.
13.112.3Now the Italian Greeks, deserting Dionysius, made their way home through the interior of the island, and the Syracusan cavalry at first kept watch in the hope that they might be able to slay the tyrant along the road; but when they saw that the mercenaries were not deserting him, they rode off with one accord to Syracuse.
13.112.4And finding the guards of the dockyards note knew nothing of the events at Gela, they entered these without hindrance, plundered the house of Dionysius which was filled with silver and gold and all other costly things, and seizing his wife left her so ill-used note as to ensure the tyrant's keeping his anger fiercely alive, acting as they did in the belief that the vengeance they wreaked on Dionysius' wife would be the surest guarantee of their holding by each other in their attack upon him.
13.112.5And Dionysius, guessing while on the way what had taken place, picked out the most trustworthy of his cavalry and infantry, with whom he pressed toward the city without checking speed; for he reasoned that he could overcome the cavalry by no other means than by speedy action, and he acted accordingly. For if he should make his arrival even more of a surprise than theirs had been, he had hope that he would easily carry out his design; and that is what happened.
13.112.6For the cavalry assumed that Dionysius would now neither return to Syracuse nor remain with his army; consequently, in the belief that they had carried out their design, they said that he had pretended that in leaving Gela he was giving the slip to the Carthaginians whereas the truth in fact was that he had given the slip to the Syracusans.
ch. 113
13.113.1Dionysius covered a distance of four hundred stades note and arrived at the gates of Achradine about the middle of the night with a hundred cavalry and six hundred infantry, and finding the gate closed, he piled upon it reeds brought from the marshes such as the Syracusans are accustomed to use to bind their stucco. While the gates were being burned down, he gathered to his troops the laggards.
13.113.2And when the fire had consumed the gates, Dionysius with his followers made their way through Achradine, and the stoutest soldiers among the cavalry, when they heard what had happened, without waiting for the main body, and although they were very few in number, rushed forth at once to aid in the resistance. They were gathered in the market-place, and there they were surrounded by the mercenaries and shot down to a man.
13.113.3Then Dionysius, ranging through the city, slew any who came out here and there to resist him, and entering the houses of those who were hostile toward him, some of them he killed and others he banished from the city. The main body of the cavalry which was left fled from the city and occupied Aetne, as it is now called.
13.113.4At daybreak the main body of the mercenaries and the army of the Sicilian Greeks arrived at Syracuse, but the Geloans and Camarinaeans, who were at odds with Dionysius, left him and departed to Leontini.
