7.167.1
The story told by the Carchedonians themselves seems to have some element of truth. They say that the barbarians fought with the Greeks in Sicily from dawn until late evening (so long, it is said, the battle was drawn out), during which time Amilcas stayed in his camp offering sacrifice and striving to obtain favorable omens by burning whole bodies on a great pyre. When he saw his army routed, he cast himself into the fire where he was pouring libations on the sacrifice; he was consumed by this and was not seen any more.
7.167.2
Whether he vanished as the Phoenicians say, or in the manner related by the Carchedonians and Syracusans, sacrifice is offered to him, and monuments have been set up in all the colonists' cities, the greatest of which is in Carchedon itself.
ch. 168
7.168.1
This is how the campaign in Sicily fell out. As for the Corcyraeans, their answer to the envoys and their acts were as I will show. The men who had gone to Sicily sought their aid too, using the same arguments which they had used with Gelon. The Corcyraeans straightaway promised to send help and protection, declaring that they would not allow Hellas to perish, for if she should fall, the very next day would certainly see them also enslaved. They would accordingly have to help to the best of their ability.
7.168.2
Now this answer seemed fair enough, but when the time came for sending help, their minds changed. They manned sixty ships and put out to sea, making for the coast of the Peloponnese. There, however, they anchored off Pylos and Taenarus in the Lacedaemonian territory, waiting like the others to see which way the war should incline. They had no hope that the Greeks would prevail, but thought that the Persian would win a great victory and be lord of all Hellas.
7.168.3
Their course of action, therefore, had been planned with a view to being able to say to the Persian, “O king, we whose power is as great as any and who could have furnished as many ships as any state save Athens,—we, when the Greeks attempted to gain our aid in this war, would not resist you nor do anything displeasing to you.” This plea, they hoped, would win them some advantage more than ordinary; and so, I believe, it would have been.
7.168.4
They were, however, also ready with an excuse which they could make to the Greeks, and in the end they made it; when the Greeks blamed them for sending no help, they said that they had manned sixty triremes, but that they could not round Malea because of the Etesian winds. It was for this reason, they said, that they could not arrive at Salamis; it was not cowardliness which made them late for the sea-fight. With such a plea they put the Greeks off.
ch. 169
7.169.1
But the Cretans, when the Greeks appointed to deal with them were trying to gain their aid, acted as I will show. They sent messengers to Delphi, inquiring if it would be to their advantage to help the Greeks.
7.169.2
The Pythia answered them, “Foolish men, was not the grief enough which Minos sent upon your people for the help given to Menelaus, out of anger that those others note would not help to avenge his death at Camicus, while you helped them to avenge the stealing of that woman from Sparta by a barbarian?” When this was brought to the ears of the Cretans, they would have nothing to do with aiding the Greeks.
ch. 170
7.170.1
Now Minos, it is said, went to Sicania, which is now called Sicily, in search for Daedalus, and perished there by a violent death. Presently all the Cretans except the men of Polichne and Praesus were bidden by a god to go with a great host to Sicania. Here they besieged the town of Camicus, where in my day the men of Acragas dwelt, for five years.
