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Hermocrates the Syracusan arrived in Sicily. This man, who had served as general in the war against the Athenians and had been of great service to his country, had acquired the greatest influence among the Syracusans, but afterwards, when he had been sent as admiral in command of thirty-five triremes to support the Lacedaemonians,1 he was overpowered by his political opponents and, upon being condemned to exile, he handed over the fleet in the Peloponnesus2 to the men who had been dispatched to succeed him. [2] And since he had struck up a friendship with Pharnabazus, the satrap of the Persians, as a result of the campaign, he accepted from him a great sum of money with which, after he had arrived at Messene, he had five triremes built and hired a thousand soldiers. [3] Then, after adding to this force also about a thousand of the Himeraeans who had been driven from their home, he endeavoured with the aid of his friends to make good his return to Syracuse; but when he failed in this design, he set out through the middle of the island and seizing Selinus he built a wall about a part of the city and called to him from all quarters the Selinuntians who were still alive.3 [4] He also received many others into the place and thus gathered a force of six thousand picked warriors. Making Selinus his base he first laid waste the territory of the inhabitants of Motye4 and defeating in battle those who came out from the city against him he slew many and pursued the rest within the wall of the city. After this he ravaged the territory of the people of Panormus5 and acquired countless booty, and when the inhabitants offered battle en masse before the city he slew about five hundred of them and shut up the rest within their walls. [5] And since he also laid waste in like fashion all the rest of the territory in the hands of the Carthaginians, he won the commendation of the Sicilian Greeks. And at once the majority of the Syracusans also repented of their treatment of him, realizing that Hermocrates had been banished contrary to the merits of his valour. [6] Consequently, after much discussion of him in meetings of the assembly, it was evident that the people desired to receive the man back from exile, and Hermocrates, on hearing of the talk about himself that was current in Syracuse, laid careful plans regarding his return from exile, knowing that his political opponents would work against it.

Such was the course of events in Sicily.

1 Cp. chap. 34.4.

2 Xen. Hell. 1.1.31 states that the new commanders took over the Syracusan ships and troops at Miletus.

3 Hermocrates is carrying on his own war against that part of Sicily held by the Carthaginians.

4 Cp. chap. 54.5.

5 Modern Palermo.

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