Hippo'crates
3. Brother of Epicydes [EPICYDES, No. 1.].
The proceedings of the two brothers are related under the article EPICYDES, up to the time when they held the joint command at Syracuse, and defended that city against Marcellus. When the Roman general, having failed in all his attacks upon the city, found himself compelled to turn the siege into a blockade, it was agreed that while Epicydes continued to hold the command within the walls, Hippocrates should co-operate in other parts of Sicily with Himilco, who had just landed at Heraclea with a large force.
He accordingly succeeded in breaking his way through the Roman lines, and, though defeated by Marcellus at Acrae, effected a junction with Himilco at Agrigentum, and we find him united with that general in the subsequent operations in the interior of Sicily. [HIMILCO, No, 9.] Marcellus having at length made himself master of the greater part of Syracuse, while Achradina and the island of Ortygia still held out, a final attempt was made by Hippocrates and Himilco, with their combined forces, to raise the siege, but their attacks on the Roman lines were unsuccessful, and having encamped in the marshy ground on the banks of the Anapus, a pestilence broke out among their troops, to which Hippocrates, as well as Himilco, fell a victim. (
Liv. 24.35-
39,
25.26.)
[
E.H.B]
