Affairs of the GRECIAN Settlements in SICILY and ITALY, from the Restoration of the younger DIONYSIUS to the Death of TIMOLEON

SECTION I

Expedition of the Carthaginians into Sicily under Hanno. Grecian Cities in Sicily under the Government of single Chiefs. Application for Interference of Corinth in the Affairs of Sicily. Circumstances of Corinth. Timoleon appointed to manage the, Corinthian Interest in Sicily

Fortunately for the Grecian interest in Sicily, the Carthaginian government, whether prevented by domestic troubles, or ingaged by greater views elsewhere, made no use of the opportunities which the weakness necessarily incident to an administration of a man of the character of the younger Dionysius, and the distractions which followed the expedition of Dion, for prosecuting by arms any views of ambition there. Its policy, meanwhile, or at least the conduct of its officers, was liberal and able. The attachment even of the Grecian towns in the western parts was conciliated; and it appears, from Diodorus, that those towns shared little in the ruin, which Plutarch has represented as so universally sweeping over the iland. Since the decay of the great naval force which the first Dionysius raised, the Carthaginians had held complete command of the sea; and this, in the divided state of the Greeks, produced by Dion's expedition, would be perhaps more advantageous to a commercial people than any extension of territorial command.