battle of Cannæ, which was followed by an almost universal defection of their allies. But the wafting his dominions by the Carthaginian troops, which their fleet had landed in Sicily, was not capable of fhaking him. He was Liv. 1. 23. only afflicted to fee that the contagion had n. 30. spread even to his own family. He had a fon named Gelon, who married Nereis the daughter of Pyrrhus, by whom he had several children, and amongst others Hieronymus, of whom we shall foon fpeak. Gelon, despising his father's great age, and fetting no value on the alliance of the Romans, after their laft difgrace at Cannæ, had declared openly for the Carthaginians. He had already armed the multitude, and follicited the allies of Syracufe to join him; and would perhaps have * occafioned great troubles in Sicily, if a fudden and unexpected death had not broken his meafures. It happened fo opportunely, that it gavesome fufpicion that his father had promoted it. He did not furvive his fon long; and died A. M. at the age of fourfcore and ten years, infi- 3789. Ant. J. C. nitely regretted by his people, after having 215. reigned fifty-four years. *Moviffetque in Sicilia res, nifi mors, adeo opporut patrem quoque fufpicione adfpergeret, arman tuna. tem eum multitudinem, fol- ARTICLE II. SECT. I. Hieronymus, grandson of Hiero, fucceeds bim, and caufes him to be regretted by his vices and cruelty. He is killed in a confpiracy. Barbarous murder of the Princeffes. Hippocrates and Epicydes poffefs themselves of the government of Syracufe, and declare for the Carthaginians, as Hieronymus had done. THE death of Hiero occafioned great revolutions in Sicily. The kingdom was fallen into the hands of Hieronymus his grandfon; a young prince, incapable of making a wife ufe of his independency, and far from refifting the feducing impreffions of fovereign power. Hiero's apprehenfions, that the flourifhing condition, in which he left his kingdom, would foon change under an infant king, fuggefted to him the thought and defire of reftoring their liberty to the Syracufans. But his two daughters oppofed that defign with their whole credit; from the hope, that the young prince would have only the title of king, and that they fhould have all the authority, in conjunction with their hufbands, Andranorus and Zoippus, who held the first rank amongst his guardians. It was not eafy for an old man of ninety, to hold out against the careffes and arts of thofe two women, who be Puerum, vix dum libertatem, nedum dominationem, modicè laturum. Liv. + Non facile erat nonagefimum jam agenti annum, circumfeffo dies noctefque muliebribus blanditiis, liberare animum, & convertere ad publicam privata curam. Lia, fieged him day and night, to preserve the freedom of his mind in the midst of their preffing and affiduous infinuations, and to facrifice with courage the interefts of his family to thofe of the publick. To prevent as far as poffible the evils he forefaw, he appointed him fifteen guardians, who were to form his council; and earnestly defired them at his death never to depart from the alliance with the Romans, to which he had inviolably adhered for fifty years, and to teach the young prince to tread in his fteps, and to follow the principles in which he had been educated till then. The king, dying after these difpofitions, the guardians he had appointed his grandfon immediately fummoned the affembly, prefented the young prince to the people, and caufed the will to be read. A fmall number of people, exprefsly placed to applaud it, clapped their hands, and raised acclamations of joy. All the rest, in a confternation, equal to that of a family who have lately loft a good father, kept a mournful filence, which fufficiently expreffed their grief for their lofs, and their apprehenfion of what was to come. His funeral was afterwards folemnized, and more honoured by the forrow and tears of his fubjects, than the cares and regard of his relations for his memory. Andranodorus's firft care was to remove all the other guardians, by telling them roundly, the prince was of age to govern for himself. He was at that time near fifteen years old. So that Andranodorus, being the first to renounce *Funus fit regium, magis amore civium & caritate, quam eura fuorum celebre. Liv. the the guardianship held by him in common with many collegues, united in his own perfon all their power. The difpofitions, made by the wifest princes at their deaths, are often little regarded, and feldom executed afterwards. The best and most moderate prince in the world, fucceeding a king fo well beloved by his fubjects, as Hiero had been, would have found it very difficult to confole them for the lofs they had fuftained. But Hieronymus, as if he had ftrove by his vices to make him still more regretted, no fooner afcended the throne, than he made the people fenfible, how much all things were altered. Neither king Hiero, nor Gelon his fon, during fo many years, had ever diftinguished themselves from the other citizens by their habits, or any other ornament intimating pride. Hieronymus was presently feen in a purple robe, with a diadem on his head, and furrounded by a troop of armed guards. Sometimes he affected to imitate Dionyfius the tyrant, in coming out of his palace in a chariot drawn by four white horses. All thereft of his conduct was fuitable to this equipage a visible contempt for all the world; haughty and difdainful in hearing; an affectation of faying difobliging things; fo difficult of access, that not only ftrangers, but even his + Vix quidem ulli bono moderatoque regi facilis erat. favor apud Syracufanos, fuccedenti tantæ caritati Hieronis. Verum enimvero Hieronymus, velut fuis vitiis defiderabilem efficere vellat avum, primoftatim confpectu, omnia quam disparia effert oftendit. Liv. * Hunc tam fuperbum apparatum habitumque convenientes fequebantur contemptus omnium hominum, fuperbæ aures, contumeliofa dicta, rari aditus, non alienis modò fed tutoribus etiam; libidines novæ, inhumana crudelitas. Liv. guardians, guardians, could fcarce approach him; a refinement of taste in the discovery of new methods of debauch; a cruelty fo exceffive, as to extinguish all sense of humanity in him: This odious difpofition of the young king cast such a terror into the minds of people, that even some of his guardians, to escape his cruelty, either put themselves to death, or condemned themfelves to voluntary banishment. Only three men, Andranodorus and Zoippus, both Hiero's fons-in-law, and Thrafo, had a freer admittance to the yonng king. He liftened a little more to them than to others; but as the two first openly declared for the Carthaginians, and the latter for the Romans, that difference of fentiments, and very warm difputes frequently the confequence of it, drew upon them the prince's attention. About this time a confpiracy against the life of Hieronymus happened to be discovered. One of the principal confpirators, named Theodotus, was accufed. Being put to the queftion, he confeffed the crime as to himself; but all the violence of the moft cruel torments could not make him betray his accomplices. At length, as if no longer able to fupport the pains inflicted on him, he accufed the king's best friends, though innocent, amongst whom he named Thrafo, as the ringleader of the whole enterprize; adding, that they should never have engaged in it, if a man of his credit had nor been at their head. The warmth, he had always expreffed for the cause of the Romans, rendered the evidence probable; and he was accordingly put to death. Not one of the accomplices, during their companions being tortured, either fled or concealed himself; fo much they relied upon the fidelity of Theodotus, who had |