moment, which never returns after having been once let slip. The negligence in assigning the time for their departure, gave them opportunity to insinuate themselves into the favour of the soldiers, who esteemed them upon account of their abilities, and to give them a disgust for the senate, and the better inclined part of the citizens.

Andranadorus, whose wife's ambition would never let him rest, and who, till then, had covered his designs with smooth dissimulation, believing it a proper time for disclosing them, conspired with Themistus, Ge-lon's son in law, to seize the sovereignty. He communicated his views to a comedian named Ariston, from whom he kept nothing secret. That profession was not at all dishonourable among the Greeks, and was exercised by persons of no ignoble condition. Ariston, believing it his duty, as it really was, to sacrifice his friend to his country, discovered the conspiracy. Andranadorus and Themistus were immediately slain, by order of the other magistrates, as they entered the senate. The people rose, and threatened to revenge their deaths, but were deterred from it, by the sight of the dead bodies of the two conspirators, which were thrown out of the senate house. They were then informed of their pernicious designs; to which all the misfortunes of Sicily were ascribed, rather than to the wickedness of Hieronymus, who being only a youth, had acted entirely by their counsels. They insinuated, that his guardians and tutors had reigned in his name; that they ought to have been cut off before Hieronymus, or at least with him; that impunity had carried them on to commit new crimes, and to aspirę

to the tyranny; that not being able to succeed in their design by force, they had used dissimulation and perfidy; that neither favours nor honours had been able to overcome the wicked disposition of Andranadorus ; nor the electing him one of the supreme magistrates amongst the deliverers of their country, him, who was the declared enemy of liberty; that as to the rest, they had been inspired with their ambition of reigning by the princesses of the blood royal, whom they had married, the one Hiero's, the other Gelon's daughter.

h

At those words, the whole assembly cried out, that not one of them ought to be suffered to live, and that it was necessary to extirpate entirely the race of the tyrants, without any reserve or exception. Such is the nature of the multitude. It either abjectly abandons itself to slavery, or lords it with insolence; but with regard to liberty, which holds the mean betwixt those extremes, it neither knows how to be without it, or to use it; and has always too many flatterers ready to enter into its passions, inflame its rage, and hurry it on to excessive violences, and the most inhuman cruelties, to which it is but too much inclined of itself, as was the case at this time. At the At the request of the magistrates, which was almost sooner accepted than proposed, they decreed that the royal family should be entirely destroyed.

Demarata, Hiero's, and Harmonia, Gelon's daughter; the first married to Andranadorus, and the other

h Hæc natura multitudinis est; aut servit humiliter, aut superbe dominatur; libertatem, quæ media est, nec spernere modice, nec habere sciunt. Et non ferme desunt irarum indulgentes ministri, qui avidos atque intemperantes plebeiorum animos ad sanguinem et cædes irritent. Liv.

to Themistus, were killed first. From thence they went to the house of Heraclea, wife of Zoippus; who having been sent on an embassy to Ptolemy king of Egypt, remained there in voluntary banishment, to avoid being witness of the miseries of his country. Having been apprized that they were coming to her, that unfortunate princess had taken refuge with her two daughters in the most remote part of her house,

When the assassins arriv

near her household gods. ed there, with her hair loose and disordered, her face bathed in tears, and in a condition most proper to extite compassion, she conjured them, in a faultering voice, interrupted with sighs, in the name of Hiero her father, and Gelon her brother, "not to involve an innocent princess in the guilt and misfortunes of Hieronymus." She represented to them, "that her husband's banishment had been to her the sole fruit of that reign; that not having had any share in the fortunes and designs of her sister Demarata, she ought to have none in her punishment. Besides, what was there to fear either from her, in the forlorn condition and almost widowhood to which she was reduced, or from her daughters, unhappy orphans, without credit or support? That if the royal family were become so odious to Syracuse, that it could not bear the sight of them, they might be banished to Alexandria, the wife to her husband, the daughters to their father." When she saw them inflexible to her remonstrances, forgetting herself, she implored them at least to save the lives of the princesses her daughters, both of an age to inspire the most inveterate and furious enemies with compassion; but her discourse made no impression

upon the minds of those barbarians. Having torn her in a manner from the arms of her household gods, they stabbed her to death in the sight of her two daughters, and soon after cut their throats, already stained and covered with the blood of their mother. What was still more deplorable in their destiny was, that immediately after their death an order of the people's came for sparing their lives.

From compassion, the people in a moment proceeded to rage and fury against those who had been so hasty in the execution, and had not left them time for reflection or repentance. They demanded that magistrates should be nominated in the room of Adranadorus and Themistus. They were a long time in sus pense upon this choice. At length, somebody in the crowd of the people, happened to name Epicydes; another immediately mentioned Hippocrates. Those two persons were demanded with so much ardour by the multitude, which consisted of citizens and soldiers, that the senate could not prevent their being created.

The new magistrates did not immediately discover the design they had of reinstating Syracuse in the interests of Hannibal; but they had seen with pain the measures which had been taken before they were in office; for, immediately after the reestablishment of liberty, ambassadors had been sent to Appius, to propose renewing the alliance broken by Hieronymus. He had referred them to Marcellus, who was lately arrived in Sicily, with an authority superior to his own. Marcellus, in his turn, sent deputies to the magistrates of Syracuse, to treat of peace.

Upon arriving there, they found the state of affairs much altered. Hippocrates and Epicydes, at first by secret practices, and afterwards by open complaints, had inspired every body with great aversion for the Romans; giving out, that designs were formed for putting Syracuse into their hands. The behaviour of Appius, who had approached the entrance of the port with his fleet, to encourage the party in the Roman interest, strengthened those suspicions and accusations so much, that the people ran tumultuously to prevent the Romans from landing, in case they should have that design.

In this trouble and confusion, it was thought proper to summon the assembly of the people. Opinions differed very much in it; and the heat of debates giving reason to fear some sedition, Apollonides, one of the principal senators, made a discourse very suitable to the conjuncture. He intimated, "that never city was nearer its destruction or preservation than Syracuse actually was at that time; that if they all with unanimous consent should join either the Romans or Carthaginians, their condition would be happy; that if they were divided, the war would neither be more warm nor more dangerous between the Romans and Carthaginians, than between the Syracusans themselves against each other; as both parties must necessarily have, within the circumference of their own walls, their own troops, armies and generals; that it was therefore absolutely requisite to make their agreement and union amongst themselves their sole care and application; and that, to know which of the two alliances was to be preferred, was now the most im