24.24
These
slanders were listened to and believed in by the crowds which flocked to
Syracuse in greater numbers every day, and not only Epicydes but even
Andranodorus began to entertain hopes of a successful revolution. The latter
was constantly being warned by his wife that now was the time to seize the
reins of power whilst a new and unorganised liberty had thrown everything
into confusion, while a soldiery, battening on the royal donative, was ready
to his hand, and while Hannibal's emissaries, generals who could handle
troops, were able to aid his enterprise. Wearied out at last by her importunity
he communicated his design to Themistus, the husband of Gelo's daughter,
and a few days later he incautiously disclosed it to a certain Aristo, a tragic
actor to whom he had been in the habit of confiding other secrets. Aristo
was a man of respectable family and position, nor did his profession in any
way disgrace him, for among the Greeks nothing of that kind is a thing to be
ashamed of. This being his character, he thought that his country had the
first and strongest claim on his loyalty, and he laid an information before the
praetors. As soon as they ascertained by decisive evidence that it was no
merely trumped up affair they consulted the elder senators and on their
authority placed a guard at the door and slew Themistus and Andranodorus
as they entered the Senate-house. A disturbance was raised at what appeared
an atrocious crime by those who were ignorant of the reason, and the
praetors, having at last obtained silence, introduced the informer into the
senate. The man gave all the details of the story in regular order. The
conspiracy was first started at the time of the marriage of Gelo's daughter
Harmonia to Themistus; some of the African and Spanish auxiliary troops
had been told off to murder the praetor and the rest of the principal citizens
and had been promised their property by way of reward; further, a band of
mercenaries, in the pay of Andranodorus, were in readiness to seize the
Island a second time. Then he put before their eyes the several parts which
each were to play and the whole organisation of the conspiracy with the men
and the arms that were to be employed. The senate were quite convinced
that the death of these men was as justly deserved as that of Hieronymus, but
clamours arose from the crowd in front of the Senate-house, who were
divided in their sympathies and doubtful as to what was going on. As they
pressed forward with threatening shouts into the vestibule, the sight of the
conspirators' bodies so appalled them that they became silent and followed
the rest of the population who were proceeding calmly to hold an assembly.
Sopater was commissioned by the senate and by his colleagues to explain the
position of affairs.
