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 21.1. 
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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.