24.4
In Sicily
the position of the Romans was totally altered by the death of Hiero and the
demise of the crown to his grandson, Hieronymus, who was but a boy and
hardly likely to use his own liberty much less his sovereign power with
moderation. At such an age and with such a temperament guardians and
friends alike sought to plunge him into every kind of excess. Hiero, it is said,
seeing what was going to happen, was anxious at the close of his long life to
leave Syracuse as a free State, lest the kingdom which had been acquired and
built up by wise and honourable statesmanship should go to ruin by being
made the sport of a boy tyrant. His project met with the most determined
opposition from his daughters. They imagined that whilst the boy retained
the name of king, the supreme power would really rest with them and their
husbands, Andranodorus and Zoippus, whom the king purposed to leave as
the boy's principal guardians. It was no easy matter for a man in his ninetieth
year, subject night and day to the coaxing and blandishments of two women,
to keep an open mind and make public interests predominant over private
ones in his thoughts. So all he could do was to leave fifteen guardians for his
son, and he implored them on his deathbed to maintain unimpaired the loyal
relations with Rome which he had cultivated for fifty years, and to see to it
that the young man, above all things, followed in his footsteps and adhered
to the principles in which he had been brought up. Such were his
instructions. When the king had breathed his last the guardians produced the
will and brought the boy, who was then about fifteen, before the assembled
people. Some who had taken their places in different parts to raise
acclamations shouted their approval of the will, the majority, feeling that
they had lost a father, feared the worst now that the State was orphaned.
Then followed the king's funeral, which was honoured more by the love and
affection of his subjects than by any grief amongst his own kindred. Shortly
afterwards Andranodorus got rid of the other guardians by giving out that
Hieronymus was now a young man and capable of assuming the government;
by himself resigning the guardianship which he shared with several others, he
concentrated all their powers in his own person.
