24.27
When
the day fixed for the election arrived, to the surprise of all, a man from the
back of the crowd proposed Epicydes, then another nominated Hippocrates.
The voices of their supporters become more and more numerous and
evidently carried with them the assent of the people. As a matter of fact the
gathering was a very mixed one; there were not only citizens, but a crowd of
soldiers present, and a large proportion of deserters, ripe for a complete
revolution, were mingled with them. The praetors pretended at first not to
hear and tried hard to delay the proceedings; at last, powerless before a
unanimous assembly, and dreading a seditious outbreak, they declared them
to be duly elected praetors. They did not reveal their designs immediately
they were appointed, though they were extremely annoyed at envoys having
gone to Appius Claudius to arrange a ten days' truce, and at others having
been sent, after it was arranged, to discuss the renewal of the ancient treaty.
The Romans had at the time a fleet of a hundred vessels at Murgantia
awaiting the issue of the disturbances which the massacre of the royal family
had created in Syracuse and the effect upon the people of their new and
untried freedom. During that time the Syracusan envoys had been sent by
Appius to Marcellus on his arrival in Sicily, and Marcellus, after hearing the
proposed terms of peace, thought that the matter could be arranged and
accordingly sent envoys to Syracuse to discuss publicly with the praetors the
question of renewing the treaty. But now there was nothing like the same
state of quiet and tranquillity in the city. As soon as news came that a
Carthaginian fleet was off Pachynum, Hippocrates and Epicydes, throwing
off all fear, went about amongst the mercenaries and then amongst the
deserters declaring that Syracuse was being betrayed to the Romans. When
Appius brought his ships to anchor at the mouth of the harbour in the hope
of increasing the confidence of those who belonged to the other party, these
groundless insinuations received to all appearance strong confirmation, and
at the first sight of the fleet the people ran down to the harbour in a state of
great excitement to prevent them from making any attempt to land.
