25.28
When
the news of what had happened reached the camp of the Sicilians, viz. that
Epicydes had left Syracuse and that the island had been abandoned by the
Carthaginians and almost surrendered a second time to the Romans, they
sent envoys to Marcellus to treat for the surrender of the city, having
previously sounded in frequent interviews the feelings of those who were
undergoing the siege. They were practically united on these two points, that
all that had been included in the king's dominions should belong to Rome,
and that all else was to be retained by the Sicilians together with their liberty
and their laws. They then invited those who had been left in charge by
Epicydes to a conference, the envoys telling them that the army of the
Sicilians had sent them to them as well as to Marcellus, so that those who
were within and those who were outside of the beleaguered city might share
the same fortune, and neither should make separate terms for themselves.
Admission was granted to them that they might converse with their friends
and relatives. After explaining the nature of their understanding with
Marcellus and holding out a prospect of safety, they persuaded them to join
in an attack upon those to whom Epicydes had committed the government -Polyclitus, Philistio, and Epicydes, surnamed Sindon. They were put to death
and the citizens were summoned to a public meeting. Here the envoys
complained bitterly of the straits they were in for food, and the other evils
which they had been in the habit of grumbling about in secret; they said that
although they had so much to distress them, they must not throw the blame
on Fortune; it was in their own power to decide how long they would endure
it. The motives which led the Romans to attack Syracuse were those of
affection, not animosity. When they heard that the reins of government had
been seized by Hippocrates and Epicydes, who had been first creatures of
Hannibal and then of Hieronymus, they set their armies in motion and began
the siege, not for the purpose of destroying the city but of crushing those
who were tyrannising over it. But now that Hippocrates was disposed of and
Epicydes shut out from Syracuse and his officers put to death, what was
there left to prevent the Romans from wishing that Syracuse should be free
from all harm, just as they would have wished it had Hiero, that eminently
loyal friend of Rome, been still alive? There was, then, no danger either to
the city or its people other than what would arise from their own action if
they let slip that chance of reconciliation with Rome. There would never be
another so favourable as the one they had at that moment, just when it was
plain to all that Syracuse had been delivered from an impotent tyranny.
