strong westerly gale of long continuance, she might have been unable to round the north-east point of Sicily, after having been driven to the eastward of her course, and with her crew and passengers landed, and established themselves on the island; with the return of fine weather, some of the number would have found their way to Tyre or Sidon, and reported the beauty and fertility of the country; certain it is that Panornus (Palermo) Soloeis and Motya were Phenician cities.

Diodorus calls the Sicani the aborigenes, but this is a conventional term, meaning the earliest known inhabitants of any country, for it is impossible to say who were the aborigenes of any land; tradition, as usual, provided them with such names as Ceres, Aristæus, Dædalus and Hercules, the demi-gods and benefactors who taught them the knowledge of agriculture, navigation, &c. The Siculi naturally crossed over from the southern parts of Italy, and are said to have driven the Sicani to the southern and western parts of the island.

Tradition generally invests the origin of nations with a certain degree of splendour, whereas the foundation of all states is the same. The mighty hunter of the plain, the hardy mountaineer, the robber leader, the pirate chief-whenever a bold and determined spirit can collect a band of followers, inspire them with fear through his courage, and respect through his talents, he organises a community obedient to his will-calls in the aid of the local deities to sanction his commands, and gathers round him individuals of superior acquirements, to assist him in governing. The source of all discipline and order lies in the minute subdivisions of the people,

under chiefs responsible to those in higher command; by which means a successor to each ruler is always at hand, otherwise a society would fall to pieces as soon as the master-mind was taken away. Moses, skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians, deferred to the advice* of Jethro; and at one and the same time, facilitated the administration of justice, and ensured discipline, when it should be necessary to organise an army for the conquest of the promised land.

B. C. 759, a colony of Chalcidians from Eubæa, and Megarians, led by the Athenian Thucles, landed on the eastern coast of Sicily, which they found deserted by the Siculi; successive irruptions and ravages of the pirates of the Grecian Archipelago, traversing the straits of Messina in their way to the shores of western Italy, had rendered the coast uninhabitable; but, when the Greek colonists established themselves, their towns and harbours became places of refuge and refreshment to the enterprising rovers.

The island of Ortygia and the coast of Catania were successively occupied by the Corinthians and other Dorians, and the great city of Syracuse was founded. In 712, a party of Rhodians built Gela, on the southern coast, and a colony from thence founded the celebrated Agrigentum, 580 B. c. During the intervening period, the Syracusans had planted a colony at Camarina, and Selinus was founded by the Megarians from Hybla.

Thucydides says, that the Siculi had built some considerable towns, at a very early period; the situation and natural advantages of Zanclè (Messina), were so evident, that it would soon become a fortified *Exodus, chap. xviii. verse 19.

D

harbour. Agyra, Enna, Erbessus, and Hybla, are enumerated as towns of the Siculi also; and colonies from Phrygia are said to have established themselves at Elyma, Entella and Egesta, under the name of Elymeans.

The Greek towns governed themselves, at first, as republics, mostly aristocratic, as the Dorian towns generally were; afterwards, some citizens rose to be tyrants; not according to the modern acceptation of the term, but having been elected to the office of chief magistrate, obtained sufficient influence to make their authority permanent. The interior of the country remained in possession of the Siculi, under their respective princes; the Sicani had become absorbed by these and the Phenicians. Hippocrates of Gela was one of the earliest and most distinguished tyrants; he flourished, 490 B. c., made war upon the Siculi, defeated them in several engagements, and obtained sovereignty over many of their towns; he also obliged the Syracusans to give up Camarina. Having joined Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegium (Reggio in Calabria), they surprised Zanclè, shared the plunder between them, and gave up the town and territory to a colony of Messenians.

Phalaris, whose brazen bull has become a proverb, was tyrant of Agrigentum, about 540 B. c.; he extended its sway and enlarged its power. Theron, who ruled some fifty years afterwards, raised splendid public buildings, and added to its power and prosperity. Empedocles, the philosopher, said, "his countrymen squandered their money so excessively every day, as if they expected it could never be exhausted; and built with such solidity and magnificence, as if they thought they should live for ever."

B. c. 480, Himera was conquered and annexed to their dominion; the tyrant escaped and fled to Carthage, where, becoming in great credit, he persuaded the senate to attack his conqueror, and brought about the first invasion of the Carthaginians. Syracuse came to his aid; with their united force the invaders were expelled; a strict alliance was formed between these two preponderating states; and the inhabitants united in the determination to expel their tyrants, and adopt the democratic form of government; which example was followed by all the other cities of Chalcidic origin, who united against the Siculi, and took their strong hold Trinacria, supposed to have been situated near Calatagirona. A war then broke out between the two races of Greek extraction, the Chalcidic and Doric; the former applied to the Athenians for assistance, who, in 427 B. C., sent a force to their aid. Twelve years afterwards the grand expedition took place, which ended so fatally for Athens, and led to a second invasion of the Carthaginians, who were joined by the Siculi, succeeded in overthrowing Selinus, Hemesa, and Agrigentum, sacked those wealthy cities, destroyed the splendid buildings, overran the neighbouring country, and established themselves in the island, where they remained a century and a half.

Syracuse, when besieged by them, called in Pyrrhus, the celebrated king of Epirus, who everywhere drove the Carthaginians before him; but receiving a check at the strong hold of Lilybæum, he suddenly abandoned Sicily to its own dissensions; and the Mamertines, a band of Campanian mercenaries, who had treacherously seized upon Messina, and were aggrandising their power, thought the opportunity favourable to despoil Syracuse of her territory. Threat

ened on two sides by powerful assailants, her fall seemed inevitable; but the son of Hierocles, one of her wealthy citizens, having learned the art of war under Pyrrhus, and being in high estimation with his countrymen, was invested with extraordinary powers to meet the emergency; he repelled the assailants, drove them back upon Messina, and would have captured the place; but the Carthaginians came to the rescue, and prevailed upon the Mamertines to receive a reinforcement of their troops into the citadel; no longer hoping to obtain possession of the town, he withdrew to Syracuse, where the intrigues of his friends working upon the gratitude of his townsmen, succeeded in raising him to royal dignity, and he was called to the throne under the title of Hieron the Second.

The Mamertines quarrelling with the Carthaginians, the latter offered the hand of friendship to the Syracusans, and engaged with their assistance to drive these mercenary interlopers out of Sicily; but, boasting of their descent from Mars, and thus claiming a common origin with the Romans, they called to their assistance the senate of Rome, who having, only six years before, severely punished, in the Campanians of Rhegium, a similar act of piracy to that by which the Mamertines had established themselves at Messina, refused to take part with the latter against Hieron; upon this, the consuls, Appius Claudius and Marcus Fulvius, brought the subject before the people, in the comitia, and, by appealing to their jealousy of the Carthaginian power, and by representing the gain to be made by a contest with so wealthy a state in the fertile plains of Sicily, prevailed them to espouse the cause of the Mamertines.

upon