In 397 Dionysius was ready. He led an army of 80,000 across the island; won Camarina, Gela, Acragas, Himera, and Selinus over; and laid siege to the Carthaginian city of Motya in the northwest. The Sicanians as well as the city of Eryx joined him, and he raided the few cities which remained loyal to the Carthaginians (Diod. XIV 47-48). A Carthaginian fleet sent out to assist the Motyans could do little, and Dionysius took the city. His army began to slaughter the inhabitants, but Dionysius intervened so that he could convert the survivors into cash on the slave market (Diod. XIV 50-53).
In 396, however, Himilco reappeared in Sicily with an army even larger than Dionysius’ - 100,000 with an additional 30,000 levied on Sicily (Timaeus, BNJ 566, Fr. 108). Himilco landed near Panormus on the northern coast, marched to Eryx which he took by treachery, and thence to Motya. Before so large an army Dionysius, who had been besieging Segesta, retreated to Syracuse (Diod. XIV 55).
Himilco then marched across the island to Messene. When the inhabitants fled into the hills, Himilco razed the city. Then he founded a new city near the old site of Naxos, Tauromenium, and settled Sicels there (Diod. XIV 56-59). As Himilco moved southwards with his army and fleet, Dionysius led his own
Army and fleet northwards. The two fleets fought off Catane, but the numerically superior Carthaginians, with 500 or 600 (Diod. XIV 56) ships, defeated the Greeks easily (Diod. XIV 59-60). Thereupon Dionysius retreated behind the walls of Syracuse (Diod. XIV 61), the sole bit of Sicily not yet under Carthaginian control.
Like Nicias some years earlier (see chap. 14), Himilco now laid siege to Syracuse (Diod. XIV 62-63). But the walls were strong, and the Carthaginians were weakened by an outbreak of plague (Diod. XIV 70-71). But what broke the siege was an attack, as daring as it was ruthless, which Dionysius personally led. On a moonless night, he brought 1,000 mercenaries with his cavalry to the west of the Carthaginian camp. The mercenaries thought that the Syracusan cavalry would support their attack, but Dionysius was throwing their lives away in a diversion. When the mercenaries attacked, Dionysius left them in the lurch (the Carthaginians annihilated them), rode round the camp with his horsemen, and then led the real attack in the east against the Carthaginian forts by the harbor (see Diod. XIV 63). In the meantime the Syracusans’ fleet fell on the Carthaginians’ in another surprise attack. Dionysius captured the forts, and large numbers of Carthaginian ships were destroyed before they could be manned (Diod. XIV 72-74).
After this reverse, Himilco negotiated with Dionysius who, against receipt of 300 talents, let Himilco, together with all Carthaginians in his army, withdraw by sea in some forty ships that remained of the Carthaginian fleet (Diod. XIV 75). Although it had been a closely run affair, Dionysius had succeeded in breaking the Carthaginians’ dominion over much of the island, a dominion established by the treaty of 405 which he himself had concluded with them. Now the Carthaginians were confined to the northwest of the island; at some point they founded the city of Lilybaeum to replace the destroyed Motya (Diod. XV 73).
In the next few years Dionysius strengthened his grip on the island’s east. He rebuilt Messene. He captured a few towns of the Sicels as well as the Carthaginian colony of Solus (Diod. XIV 78), but an attack on Tauromenium failed (Diod. XIV 87-88). In 393, however, Mago, now the Carthaginian commander in northwestern Sicily, improved the Carthaginians’ position. He accepted refugees from Dionysius’ dominions, made alliances with the Sicels, and even raided Messene. But Dionysius’ army was evidently larger than Mago’s, and under such circumstances Dionysius was happy to give battle, easily defeating Mago (Diod. XIV 90). The Carthaginians in response sent 80,000 troops to Sicily. With these Mago was at least a match for Dionysius, but neither side desired to risk everything in one battle. Dionysius’ troops were deserting him, and Mago was apparently having difficulty supplying his own. A peace treaty was concluded whereby this time Dionysius had sovereignty over the Sicels; moreover Tauromenium was ceded to him (Diod. XIV 95-96). No other provisions are attested, but the peace was clearly efficacious since in the next few years Dionysius campaigned in Italy with no fear of Carthaginian attacks on Sicily.
World History
