SICILIAN AFFAIRS. -GELO AND HIS DYNASTY. 231 aris, had he not imprudently provoked his more powerful neigh- bor, Hiero. In an obstinate and murderous battle between these two princes, two thousand men were slain on the side of the Syr- acusans, and four thousand on that of the Agi'igentines : an im- mense slaughter, considering that it mostly fell upon the Greeks in the two armies, and not upon the non-Hellenic mercenaries.' But the defeat of 'Ihrasydteus was so complete, that he was com- pelled to flee not only from Agrigentum, but from Sicily : he retired to Megara, i.' Greece Proper, where he was condemned to death and perisht'd.2 The Agrigentines, thus happily re- leased from their oppressor, sued for and obtained peace from Hiero : they are said to have established a democratical govern- ment, but we learn that Hiero sent many citizens into banish- ment from Agrigentum and Himera, as well as from Gela,^ nor can we doubt that all the three were numbered among his subject cities. The moment of freedom only commenced for them when the Gelonian dynasty shared the fate of the Theronian. The victory over Thrasydceus rendered Hiero more completely master of Sicily than his brother Gelo had been before him. The last act which we hear of him, is, his interference on behalf of his brothers-in-law,'* the sons of Anaxilaus of Rhegium, who were now of age to govern. He encouraged them to prefer, and probably showed himself ready to enforce, their claim against Mikythus, who had administered Rhegium since the death of Anaxilaus, for the property as well as the sceptre. IMikythus ' So I conceive the words of Diodorus are to be understood, — irXeiaToi tC)V irapnTa^a/iEvuv '^7Jkr]vuv npdc 'E?J^7]i'ac l-eaov (Diodor. xi, 53). ^ Diodor. xi, 53. tKei ■&ava.Tov Karayvojadelc ETeXevrriaEv. This is a re- mai'kable specimen of the feeling in a foreign city towards an oppressive Tvpavvog. The Megarians of Greece Proper were much connected with Sicily, through the Hybla^an Megara, as well as Selinus. ^ Diodor. xi, 76. Oi Kara rrjv 'lepuvoc SvvacrTeiav taneTcruKOTEg e/c tuv idiuv 7v6?.E(jv — TOVTuv 6' rjaav TiAuoi Kai 'AKpayavTivoi Kal ']/iEpaiot..
- Hiero had married the daughter of Anaxilaus, but he seems also to
have had two other wives, — the sister or cousin of Thero, and the daugh- ter of a Syracusan named Nikokles : this last was the mother of his son Deinomenes (Schol. Pindar. Pyth. i, 112). We read of Ivlcophron, son of Anaxilaus, governing Messene during his father's lifetime : probably this young man must have died, otherwise Mikythus would not have succeeded (Schol. Pindar. Pyth. ii, 34^.
