416 HISTORY OF GREECE. vacuse. When the banished general, in making it know to thh armament, complained of its injustice and illegality, he obtained warm sympathy, and even exhortations still to retain the < oin- mand, in spite of orders from home. He forbad them earnestly to think of raising sedition against their common city and coun- try; 1 upon which the trierarchs, when they took their last and affectionate leave of him, bound themselves by oath, as soon aa they should return to Syrac/jse, to leave no means untried for pro- curing his restoration. The admonitory words addressed by Hermokrates to the for- wardness of the trierarchs, would have been honorable to his patriotism, had not his own conduct at the same time been worthy of the worst enemies of his country. For immediately on being superseded by the new admirals, he went to the satrap Pharna- bazus, in whose favor he stood high ; and obtained from him a considerable present of money, which he employed in collecting mercenary troops and building ships, to levy war against his oppo- nents in Syracuse and procure his own restoration. 2 Thus strength- ened, he returned from Asia to Sicily, and reached the Sicilian Messene rather before the capture of Himera by the Carthagi- nians. At Messene he caused five fresh triremes to be built, besides taking into his pay one thousand of the expelled Hime- raeans. At the head of these troops, he attempted to force his way auto Syracuse, under concert with his friends in the city, who engaged to assist his admission by arms. Possibly some of the trierarchs of his armament, who had before sworn to lend him their aid, had now returned and were among this body of interior partisans. The moment was well chosen for such an enterprise. As the disaster at Kyzikus had exasperated the Syracusans against Her- mokrates, so we cannot doubt that there must have been a strong reaction against Diokles and his partisans, in consequence of the fall of Selinus unaided, and the subsequent abandonment of Hi- mera, What degree of blame may fairly attach to Diokles for these misfortunes, we are not in a condition to judge. But such 1 Xenoph. Hellen. i, 1, 28. Ol J' OVK eoaaav Stlv oraaiuTciv Trpt- TTJV ruv Trohiv, etc. 1 Xenoph. Hellen. i 1. 31 ; Biodor. xiii, 63.
