454 HISTORY OF GREECE. driven into banishment. As exiles they established themselves in the town of ^Etna. 1 Thus master of the city, Dionysius was joined on the ensuing day by the main body of his mercenaries, and also by the Sicilian allies, who had now completed their march. The miserable sufferers from Gela and Kamarina, who looked upon him with indignation as their betrayer, went to reside at Leontini ; seemingly as com- panions of the original Leontine citizens, who had been for some time domiciliated at Syracuse, but who no longer chose to remain there under Dionysius. Leontini thus became again an inde- pendent city. 2 Though the disasters at Gela had threatened to ruin Dionysius, yet he was now, through his recent victory, more master of Syra- cuse than ever ; and had more completely trodden down his oppo- nents. The horsemen, whom he had just destroyed and chased away, were for the most part the rich and powerful citizens of Sy racuse. To have put down such formidable enemies, almost indis- pensable as leaders to any party which sought to rise against him. was the strongest of all negative securities for the prolongation ot his reign. There was no public assembly any longer at Syracuse, to which he had to render account of his proceedings at Gela and Kamarina, and before which he was liable to be arraigned, as he himself had arraigned his predecessors who had commanded at Himera and Agrigentum. All such popular securities he had already overridden or subverted. The superiority of force, and in- timidation of opponents, upon which his rule rested, were now more manifest and more decisive than ever. Notwithstanding such confirmed position, however, Dionysius might still have found defence difficult, if Imilkon had marched on with his victorious army, fresh from the plunder of Gela and Kamarina, and had laid energetic siege to Syracuse. From all 1 Diodor. xiii, 113. Compare Xenoph. Hellen. i, 3, 5.
- Xenophon (Hellen. ii, 3, 5) states that " the Leontines, co-residents at
Syracuse, revolted to their own city from Dionysius and the Syracusans." This migration to Leontini seems a part of the same transaction as what Diodorus notices (xiii, 113). Leontini, recognized as independent by the peace which speedily followed, is mentioned again shortly afterwards as in- dependent (xiv, 14). It had been annexed to Syracuse before the Athenian lieye
