PLUNDER OF MOTYE. 489 sistance could be organized. In vain did the Motyenes, discover- ing the stratagem too late, endeavor to dislodge them. The main force of Dionysius was speedily brought up across the artificial earth- way to confirm their success, and the town was thus carried , in spite of the most gallant resistance, Avhich continued even after it had become hopeless. 1 The victorious host who now poured into Motye, incensed not merely by the length and obstinacy of the defence, but also by antecedent Carthaginian atrocities at Agrigentum and elsewhere, gave full loose to the sanguinary impulses of retaliation. They butchered indiscriminately men and women, the aged and the chil- dren, without mercy to any one. The streets were thus strewed with the slain, in spite of all efforts on the part of Dionysius, who desired to preserve the captives that they might be sold as slaves, and thus bring in a profitable return. But his orders to abstain from slaughter were not obeyed, nor could he do anything more than invite the sufferers by proclamation to take refuge in the temples ; a step, which most of them would probably resort to uninvited. Restrained from farther slaughter by the sanctuary of the temples, the victors now turned to pillage. Abundance of gold, silver, precious vestments, and other marks of opulence, the accumulations of a long period of active prosperity, fell into their hands ; and Dionysius allowed to them the fuU plunder of the town, as a recompense for the toils of the siege. He farther dis- tributed special recompenses to those who had distinguished them- selves ; one hundred mime being given to Archylus, the leader of the successful night-surprise. All the surviving Motyenes he sold into slavery ; but he reserved for a more cruel fate Daimenes and various other Greeks who had been taken among them. These Greeks he caused to be crucified; 2 a specimen of the Phoenician penalties transferred by example to their Hellenic neighbors and enemies. The siege of Motye having occupied nearly all the summer, Dionysius now reconducted his army homeward. He left at the place a Sikel garrison under the command of the Syracusan Biton, as well as a large portion of his fleet, one hundred and twenty chips, under the command of his brother Leptines ; who was in- 1 Diodor. xiv, 51, 52, 53. 2 Diodor. xiv, 53. 21*
