424 HISTORY OF GREECE. and the western apex of the Syracusan lines of fortification. This was the same enterprise, at the same hour, and with the same main purpose, as that of Demosthenes during the Athenian sieo-e, after he had brought the second armament from Athens to the relief of Nikias.^ Even Demosthenes, though conducting his march with greater precaution than Hamilkar, and successful in surprising the fort of Euryalus, had been driven down again with disastrous loss. Moreover, since his time, this fort Eury- alus, instead of being left detached, had been embodied by the elder Dionysius as an integral portion of the fortifications of the city. It formed the apex or point of junction for the two con- verging walls — one skirting the northern cliff, the other the southern cliff, of Epipolas." The sui-prise intended by Hamil- kar — difficult in the extreme, if at all practicable — seems to have been unskilfully conducted. It was attempted with a con- fused multitude, incapable of that steady order requisite for night-movements. His troops, losing their way in the darkness, straggled, and even mistook each other for enemies ; while the Syracusan guards from Euryalus, alarmed by the noise, attacked them vigorously and put them to the rout. Their loss, in trying to escape down the steep declivity, was prodigious ; and Hamil- kar himself, making brave efforts to rally them, became pris- oner to the Syracusans. Wliat lent peculiar interest to this in cident, in the eyes of a pious Greek, was that it served to illus- trate and confirm the truth of prophecy. Hamilkar had been assured by a prophet that he would sup that night in Syracuse ; and this assurance had in part emboldened him to the attack, since he naturally calculated on entering the city as a conqueror.^ He did indeed take his evening meal in Syracuse, literally ful- filling the augury. Immediately after it, he was handed over to the relatives of the slain, who first paraded him through the city > See Vol. VII. Ch. Ix. p. 304 of tliis History. ■■' For a description of the fortifications added to Syracuse by the eider Dionysius, sec Vol. X. Ch. Ixxxii. p. 499 of tliis History. ' Diodor. XX. 29, 30. Cicero (Divinat. i. 24) notices this prophecy f.nd its manner of fulfilment; but he gives a somewhat different vcrsioc dI the events preceding the capture of Hanailkar.
