The one link with Rome had now gone with Thraso, and there was no doubt about the movement towards revolt. Envoys were sent to Hannibal, and he sent back, together with a young noble, also named Hannibal, two other agents, Hippocrates and Epicydes, natives of Carthage and Cartl1aginians on the mother's side, but their grandfather was a refugee from Syracuse. Through their agency an alliance was formed between Hannibal and the Syracusan tyrant, and with Hannibal's consent they stayed on with Hieronymus.
As soon as Appius Claudius, who was commanding in Sicily, heard of this, he sent envoys to the king. When they announced that they had come to renew the alliance which had existed with his grandfather, they were laughed at, and as they were leaving the king asked them in jest hat fortune they had met with in the battle of Cannae, for he could hardly believe what Hannibal's envoys told him; he wanted to know the truth so that he might make up his mind which course to follow as offering the best prospects. The Romans said that they would come back to him when he had learnt to receive embassies seriously, and, after warning him, rather than asking him, not to abandon their alliance lightly, they departed.
Hieronymus sent envoys to Carthage to conclude a treaty in the terms of their alliance with IIannibal. It was agreed in this compact that after they had expelled the Romans frOin Sicily-and that would soon be done if they sent a fleet and an army-the river Himera, ,yhich almost equally divides the island, was to be the boundary between the dominions of Syracuse and that of Carthage. Puffed up by the flattery of people \vho told him to remember not only Hiero but his maternal grandfather, King Pyrrhus, Hieronymus sent a second legation to Hannibal to tell him that he thought it only fair that the whole of Sicily should be ceded to him and that Carthage should clain1 the empire of Italy as their own. They expressed neither surprise nor displeasure at this fickleness and levity in the hot-headed youth provided only they could keep him from declaring for Rome.
The Greek stands ready in the workroom; the English is served. Both faces will read together.
battle of Cannae — a deed siege of Carthage — a candidate entry siege of Syracuse — a candidate entry Appius — a candidate entry Claudius — a candidate entry Epicydes — a candidate entry Hannibal — a life Hiero — a candidate entry Hippocrates — a candidate entry Pyrrhus — a life
The History of Rome, Livy — translated by Rev. Canon Roberts, 1912
Apparatus shelf + pinned Wikisource — Livy, The History of Rome (Rev. Canon Roberts translation, Everyman's Library) · Rev. Canon Roberts, Everyman's Library (J. M. Dent & Sons / E. P. Dutton), first issue 1912; six volumes
license: public-domain (the Roberts translation's Everyman first issue is 1912, pre-1930; Wikisource dates the translation 1905 — either way decades inside the US public domain; digital-door text carries no additional rights)