Chapter 334

When news of Theonia conquering Bruttium reached Syracuse, Dionysius was inspecting the construction of the Syracusan defensive fortifications, accompanied by Masias.

Seeing the project nearing completion, he was in a cheerful mood. But upon suddenly hearing this news, his face instantly darkened, and he blurted out a curse: “Those damned Carthaginians, hindering my plans!…”

***

In the early spring of 397 BC, Carthaginian Suffete Himilco led an army claimed to be 100,000 strong from Carthage. After a minor naval skirmish with the Syracusan navy at sea, he successfully landed in Sicily. He quickly bribed traitors to easily seize Eryx in western Sicily, then stormed Motya, achieving success.

The Syracusan army was forced to withdraw from the siege of Segesta. Himilco did not pursue the victory. Instead, he destroyed the city of Motya and built a new city near the coast close to it, naming it Lilybaeum.

While the Carthaginian army halted its advance, the cautious Dionysius garrisoned his troops in Syracuse and remained immobile.

Shortly after laying the foundation for the new city of Lilybaeum, as February arrived, Himilco led his army to continue the offensive eastward. This time, he didn’t follow the route of Syracuse’s attack from the previous year. Instead, he sailed around to the northeastern corner of Sicily, easily capturing the defenseless Messina.

The fall of Messina was a huge shock to Rhegium across the strait. This Magna Graecia city-state, wealthy from its favorable geographical location and prosperous port transshipment trade, had been quietly communicating with Carthage for years to prevent Syracuse from coveting the Strait of Messina. Suddenly, the “friendly” foreign city-state bared its fangs and captured Rhegium’s sister city—Messina.

Why sister city? Because Messina was originally established by joint colonists from Cumae and Chalcis. Initially called Zancle, it was later renamed Messina due to the arrival of Messenian immigrants. The people of Messina realized early on that the opposite side of the strait must be in the hands of their own people to ensure safety. Thus, they encouraged their mother city Cumae and the Messenians to establish the friendly city of Rhegium.

Rhegium felt panic. They quickly made a decision, sending envoys to the headquarters of the South Italian League in Scylletium, requesting to join the alliance. With this, except for Locri and its vassal city-states, all other Greek city-states in Magna Graecia had an alliance treaty with Theonia.

After completely destroying Messina, Himilco sought to curry favor with the natives of eastern Sicily—the Sicels—to attack Syracuse together with Carthage. Thus, on the coast south of Messina, he prepared to build a new city—Tauromenium—to gift to the Sicels.

By March, Dionysius felt he could no longer allow the Carthaginians to continue attacking his vassal states. If he didn’t act, his allies would likely defect to Carthage. Thus, he mobilized both naval and land forces to advance north to the Catana Plain.

A naval battle between Syracuse and Carthage broke out in the waters near Catana. Originally, the Greek warships outnumbered the Carthaginians and held an advantage in equipment. However, Dionysius practiced nepotism. His brother Leptines, acting as the naval commander, made command errors that led to a defeat for the Syracusan navy and heavy losses.

The Greek land forces watching the naval battle from the shore saw the miserable state of their navy, and their morale began to waver.

Fortunately, the Carthaginian land forces led by Himilco did not reach the battlefield in time. During those few days, Mount Etna, southwest of Tauromenium, suddenly erupted. Scorching lava surged down, destroying the road south, and black volcanic ash blotted out the sun, forcing the Carthaginian grand army to choose a detour.

The Syracusan army, silently singing hymns to the Fire God Hephaestus in awe, hurriedly retreated to Syracuse. Catana and Leontini fell into Carthaginian hands one after another.

Riding the momentum of the naval victory, Himilco led his grand army and finally reached Syracuse smoothly. The Carthaginian navy also sailed into the Great Harbor of Syracuse. They then set up camp on the banks of the Anapus River, attempting to besiege Syracuse from both land and sea.

At this time, Dionysius anxiously sent envoys on fast ships to Campania in Italy, the mother city Corinth in mainland Greece, the hegemon Sparta, and other city-states, seeking emergency aid. Although Magna Graecia was the closest place to Syracuse, Dionysius intentionally or unintentionally ignored this region and did not ask for help from the hegemon of Southern Italy, the Theonian League.

Theonia couldn’t actively send troops without an invitation, as that would make the Sicilians suspect ulterior motives. Moreover, after frequent wars and rapid expansion, Theonia also needed time to rest, consolidate, and integrate. Therefore, at the critical moment when the Greek city-states in Sicily faced total fall, the Theonians and the Greeks of Southern Italy watched from across the sea with complex emotions.

Greek reinforcements from various places arrived one after another. In particular, Sparta dispatched the young general Phoebidas, leading 30 warships and 500 Spartan warriors.

At this time, the populace inside Syracuse, incited by people with hidden agendas, launched a riot to overthrow Dionysius. Phoebidas led the Greek coalition forces from various places to stop their riot. However, the people complained to Phoebidas: It was precisely because of Dionysius’s terrible command that Syracuse fell into this predicament, causing the people to lose their loved ones. They also enumerated Dionysius’s tyrannical rule at home, begging the ally Sparta to help them break the shackles of this tyrant.

Recalling Agesilaus’s instructions, Phoebidas sternly told them: The Spartan mission in Syracuse is to help Dionysius fight Carthage, not to help the Syracusans overthrow Dionysius! He hoped the rioting populace would quell their anger and work together to drive away the Carthaginians who were already at the city gates.

At the same time, he made Dionysius guarantee: From now on, no retaliation against the people who participated in the riot, and future rule will be more lenient.

With the full support of the Spartans, Dionysius temporarily weathered a crisis.

After settling down outside the city, the Carthaginians began destroying all facilities outside Syracuse. They not only destroyed farmlands and villages but also desecrated the gods. They destroyed the Temple of Zeus on the Polichna heights and looted the temples of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone.

This blasphemous behavior enraged the Syracusans. The two sides engaged in multiple small-scale land and naval battles outside the city and in the Great Harbor, with mixed results.

The war stalemated until the arrival of summer. With rising temperatures, the situation began to turn in favor of the Syracusans. The number of mosquitoes in the marshes near the Anapus River increased, and Carthaginian soldiers bitten by them suffered from a plague, with the death toll rising higher and higher.

At this time, Dionysius, under pressure from both internal and external troubles, sparked his wisdom and formulated a clever attack plan: Marching at night and using diversionary tactics to move the enemy, the navy and army would simultaneously storm the weak side of the enemy fortress.

The Carthaginians, tormented by the plague, had low morale and were powerless to counterattack the Syracusan offensive.

At the cost of thousands of mercenary lives, Dionysius successively captured the two fortresses built by the Carthaginians: the Polichna fortress by the Anapus River and the Dascon fortress by the coast. At the same time, he decisively defeated the Carthaginian navy. The Carthaginians suffered heavy casualties. Himilco’s central camp was surrounded, and chaos reigned within; the danger of total annihilation was imminent.

Just then, Dionysius ordered a halt to the attack.

That night, secret envoys traveled frequently between the Carthaginian camp and Dionysius.

For the next three days, both sides remained calm, and no fighting occurred.

On the night of the fourth day, Himilco hurriedly fled the Great Harbor with only the remaining 30 triremes, abandoning most of the Carthaginian soldiers, allied forces, and mercenaries. They were eventually annihilated by Syracuse and its allies.

After the great victory, Dionysius did not pursue the Carthaginians relentlessly to completely recover Sicily and drive them off the island. The previous incident of the Syracusan populace forcing him to step down had made him deeply realize that only if the Carthaginian power continued to exist in Sicily could his position as tyrant be secured.

Therefore, not only did he let Himilco’s remnants escape, but he also refrained from sweeping away Carthage’s colonial towns in Sicily. Instead, he began to focus on striking the power of the Sicilian natives, the Sicels, in the eastern inland areas. In this war, the Sicels had become accomplices of Carthage, causing great trouble for Syracuse. He felt that unifying the Greek city-states on the island was not enough; he must expand Syracuse’s sphere of influence in the Sicel inhabited areas, turning eastern Sicily into a monolithic block.

The Syracusan grand army began conquering Sicel towns one by one, such as Morgantina, Cephaloedium, Enna, etc., forcing more Sicel powers to sign vassal agreements with him.

He also besieged Tauromenium, the only coastal city Himilco had built for the Sicels, though he failed to capture it for the time being.

By the next year (396 BC), Syracusan power had expanded northward to the northeastern corner of Sicily.

On the ruins burned by Carthage, Dionysius rebuilt Messina. The population of the new Messina was composed of colonists from Syracuse’s allies, Locri and Medma—mainly to win over his allies in Magna Graecia. At the same time, there were several hundred Messenians who had just been driven out of their original homes by the Spartans and were homeless. These new inhabitants had no kinship with the people of Rhegium.

But soon, the Spartans sent envoys expressing dissatisfaction with Dionysius for settling Sparta’s enemies in such an important city.