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Straightway Dionysius' entire army burst into the city, coming also by the mole, and now every spot was a scene of mass slaughter; for the Sicilian Greeks, eager to return cruelty for cruelty, slew everyone they encountered, sparing without distinction not a child, not a woman, not an elder. [2] Dionysius, wishing to sell the inhabitants into slavery for the money he could gather, at first attempted to restrain the soldiers from murdering the captives, but when no one paid any attention to him and he saw that the fury of the Sicilian Greeks was not to be controlled, he stationed heralds to cry aloud and tell the Motyans to take refuge in the temples which were revered by the Greeks. [3] When this was done, the soldiers ceased their slaughter and turned to looting the property; and the plunder yielded much silver and not a little gold, as well as costly raiment and an abundance on every other product of felicity. The city was given over by Dionysius to the soldiers to plunder, since he wished to whet their appetites for future encounters. [4] After this success he rewarded Archylus, who had been the first to mount the wall, with one hundred minas,1 and honoured according to their merits all others who had performed deeds of valour; he also sold as booty the Motyans who survived, but he crucified Daimenes and other Greeks who had fought on the side of the Carthaginians and had been taken captive. [5] After this Dionysius stationed guards in the city whom he put under the command of Biton of Syracuse; and the garrison was composed largely of Siceli. He ordered Leptines his admiral with one hundred and twenty ships to lie in wait for any attempt by the Carthaginians to cross to Sicily; and he also assigned to him the siege of Aegesta and Entella, in accordance with his original plan to sack them. Then, since the summer was already coming to a close, he marched back to Syracuse with his army. [6]

In Athens Sophocles, the son2 of Sophocles, began to produce tragedies and won the first prize twelve times.

1 Some $1800.

2 He was the grandson of the great tragedian.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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