herodotus

Barbarian should be victorious, he was to give him the money and alsoto offer him earth and water from those over whom Gelon had rule; butif the Hellenes should be victorious, he was bidden to bring it back.164. Now this Cadmos before these events, having received from hisfather in a prosperous state the government[153] of the people of Cos,had voluntarily and with no danger threatening, but moved merely byuprightness of nature, placed the government in the hands of thepeople of Cos[154] and had departed to Sicily, where he took from[155]the Samians and newly colonised the city of Zancle, which had changedits name to Messene. This same Cadmos, having come thither in suchmanner as I have said, Gelon was now sending, having selected him onaccount of the integrity which in other matters he had himself foundto be in him; and this man, in addition to the other upright actswhich had been done by him, left also this to be remembered, which wasnot the least of them: for having got into his hands that great sum ofmoney which Gelon entrusted to his charge, though he might have takenpossession of it himself he did not choose to do so; but when theHellenes had got the better in the sea-fight and Xerxes had marchedaway and departed, he also returned to Sicily bringing back with himthe whole sum of money.165. The story which here follows is also reported by those who dwellin Sicily, namely that, even though he was to be under the command ofthe Lacedemonians, Gelon would have come to the assistance of theHellenes, but that Terillos, the son of Crinippos and despot ofHimera, having been driven out of Himera by Theron the son ofAinesidemos[156] the ruler of the Agrigentines, was just at this verytime bringing in an army of Phenicians, Libyans, Iberians, Ligurians,Elisycans, Sardinians and Corsicans, to the number of thirtymyriads,[157] with Amilcas the son of Annon king of the Carthaginiansas their commander, whom Terillos had persuaded partly by reason ofhis own guest-friendship, and especially by the zealous assistance ofAnaxilaos the son of Cretines, who was despot of Rhegion, and who tohelp his father-in-law endeavoured to bring in Amilcas to Sicily, andhad given him his sons as hostages; for Anaxilaos was married to thedaughter of Terillos, whose name was Kydippe. Thus it was, they say,that Gelon was not able to come to the assistance of the Hellenes, andsent therefore the money to Delphi. 166. In addition to this theyreport also that, as it happened, Gelon and Theron were victoriousover Amilcas the Carthaginian on the very same day when the Helleneswere victorious at Salamis over the Persian. And this Amilcas, who wasa Carthaginian on the father's side but on the mother's Syracusan, andwho had become king of the Carthaginians by merit, when the engagementtook place and he was being worsted in the battle, disappeared, as Iam informed; for neither alive nor dead did he appear again anywhereupon the earth, though Gelon used all diligence in the search for him.