§13.108.1μικρὸν δὲ τῆς εἰρήνης ὕστερον ἐτελεύτησε Δαρεῖος ὁ τῆς Ἀσίας βασιλεύς, ἄρξας ἔτη ἐννεακαίδεκα, τὴν δʼ ἡγεμονίαν διεδέξατο τῶν υἱῶν ὁ πρεσβύτατος Ἀρταξέρξης καὶ ἦρξεν ἔτη τρία πρὸς τοῖς τεσσαράκοντα.
A short time after the peace, Darius, the king of Asia, died, having ruled for nineteen years, and the oldest of his sons, Artaxerxes, succeeded to the leadership and ruled for forty-three years.
καθʼ ὃν δὴ χρόνον καὶ Ἀντίμαχον τὸν ποιητὴν Ἀπολλόδωρος ὁ Ἀθηναῖός φησιν ἠνθηκέναι.
At indeed this time, Apollodorus the Athenian says that the poet Antimachus also flourished.
§13.108.2κατὰ δὲ τὴν Σικελίαν Ἰμίλκων ὁ τῶν Καρχηδονίων ἀφηγούμενος ἀρχομένου τοῦ θέρους τὴν μὲν τῶν Ἀκραγαντίνων πόλιν κατέσκαψε, τῶν δʼ ἱερῶν, ὅσα μηδʼ ἱκανῶς ὑπὸ τοῦ πυρὸς ἐδόκει διεφθάρθαι, τὰς γλυφὰς καὶ τὰ περιττοτέρως εἰργασμένα περιέκοψεν· αὐτόθε δʼ ἀναλαβὼν ἅπασαν τὴν δύναμιν ἐνέβαλεν εἰς τὴν τῶν Γελῴων χώραν.
In Sicily, Himilcon, the commander of the Carthaginians, at the beginning of the summer, demolished the city of the Acragantini, and of the temples, as many as did not seem to have been sufficiently destroyed by the fire, he chipped away their carvings and the more elaborately wrought parts; then, taking up his entire force from there, he invaded the territory of the Geloans.
§13.108.3ἐπελθὼν δὲ ταύτην πᾶσαν καὶ τὴν Καμαριναίαν, πλῆρες ἐποίησε τὸ στράτευμα παντοίας ὠφελείας.
Having overrun all of this and the territory of Camarina, he made his army full of every kind of booty.
μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα ἐπὶ Γέλαν πορευθεὶς παρὰ τὸν ὁμώνυμον ποταμὸν τῇ πόλει κατεστρατοπέδευσεν.
After this, proceeding toward Gela, he encamped by the river which shared its name with the city.
§13.108.4ἐχόντων δὲ τῶν Γελῴων ἐκτὸς τῆς πόλεως Ἀπόλλωνος ἀνδριάντα χαλκοῦν σφόδρα μέγαν, συλήσαντες αὐτὸν ἀπέστειλαν εἰς τὴν Τύρον.
Though the Geloans had outside the city a very large bronze statue of Apollo, they plundered it and sent it to Tyre.
τοῦτον μὲν οἱ Γελῷοι κατὰ τὸν τοῦ θεοῦ χρησμὸν ἀνέθηκαν, οἱ δὲ Τύριοι καθʼ ὃν καιρὸν ὕστερον ὑπʼ Ἀλεξάνδρου τοῦ Μακεδόνος ἐπολιορκοῦντο, καθύβριζον ὡς συναγωνιζόμενον τοῖς πολεμίοις· Ἀλεξάνδρου δʼ ἑλόντος τὴν πόλιν,ὡς Τίμαιός φησι, κατὰ τὴν ὁμώνυμον ἡμέραν καὶ τὴν αὐτὴν ὥραν ἐν ᾗ Καρχηδόνιοι τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα περὶ Γέλαν ἐσύλησαν, συνέβη τιμηθῆναι θυσίαις καὶ προσόδοις ταῖς μεγίσταις ὑπὸ τῶν Ἑλλήνων, ὡς αἴτιον γεγενημένον τῆς ἁλώσεως.
The Geloans had dedicated this in accordance with an oracle of the god, but the Tyrians, at the time when they were later besieged by Alexander of Macedon, abused it as fighting on the side of their enemies; but when Alexander captured the city, as Timaeus says, on the day of the same name and at the same hour on which the Carthaginians had plundered the Apollo near Gela, it happened that it was honored with the greatest sacrifices and processions by the Greeks, as having been the cause of the capture.
§13.108.5ταῦτα μὲν οὖν, καίπερ ἐν ἄλλοις πραχθέντα χρόνοις, οὐκ ἀνεπιτήδειον ἡγησάμεθα παρʼ ἄλληλα θεῖναι διὰ τὸ παράδοξον.
These things, then, although they took place at other times, we have thought not improper to place side by side because of their extraordinary nature.
οἱ δʼ οὖν Καρχηδόνιοι δενδροτομοῦντες τὴν χώραν τάφρον περιεβάλοντο τῇ στρατοπεδείᾳ· προσεδέχοντο γὰρ τὸν Διονύσιον ἥξειν μετὰ δυνάμεως πολλῆς βοηθήσοντα τοῖς κινδυνεύουσιν.
At any rate, the Carthaginians, cutting down the trees of the country, threw a trench around their camp; for they expected that Dionysius would come with a large force to help those in danger.
§13.108.6οἱ δὲ Γελῷοι τὸ μὲν πρῶτον ἐψηφίσαντο τέκνα καὶ γυναῖκας εἰς Συρακούσας ὑπεκθέσθαι διὰ τὸ μέγεθος τοῦ προσδοκωμένου κινδύνου· τῶν δὲ γυναικῶν ἐπὶ τοὺς κατὰ τὴν ἀγορὰν βωμοὺς καταφυγουσῶν καὶ δεομένων τῆς αὐτῆς τοῖς ἀνδράσι τύχης κοινωνῆσαι, συνεχώρησαν.
The Geloans at first voted to remove their children and women to Syracuse because of the magnitude of the expected danger; but when the women fled to the altars in the marketplace and begged to share the same fortune as their husbands, they yielded.
§13.108.7μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα τάξεις ποιησάμενοι πλείστας, κατὰ μέρος τοὺς στρατιώτας ἀπέστελλον ἐπὶ τὴν χώραν· οὗτοι δʼ ἐμπειρίαν ἔχοντες ἐπετίθεντο τοῖς πλανωμένοις τῶν πολεμίων, καὶ πολλοὺς μὲν αὐτῶν καθʼ ἡμέραν ἀνῆγον ζῶντας, οὐκ ὀλίγους δὲ ἀνῄρουν.
After this, having organized many divisions, they sent the soldiers out in turn into the countryside; and these, since they had experience of the territory, fell upon those of the enemy who were straggling, and every day they brought back many of them alive, and killed not a few.
§13.108.8τῶν δὲ Καρχηδονίων ἀπὸ μέρους προσβαλλόντων τῇ πόλει καὶ τοῖς κριοῖς καταβαλλόντων τὰ τείχη γενναίως ἠμύνοντο· τά τε γὰρ ἐφʼ ἡμέρας πίπτοντα τῶν τειχῶν νυκτὸς ἀνῳκοδόμουν, συνυπηρετουσῶν τῶν γυναικῶν καὶ παίδων· οἱ μὲν γὰρ ἀκμάζοντες ταῖς ἡλικίαις ἐν τοῖς ὅπλοις ὄντες διετέλουν μαχόμενοι, τὸ δʼ ἄλλο πλῆθος τοῖς ἔργοις καὶ ταῖς ἄλλαις παρασκευαῖς προσήδρευε μετὰ πάσης προθυμίας·
When the Carthaginians attacked the city in part and threw down the walls with battering rams, they defended themselves gallantly; for they rebuilt by night the parts of the walls that fell during the day, with the women and children assisting in the work; for those in the prime of life continued fighting in arms, while the rest of the multitude attended to the construction works and other preparations with all eagerness.
§13.108.9τὸ δὲ σύνολον οὕτως ἐδέξαντο τὴν ἔφοδον τῶν Καρχηδονίων εὐρώστως, ὥστε καὶ πόλιν ἀνώχυρον ἔχοντες καὶ συμμάχων ὄντες ἔρημοι, πρὸς δὲ τούτοις τὰ τείχη θεωροῦντες πίπτοντα κατὰ πλείονας τόπους, οὐ κατεπλάγησαν τὸν περιεστῶτα κίνδυνον.
In short, they received the assault of the Carthaginians so vigorously that, although they had an unfortified city and were destitute of allies, and moreover saw their walls falling in many places, they were not terrified by the danger that surrounded them.