Heart of Man eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 230 pages of information about Heart of Man.

Heart of Man eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 230 pages of information about Heart of Man.
the wont, but Tauromenium, or the Abiding-place of the Bull.  A few years later Andromachus performed the signal action of his life by befriending Timoleon, as great a character, in my eyes, as Plutarch records the glory of.  Timoleon had set out from Corinth, at the summons of his Greek countrymen, to restore the liberty of Syracuse, then tyrannized over by the second Dionysius; and because Andromachus, in his stronghold of Taormina, hated tyranny, Plutarch says, he “gave Timoleon leave to muster up his troops there and to make that city the seat of war, persuading the inhabitants to join their arms with the Corinthian forces and to assist them in the design of delivering Sicily.”  It was on our beach that Timoleon disembarked, and from our city he went forth to the conquest foretold, by the wreath that fell upon his head as he prayed at Delphi, and by the prophetic fire that piloted his ship over the sea.  The Carthaginians came quickly after him from Reggio, where he had eluded them, for they were in alliance with the tyrant; and from their vessels they parleyed with Andromachus in the port.  With an insolent gesture, the envoy, raising his hand, palm up, and turning it lightly over, said that even so, and with such ease, would he overturn the little city; and Andromachus, mocking his hand-play, answered that if he did not leave the harbour, even so would he upset his galley.  The Carthaginians sailed away.  The city remained firm-perched.  Timoleon prospered, brought back liberty to Syracuse, ruled wisely and nobly, and gave to Sicily those twenty years of peace which were the flower of her Greek annals.  Then, we must believe, rose the little temple on our headland, the Greek theatre where the tongue of Athens lived, the gymnasium where the youths grew fair and strong.  Then Taormina struck her coins:  Apollo with the laurel, with the lyre, with the grape; Dionysus with the ivy, and Zeus with the olive; for the gods and temples of the Naxians had become ours, and were religiously cherished; and with the rest was struck a coin with the Minotaur, our symbol.  But of Andromachus, the founder of the well-built and fairly adorned Greek city that then rose, we hear no more—­a hero, I think, one of the true breed of the founders of states.  But alas for liberty!  A new tyrant, Agathocles, was soon on the Syracusan throne, and he won this city by friendly professions, only to empty it by treachery and murder; and he drove into exile Timaeus, the son of Andromachus.  Timaeus?  He, evidently, of my Casa Timeo.  I know him now, the once famed historian whom Cicero praises as the most erudite in history of all writers up to his time, most copious in facts and various in comment, not unpolished in style, eloquent, and distinguished by terse and charming expression.  Ninety years he lived in the Greek world, devoted himself to history, and produced many works, now lost.  The ancient writers read him, and from their criticism it is clear that he was marked
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Heart of Man from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.