A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

244 Sicily : the Tyrant and the Liberator
from it. For Acragas and Gela, large cities, which after
Bespect for
the Liberator.
His private
life.
Plut., Tim.,
36.
A passage
here omitted
speaks of his
becoming
bUnd.
His popularity
and influence.
Plut., Tim.,
38.
the war with Athens had been destroyed by the Carthaginians,
were now repeopled. . . .
While these cities were being reorganized, Timoleon
not only afforded them peace and safety, but also gave
them great assistance, and showed so keen an interest in
them that he was loved and respected by them as their
real Founder. All the other cities also looked upon him
with the same feelings, so that no peace could be made by
them, no laws established, no country divided among
settlers, no constitutional changes made that seemed
satisfactory, unless he had a hand in them, and arranged
them just as an architect, when a building is finished,
gives some graceful touches which adorn the whole. . . .
He lived in a house which the Syracusans had bestowed
upon him as a special prize for his successes as general,
and also the most beautiful and pleasant country seat,
where indeed he spent most of his leisure with his wife and
children, whom he had sent for from Corinth. For he
never returned to Corinth, nor mixed himself in the
troubles of Greece, nor did he expose himself to the hatred
of political faction, which is the rock upon which great
generals commonly split in their insatiate thirst for honor
and power; but he remained in Sicily, enjoying the blessings
of which he was the author; the greatest of which
was to see so many cities, and so many tens of thousands,
all made happy and prosperous by his means. . . .
That he endured his misfortune without repining is not
to be wondered at; but one must admire the respect and
love shown him when blind by the people of Syracuse.
They constantly visited him, and brought with them any
strangers that might be staying with them, both to
town and country house, to show them their benefactor,
his