Timoleon, liberator of Sicily, belonged to a noble family of Corinth, and was born there in the later half of the 4th century B.C. So ardent was his love of liberty that, if he did not himself slay his brother Timophanes, he saw him slain without dissatisfaction, for attempting to enslave the state. In 344 he was sent to Sicily at the prayer of the
Greek cities there to save their liberties and repel the Carthaginians. He landed at Tauromenium, overthrew Hicetas, tyrant of Leontini, who was striving to drive Dionysius out of Syracuse, and by 343 had possession of Syracuse itself. Hicetas now induced the Carthaginians to send a huge army into the island, but Timoleon marched to meet them with 12,000 men, and routed them though seven to one on the river Crimissus (339), the gods themselves showing him signal favour by driving a blinding hail-storm right into the faces of the enemy. The Carthaginians were now fain to make a treaty by which they confined themselves to the west of the Halycus. He next drove out all the tyrants, and restored their freedom to the Greek cities of Sicily, then settled quietly as a private citizen in Syracuse, enjoying the love and admiration of the whole Greek world until his death in 337. Holm, the German historian, calls Timoleon the Garibaldi of antiquity; and the comparison does justice to his daring, his honesty of purpose, and his force of character, hardly to his wisdom and political foresight. His story was written by two contemporary writers, Timæus and Theopompus, who supplied the materials alike to the extant works of Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch. The latter's life is one of his masterpieces. An excellent edition is that by Dr Holden (Camb. 1889).