After the plot against Hieronymus, King of
Syracuse,
Hieronymus succeeded his grandfather Hiero II. in B. C. 216. Under the influence of his uncles,
Zoippus and Andranodorus, members of the Council of 15 established by Hiero, Hieronymus opens communications with Hannibal. |
Thraso having departed, Zoippus and Andranodorus persuaded Hieronymus to lose no time in
sending ambassadors to Hannibal. He accordingly selected Polycleitus of
Cyrene and Philodemus of
Argos for the purpose, and sent them
into
Italy, with a commission to discuss the
subject of an alliance with the Carthaginians;
and at the same time he sent his brothers to
Alexandria. Hannibal received Polycleitus and
Philodemus with warmth; held out great prospects to the young king; and sent the ambassadors back without delay, accompanied by
the commander of his triremes, a Carthaginian also named
Hannibal, and the Syracusan Hippocrates and his younger
brother Epicydes. These men had been for some time
serving in Hannibal's army, being domiciled at
Carthage,
owing to their grandfather having been banished from
Syracuse
because he was believed to have assassinated Agatharchus,
one of the sons of Agathocles. On the arrival of these
commissioners at
Syracuse, Polycleitus and his colleague
reported the result of their embassy, and the Carthaginian
Commissioners sent to Carthage to formulate a treaty of alliance. |
delivered the message given by Hannibal: whereupon the king
without hesitation expressed his willingness to
make a treaty with the Carthaginians; and,
begging the Hannibal who had come to him
to go with all speed to
Carthage, promised that
he also would send commissioners from his own court, to
settle matters with the Carthaginians.