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Sicilia's tyrant, fierce Agathocles !
How looked great Carthage, when from yonder mount
Thou didst survey, with anxious, longing eyes,
This tempting vale, and war's stern chances count ?*
What arts have flourished, ere the Roman sword,
With jealous hate accursed, laid all so low ?
And was indeed this ancient empire's word
As worthless as the faith of nations now ?
Alas, there comes no answer all the night !
In vain we summon him called African,
And him of Utica, though well they might
Still linger where their deathless fame began.
Even Hippo's bishop will not hear our prayer !
He, open once as truth — though we entreat
* It was from the peak of Zowan that, according to Diodorus Siculus,
Agathocles viewed both Carthage and Hadrumetum in that bold cam-
paign, when in the midst of the siege of Syracuse by the Carthaginians,
he secretly left the city, aud landed with a considerable force, near the
enemy's capital in Africa, and after many brilliant victories, nearly suc-
ceeded in capturing it.
