Page 328 Country, they mangled their Carcases; some carry'd about multitudes of Hands tied round their Bodies; others in Ostentation, bore about the Heads of the Slain upon the Points of their Swords and Spears. They only spar'd Wives who fled with their Children to the Temples; and to these only was Favour shew'd, not out of any Compassion to the Miserable, but out of a fear they had lest the Women being desperate, without any hopes of Mercy, should burn the Temples, and by that means they should lose the Riches and Treasures that were laid up in those Places. For these Barbarians so far exceed all other Men in Impiety, that whereas others (lest they should offend the Deity) always spare them who fly to their Temples, the Carthaginians on the contrary moderate their Cruelty towards their Enemies, for that very end and purpose that they may have a better opportunity sacrilegiously to rob the Temples. The razing and ruining of the City continu'd till late in the Night; all the Houses were burnt or pull'd down; every Place was full of Blood and dead Bodies, Sixteen Thousand being there put to the Sword, and more than Five Thousand carry'd away Captives. The Grecians who sided with the Carthaginians, seeing the inconstancy of the things of this Life, greatly commiserated the condition of these miserable People; for the Matrons in want of Food and Sustenance amongst the Flouts and Jeers of an insulting Enemy, pass'd all that Night in sorrow and sadness. Some of them were forc'd to be Eye-Witnesses of the sufferings of their Daughters in such a kind as is shameful to relate; for the cruel Lust of the Barbarians sparing neither Girls nor Virgins grown up, afflicted these poor People with unspeakable Misery. The Mothers while they considered the Slavery they were to undergo in Lybia, and how they and their Children were subjected in great Contempt and Disgrace to the brutish Lusts of domineering Masters (whose Language they understood not, and whose Actions were altogether Beastly) were in Grief and Sorrow even to see their Children alive; for every Injury and Disgrace offer'd to them, affected them, as if a Dagger had pierc'd their own Hearts, when they were not able to yield them any other Relief but Groans and Lamentations; in so much as they accounted their Parents and Kindred that had lost their Lives in the defence of their Country, to be happy, whose Eyes saw not those Brutish and Beastly acts of Barbarous Cruelty. There were notwithstanding, Two Thousand Six Hundred that escap'd and fled to Agrigentum, where they were received with all manner of Humanity and Tenderness; for the Agrigentines distributed to every Family, Corn out of the Publick Stores, and desir'd every private Person (who yet were very ready on their own accord) liberally to supply them with all necessaries for their Sustenance.
While these things were doing, Three Thousand of the best Souldiers sent from Syracuse to assist the Selinuntines, came to Agrigentum. But when they heard that the City was taken, they sent Embassadors to Hannibal, to demand the Redemption of the Prisoners, and that he would forbear robbing of the Temples of the Gods. They return'd with this Answer from Hannibal, that in regard the Selinuntines were not able to preserve their own Liberty, they were now justly brought into the condition of Slaves. That the Gods were angry at the Inhabitants, and therefore had forsaken Selinunte. But when they sent Empediones Embassador a Second time, Hannibal restor'd to him all his Estate, because he always favour'd the Carthaginians, and sometime before the City was taken, had advised the Citizens not to withstand: He pardon'd likewise all those Prisoners that were of his Kindred, and permitted those that fled to Agrigentum to repeople the City, and till the Lands, upon paying Tribute to the Carthaginians. Thus was this City taken, Two Hundred and Fifty Two Years after the Building of it.
After Hannibal had demolish'd it, he march'd away with all his Army toward Himera, with a longing desire to ruin this City. For this Town occasion'd the Banishment of his Father; and here it was that his Grandfather Amilcar was routed by Gelon, who kill'd an Hundred and Fifty Thousand of the Carthaginians, and took almost as many Prisoners. In revenge whereof, Hannibal speeds away with Forty Thousand Men, and incamps upon an Hill at some distance from the City, and with the rest of his Army (to whom join'd the Sicilians and Sicanians, to the number of Twenty Thousand Men) he Besieges