Timoleon

When this letter had been read publicly if any of the Corinthians had before been lukewarm towards the expedition, their wrath against Hicetas now incited them all, so that they eagerly joined in supplying Timoleon and helping him get ready for his voyage.

When the fleet was ready, and the soldiers provided with what they needed, the priestesses of Persephone fancied they saw in their dreams that goddess and her mother making ready for a journey, and heard them say that they were going to sail with Timoleon to Sicily.

Therefore the Corinthians equipped a sacred trireme besides, and named it after the two goddesses. Furthermore, Timoleon himself journeyed to Delphi and sacrificed to the god, and as he descended into the place of the oracle, he received the following sign.

From the votive offerings suspended there a fillet which had crowns and figures of Victory embroidered upon it slipped away and fell directly upon the head of Timoleon, so that it appeared as if he were being crowned by the god and thus sent forth upon his undertaking.

And now, with seven Corinthian ships, and two from Corcyra, and a tenth which the Leucadians furnished, he set sail.[*](In 344 B.C.)

And at night, after he had entered the open sea and was enjoying a favouring wind, the heavens seemed to burst open on a sudden above his ship, and to pour forth an abundant and conspicuous fire.

From this a torch lifted itself on high, like those which the mystics bear, and running along with them on their course, darted down upon precisely that part of Italy towards which the pilots were steering.