Histories

Herodotus

Herodotus. Godley, Alfred Denis, translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, Ltd., 1920-1925 (printing).

The story told by the Carchedonians themselves seems to have some element of truth. They say that the barbarians fought with the Greeks in Sicily [14,37.5] (region), Italy, Europe Sicily from dawn until late evening (so long, it is said, the battle was drawn out), during which time Amilcas stayed in his camp offering sacrifice and striving to obtain favorable omens by burning whole bodies on a great pyre. When he saw his army routed, he cast himself into the fire where he was pouring libations on the sacrifice; he was consumed by this and was not seen any more.

Whether he vanished as the Phoenicians say, or in the manner related by the Carchedonians and Syracusans, sacrifice is offered to him, and monuments have been set up in all the colonists' cities, the greatest of which is in Carchedon itself.