Diodorus Siculus

“ In the mean time the Selinuntines sent forth some horsemen in the night to Agrigentum, Gela, and Syracuse, to desire aid with all speed, for that they were not able any longer to stand out against so great an army. The Gelians and Agrigentines thought it best to wait for the aids from Syracuse, that with conjoint forces they might set upon the Carthaginians. But the Syracusans having certain intelligence that Selinus was besieged, without delay made peace with the Chalcedonians, (with whom they were then at war) , and gathered all their forces together from every place. ”

“ For these barbarians so far exceed all other men in impiety, that whereas other (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 continued till late in the night ”

“ After this fight, five-and-twenty gallies, which were some time before sent to the aid of the Lacedæmonians, from the Siculi, now returning home, arrived at Himera; but a rumour spread through the city, that the Synracusans, with all their forces and confederates, were come to the relief of the Himerians. Hannibal in the mean time embarks many of his best soldiers in his gallies which lay at Motya, in order to sail for Syracuse, to surprise the city, now that it wanted sufficient strength to defend it, as he supposed. ”

“ Hannibal's whole army (as Ephorus relates) consisted of two hundred thousand foot, and four thousand horse. Timeus says there were not much above an hundred thousand. He drew up all his ships into the creek near Motya, intending the Syracusans should hereby be assured that he invaded not Sicily with a design to make war upon them either by sea or land. Then being joined by the Egesteans and other confederates, he raised his camp from Lilybæum, and marched towards Selinus. ”

“ For this town occasioned the banishment of his father; and here it was that his grandfather Amilcar was routed by Gelon, who killed a hundred and fifty thousand of the Carthaginians, and took almost as many prisoners. In revenge whereof, Hannibal speeds away with forty thousand men, and encamps upon a hill at some distance from the city, and with the rest of his army (to whom joined the Sicilians and Sicanians, to the number of twenty thousand men) he besieges the place, and batters the walls with his engines in several places at once ”

“ They only spared wives who fled with their children to the temples; and to these only was favour shewn, not out of any compassion to the miserable, but out of a fear they had lest the women being desparate, witkout 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. ”