The Twitter Herodotus

7.161 An Athenian answered that his people were next in line to command at sea: they wouldn't yield the position to anyone but the Spartans.

7.162 And so Gelon dismissed the envoys and bid them tell the Greeks that spring had been taken from the year (as they'd forgone his help).

7.163 Later, after Xerxes crossed to Europe, Gelon sent a man, Cadmus, to Delphi w/3 ships: if Xerxes won, C. was to give him earth & water.

7.164 This Cadmus had once voluntarily surrendered his hereditary tyranny over Cos and moved to Sicily--one proof of his just character.

7.165 Some say Gelon would have helped the Greeks, even w/o being given command, if the Carthaginians weren't attacking Sicily at the time.

7.166 Gelon allegedly defeated Hamilcar of Carthage on the same day the Greeks won at Salamis. Oddly, Hamilcar was never found afterwards.

7.167 The Carthaginians say Hamilcar threw himself on a pyre when he saw that his troops would be routed, and his body was consumed by fire.

7.168 The Corcyraeans promised help and in fact sent 60 ships, but they never showed: they claimed bad weather kept them in the Peloponnese.

7.169 The Cretans asked Delphi for advice and were reminded that the Greeks hadn't helped them at Camicus. They decided not to send help.

7.170 The Cretans once besieged Camicus in Sicily unsuccessfully. On the way home they were shipwrecked off Italy and founded Hyria there.