Let him take the path we pointed out and perfect himself in wisdom and self control; then if he should resettle the deserted cities of Sicily, and bind them together with such laws and constitutions as would make them friendly to himself and to one another and a mutual help against the barbarians, he would have an empire not twice but actually many times as powerful as his father's had been; he would be ready to inflict upon the Carthaginians a far heavier defeat than they had suffered in the days of Gelon, instead of paying tribute to these barbarians as he was doing at present under the agreement his father had made.