With the assistance of several other Sicilian Greek cities, Timoleon emerged victorious and reinstated a democratic regime in Syracuse.

Some of the Syracusans who suffered under the rule of Dionysius sought refuge with Hicetas, the tyrant of Leontini.

When Carthage sent a large army to the island, the Syracusan faction with Hicetas decided to ask Corinth for help.

[8] During the journey Timoleon witnessed a celestial phenomenon during the night when he crossed the Ionian Sea to Italy.

[11] According to Diodorus, Timoleon arrived at Rhegium three days after Hicetas captured Syracuse partially.

To deceive the envoys, Timoleon told them he would abide by their wishes on condition that the people of Rhegium were witness to their agreement during an assembly.

While the Carthaginians were occupied with the assembly, Timoleon secretly boarded his ships and crossed over to Tauromenium in Sicily.

As the allies of Hicetas, the Carthaginians occupied the Great Harbour with 150 triremes and encamped with 50,000 men on the shore.

[16] Finally, in 343/342 BC[17] Timoleon convinced Dionysius to surrender Ortygia in return for exile in Corinth.

After Timoleon had arrived in Tauromenium with 1,000 soldiers, Hicetas asked the Carthaginians for reinforcements, who sent a large number of triremes to occupy the harbor of Syracuse.

These reinforcements had to stop at Thurii in Southern Italy, unable to continue because the Carthaginians controlled the sea.

Mago occupied the harbor with 150 ships and encamped 60,000 infantry in the part of the city on the Sicilian mainland.

Timoleon's force which occupied Ortygia started suffering from a lack of food due to the blockade.

Timoleon ordered fishing boats and light skiffs from Catana to supply Ortygia with grain.

Especially in stormy weather, these were effective blockade runners because the Carthaginian triremes had to keep their distance from each other due to the rough sea.

[22] Hicetas and Mago noticed the supply ships coming from Catana and marched towards that city to take it.

The Corinthian commander of the besieged garrison, Neon, noticed that the troops left to defend the part of Syracuse on the mainland had become inattentive and careless.

He made a surprise attack on them and captured the neighborhood Achradina, securing grain and money in the process.

After this, the Corinthian reinforcements who were halted at Thurii decided to travel to Rhegium over land and managed to cross over to Sicily, avoiding the Carthaginian navy.

Combined with his fear of betrayal by Hicetas, he decided to flee with his fleet back to Libya.

[24] After becoming master over the city, Timoleon had the citadel and the tyrant's palace on Ortygia demolished and restored democratic government to Syracuse.

The terms were that all the Sicilian Greek cities would be free and that the Lycus river would be the border between their territories.

The marketplace of Syracuse had become a pasture for horses, while deer and wild swine roamed freely in other cities.

With additional settlers arriving from Italy and other places in Sicily, Plutarch gives a total number of 60,000.

Furthermore, he writes that Timoleon transferred the people of Leontini to Syracuse and sent additional settlers to Camarina.