Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

SYRACUSE (Gr. Mvpaaovoat; Lat. Syracu...

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 302 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

SYRACUSE (Gr. Mvpaaovoat; See also:Lat. Syracusae, Ital. Siracusa)  , a See also:city of See also:Sicily, the See also:capital of a See also:province of the same name, situated on the See also:east See also:coast of the See also:island, S4 M. by See also:rail S. by E. of See also:Catania, and about 32 M. See also:direct . Pop . (1881), 21,739; (1906), 23,250 (See also:town), 35,000 (See also:commune) . See also:History.—See also:Syracuse was the See also:chief See also:Greek city of See also:ancient Sicily, and one of the earliest Greek settlements in the island . According to See also:Strabo (vi . 4, p . 269) Chersicrates and See also:Archias of See also:Corinth, both See also:Heraclidae, See also:left their native city together with a See also:band of colonists, the former stopping with See also:half the force at Corcyra, where he expelled the Liburnians and occupied the island, while Archias proceeded to Syracuse.' See also:Thucydides (vi . 3) gives the date as the See also:year after the See also:foundation of See also:Naxos (i.e . 734 B c.), and mentions that Archias expelled the Sicel inhabitants from the island . Their presence there was definitely proved by the See also:discovery in 1905 of a See also:rock-cut See also:tomb of the beginning of the second Sicel See also:period (see SICILY) on the See also:west See also:side of the island (Orsi in Noiizie degli Scavi, 1905, 381), while similar tombs may be seen both on the See also:north and See also:south edges of the See also:terrace of Epipolae, and on the See also:peninsula of Plemmyrium . There is, on the other See also:hand, no conclusive See also:evidence for the previous existence of a Strabo goes on to say that Archias See also:fell in with certain men who had come from the Sicilian See also:Megara, and took them with him to See also:share in his enterprise . But this version implies that Megara was founded before Syracuse, which is contrary to all other authorities .

The whole question of the various tales See also:

relating to the foundation of Syracuse is discussed by E . A . See also:Freeman, History of Sicily, i . 335 sqq., 572 sqq.Phoenician See also:settlement on the island,' though it is certainly such a See also:place as Thucydides (vi . 2) describes as occupied by them for purposes of See also:trade with the Sicels . The name of the island, Ortygia (oprv, a See also:quail), has, again, been held to point to the possible existence of an Aetolian settlement on the island before Archias came . But it is more probable that the name was given to the island owing to the See also:establishment there by the first settlers of a See also:special cult of See also:Artemis (the name Ortygia appears in See also:Homer, Odyssey, v . 123, as an island sacred to Artemis, though the See also:identification with See also:Delos (q.v.) is not certain), though why See also:Corinthians should have worshipped Artemis in preference to any other deity is not clear . Till the beginning of the 5th See also:century B.C. our notices of Syracusan history are quite fragmentary . Almost the only question is whether, as some stray notices (see Freeman, History of Sicily, ii . 431) might suggest, the See also:primitive kingship was retained or renewed at Syracuse, as it certainly was in some other Greek colonies . A See also:king Pollis is spoken of; but nothing is known of his actions .

It is far more certain that Syracuse went through the usual revolutions of a Greek city . The descendants of the See also:

original settlers kept the See also:land in their own hands, and they gradually brought the Sicel inhabitants to a See also:state not unlike See also:villenage . Presently other settlers, perhaps not always Greek, gathered See also:round the original Syracusan See also:people; they formed a distinct See also:body, biµos or See also:plebs, personally See also:free, but with an inferior See also:political See also:franchise or none at all . The old citizens thus gradually See also:grew into an exclusive or aristocratic body, called yaµbpoi or landowners . We hear incidentally of disputes, seditions and changes, among others the See also:expulsion of the Gamori See also:early in the 5th century B.C . (Thuc. v . 5; Arist . Pol. v . 3, 5; 4, 1) . In its See also:external development Syracuse differed somewhat from other Sicilian cities . Although it lagged in early times behind both See also:Gela and Acragas (See also:Agrigentum), it very soon began to aim at a See also:combination of land and See also:sea See also:power .3 In 663 it founded the settlement of Acrae, in 643 Casmenae,4 and in 598 See also:Camarina, of which the first was unusually far inland . The three together secured for Syracuse a continuous dominion to the south-east 2 The origin of the name Ivpaeovouau is quite uncertain .

It has been suggested that it may be Phoenician : and, again, the plural See also:

form has been thought to point perhaps to " the See also:union of two originally distinct posts," one on the island, the other on the mainland on the See also:hill where the ruins of the Olympieum stand, known as aroXixvn —the latter being the original Syracuse . Netum (See also:Noto) and Helorum, both to the S.S.W. of Syracuse, must have been among its earliest settlements (Freeman ii . 17) . ' The site of Castnenae is uncertain; it was to the south-west of Syracuse, and not improbably at Spaccaforno (Freeman ii . 25) . See also:Emery W."kcr SC . coast . They were not strictly colonies but outposts; Camarina indeed was destroyed after a revolt against the ruling city (Thuc. v . 1) . Whether the inland Sicel town of See also:Henna was ever a Syracusan settlement is doubtful . It is extremely probable that Acrae was not founded until after two obvious out-posts had already been occupied—a See also:post guarding the road to Acrae itself, and including the sacred enclosure of See also:Apollo, which later, when it became a See also:quarter of the city, acquired the name Temenites; and another post on the road to the north, in the upper See also:part of the region known as Achradina . The latter was defended on the north and east by the sea, on the west by a See also:long straight cutting of the rock serving as a scarp on which the See also:wall stood (see below), and on the south by extensive quarries (Freeman ii .

43, 139, 144) . About the See also:

middle of the 6th century B.C.l the island was connected with the mainland by a See also:mole (Freeman ii . 140, 505) . At the beginning of the 5th century B.C . Syracusan history becomes far more clear . See also:Hippocrates, See also:tyrant of Gela (498–491), threatened the See also:independence of Syracuse as well as of other cities, and it was saved only by the See also:joint intervention of Corinth and Corcyra and by the cession of the vacant territory of Camarina . In 485 the Gamori, who had been expelled by the Demos and the Sicel See also:serfs, and had taken See also:refuge at Casmenae, craved help of See also:Gelo, the successor of Hippocrates, who took See also:possession of Syracuse without opposition, and made it the seat of his power . He gave citizenship both to mercenaries and to settlers from See also:Greece, and added to the See also:population the inhabitants of other cities conquered by him, so that Syracuse became a city of mixed population, in which the new citizens had the See also:advantage . He then extended the city by including within the fortifications the See also:low ground (or at any See also:rate the western portion of the low ground) between Upper Achradina and the island, and making the See also:Agora there2; at the same See also:time (probably) he was able to shift the position of the See also:crossing to the island by making a new See also:isthmus in the position of the See also:present one, the old mole being broken through so as to afford an outlet from the Little See also:Harbour on the east (See also:Lupus, p . 91) . The island thus became the inner city, the stronghold of the ruler, so that, despite its low level, it is often spoken of as the " See also:acropolis." Gelo's See also:general See also:rule was mild, and he won fame as the See also:champion of Hellas by his See also:great victory over the Carthaginians at See also:Himera . He is said to have been greeted as king; but he does not seem to have taken the See also:title in any formal way .

Gelo's See also:

brother and successor, See also:Hiero(478–467), kept up the power of the city; he won himself a name by his encouragement of poets, especially See also:Aeschylus and See also:Simonides, and philosophers; and his Pythian and Olympian victories made him the special subject of the songs of . See also:Pindar and See also:Bacchylides; among the recently discovered See also:works of the latter are three Odes (iii.–v.) written for him . He appeared also as a Hellenic champion in the See also:defence of See also:Cumae against the Etruscans, and he attempted after the victory to found a Syracusan See also:colony on the island of Aenaria, now See also:Ischia .. But his See also:internal See also:government, unlike that of Gelo, was suspicious, greedy and cruel . After some See also:family disputes the power passed to his brother See also:Thrasybulus, who was driven out next year by a general rising . In this revolution Thrasybulus and his mercenaries held the fortified quarters of Ortygia and Achradina; the revolted people held the unwalled suburbs, already, it is See also:plain, thickly inhabited . Thrasybulus yielded to the See also:common See also:action of Siceliots and Sicels . Syracuse thus became a democratic See also:commonwealth . Renewed freedom was celebrated by a See also:colossal statue of See also:Zeus See also:Eleutherius and by a yearly feast in his See also:honour . But when the mercenaries and other new settlers were shut out from See also:office 3 new struggles 1 Holm and Cavallari (cf . Lupus, Topographie von Syrakus, 91) make the construction of the mole and of the wall across it contemporary with the fortification of Achradina in the middle of the 7th century Inc . They also consider that the original west boundary of Achradina ran down to the Little Harbour, so that the See also:southern boundary of Achradina was the sea itself .

2 Holm and Cavallari (see Lupus, p . 99) are inclined to attribute to him the addition of Tyche to the city . a Diod. xi . 72; cf . Arist . Pol. v . 3, 10.arose . The mercenaries again held Ortygia and Achradina . The people now walled in the suburb of Tyche to the west of Achradina (Freeman iii . 306, 312, 456) . The mercenaries were at last got rid of in 461 . Although we hear of attempts to seize the tyranny and of an institution called petalism, like the Athenian See also:

ostracism, designed to guard against such dangers, popular government was not seriously threatened for more than fifty years .

The part of Syracuse in general Sicilian affairs has been traced in the See also:

article SICILY (q.v.); but one striking See also:scene is wholly See also:local, when the defeated Ducetius took refuge in the hostile city (451), and the common See also:voice of the people bade " spare the suppliant." We hear of a See also:naval expedition to the See also:Etruscan coast and See also:Corsica about 453 B.C. and of the great military and naval preparations of Syracuse in 439 (Diod. xii . 30) . Yet all that we read of Syracusan military and naval action during the former part of the Athenian See also:siege shows how Syracuse had lagged behind the cities of old Greece, constantly practised as they were in warfare both by land and sea . The Athenian siege (415–13) is of the deepest importance for the See also:topography of Syracuse, and it throws some See also:light on the internal politics . At first See also:complete incredulity prevailed as to the Athenian expedition (Thuc, vi . 32) . Hermocrates, the best of counsellors for external affairs, is suspected, and seemingly with See also:reason, of disloyalty to the democratic constitution . Yet he is, like See also:Nicias and See also:Phocion, the See also:official See also:man, See also:head of a See also:board of fifteen generals, which he persuades the people to cut down to three . See also:Athenagoras, the See also:demagogue or opposition See also:speaker, has an excellent exposition of democratic principles put into his mouth by Thucydides (vi . 36–40) . Through the whole siege' there was a treasonable party within the city, which—for what motives we are not told—kept up a See also:correspondence with the besiegers . When the Athenian See also:fleet under Nicias, See also:Alcibiades and Lamachus was at Rhegium in See also:Italy, after the discovery of the See also:trick that had been played by the Segestans, the question for the commanders was whether they should seek to strengthen themselves by fresh alliances on the spot or strike the See also:blow at once .

Lamachus was for immediate action, and there can hardly be a doubt that Syracuse must have fallen before a sudden attack by so formidable an armament in the summer of 415 . The Syracusans were neither See also:

united nor adequately prepared for effectual defence, and it is perfectly clear that they owed their final deliverance to extraordinary See also:good See also:fortune . See also:Athens had the See also:prize within her grasp, and she lost it wholly through the persistent dilatoriness and blundering of Nicias (q.v.) . It was at his See also:advice that the summer and autumn of 415 were frittered away, and the siege not begun till the See also:spring of 414 . By that time the Syracusans were both in better See also:spirits and better prepared; their troops were better organized, and they had built a wall from north to south across Epipolae, taking in Tyche and Temenites, so as to See also:screen them from attack on the side of Epipolae on the north-west . The effect of this was to See also:bar the enemy's approach and push back his blockading lines, which had to be carried over an inconveniently large extent of ground . They did not, however, occupy Euryelus, at the western extremity , of the high ground of Epipolae, and this omission allowed the Athenians to obtain possession of the whole See also:plateau, and to begin the investment of the city . The Syracusans had been at first thoroughly cowed; but they were cowed no longer, and they even plucked up courage to sally out and fight the enemy on the high ground of Epipolae . They were beaten and driven back; but at the See also:suggestion of Hermocrates they carried a See also:counter-See also:work up the slope of Epipolae, which, if completed, would cut in two the Athenian lines and frustrate the See also:blockade . At this point Nicias showed consider-able military skill . The Syracusans' work was destroyed by a prompt and well-executed attack; and a second counter-work carried across marshy ground some distance to the south of Epipolae and near to the Great Harbour was also demolished after a See also:sharp action, in which Lamachus fell, an irretrievable loss . However, the blockade on the land side was now almost ' The chief authorities for the siege are Thucydides (bks. vi. and vii.), Diodorus (bk. xiii.) and See also:Plutarch, Nicias .

complete, and the Athenian fleet had at the same time entered the Great Harbour . The citizens began to think of surrender, and Nicias was so confident that he neglected to push his advantages . He left a See also:

gap to the north of the circular fort which formed the centre of the Athenian lines, the point where Epipolae slopes down to the sea, and he omitted to occupy Euryelus . The second See also:act of the See also:drama may be said to open with the irretrievable blunder of Nicias in letting the Spartan See also:Gylippus first land in Sicily, and then See also:march at the head of a small See also:army, partly levied on the spot, across the island, and enter Syracuse by way of Epipolae, past Euryelus . Gylippus was See also:felt to be the representative of See also:Sparta, and of the Peloponnesian Greeks generally, and his arrival inspired the Syracusans with the fullest confidence . Just before his arrival a few See also:ships from Corinth had made their way into the harbour with the See also:news that a great fleet was already on its way to the See also:relief of the city . The tables were now completely turned, and we hear of nothing but defeat and disaster for the besiegers till their final overthrow . The military skill of Gylippus enabled the Syracusan See also:militia to meet the Athenian troops on equal terms, to wrest from them their fortified position on Plemmyrium, which Nicias had occupied as a naval station shortly after Gylippus's arrival, and thus to drive them to keep their ships on the low See also:beach between their See also:double walls, to take Labdalum, an Athenian fort on the See also:northern edge of Epipolae, and make a third counter-work right along Epipolae in a See also:westerly direction, to the north of the circular fort . The Athenians were thus reduced to such a See also:plight that, as Nicias said in his despatch towards the See also:close of 414, they were themselves besieged rather than besieging . The naval preparations of the Syracusans, under the advice of Hermocrates, had led them, too, to confidence in their See also:powers of giving See also:battle to the Athenian fleet . In the first sea-fight, which took place simultaneously with the See also:capture of Plemmyrium, they had been unsuccessful; but in the spring of 413 they actually won a victory over the Athenians in their own See also:element . On the very next See also:day, however, a second Athenian fleet arrived under See also:Demosthenes and See also:Eurymedon, with seventy-three ships of See also:war and a large force of heavy See also:infantry and light troops .

The despatch of this expedition seems to prove an almost See also:

blind confidence in Nicias, whose See also:request to be superseded the Athenian people refused to See also:grant . Demosthenes decided at once to make a See also:grand attack on Epipolae, with a view to recovering the Athenian blockading lines and See also:driving the Syracusans back within the city walls . The See also:assault was made by See also:night by way of Euryelus under the uncertain light of the mcon, and this circumstance turned what was very nearly a successful surprise into a ruinous defeat . The affair seems to have been well planned up to a certain point, and well executed; but the Athenian See also:van, flushed with a first success, their ranks broken and disordered by a pursuit of the enemy over rough ground, were repulsed with great loss by a body of heavy-armed Boeotians, and driven back in disorder . The confusion spread to the troops behind them, and the action ended in See also:wild See also:flight and slaughter . The army was now thoroughly out of See also:heart, and Demosthenes was for at once breaking up the See also:camp, embarking the troops, and sailing back to Athens . (It must be remembered that the Spartans were all this time in occupation of Deceleia; see PELOPONNESIAN WAR.) But Nicias could not bring himself to See also:face the Athenian people at See also:home, nor could he be prevailed on to retire promptly to some position on the coast, such as Catania or See also:Thapsus . He dallied till the end of See also:August, many See also:weeks after the defeat, when the coming of Syracusan reinforcements decided him to depart; but on the 27th of that See also:month was an See also:eclipse of the See also:moon, on the strength of which he insisted on a delay of almost another- month . His fleet, too, lingered uselessly in the harbour, till after a defeat in which Eurymedon perished, though the simultaneous land attack was unsuccessful . The Syracusans now blocked the mouth of the Great Harbour, and the Athenian fleet, after a frantic effort to break out and a desperate conflict, was utterly defeated and half destroyed . The broken and demoralized army, its ranks thinned by See also:fever and sickness, at last began its hopeless See also:retreat, attempting toreach Catania by a circuitous route; but, harassed by the numerous Syracusan See also:cavalry and darters, after a few days of dreadful suffering, it was forced to See also:lay down its arms . The Syracusans sullied the See also:glory of their See also:triumph by putting Nicias and Demosthenes to See also:death, and huddling their prisoners into their stonequarries—a living death, dragged out, for the See also:allies from Greece proper to the space of seventy days, for the Athenians themselves and the Greeks of Sicily and Italy for six months longer .

See also:

Games called Assinarian, from the name of the See also:river at which the final surrender occurred, were instituted to commemorate it . Her great deliverance and victory naturally stirred up the energies of Syracuse at home and abroad . Syracusan and Selinuntine ships under Hermocrates now See also:play a distinguished part in the warfare between Sparta and Athens on the coast of See also:Asia . Under the See also:influence of Diocles the constitution became a still more confirmed See also:democracy, some at least of the magistracies being filled by See also:lot, as at Athens (Diod. xiii . 31, 35; Arist . Pol. v . 3-6) . Diocles appears also as the author of a See also:code of See also:laws of great strictness, which was held in such esteem that later lawgivers were deemed only its expounders . Under these influences Hermocrates was banished in 409; he submitted to the See also:sentence, notwithstanding the wishes of his army . He went back to Sicily, warred with See also:Carthage on his own See also:account, and brought back the bones of the unburied Syracusans from Himera, but was still so dreaded that the people banished Diocles without restoring him . In 407 he was slain in an See also:attempt to enter the city, and with him was wounded one who was presently to outstrip both rivals . This was See also:Dionysius (the " See also:Elder "), son of another Hermocrates and an adherent of the aristocratic party, but soon afterwards a demagogue, though supported by some men of See also:rank, among them the historian See also:Philistus (Diod. xiii .

91, 92) . By accusing the generals engaged at Acragas in the war against Carthage, by obtaining the restoration of exiles (no doubt others of the partisans of Hermocrates), by high-handed proceedings at Gela, he secured his own See also:

election first as one of the generals, then as See also:sole general (or with a nominal colleague), with special powers . He next, by another trick, procured from a military See also:assembly at See also:Leontini a See also:vote of a bodyguard; he hired mercenaries and in 406–405 came back to Syracuse as tyrant of the city (Diod. xiii . 91–96) . Dionysius kept his power till his death See also:thirty-eight years later (367) . But it was well-nigh overthrown before he had fully grasped it . His defeat before Gela and his consequent decision that both Gela and Camarina should be evacuated, and left for the Carthaginians to See also:plunder, were no doubt due to previous arrangement with the latter . His enemies in the army, chiefly the horsemen, reached Syracuse before him, plundered his See also:house, and horribly maltreated his wife . He came and took his vengeance, slaying and driving out his enemies, who established themselves at Aetna (Diod. xiii . 113) . In 397 Syracuse had to stand a siege from the Carthaginians under Himilco, who took up his quarters at the Olympieum, but his troops in the marshes below suffered from pestilence, and a masterly combined attack by land and sea by Dionysius ended in his utter defeat . Dionysius, however, allowed him to depart without further pressing his advantage .

This revolution and the See also:

peace with the Carthaginians confirmed Dionysius in the possession of Syracuse, but of no great territory beyond, as Leontini was again a See also:separate city . It left Syracuse the one great Hellenic city of Sicily, which, however enslaved at home, was at least See also:independent of the See also:barbarian . Dionysius was able, like Gelo, though with less success and less honour, to take up the role of the champion of Hellas . During the long tyranny of Dionysius the city grew greatly in See also:size, population and grandeur . In fact the free Greek cities and communities, in both Sicily and southern Italy, were sacrificed to Syracuse; there the greatness and glory of the Greek See also:world in the West were concentrated . The See also:mass of the population of Gela and Camarina in the disastrous year 405 had, at the prompting of Dionysius, taken refuge at Syracuse . Gela had in the previous year received the fugitive inhabitants of Acragas '(Agrigentum), which had been sacked by the Carthaginians . Syracuse thus absorbed three of the chief Greek cities of Sicily . It received large accessions from some of the Greek cities of southern Italy, from Hipponium on its west and Caulonia on its east coast, both of which Dionysius captured in 389 B.C . There had also been an influx of free citizens from Rhegium . At the time of the Athenian siege Syracuse consisted of two quarters—the island and the "See also:outer city" of Thucydides, generally known as Achradina, and bounded by the sea on the north and east, with the adjoining suburbs of Apollo Temenites farther inland at the See also:foot of the southern slopes of Epipolae and Tyche west of the north-west corner of Achradina . Dionysius largely extended the fortifications .

The island (Ortygia) had been provided with its own defences, converted, in fact, into a separate stronghold, with a fort to serve specially as a See also:

magazine of See also:corn, and with a citadel or acropolis which stood apart and might be held as a last refuge . Dionysius, to make himself perfectly safe, drove out a number of the old inhabitants and turned the place into a See also:barracks, he himself living in the citadel . For any unpopularity he may have thus incurred he seems to have made up by his great works for the defence of the city . Profiting by the experience gained during the Athenian siege, he included in his new lines the whole plateau of Epipolae, with a strong fortress at Euryelus, its See also:apex on the west; the See also:total length of the outer lines (excluding the fortifications of the island) has been calculated at about 12 m . The material (See also:limestone) was quarried on the spot . Each quarter of the city had its own distinct defences, and Syracuse was now the most splendid and the best fortified of all Greek cities . Its naval power, too, was vastly increased; the docks were enlarged; and 200 new warships were built . Besides the triremes, or vessels with three See also:banks of oars, we hear of quadriremes and quinqueremes with four and five banks of oars—larger and taller and more massive ships than had yet been used in Greek sea warfare . The fleet of Dionysius was the most powerful in the Mediterranean . It was doubtless fear and hatred of Carthage, from which city the Greeks of Sicily had suffered so much, that urged the Syracusans to acquiesce in the enormous See also:expenditure which they must have incurred under the rule of Dionysius . Much, too, was done for the beauty of the city as well as for its strength and defence . Several new temples were built, and gymnasia erected outside the walls near the banks of the Anapus (Diod. xv .

13) . " Fastened by chains of See also:

adamant " was the boastful phrase in which Dionysius described his See also:empire; but under his son, the younger Dionysius—an easy, good-natured, unpractical man—a reaction set in amongst the restless citizens of Syracuse, which, with its vast and mixed populations, must have been full of elements of turbulence and See also:faction . But the burdensome expenditure of the See also:late reign would be enough to account for a good See also:deal of discontent . A remarkable man now comes to the front—See also:Dion, the friend and See also:disciple of See also:Plato—and for a time the trusted political adviser of his See also:nephew Dionysius . Dion's See also:idea seems to have been to make Dionysius something like a constitutional See also:sovereign, and with this view he brought him into contact with Plato . All went well for a time; but Dionysius had Philistus and others about him, who were opposed to any See also:kind of liberal reform, and the result was the banishment of Dion from Syracuse as a dangerous innovator . Ten years afterwards, in 357, the See also:exile entered Achradina a See also:victor, welcomed by the citizens as a deliverer both of themselves and of the Greeks of Sicily generally . A siege and blockade, with confused fighting and alternate victory and defeat, and all the horrors of See also:fire and slaughter, followed, till Dion made himself finally See also:master of the mainland city . Ortygia, provisions failing, was also soon surrendered . Dion's rule lasted only three years, for he perished in 354 by the hand of a Syracusan See also:assassin . It was, in fact, after all his professions, little better than a military despotism . The tyrant's stronghold in the island was left See also:standing .

Phoenix-squares

Of what took place in Syracuse during the next ten years we know but little . The younger Dionysius came back and from his island fortress again oppressed the citizens; the plight of the city, torn by faction and conflicts and plundered by See also:

foreign troops, was so utterly wretched that all Greek See also:life seemed on theverge of extinction (Plato, Epist. viii.) . Sicily, too, was again menaced by Carthage . Syracuse, in its extremity, asked help from the See also:mother-city, Corinth; and now appears on the scene one of the noblest figures in Greek history, See also:Timoleon (q.v.) . To him Syracuse owed her deliverance from the younger Dionysius and from Hicetas, who held the See also:rest of Syracuse, and to him both Syracuse and the Sicilian Greeks owed a decisive triumph over Carthage and the safe possession of Sicily west of the river Halycus, the largest portion of the island . From 343 to 337 he was supreme at Syracuse, with the hearty good will of the citizens . The younger Dionysius had been allowed to retire to Corinth; his island fortress was destroyed and replaced by a See also:court of See also:justice . Syracuse See also:rose again out of her desolation—grass, it is said, grew in her streets—and, with an influx of a multitude of new colonists from Greece and from towns of Sicily and Italy, once more became a prosperous city . Timoleon, having accomplished his work, accepted the position of a private See also:citizen, though, practically, to the end of his life he was the ruler of the Syracusan people . After his death (337) a splendid See also:monument, with porticoes and gymnasia surrounding it, known as the Timoleonteum, was raised at the public cost to his honour . In the See also:interval of twenty years between the death of Timoleon and the rise of See also:Agathocles (q.v.) to power another revolution at Syracuse transferred the government to an See also:oligarchy of 600 leading citizens . All we know is the See also:bare fact .

It was shortly after this revolution, in 317, that Agathocles with a body of mercenaries from See also: