User:T8612/Syracuse (polis)

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Syrakousai Official name (as on coins): Syrakousai Συϱάϰουσαι (Greek)
733 BC–212 BC
Decadrachm of the tyrant Dionysios I of Syracuse, minted by Evainetos between 404–390 BC.
Capital	Syracuse
Common languages	Ancient Greek (Doric dialect)
Ethnic groups	Dorian Greeks, Sicels
Religion	Greek polytheism, special cults to Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Zeus Olympios
Government	oligarchy (733–485) tyranny (485–466) democracy (466–405) tyranny (405–337) democracy (337–307) tyranny (317–214) democracy (214–212)
tyrants
• 485 BC (first)	Gelon
• 214 BC (last)	Hieronymous
Historical era	Classical antiquity
• Foundation of Syracuse	733 BC
• Conquered by Rome	212 BC
Area
550 BC	4,000 km2 (1,500 sq mi)
Population
• 450 BC	250,000
Currency	Drachma (Attic standard)
Preceded by Succeeded by Sicels Roman Republic
Today part of	Italy

Syrakousai was a Greek city-state in southeastern Sicily, and one of the most important cities of the Ancient World. Founded in 733 BC by colonists from Corinth on a site with large natural harbours and at the center of the Mediterranean Sea, Syracuse rapidly became the most powerful city of Magna Graecia. During the reigns of the tyrants Gelon (485–478 BC), Dionysios (405–367 BC), and Agathokles (317–289 BC), Syracuse even assumed the status of a great power, rivalling with Athens and Carthage. The city was finally conquered by the Roman Republic in 212 BC during the Second Punic War.

Syracuse is the ancient Greek city with the most recorded periods of civil strife. Its history is marked by violent alternances between the three different kinds of political organisations found in the Greek world: there were two periods of oligarchy, four tyrannies and five democracies. Initially founded as an oligarchy after the model of its mother-city, Corinth, a revolution in 485 BC triggered the arrival of the first tyrants of Syracuse, Gelon and his brother Hieron, under whose rule Syracuse came to control most of Sicily, except the western part, which belonged to Carthage. Thanks to their victories against Carthage at Himera in 480 BC, and the Etruscans at Kyme in 474 BC, the Syracusan tyrants enjoyed considerable prestige and established their city as a major player in the Greek World. Syracuse sided with Sparta during the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), which prompted Athens to set up an expedition in Sicily in 415 BC, which turned into a disaster and became the turning-point in the war, eventually won by Sparta. Carthage then attempted to take advantage of the situation, but was likewise repelled.

Moreover, Syracuse was famous in the Greek world for being a centre of the arts and philosophy. The poets Sappho and Pindar, the philosopher Plato, spent some time in Syracuse, which also counted several native scholars, such as the engineer Archimedes. The city also counted one of the earliest historians, Antiochos, who wrote a history of Syracuse, later transmitted by Diodoros. As a result, Syracuse is one of the best known cities of the Greek World besides Athens.

History

Foundation (733 BC)

Syracuse was founded by Corinth, a large Dorian city in the north of the Peloponnese. The oikistes was Archias, a member of the Bacchiadae, the royal family of Corinth that claimed descent from Heracles. The date of the foundation is disputed between two traditions. The Athenian historian Thucydides placed it in 733, one year after that of Naxos, the earliest Sicilian colony, founded in 734. However, the later geographer Strabo says that Croton was founded before Syracuse (c.710). While the earlier date is favoured by modern historians, Richard Evans pushes the foundation much later, c.680–675, and connect it with the overthrow of the Bacchiadae from Corinth, who therefore embarked in colonisation. The original settlers came from Tenea, an agricultural town in the hinterland of Corinth. The main reason for their departure was likely the lack of land. It is also probable that a group of settlers from Argos joined the venture, as some contemporary Argive pottery have been found around Syracuse.

The site of Syracuse was of exceptional quality. Just off the coast, the small island of Ortygia offered enough space (40 hectares) to host the city; it furthermore had a abundant spring, named Arethusa after the nymph. The island also created two harbours, one of which, called the Great Harbour, was especially large. Moreover, the plain of Anapus on the mainland was very fertile. The name of Syracuse may derive from a swamp located on the mainland, north of Ortygia, that was called Syrako. The Greek name of the city was Syrakousai, in plural, which reflects the two parts of the city (on the island of Ortygia and on the mainland).

The site was not virgin and the colonists occupied a native Sicel settlement; the earliest houses of Syracuse were built on top of the Sicel village. Then the natives were likely reduced to serfdom and may have been the "Kyllyrioi" (or Cyllyrii) described as such by Herodotos, who vastly outnumbered the Syracusan citizens. Their status may have been the same as the Helots in Sparta (serfs tied to the land), while the Chalcidian colonies of northeastern Sicily cooperated with the Sicels.

Oligarchy of the Gamoroi (733–492 BC)

A silver tetradrachm of the Gamoroi, minted c. 510–490 BC. The quadriga on the obverse alludes to the Gamoroi's interest in chariot-racing. Arethusa is pictured on the reverse within a swastika.

As the fertile plain of Anapus near the city remained devoid of new settlement, modern scholars have suggested that this area belonged exclusively to the first colonists and their descendants, later known as the Gamoroi ("land-owners"), who constituted the oligarchy that ruled Syracuse during the archaic era. Little is known on the exact political organisation of archaic Syracuse. There was probably a single eponymous prytanis, as in the other Corinthian colonies of Epidamnos, Corcyra, and Apollonia. Hippys of Rhegion mentions a "king of Syracuse" named Pollis from Argos in the early period, but he was more likely this eponymous magistrate.

Syracuse received new arrivals of settlers after its foundation, but they did not receive political rights on their arrival. Some of them were likely installed in colonies on the borders of Syracuse. The first colony, Heloron, was founded 40km on the southeastern coast of Sicily, in about 700. The Sicel towns of Pantalica and Finocchito were also abandoned at the same time, because of Syracuse's advance. The city indeed expanded inland and founded Akrai in 664, then Kasmenai in 644 (now Monte Casale), both in the Anapus valley. These colonies did not gain political autonomy from Syracuse and remained in its domain; no oikistes is therefore known. Located on high grounds, they seem to have had a military function, perhaps to control Syracuse's inner territory and keep an eye on the native Sicels; besides, an important deposit of weapons has been uncovered in Kasmenai.

Remains of the Temple of Apollo.

The first mention of a civil strife, or stasis, took place in 648. Thucydides mentions a group of Syracusans, named the Myletidae, who joined colonists from Zankle (now Messina) to found Himera on the northern coast of Sicily. The Myletidae were possibly a group of aristocrats expelled by the rest of the oligarchy. The events were perhaps connected to the fall of the Bacchiads at Corinth. T. J. Dunbadin also thinks Akrai and Kasmenai were founded to remove some citizens from the city during these troubled years. The cause of the stasis was perhaps the demands of enriched citizens, who were excluded from the political decisions by the Gamoroi, who were a tight landed aristocracy. Some scholars also connect it to a love affair between two men that degenerated into a stasis, as told by Aristotle.

In 598, Kamarina was founded on the border with Gela, on the southern coast, 112 km away from Syracuse. Kamarina had apparently more freedom than previous Syracusan colonies, since two oikistes are known, Daskon from Syracuse and Menekolos from Corinth. Moreover, the city tried to take its independence circa 550, with the help of the Sicels, the first time they are recorded fighting alongside Greeks. As Gela refused to help its neighbour, Syracuse could quell the revolt; Thucydides says that Kamarina was destroyed, but it does not match archaeological evidence, so perhaps he meant the city as political entity. This is also the first recorded war of Syracuse. By the 6th century, Syracuse therefore controlled an area of about 4000 km², the second largest of all Greek cities after Sparta (for instance, Athens controlled a region of about 2550 km²).

The 6th century saw the construction of the first stone temples in the city. The Temple of Apollo is the earliest temple built in the Doric order in Sicily.

Tyranny of the Deinomenids (485–466 BC)

Arrival to power (485 BC)

A tetradrachm of Gelon, minted c. 485 BC, just after his arrival at Syracuse. The obverse depicts Alpheus, referring to the foundation myth of Syracuse. The reverse with two grains of barley alludes to both the fertility of Sicily, and the priesthood of Demeter held by Gelon.

In the 6th century, most Sicilian cities began to be ruled by tyrants, starting with Panaetius of Leontinoi (in 608) and Phalaris of Akragas (570–554). In 505, Cleander became tyrant of Gela, and ruled until his assassination in 498, at which point his brother Hippocrates succeeded him. He conquered Zankle and Leontinoi, where he installed devoted tyrants, then started a war with Syracuse. Hippocrates won a battle near Heloros, but as he did not have a strong navy, could not besiege Syracuse. He therefore accepted the mediation of Corinth and Corcyra, and made peace after he received Kamarina. At his death in 492 while fighting the Sicels, his cavalry commander, Gelon, son of Deinomenes, seized power and became tyrant of Gela. His family descended from one of the first settlers of Gela, and held an hereditary priesthood of Demeter, which brought Gelon significant influence. His prestige was even enhanced by his victory at the Olympic Games in 488.

Map of Sicily at the time of the Deinomenids. Core territory in red, vassal cities in yellow. Theron's cities in azure blue; Anaxilas' in green.

Discredited by its defeat against Hippocrates, the oligarchy of the Gamoroi was overthrown by a popular uprising in Syracuse in 492 or 491. The people of Syracuse that were excluded from the political process, assisted by the Kyllyrioi (the enslaved Sicels) whom they perhaps promised emancipation, established the First Democracy of the city, but nothing is known of this period. Meanwhile, the Gamoroi had sought shelter in Kasmenai, where they called Gelon to help restoring them. In 485 Gelon entered Syracuse without a fight, either because his army was superior, now that the Gamoroi were gone, or that he promised the Syracusan Democrats he would not restore the oligarchs. However, Gelon probably surprised both parties by making himself tyrant of the city and settling there. He left his brother Hiero at Gela, but brought half of the citizens of Gela to Syracuse in the process, as well as those from Kamarina, after which he destroyed the city. Soon after his arrival, Gelon defeated the city of Megara Hybleia on the northern border of Syracuse; he transferred the oligarchs to Syracuse and gave them the citizenship, but enslaved the rest of the population. He applied the same treatment to the city of Euboia. Gelon likely thought that a large popular class could be a source of instability in Syracuse, while the oligarchs of other cities would enrich it. As a result of these massive population transfers, Syracuse, which was already the largest Sicilian city, became a megalopolis, at the centre of a small empire on the island (Gelon had inherited the conquests of Hippocrates except Messena). Gelon may have also chosen Syracuse as the capital of his realm because of its harbours, while Gela had none. In addition, he married Damarete, the daughter of Theron, the tyrant of Akragas—a large city in the west of Gela—thus unifying most Dorian cities of Sicily.

War with Carthage (480 BC)

In the beginning of 480, diplomats from Athens and Sparta came to Syracuse to ask Gelon's help against the incoming Persian invasion of Greece by King Xerxes. Herodotus tells that Gelon first complained that the eastern Greeks had ignored his request when he was at war with Carthage, the dominant power of the Western Mediterranean Sea, which also controlled western Sicily. Little is known on this war, but it was likely connected to Dorieus' failed colonisation attempt in the west of the island some years before. Then, Herodotus makes Gelon say that he had a navy of 200 triremes, and a land army of 20,000 hoplites, 2,000 cavalry, and 6,000 light infantry, more than any other Greek city (Athens could only musters 180 triremes). Since he would have been the main contributor to the Greek army, Gelon demanded the command of the war in return for his help, but the envoys refused and returned home empty-handed as a result. Then, Herodotus adds that Gelon had sent a ship with money to Greece, and instructed its commander to deliver the money to Xerxes in case he won the war against the Greeks. The story has been doubted by modern historians. Herodotus indeed tarnishes the reputation of tyrants on several occasions; Alexander I of Macedon, who cooperated with Xerxes, is likewise depicted as a double-dealer and working against Greeks' interest. The real reason for Gelon's refusal was more likely that he was preparing a war against Carthage.

In 483, Theron of Akragas conquered Himera, on the northern coast, and ousted its tyrant, Terillus. The latter however attempted to recover his city by calling Carthage to help; his son-in-law Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegion and Messena, also encouraged Carthage's intervention by giving them hostages. In 480, Hamilcar arrived on the island and marched on Himera with an army said to be of 300,000 men by Diodorus Siculus. He also states that it was part of a coordinated plan from Carthage and Xerxes to attack the Greeks at the same time, but this synchronisation is obviously a later reconstruction. His number of 300,000 men was also largely inflated to match the likewise disproportionate number of the Persian army given by Herodotus (1,7 million men). Gelon arrived at Himera after Hamilcar had already starting besieging Himera, defended by Theron. He captured a messenger from Selinous (a Greek city allied to Carthage), whose message said that his city would bring a cavalry reinforcement. Gelon then disguised his cavalry as the Selinuntine reinforcement in order to enter the Carthaginian camp. Once inside, Gelon's cavalry killed Hamilcar who was making sacrifices, then burnt the warships beached nearby, and finally routed the Carthaginian army after a brief fight. Diodorus tells that Carthaginian casualties reached 150,000 and that the battle took place the same day as the Thermopylae, while Herodotus says it was fought the same date as Salamis.

The combined armies of Gelon and Theron still won a resounding victory. As the battle took place at the same time as the invasion of Greece by the Persian Empire, parallels were immediately drawn between both situations. Gelon used the Punic prisoners to build the Galermi Aqueduct.

Hieron and Thrasybulus (478–466 BC)

Etruscan helmet discovered at Olympia, where it had been brought after Hieron's victory at Kyme, now in the Archaeological Museum of Olympia, Greece.

As Gelon had done with him when he moved to Syracuse, Hieron appointed his younger brother Thrasybulus as ruler of Gela. Although his succession as tyrant of Syracuse was unopposed, it seems that his position was not as secure as during the time of Gelon, because he created a permanent bodyguard. A dispute with his younger brother Polyzelus is also recorded. In order to strengthen his rule, Hieron performed a policy of "Doricisation" (or "dechalcidisation") of Sicily, by forcing the citizens of Katane and Naxos to move to Leontinoi, while he installed 10,000 colonists from Syracuse and the Peloponnese in Katane, which he refounded as Aetna (after the volcano). Hieron wanted to transform Katane into a Dorian city to counter the threat of Anaxilas of Rhegion on his northern border (Katane was Chalkidian like Rhegion); he then installed his son Deinomenes as ruler of Aetna. Hieron nonetheless solved his rivalry with Rhegion by marrying the daughter of Anaxilas, who died soon after in 476. After the death of Theron of Akragas in 474, his son Thrasydaeus declared war on Hieron—despite the alliance of his father with Syracuse. He however lost the ensuing battle with 4,000 dead, twice as many as Hieron, and had to go into exile; an oligarchy then took over the city. At this point, Hieron became the undisputed leader of Greek Sicily.

In 474, Hieron got involved in the affairs of mainland Italy, where the Etruscans were waging an offensive against the Greek cities of Campania, notably Kyme. A Sicilian navy led by Syracuse defeated the Etruscan in a large battle; Etruscans' losses were so severe that the battle marked the beginning of their decline. Hieron then established a garrison on the island of Ischia to guard the Bay of Naples. Imitating his brother after his victory at Himera, Hieron dedicated spoils taken from the Etruscans to the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. In spite of his power and prestige, Hieron did not feel safe in Syracuse and moved his permanent residence to Aetna, among his faithful supporters.

Hieron died in Aetna in 467 and was succeeded by his brother Thrasybulus, who nevertheless reigned for less than a year. He rapidly faced strong hostility after his arrival to Syracuse, and had to bring a force of 15,000 mercenaries, mainly from Aetna, which exacerbated the tensions and led to a rebellion. The exact reasons of the people's rebellion given by Diodorus are unclear. Aristotle tells that some other member of the Deinomeinids challenged his claims, and favoured instead a son of Hieron named Deinomenes, which could mean that the rebellion was initially limited to the elite class. Other cities came to help the revolt against Thrasybulus, who, after having been defeated two times, had to leave into exile to Lokri.

Second Democracy (466–405 BC)

Between 466 and 461 BC, Syracuse minted the first decadrachm in Greek history to celebrate the fall of the tyranny. Piece now in the Bode Museum, Berlin.

The fall of Thrasybulus triggered a democratic wave throughout Sicily; Syracuse liberated the cities under its control, and the people forcibly moved by the Deinomenids were allowed to return to their city. In Syracuse, the exile of the tyrant did not appease the tensions though, as two factions rapidly emerged, the "Old" and the "New". The latter were the citizens from Gela brought by the tyrants and their mercenaries; they enjoyed a privileged status above the rest of the Demos during the tyranny. In 463, the initial inhabitants of Syracuse—the "Old"—attempted to restrict magistracies to people who could trace their ancestry in the city to the time before Gelon, a clear attack on the New citizens. A stasis followed, with the Old besieging the New, who controlled the city. Meanwhile, the Old also made an alliance with the Sicel king Ducetius in order to remove Hieron's former mercenaries from Aetna, after which they recalled the former inhabitants in exile in Leontinoi, who refounded their city as Katane. In about 460, the New surrendered, likely after a compromise was found: the Geloans were given the city of Kamarina, deserted since its destruction in 485, and the mercenaries were allowed to leave.

The new regime that emerged from this prolonged period of trouble was called the Second Democracy. Typical elements of a democratic city are recorded: a boule (council), an ekklesia (assembly of the citizens), and a board of 15 strategoi (elected generals), but Syracuse did not share the same radical democracy as in Athens (with paid offices and sortition), and some scholars even suggest that the regime retained oligarchic features. Starting in 454, a variant of the Athenian ostracism was implemented, called petalism—as the name of the ostracised were cast on olive leaves—but was rapidly repealed as it created instability, because several people launched false accusations to get rid of opponents.

The middle of the century was marked by Syracuse's former ally, Ducetius, who built a Sicel confederation in the centre of Sicily. In 451, he attacked Motyum, on the territory of Akragas, which received the support of Syracuse, but the allied cities still lost the confrontation. The following year, Akragas and Syracuse recovered and soundly defeated Ducetius. The Syracusans nevertheless decided to spare his life and send him into exile in Corinth. Ducetius returned to Sicily in 446 after having convinced the Corinthians to establish a city on the northern coast—an enterprise supported by Syracuse. This colony was not far from Himera, a close ally of Akragas, and triggered a war between Akragas and Syracuse, won by the latter. After Ducetius' death in 440, Syracuse returned to an aggressive foreign policy and seized most of the Sicel cities, which became tributaries. The Chalkidian cities of the eastern coast (Leontinoi, Naxos, and Katane) thus became surrounded by this new Syracusan empire.

First Athenian intrusions (427–422 BC)

In 427, Syracuse finally moved against the Chalkidians and besieged Leontinoi, which sent and embassy headed by Gorgias to Athens, its ally. The famous rhetorician convinced the Athenian demos to intervene to save Leontinoi. At the time, the Peloponnesian War was raging in mainland Greece, and Athens saw in this call to help an opportunity to cut the corn supply from Sicily to Sparta, its enemy in the war. There was an ethnical factor in this war, as the Chalkidian cities of Magna Gracia were Ionian Greek like Athens, while Sparta and Syracuse were Dorian. The Athenian fleet led by Laches occupied Messena, an ally of Syracuse. In 426, Athens encouraged the Sicels to rebel against Syracuse, but this progression inland was stopped by a Syracusan garrison at Inessa, on the slope of Etna. In 425, Syracuse and Lokri, its main ally in Italy, retook Messena. The confrontation between Athens and Syracuse remained limited to skirmishes, but the Naxians helped by the Sicels easily defeated a Messenian army that had besieged them. After a short war with its neighbour Kamarina in 425, Gela invited delegates from all the other Sicilian cities to a peace conference held in 424. In Thucydides' narrative, the event was dominated by the Syracusan Hermocrates, who made a long speech advocating for a general peace between all Sicilian Greeks and rejecting foreign intervention—often summarised as "Sicily for the Sikeliots". Hermocrates' propositions were adopted—albeit grudgingly for some cities—and Leontinoi immediately requested the Athenians to leave.

Peace in Sicily did not last long. In 422, soon after the Congress of Gela, the democrats of Leontinoi admitted new Ionian citizens in the city, a move likely aimed at countering the influence of the oligarchs in the city, who were closer to Syracuse. The latter called Syracuse for help, which routed the democrats. The oligarchs nonetheless preferred abandoning their city and moving to Syracuse, where they received the citizenship. Trying to take advantage of the situation, Athens sent Phaeax in a diplomatic mission to Magna Graecia in order to win allies against Syracuse. The mission failed after the negative answer he received in Gela.

Sicilian Expedition (415–413 BC)

Main article: Sicilian Expedition

Siege of Syracuse (414–413 BC).

In 416, Segeste, an Elymian city in the west of Sicily, requested the aid of Athens against Selinous, an ally of Syracuse, offering them to pay for the expenses. In Athens, Alcibiades—a relative of Pericles and popular leader—wanted to use this request to push for a larger expedition against Syracuse, or even all of Sicily and Carthage. His opponent was the conservative Nicias, who tried to cancel the expedition by requesting such a huge force against Syracuse that the demos would give up the idea, but his argument was surprisingly accepted. As a result, Athens and its allies commissioned an "armada" of 100 triremes and 5,000 hoplites—the most important ever set up by a single city—commanded by Lamachus, Nicias, and Alcibiades. In Syracuse, Hermocrates' warning was dismissed by the populist Athenagoras, who convinced the demos that Hermocrates was looking for personal gain. Syracuse only realised the danger when the Athenian fleet arrived at Rhegion, where the Athenians discovered that they had been duped by Segeste, and that the Sicilian Greeks were not favourably disposed towards them—apart from Naxos. Soon after in Katane, Alcibiades learnt his recall to Athens to face a trial, after his opponents had taken advantage of his absence to accuse him of sacrilege. After the failure to obtain help from the other Sicilian cities, Nicias decided to confront Syracuse. He landed the army in the Great Harbour and easily defeated the green Syracusan phalanx, but did not exploit his success and returned to Katane, where the army wintered. In order to have a more efficient command, the Syracusan board of strategoi was reduced to three, including Hermocrates, who appealed to Corinth and Sparta for help. Alcibiades, who had sought shelter in Sparta, convinced his hosts to intervene against his native city. The Spartan general Gylippus was therefore sent with a small army to reinforce Syracuse.

On Summer 414, the Athenians started a circumvallation on the Epipolai (the plateau north of Syracuse), while their navy blockaded the harbours. The counter-walls built to break the siege were ineffective, and despite the death of Lamachus in a skirmish, the situation appeared desperate for Syracuse after the Athenian fleet was beached in the Great Harbour. At this point, the Spartan Gylippus broke through the Athenian blockade and entered the city. Taking command, he built about 50 triremes and a large counter-wall on the Epipolai that cut the Athenians from Katane. Gylippus then forced a naval battle at the entrance of the Great Harbour to serve as diversion for his land force to take control of three Athenian forts on the southern promontory. During the Summer 413, Demosthenes nevertheless arrived with large reinforcements from Athens, but soon lost his advantage in the disastrous night battle he had provoked. The now overcrowded Athenian camp was also subject to dysentery because of the swamps nearby. The Athenian command decided to escape Sicily, but a moon eclipse seen as a bad omen delayed the plan. This left enough time for Syracuse to build a boom linking 40 ships together, which they put at the entrance of the Great Harbour, therefore trapping the Athenians inside. Their unsuccessful attempt to break the boom cost them half of their ships, after which Athenian rowers refused to sail again. The commanders thus tried to flee by land, but without horse, they were at the mercy of the strong Syracusan cavalry, who slaughtered 18,000 of them on the Assinaros River and captured the rest.

A debate took place in Syracuse about the fate of the Athenian prisoners. Hermocrates favoured leniency, but the assembly voted for the harsh treatment advocated by Diocles, a popular orator. Nicias and Demosthenes were therefore put to death, the Athenians starved to death in stone quarries, and their allies sold as slaves. This debate suggests that Hermocrates was now suspected to covet a more personal rule over the city, and Diocles passed several laws ironically inspired from Athens that turned Syracuse into a more radical democracy. He instituted that magistrates had to be drawn by lots, raised back the number of strategoi, and increased soldiers' wages. Hermocrates took command of the 35 triremes sent to Greece to reward Sparta for its help against Athens, perhaps to leave the tense atmosphere in Syracuse. The navy fought alongside Sparta until the defeat at Cyzicus in 410, which led to Hermocrates' removal. He rather stayed in exile in Peloponnese than returned to Syracuse.

Second War against Carthage (409–406 BC)

The origin of the Athenian expedition—the conflict between Selinous and Segeste—was not resolved by the Athenian defeat. In 410, Segeste received the support of Carthage, as its suffet was the revengeful Hannibal Mago—the grandson of the Hamilcar who had died in 480 at Himera. After the fall of Selinous in 409, Diocles formed an army with Akragas to protect Himera, but even though he had recalled the fleet previously commanded by Hermocrates, it arrived to late and he could only use the ships to evacuate the population. Hermocrates probably returned to Sicily in 408 with the help of his new friend the Persian satrap Pharnabazus, who funded a small private army under his command. From his base in the ruins of Selinous, he raided Carthaginian Sicily and even recover the bodies of the Syracusans fallen at Himera. Although his successes led to Diocles' exile, the Syracusans did not recall him either, probably fearing his tyranny. Convinced by his friends, Hermocrates tried to force the decision by entering Syracuse, but was murdered with his supporters on the way to the agora.

In 406, Carthage returned to Sicily with the goal of taking the entire island. Akragas was the first to fall, despite Syracusan help. Dionysios—a former follower of Hermocrates—took advantage of the defeat to call for the replacement of the Syracusan commanders, which was voted, as well as his appointment as one of the strategoi. However, after Carthage had started the siege of Gela, Dionysios returned to Syracuse; he said there he had to leave his post because he was convinced that the other strategoi were about to betray. At this point, the assembled people granted him sole command of the war against Carthage, as strategos autokrator. His first deed was to double the soldiers' pay, likely to ensure their loyalty; he then obtained a bodyguard of 600 men, after an attempt on his life he possibly staged. He further strengthened his links with Hermocrates' faction by marrying his daughter and obtaining the death of the generals that had replaced Hermocrates from his command of the fleet in 410. In 405, Dionysios abandoned Gela and Kamarina, which he considered indefensible against Carthage. Refugees from these cities left Syracuse to Leontinoi. A part of the upper-class cavalry also rebelled against Dionysios; they plundered his house and killed his wife, but had to retire to Aetna after he suppressed the revolt. The Carthaginian advance was stopped by a plague among the army, which forced its commander Himilco (another Magonid) to make peace with Syracuse. He nevertheless exacted a harsh treaty: Himera, Selinous, Akragas, Gela, and even Kamarina, became Carthaginian tributaries and had to destroy their walls, while the Sicels, Messena, and Leontinoi, had to remain independent. However, Carthage recognised Dionysios as the sole ruler of Syracuse.

Tyranny of the Dionysii (405–344 BC)

Syracuse was again ruled by a tyrant, although Dionysios did not not put his name on his coins and the citizen assembly continued to meet. He likely avoided to call himself the terms basileus or tyrannos, favouring instead strategos autokrator and archon. Another revolt that broke out just after the peace with Carthage made him take drastic measures to solidify his rule. He separated Ortyga from the rest of the city, and reserved houses on the island to his friends and mercenaries. Like Gelon one century earlier, he expropriated his opponents' land, which he distributed to his supporters, mercenaries and manumitted slaves, who also received the Syracusan citizenship. Dionysios gained popularity among commoners by visiting construction sites and opening his table to some of them. He likewise returned to the Deinomenids' policy of massive population transfers in Sicily: he recovered Etna, Enna, Naxos and Catane, and sold the population of the latter two. He shared Catanian territories between his Campanian mercenaries and Messena, while the Sicels received Naxos' lands, thereby returning both under his control. Completely isolated, Leontinoi submitted; its inhabitants (formerly citizens of Gela and Kamarina) were moved to Syracuse and the city abandoned again.

Timoleon and the Third Democracy (345–317 BC)

Oligarchy of the 600

Agathokles was born at Thermai Himeraiai in 361–0, but emigrated to Syracuse in his youth with his father. He received the citizenship from Timoleon in 339–8 and rose the ranks in the army. He served under the general Damas during the war against Akragas in the 320s, whom he later married his widow, thus earning his wealth and influence. In about 323 Agathokles was chiliarch under his brother Antandrus in the successful Syracusan expedition against the Brutii in Calabria. Already prominent in the city's politics, Agathokles was at the head of a democratic faction turned against the 600 oligarchs led by Sostratos and Herakleides. Soon after the army's return from Italy, Agathokles was forced into exile by the oligarchs. He then lived as a mercenary, first for Tarentum, then Rhegion, which was attacked by the Syracusan oligarchs, who tried to establish a similar oligarchy in Rhegion. After having defeated the oligarchs, he was allowed to return to Syracuse, while his enemies were in turn exiled. Many of them went over to the Carthaginians, in the hope that they would restore their former power. At this point, the Syracusans called for the mediation of Corinth, which sent the strategos Acestorides, who recalled the exiles, made peace with Carthage, and forced Agathokles into exile a second time. The latter went in the interior of the island, where he used his wealth to recruit a large army made of Sicels and the victims of the oligarchs. He took Leontinoi, then convinced Hamilcar, the Carthaginian leader in the area, to abandon the oligarchs.

Artistic life

Sappho was exiled to Syracuse in 600.

Hieron brought to Syracuse the Athenian playwright Aeschylus, the poets Pindar, Bacchylides, and Epicharmus, and perhaps Simonides.

Corax and Tisias were among the founders of rhetoric.

Panhellenic victors

Syracuse was one of the most successful cities at the Panhellenic Games, second only to Kroton among Western Greeks. The first recorded victory of a Syracusan athlete took place in 648, when Lygdamis won the pankration tournament at the 33rd Olympic Games. It was also the first time that pankration was organised at the games and the first recorded victory of a Western Greek. However, Lygdamis' description casts some doubt on his historicity (he was said to be as big as Herakles and to have never sweated).

The next recorded victory took place under the Deinomeinid tyrants, who were especially interested in the Panhellenic games, as they formed an important part of their propaganda, similar to their offerings at Delphi and Olympia after their victories at Himera and Kyme. In 480 Gelon hired Astylos of Kroton, at the time the best runner in the Greek world. Astylos had already been Triastes at the Olympic Games in 488 and 484, which means he won the three short run events: the stadion (c.190m sprint), diaulos (twice the stadion's length), and hoplitodromos (race in armour). After his poaching from Kroton, Astylos became Triastes for the third time under the banner of Syracuse at the 75th Olympic Games in 480.

The Dionysii tyrants returned to the policy of bribing foreign athletes. The runner Dikon was from Kaulonia in Italy and won the boys' stadion at Olympia in 492, but he was soon bribed by Dionysios to run for Syracuse. In 384, Dikon won the stadion and another foot race at Olympia, as well as five races at the Pythian Games, three at the Isthmian Games, and Four at the Pythian Games. In 388, Antipatros of Miletus won the boys' boxing event, and the Syracusans likewise attempted to bribe him for their city, but he refused. This practice of poaching foreign athletes was apparently common among Sicilian cities, and especially Syracuse, which has the most recorded examples.

List of Syracusan victors at the Panhellenic Games

Games	Date	Name	Competition
Olympic	648	Lygdamis	pankration
Olympic	480	Astylos	stadion, diaulos, hoplitodromos
Olympic	476	Zopyros	hoplitodromos
Olympic	384	Dikon	stadion, and diaulos or hoplitodromos
Nemean	c.384	Dikon	four races
Isthmian	c.384	Dikon	three races
Pythian	c.384	Dikon	five races

Bibliography

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• Diodoros Siculus, Bibliotheca historica.
• Herodotus, Histories.
• Strabo, Geographica.
• Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War.

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