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 “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 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 magazine
of 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 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 apex on the west; the total
length of the outer lines (excluding the fortifications of the island)
has been calculated at about 12 m. The material (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
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 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 adamant ” was the boastful phrase in which Dionysius described his 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 faction. But the burdensome expenditure of the late reign would be enough to account for a good deal of discontent. A remarkable man now comes to the front—Dion, the friend and disciple of Plato—and for a time the trusted political adviser of his nephew Dionysius. Dion's idea seems to have been to make Dionysius something like a constitutional 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 kind of liberal reform, and the result was the banishment of Dion from Syracuse as a dangerous innovator. Ten years afterwards, in 357, the exile entered Achradina a 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 fire and slaughter, followed, till Dion made himself finally 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 assassin. It was, in fact, after all his professions, little better than a military despotism. The tyrant's stronghold in the island was left standing.
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 foreign troops, was so utterly wretched that all Greek life seemed on the verge of extinction (Plato, Exist. viii.). Sicily, too, was again menaced by Carthage. Syracuse, in its extremity, asked help from the mother-city, Corinth; and now appears on the scene one of the noblest figures in Greek history, Timoleon (q.v.). To him Syracuse owed her deliverance from the younger Dionysius and from Hicetas, who held the 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 court of justice. Syracuse 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 citizen, though, practically, to the end of his life he was the ruler of the Syracusan people. After his death (337) a splendid monument, with porticoes and gymnasia surrounding it, known as the Timoleonteum, was raised at the public cost to his honour.
In the interval of twenty years between the death of Timoleon and the rise of Agathocles (q.v.) to power another revolution at Syracuse transferred the government to an oligarchy of 600 leading citizens. All we know is the bare fact. It was shortly after this revolution, in 317, that Agathocles with a body of mercenaries from Campania and a host of exiles from the Greek cities, backed up by the Carthaginian Hamilcar, who was in friendly relations with the Syracusan oligarchy, became a tyrant or despot of the city, assuming subsequently, on the strength of his successes against Carthage, the title of king. Syracuse passed through another reign of terror; the new despot proclaimed himself the champion of popular government, and had the senate and the heads of the oligarchical party massacred wholesale. He seems to have had popular manners, for a unanimous vote of the people gave him absolute control over the fortunes of Syracuse. His wars in Sicily and Africa left him time to do something for the relief of the poorer citizens at the expense of the rich, as well as to erect new fortifications and public buildings; and under his strong government Syracuse seems to have been at least quiet and orderly. After his death in 289 comes another miserable and obscure period of revolution and despotism, in which Greek life was dying out; and but for the brief intervention of Pyrrhus in 278 Syracuse, and indeed all Sicily, would have fallen a prey to the Carthaginians.
A better time began under Hiero II., who had fought under Pyrrhus and who rose from the rank of general of the Syracusan army to be tyrant—king, as he came to be soon styled—about 270. During his reign of over fifty years, ending probably in 216, Syracuse enjoyed tranquillity, and seems to have grown greatly in wealth and population. Hiero's rule was kindly and enlightened, combining good order with a fair share of liberty and self-government. His financial legislation was careful and considerate; his laws[1] as to the customs and the corn tithes were accepted and maintained under the Roman government, and one of the many bad acts of the notorious Verres, according to Cicero, was to set them aside (Cic. In Verr. ii. 13, iii. 8). It was a time, too, for great public works—works for defence at the entrance of the Lesser Harbour between the island and Achradina, and temples and gymnasia. Hiero through his long reign was the stanch friend and ally of Rome in her struggles with Carthage; but his paternal despotism, under which Greek life and civilization at Syracuse had greatly flourished, was unfortunately succeeded by the rule of a man who wholly reversed his policy.
Hieronymus, the grandson of Hiero, thought fit to ally himself with Carthage; he did not live, however, to see the mischief he had done, for he fell in a conspiracy which he had wantonly provoked by his arrogance and cruelty. There was a fierce
- ↑ The laws of Hiero are often mentioned with approval in Cicero's speeches against Verres.
