Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1001

 SICILIA. his garrison, and still secured liim ;t footin,;^ i:i Sicily. It was not till after a lung blockade that his sen Apollocrates was compelled to surrender it into the liauds of Dion, who tlius became master of Syracuse, B. c. 356. But the success of Dion was fiir from restoring liberty to Sicily, or even to the Syracusans: the despotic proceedings of Dion excited universal iliscontent, and he was at length assassinated by Callippus, one of his own ofBcers, b. c. .353. The •pvt'wd that followed was one of great confusion, but with which we are very imperfectly acquainted. Successive revolutions occurred at Syracuse, during which the younger Dionysius found means to eflect his return, and became once more master of Ortygia. Bat the rest of the city was still held by a leader named Hicetas, who called in the assistance of the Carthaginians. Ortygia was now besieged both by sea and land by a Carthaginan fleet and army. It was in this state of things that a party at Syracuse, equally opposed to Hicetas and Dionysius, had re- course to the parent city of Corinth, and a small force of 1200 soldiers was sent to their assistance under Timoleon, b. c. 344. His successes were rapid and brilliant; and within less than two months from his lauding in Sicily, he found himself unexpectedly in the possession of Ortygia, which was voluntarily surrendered to him by Dionysius. Hicetas and the Carthaginians were, however, still masters of the rest of the city ; but mistrust and disunion enfeebled their defence : the Carthaginian general Magon suddenly withdrew his forces, and Timoleon easily wrested the city from the hands of Hicetas, B. c. 343. Syracuse was now restored to liberty and a de- mocratic form of government; and the same change was quickly extended to the other Greek cities of Sicily. These had thrown off the yoke of Syracuse during the disturbed period through which they had recently passed, but had, with few exceptions, fallen into the hands of local despots, who had established themselves in the possession of absolute power. Such were, Hicetas himself at Leontini, Mamercus at Catana, and Hippon at Messana, while minor despots, also of Greek origin, had obtained in like manner the chief power in the Sioulian cities of Apollonia, Centuripa and Agyrium. Timoleon now turned his arms in succession against all these petty rulers, and overthi-ew them one after another, restoring the city in each case to the possession of independent and free self-government. Meanwhile the Greeks had been threatened with a more general danger from a fresh Carthaginian invasion ; but the total defeat of their generals Hasdrubal and Hamilcar at the river Crimisus (b.c. 340), one of the most brilliant and decisive victories ever gained by the Greeks over the Carthaginians, put an end to all fears from that ((uarter : and the peace that followed once more established the Halycus as the boundary between the two nations (Diod. xv. 17). The restoration of the Sicilian Greeks to liberty by Timoleon, was followed by a period of great prosperity. Many of the cities had suffered severely, either from the exactions of their despotic rulers, or Irom the troubles and revolutions that had taken place, but these were now recruited with fresh colonists from Corinth, and other cities of Greece, who poured into the island in vast numbers ; the exiles were everywhere restored, and a fresh impulse seemed to be given to the development of Hellenic influences in the island. Unfortunately this period of reviving prosperity was of short duration. Only SICILIA. 9S1 twenty three years after the battle of the Crimisus, a despotism was again established at Syracuse by Agathocles (b.c. 317), an adventurer who raised himself to power by very much the same means as the elder Dion_vsius, whom he resembled in energy and ability, while he even surpassed him in san- guinary and unsparing severity. The reign of Agathocles (b.c. 317-289) was undoubtedly a period that exercised the most disastrous influence over Sicily ; it was occupied in great part with in- ternal dissensions and civil wars, as well as by long continued struggles between the Greeks and Car- thaginians. Like Dionysius, Agathocles had, in the first instance, made use of Carthaginian support, to establish himself in the possession of despotic power, but as be gradually extended his aggressions, and reduced one Greek city after another under his authority, he in liis turn came into fresh collision with Carthage. In B.C. 310, he was defeated at the river Himera, near the hill of Ecnomus, by the Carthaginian general Hamilcar, in so decisive a battle that it seemed to extinguish all his hopes : his allies and dependent cities quickly threw ofl' his yoke, and Syracuse itself was once more blockaded by a Carthaginian fleet. In this extremity Aga- thocles adopted tlie daring resolution of transporting his army to Africa, and carrying on the war at the very gates of Carthage. During his absence (which was protracted for nearly four years, B.c.310 — 307) Hamilcar had brought a large part of Sicily under tli« dominion of Carthage, but was foiled in all his attempts upon Syracuse, and at length was himself taken prisoner in a night attack, and put to death. The Agrigentines, whose name had been scarcely mentioned tor a long period, but whose city appears to have been revived under Timoleon, and now again a])pears as one of the most considerable in Sicily, made a fruitless attempt to raise the banner of free- dom and independence, while the Syracusan exile Deinocrates, at the head of a large army of exiles and mercenaries, maintained a sort of independent position, aloof from all parties. But Agathocles, on his return from Africa, concluded peace with Car- thage, and entered into a compromise with Deino- crates, while he established his own power at Syra- cuse by a fearful massacre of all that were opposed to him. For the last twelve years of his reigu (B.C. 301 — 289), his dominion .seems to have been firmly established over Syracuse and a great part of Sicily, so that he was at liberty to follow out his ambitious schemes in the south of Italy and elsewhere. After the death of Agathocles (b. c. 289), Si( ily seems to have fallen into a state of great confusion ; Syracuse apparently still retained its predominant position among the Greek cities, lUKler a despot named Hicetas: but Agrigentum, which had also fallen into the hands of a despot named I'liiiilias, was raised to a position that almost enabled it to dispute the supremacy. Phintias extended his donunion over several other cities, and having mado himself master of Gela, utterly destroyed it, in order to found and people a new city at the mouth of tho river Himera, to which he gave the name of I'hintias. This was the last Greek city founded in Sicily. Meanwiiile tlie Carthaginians were becoming more and more preponderant in the island, and the Greeks were at length led to invoke the assistance of i Tyrrhus, king of Epirus, who was at this time ' carrying on war in Italy against the Romans. Ho readily listened to their overtures, and lauded ia