Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1086

 1062 SYRACUSAE. Marcellus, and were evidently still extant in the days of the oiator, who enumerates most of them by name. All the four quarters of the city, the Island, Achradina, Tycha, and Neapolis, were still well in- habited ; though as a measure of precaution no per- sons of native Syracusan extraction were permitted to dwell in the Island. (76. v. 32.) But the pros- perity of Syracuse seems to have sustained a severe shock in the time of Sestus Pompeius, who, accord- ing to Strabo, inflicted upon it injuries, from which it appears never to have recovered. Such was its decayed condition that Augustus endeavoured to recruit it by sending thither a Roman colony (b. c. 21). But the new settlers were confined to the Island and to the part of the city immediately adjoining it, forming a portion only of Achradina and Neapolis. (Strab. vi. p. 270; Dion Cass. Hv. 7; Plin. iii. 8. s. 14.) It is in this part of the town that the amphitheatre and other edifices of Roman construction are still found. But though greatly fallen from its former splen- dour, Syracuse continued througliout the Roman Empire to be one of the most considerable cities of Sicily, and still finds a place in the 4th century in the Ordo Nobilium Urbium of Ausonius. The na- tural strength of the Island as a fortress rendered it always a post of the utmost importance. After the fall of the Western Empire, it fell with the rest of Sicily under the dominion of the Goths, but was recovered by Belisarius in a. d. 535, and annexed to the do- minions of the Byzantine emperors, in whose hands it continued till the 9th centuiy, when it was finally wrested from them by the Arabs or Saracens. Sy- racuse was, with the single exception of Taurome- nium, the last place in Sicily that fell into the hands of those invaders: it was still a very strong fortress, and it was not till 878, more than fifty years after the Saracens first landed in the island, that it was compelled to surrender, after a siege of nine months' duration. The inhabitants were put to the sword, the fortifications destroyed, and the city given up to the flames. Nor did it ever recover from this ca- lamity, though the Island seems to have always continued to be inhabited. Its fortifications were strengthened by Charles V., and assumed very much their present appearance. The modern city, which is still confined to the narrow limits of the Island, contains about 14,000 inhabitants. But the whole of the expanse on the opposite side of the strait, as well as the broad table-land of Achradina and Epi- polae, are now wholly bare and desolate, heing in great part uncultivated as well as uninhabited. III. Topography. The topographical description of Syracuse as it existed in the days of its greatness cannot better be introduced than in the words of Cicero, who has described it in unusual detail. " You have often lieard (says he) that Syracuse was the largest of all Greek cities, and the most beautiful of all cities. And it is so indeed. For it is both strong by its natural situation and striking to behold, from what- ever side it is approached, wliether by land or sea. It has two ports, as it were, enclosed within the buildings of the city itself, so as to combine with it from every point of view, which have different and separate entrances, but are united and conjoined together at the opposite extremity. The junction of these separates from the mainland the part of the town which is called the Island, but this is re- united to the continent by a bridge across the nar- SYRACUSAE. row strait which divides them. So great is the city that it may be said to consist of four cities, all of them of very large size ; one of which is that which I have already mentioned, the Island, which is sur- rounded by the two ports, while it projects towards the mouth and entrance of each of them. In it is the palace of king Hieron, which is now the cus- tomary residence of our praetors. It contains, alsn, several .sacred edifices, but two in particular, which far surpass the others, one a temple of Diana, the other of iIinerva, which before the arrival of Verres was most highly adorned. At the extremity of tliis island is a fountain of fresh water, which bears tlie name of Arethusa, of incredible magnitude, and full offish: this would be wholly overflowed and covered by the waves were it not separated from the sea by a strongly-built barrier of stone. The second city at Syracuse is that which is called Achradina, which contains a forum of very large size, beautiful por- ticoes, a most highly ornamented Prytaneum, a spacious Curia, and a magnificent temple of Jupiter Olympius; not to speak of the other parts of the city, which are occupied by private buildings, being divided by one broad street through its whole length, and many cross streets. The third city is that which is called Tycha, because it contained a very ancient temple of Fortune ; in this is a very spa- cious gymnasium, as well as many sacred edifices, and it. is the quarter of the town which is the most thickly inhabited. The fourth city is that which, because it was the last built, is named Neapolis: at the top of which is a theatre of vast size; besides this it contains two splendid temples, one of Ceres, the other of Libera, and a statue of Apollo, which is known by the name of Teraenites, of great beauty and very large size, which Verres would not have hesitated to carry off if he had been able to remove it." (Cic. Vei-r. iv. 52, 53.) Cicero here distinctly describes the four quarters of Syracuse, which were commonly compared to four separate cities ; and it appears that Diodorus gave the same account. (Diod. xxvi. 19, ed. Didot.) In later times, also, we find it alluded to as "the qua- druple city " (" quadruplices Syracusae," Auson. CL Urb. 11). Others, however, enumerated five quar- ters, as Strabo tells us that it was formerly com- posed of five cities (Trei/TairoAis ■^v rb TraAaioj', Strab. V. p. 270), probably because the heights of Epipolae towards the castle of Euryalus were at one time inhabited, and were reckoned as a fifth town. But we have no distinct statement to this effect. The several quarters of the city must now be con- sidered separately. 1. Ortygia (^OpTvy'ia, Find., Diod., Strab., &c.), more commonly known simply as "the Island" {rj vrjffos, Thuc, &c., and in tlie Doric dialect Nciffos: hence Liy calls it Nasus, while Cicero uses the Latin Insula), was the original seat of the colony, and continued throughout the flourishing period of the city to be as it were the citadel or Acropolis of Syracuse, though, unlike most cita- dels, it lay lower than the rest of the city, its strengtii as a fortress being derived from its insular position. It is about a mile in length, by less than half a mile in breadth, and of small elevation, though composed wholly of rock, and rising perceptibly in the centre. There is no doubt that it was originally an island, naturally separated from the mainland, though in the time of Thucydides it was united with it (Thuc. vi. 3): probably, however, this was merely effected by an artificial mole or causeway,