Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/998

 978 SICILIA. and prosperity far surpassing that of either of its mother cities. Selinus was the most ■westerly of the Greek colonies, and immediately bordered on the ter- ritory of the Elymi and the Phoenician or Carthagi- nian settlements. On the N. coast of the island, the only independent Greek colony was Hijieka, founded about b. c. 648 by the Zanclaeans; BIvlae, another colony of the same people, having apparently continued, from its proximity, to be a mere depen- dency of Zancle. To the above list of Greek colo- nies must be added Callipolis and Euboea, both of them colonies of Naxos, but which never seem to have attained to consideration, and disappear from history at an early period.* Our accounts of the early history of these nu- merous Greek colonies in Sicily are unfortunately very scanty and fragmentary. We learn indeed in general terms that they rose to considerable power and importance, and enjoyed a liigh degree of wealth and prosperity, owing as well to the fertility and natural advantages of the island, as to their foreign commerce. It is evident also that at an early period they extended their dominion over a considerable part of the adjoining country, so that each city had its district or territoiy, often of considerable extent, and comprising a subject population of native origin. At the same time the Sicels of the interior, in the central and northern parts of the island, and the Sicanians and Elymi in the W., maintained their independence, though they seem to have given but little trouble to their Greek neighbours. During the sixth century B.C. the two most powerful cities in the island appear to have been Agrigentum and Gela, Syracuse not having yet attained to that pre- dominance which it subsequently enjoyed. Agri- gentum, though one of the latest of the Greek colo- nics in Sicily, seems to have risen rapidly to pros- perity, and under the able, though tyrannical government of the despot Phalaris (b. c. 570 — 554) became apparently for a time the most powerful city in the island. But we know very little about his real history, and with the exception of a few scattered and isolated notices we have hardly any account of the affairs of the Greek cities before B. c. 500. At or before that period we find that a poli- tical change had taken place in most of the.se com- munities, and that their governments, which had originally been oligarchical, had passed into the hands of despots or tyrants, who ruled with uncon- trolled power. Such were Panaetius at Leontini, Oleander at Gela, Terillus at Ilimera, and Scythes at Zancle (Arist. Pol. v. 12 ; Herod, vi. 23, vii. 154). Of these Oleander seems to have been the most able, and laid the foundation of a power which enabled his brother and successor Hippocrates to extend his dominion over a great part of the island. Callipolis, Leontini, Naxos, Zancle, and Oamarina successively tell under the arms of Hippocrates, and Syracuse itself only escaped subjection by the inter- vention of the Corinthians (Herod, vii. 154). But what Hippocrates had failed to effect was accom- plished by Gelon, who succeeded him as despot of Gela, and by interposing in the civil dissensions of the Syracusans ultimately succeeded in making colonisation in Sicily is taken almost wholly from Thucydides (vi. 3 — 5). See, however, Scymnus Chius' (270—299) and Strabo (vi. pp. 267—272). The dates are fully discussed by Clinton (^Fasti Hel- lenicj, vol. i.). SICILIA. himself master of that city also, b. c. 485. From this time Gelon neglected his former government of Gela, and directed all his efforts to the aggrandize- ment of his new acquisition. He destroyed Oa- marina, and removed all the inhabitants to Syracuse, together with a large part of those of Gela itself, and all the principal citizens of ]Iegara Hyblaea and Euboea (Herod, vii. 156). Syracuse was thus raised to the rank of the first city in Sicily, which it retained for many centuries afterwards. A few years before (b. c. 488), Theron had established himself in the possession of the sovereign power at Agrigentum, and subsequently extended his dominion over Himera also, from whence he expelled Terillus, b. c. 481. About the same time also Anaxilaus, despot of Ehegium, on the other side of the straits, had established a footing in Sicily, where he became master of Zancle, to which he gave the name of Messana, by which it was ever afterwards known [Messana]. All three riders appear to have been men of ability and enlightened and liberal views, and the cities under their imme- diate government apparently made great progress in power and prosperity. Gelon especially undoubtedly possessed at this period an amount of power of which no other Greek state could boast, as was sufficiently shown by the embassy sent to him from Sparta and Athens to invoke his assistance against the threatened invasion of Xerxes (Herod, vii. 145, 157). But his attention was called off to a danger more imme- diately at hand. Terillus, the expelled despot of Himera, had called in the assistance of the Cartha- ginians, and that people sent a vast fleet and army under a general named Hamilcar, who laid siege to Himera, b. c. 480. Theron, however, was able to maintain possession of that city until the arrival of Gelon with an army of 50,000 foot and 5000 horse to his relief, with which, though vastly inferior to the Carthaginian forces, he attacked and totally de- feated the army of Hamilcar. This great ■'ictory, which was contemporaneous with the battle of Salamis, raised Gelon to the highest pitch of reputa- tion, and became not less celebrated among the Sici- lian Greeks than those of Salamis and Plataea among their continental brethren. The vast number of prisoners taken at Himera and distributed as slaves among the cities of Sicily added greatly to their wealth and resources, and the opportunity was taken by many of them to erect great public works, which continued to adorn them down to a late period (Diod. xi. 25). Gelon did not long survive his great victory at Himera : but he transmitted his power unimpaired to his brother Hieron. The latter, indeed, though greatly inferior to Gelon in character, was in some respects even superior to him in power: and the great naval victory by which he relieved the Cu- maeans in Italy from the attacks of the Carthagi- nians and Tyrriicnians (b. c. 474) earned him a well- merited reputation throughout the Grecian world. At the same time the rule of Hieron was e.Ktremely oppressi>'e to the Chalcidic cities of Sicily, the power of which he broke by expelling all the citizens of Naxos and Oatana, whom he compelled to remove to Leontini, while he repeopled Oatana with a large body of new inhabitants, at the same time that he changed its name to Aetna. Theron had continued to reign at Agrigentum until his death in b. c. 472, but his son Thrasydaeus, who succeeded him, quickly incurred the enmity of the citizens, who were enabled by the assistance of Hieron to expel him,
 * The above summary of the progress of Greek