Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/852

 816 into a city of four quarters. The suburb Temenites was expanded into Neapolis (New Town), spreading over the adjoining slopes. A district stretching down to the sea, to the north-west of Achra- dina, was taken in, and subsequently enlarged into a separate fortified town. Tyche (Ti^x 1 ?) was the name given to this quarter, according to Cicero (In Verr., iv. 52, 53) from an old temple of Fortune somewhere within its limits, a fact which seems to indi- cate that the spot must have been inhabited in very early times. But of this Thucydides says nothing, and his silence on a point which would have naturally entered into his description of the Athenian blockading operations is somewhat perplexing. This quarter was in Cicero's time the most populous part of the entire city ; it was practically secured by the new city walls, which were drawn inland in a triangular form so as to enclose the hill of EpipolfE, the apex of the triangle being the fortress of Euryalus, the remains of which are said to be the most perfect existing specimen of ancient fortification. Syracuse was now secure on the land side. 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. Dionysins, to make himself perfectly safe, drove out a number of the old inhabitants and turned the place into barracks for his soldiers, 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 ; these were executed under the direction of the most skilful engineers, and are said to have found employment for 60,000 men. The new lines covered an extent of 3^ miles, and were constructed of huge well-cut blocks of stone from the neighbouring quarries. 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). Diony- "Fastened by chains of adamant" was the boastful sius the phrase in which Dionysius described his empire ; but Younger. un( j er fa s SOIlj the younger Dionysius, an easy, good- natured, unpractical man, a sort of cleverish dilettante, a reaction set in amongst the restless citizens of Syracuse, which, with its vast and mixed population, 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 Dion. man now comes to the front, Dion, the friend and disciple of Plato, and for a time the trusted political adviser of Dionysius, whom he endeavoured to impress with a conviction of the infinite superiority of free and popular government to any form of tyranny or despotism. Dion's idea seems to have been to make Dionysius some- thing like a constitutional sovereign, and with this view he brought him into contact with Plato. All went well for a time ; but Dionysius had those 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. As yet, however, this was the only part of the city gained. 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 master of the mainland city. Ortygia, however, was still held by Dionysius ; but, provisions failing, it also was 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, Timo- leon. Agatho- cles. and Dion actually opposed a proposal for its destruction. The man who won immense popularity by the proposal was murdered, and Dion seems to have been an accomplice in the crime. 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, Epiaf., 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 the rule of despots, 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 goodwill 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 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 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 popu- lar government, and had the senate and the heads of the oligarchical party massacred wholesale. This man of blood seems to have had popular manners, and to have known how to flatter and cajole, 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 Pyrrlms 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 Hiero II. 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 tran- quillity, 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 con-