Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse, had been the recipient of Pindar's First Olympian Ode in 476 BC. His victory in the Pythian games comes in the wake of a number of significant military accomplishments: his defeat of the Carthaginians at the Battle of Himera and of the Etruscans in the naval Battle of Cumae. Both events are alluded to in the poem. Special attention, however, is afforded to Hiero's foundation of the city of Aetna. He had founded the settlement near Mount Etna for his son Deinomenes the Younger to rule and proclaimed himself one of its citizens upon winning the chariot race at Delphi.