SYRACUSE, a celebrated city of Sicily, and once the capital of the island. According to Thucydides and Strabo, it was built by Archias, one of the Heraclidae, who came from Corinth into Sicily in the second year of the 11 th Olympiad, and derived its name from a neighbouring marsh named Sgraco. What form of government first prevailed in the city, is not known. Many have supposed it originally to have been governed by kings: but if this was the case, the monarchical government continued only for a very short time; since Aristotle, Diodorus Siculus, and Justin, mention it as being very early subject to a democracy. The history is obscure and unimportant till the time of Gelon, when Syracuse first began to make a conspicuous figure.

Gelon was born in the city of Gela in Sicily, of the family of Telines, who had been created priest of the infernal gods. He signalized himself in a war carried on against the Syracusans, by Hippocrates, tyrant of Gela, whom he defeated in a pitched battle. Having thus become very powerful among his countrymen, he soon found means to seize on the sovereignty for himself. In a short time, having put himself at the head of some Syracusan exiles, he marched towards that place, where he was received with loud acclamations, and obtained possession of the city.

In order to people the capital of his new dominions, Gelon first demolished the neighbouring city of Camarina, and transplanted the inhabitants to Syracuse. Soon afterwards, entering into a war with the Megareans, he defeated them, took and razed their cities, and in like manner transplanted the people. Syracuse thus became powerful, and full of inhabitants; and the friendship of Gelon was courted both by Athens and Lacedaemon at the time of the Persian invasion. In the mean time the Carthaginians had entered into a treaty with the Persians; by which it was agreed, that the former should attack those of the Greek name in Sicily and Italy, in order to divert them from assisting each other. Sicily was accordingly invaded by the Carthaginians with a vast army; but they were utterly overthrown by Gelon, as is related under the article Carthage. After this victory, the people out of gratitude obliged him to assume the title of king, which till that time he had refused. A decree also passed by which the crown was settled on his two brothers Hiero and Thrasybulus after his death. The new king, instead of keeping his subjects in greater awe, studied to make them happy, and was the first man who became more virtuous by being raised to a throne. He was particularly famous for his honesty, truth, and sin cerity; is said never to have wronged the meanest of his subjects, and never to have made a promise which he did not perform.

Gelon died in the year 471 b c . after having reigned three or four years; and was succeeded by his brother Hiero, whose character is differently drawn by different historians. He is highly celebrated in the odes of Pindar; and it is certain that his court was the resort of men of wit and learning, to whom he behaved in the most courteous manner and with the greatest liberality.

In 459 b c. Hiero was succeeded by. Thrasybulus; who proving a tyrant, was in ten months dethroned, and a popular government restored, which continued for the space of fifty-five years.

About this time the Syracusans entered into a war with the Siculi, which terminated in the total subjection of the latter; after which Syracuse became so powerful, that it in a manner gave law to the whole island. The Greek cities indeed enjoyed a perfect liberty, but they all acknowledged Syracuse as their metropolis. By degrees, however, the latter began to assume such an authority over them as was totally inconsistent with liberty; and this occasioned many wars, which involved them in much distress and danger. They began with the Leontines, whose territory they laid waste, and reduced their city to great straits. Leontini was an Athenian colony; and this furnished the Athenians, who had already meditated the conquest of Sicily, with a pretence to attack the Syracusans with their whole force. Under colour of assisting their countrymen, therefore, they sent a fleet of 250 sail to Sicily; but the Leontines, sensible that their pretended allies aimed at nothing less than the conquest of the whole island, concluded a peace with Syracuse; and the disappointed Athenians vented their rage on those who had advised and conducted the expedition.

During the continuance of the popular government, the Syracusans took part in the long war between Athens and Sparta. This war was scarcely ended, when a new and formidable invasion by the Carthaginians took place; but the event of that expedition was as unfortunate to the Carthaginians as the former had been. In the mean time, a considerable revolution had happened in Syracuse. The city of Agrigentum had been taken by the Carthaginians; and of the few inhabitants who escaped, some fled to Syracuse, where they accused the Syracusan commanders of having betrayed the city into the hands of the enemy. Dionysius, a man of great valour and address, but who had become very obnoxious to the populace, took this opportunity of attempting to retrieve his credit. He therefore supported the accusations brought against his countrymen by the Agrigentines, and even impeached the magistrates as having a secret intelligence with the enemy, and attempting to introduce an oligarchy. As his speech was entirely levelled against the more wealthy, it was very agreeable to the poorer citizens: the commanders were instantly degraded; and others, among whom was Dionysius, were appointed. Having once gained this point, he began to consider how he might effect the dismission of his colleagues. For this purpose, he never joined in any council of war with the other commanders, nor imparted to them his resolutions, giving out that he could not trust them, and that they had more regard for their own interest than the welfare of their country. But while he was proceeding in this manner, the more prudent part of the citizens, perceiving what he aimed at, complained of him to the senate and magistrates, and fined him as a disturber of the public peace. According to the laws, the fine was to be paid before he could speak in public, and the circumstances of Dionysius did not allow him to discharge it. In this dilemma he was assisted by Philistus the historian, a man of great wealth, who not only paid this fine for him, but encouraged liim to speak his[7:21:56] mind freely, as it became a zealous citizen to do, promising to pay all the fines which should be imposed upon him.

Being extricated out of this difficulty, Dionysius next proceeded, with all the eloquence of which he was master, to inveigh against those who by means of their power or interest were able to oppose his designs, and by degrees brought them into discredit. His next scheme was to get those exiles recalled whom the nobility had banished at different times; as thinking that they would support him with all their power, as well out of gratitude, as out of hatred to the opposite party. Having likewise gained this point, he next found means to ingratiate himself with the soldiery to such a degree that, under pretence of taking proper measures for resisting the Carthaginians, he was chosen commander in chief, with absolute and unlimited power. This was no sooner done than, pretending his life was in danger, he selected 1000 men for his guard, whom he attached to his interest by great promises. As no person durst now oppose him, he possessed himself of the capital, where all the arms and provisions were kept; after which he publicly took the title of king of Syracuse in the year 404 b c. The Syracusans did not tamely submit to their new master; but Dionysius managed matters so well, that their frequent revolts answered no other purpose than more certainly to entail slavery on themselves; and he was allowed to possess the throne without much opposition till his death, which happened in the year 366 b. c.

On the death of Dionysius, he was succeeded by his son, likewise called Dionysius. He was naturally of a mild and peaceable temper, averse to cruelty, and inclined to learning; but his father, to whom all merit, even in his own children, gave umbrage, stifled as far as possible his good qualities by a mean and obscure education. He no sooner ascended the throne, than Dion, brother to Aristomache, wife of the elder Dionysius, undertook to correct the faults of his education, and to inspire him with thoughts suitable to the high station in which he was placed. For this purpose he sent for the philosopher Plato, under whose care he immediately placed the young king. This instantly produced a reformation on Dionysius; but the courtiers, dreading the effects of the philosopher’s instructions, prevailed on him to banish Dion, and to keep Plato himself in a kind of imprisonment in the citadel. At last, however, he set him at liberty; and Plato then returned to his own country.

Dion, in the mean time, visited several of the Grecian cities, and at last took up his residence in Athens; but the honours which were everywhere paid him raised such jealousies in the breast of the tyrant, that he stopped his revenue, and caused it to be paid into his own treasury. In a short time Dionysius again sent for Plato; but, finding it impossible to dissolve the friendship between him and Dion, disgraced, and placed him in a very dangerous situation, in the midst of assassins who hated him. Not daring, however, to offer him any violence, he allowed him soon after to depart; revenging himself on Dion, whose estate he sold, and gave his wife Arete in marriage to Timocrates, one of his flatterers.

Dion now resolved to revenge himself on the tyrant for the many injuries which he had sustained, and at once to deliver his country from the oppression under which it groaned. He began with raising foreign troops privately, by proper agents, for the better execution of his design. Many Syracusans of distinction entered into his scheme, and gave him intelligence of what passed in the city; but of the exiles, of whom there were upwards of 1000 dispersed up and down Greece, only twenty-five joined him; so much were they awed by the dread of the tyrant. The troops were assembled at the island of Zacynthus, in number only about 800; but who had all been tried on many occasions, were well disciplined, and capable of animating by their example the forces which Dion hoped to find in Sicily. When they were about to sail, Dion acquainted them with his design, the boldness of which at first occasioned among them no small consternation; but he soon removed their fears, by telling them that he did not lead them as soldiers, but as officers, to put them at the head of the Syracusans and all the people of Sicily, who were ready to receive them with open arms. Having then embarked in two small trading vessels, they arrived in twelve days at Cape Pachynum, near Syracuse. They at length reached the port of Minoa, not far from Agrigentum, and here they received intelligence that Dionysius had set sail for Italy, attended by a fleet of eighty galleys. Dion now resolved to take advantage of the tyrant’s absence, and immediately proceeded to Syracuse. On his march he prevailed on the inhabitants of Agrigentum, Gela, Camarina, and otlier cities, to join him. As soon as he entered the territories of Syracuse, multitudes flocked to him; and as nobody appeared to oppose him, he boldly entered the city, where he quickly found himself at the head of 50,000 men. As soon as he had landed in Sicily, Timocrates, to whom his wife Arete had been given by Dionysius, and to whom the care of the city had been left, despatched a courier to let the tyrant know the danger to which he was exposed. Dionysius was, however, accidentally prevented from receiving a timely account of Dion’s arrival; so that when he entered the citadel by sea, seven days after Dion’s arrival, he found his affairs in a desperate situation. Upon this he had recourse to artifice; and having amused the Syracusans by a feigned negociation, until he observed that they kept a negligent guard, he attacked them all at once with such fury, that he had almost taken the city. But Dion encouraged the soldiers by his example so much, that he at last obtained a complete victory; for which they presented him with a crown of gold. It was not long, however, before the ungrateful Syracusans began to think of conferring quite different rewards on their benefactor. Dionysius had the address to render him suspected by the multitude; at the same time that Heraclides, an excellent officer, but a secret enemy to Dion, did all that lay in his power to sink his credit. Dionysius was soon obliged to fly into Italy, but left Heraclides to oppose Dion.

Dion at length obtained possession of the city, and Heraclides having submitted to him, was received into favour; but as his seditious and turbulent behaviour still continued, Dion at last gave orders to put him to death. This action, however necessary, so affected the mind of Dion, that he became melancholy; and ever after imagined himself haunted by a frightful spectre, resembling a woman of gigantic stature, with the haggard looks and air of a fury. In a short time after he lost his life, through the treachery of Calippus, or Gylippus, who pretended to be his intimate friend, and who immediately after caused his wife and sister to be carried to prison. Calippus having removed Dion, soon made himself master of Syracuse, where he committed all manner of cruelties; but he was driven out, and forced to fly to Rhegium, where he was murdered by the same dagger which had killed Dion. In 350 b. c. Dionysius again made himself master of Syracuse; and being exasperated by his past misfortunes, became more tyrannical than ever. The Syracusans first had recourse to Icetas, tyrant of Leontini; but as the Carthaginians took this opportunity to invade them with a powerful fleet and army, they were obliged to apply to the Corinthians. By them Timoleon, a celebrated commander, was sent to the assistance of the Syracusans, whom he found in a very distressed situation; Icetas being master of the city, the Carthaginians of the harbour, and Dionysius of the citadel. As all parties were equally the enemies of Dionysius, he found it impossible to resist, and therefore surrendered himself to Timoleon, by whom he was sent to Corinth; where at last he was reduced to the necessity of teaching a school for his support.[7:21:57] After the expulsion of the tyrant, Timoleon withdrew to Catena, leaving only 400 Corinthians, under the command of an experienced officer named Leon, to guard the citadel. These were immediately besieged by Icetas and the Carthaginians, but Timoleon found means to relieve them in spite of all opposition; and having dispersed emissaries through the army of Mago the Carthaginian general, exhorting the mercenary Greeks to forsake him, he was so much intimidated, that in spite of all the remonstrances which Icetas could make, he set sail for Africa, leaving his colleague to carry on the war in the best manner he could.

The day after the departure of Mago, Timoleon assaulted the city so fiercely, that the troops of Icetas were driven from the walls, and the Corinthians became masters of the place. Timoleon, by sound of trumpet, invited the inhabitants to come and assist in demolishing the citadel and other castles, which he called the nests of tyrants; after which he caused edifices for the administration of justice to be erected in the place where the citadel had stood. He found the city in a most miserable condition; for many having perished in the wars and seditions, and others having fled to avoid the oppression of tyrants, Syracuse, once so wealthy and populous, was now become almost a desert; insomuch that the horses were fed on the grass which grew in the market-place. Timoleon supplied the city with inhabitants from Corinth and other cities of Greece, at the same time that great multitudes from Italy and the other parts of Sicily resorted thither. Timoleon distributed the lands among them; but sold the houses, and with the money arising from the sale established a fund for the support of the poor. Having thus restored Syracuse, he next delivered all the Greek cities of Sicily from the tyrants who had taken possession of them, all of whom he put to death. After this he resigned his authority, and led a retired life, venerated in the highest degree by the Syracusans, and by all the cities in Sicily. After his death he was honoured as a god; the expense of his funeral was defrayed by the public; sports, with horse-races and gymnastic exercises, were held annually on the day of his death; and it was decreed, that whenever the Syracusans were at war with the barbarians, they should send to Corinth for a general.

For twenty years the Syracusans enjoyed the fruits of Timoleon’s victories; but new disturbances arising, in a short time another tyrant started up, who exceeded all that had gone before him in cruelty and other vices. This was the celebrated Agathocles, of whose exploits against the Carthaginians a full account is given under the article Carthage. He was poisoned by one Moenon in the year 289 b c ., after having reigned twenty-eight and lived ninety-five years. A succession of tyrants followed, till at last the city, being held by two rivals, Toenion and Sosistratus, who made war within the very walls, Pyrrhus king of Epirus was invited into Sicily, in order to put an end to these distractions. He willingly complied with the invitation, and was everywhere received with loud acclamations, as the deliverer, not only of Syracuse, but of all Sicily. As he had a fine army of 30,000 foot and 5000 horse, with a fleet of 200 sail, he drove the Carthaginians from place to place, till he left them only the two strong posts of Eryx and Lilybaeum. The former of these he took by assault, and was himself the first man who mounted the walls, after having killed a great number of Africans with his own hand. The Mamertines, likewise, who had conquered a considerable part of the island, were everywhere defeated and driven out, till at last they were shut up in the city of Messana. The Carthaginians, alarmed at the rapidity of his conquests, sent ambassadors with proposals of peace upon very advantageous terms; but Pyrrhus, elated by the expectation of reducing the whole island, refused to hearken to any terms unless they would instantly abandon it. So sanguine were his anticipations, that he caused his son to assume the title of king of Sicily; but in the mean time, having displeased the Sicilians by his arbitrary behaviour, they deserted from him in such numbers that he was glad to set out for Italy, for which retreat the embassies he received from the Samnites, Tarentines, and other Italians, furnished him with an honourable pretext. He embarked in the ships which he had brought with him from Italy, but was met at sea by the Carthaginians, who sunk seventy of his vessels, and dispersed or took the rest, so that he saved himself in Italy with only twelve vessels, the poor remains of a fleet of 200 sail. No sooner were the Mamertines apprised of his departure, than they despatched a body of 18000 men to harass him after his landing. These having passed the straits before him, posted themselves on the road which Pyrrhus must take in marching by land to Tarentum, and concealing themselves among woods and rocks, attacked him unexpectedly, and with great resolution. But Pyrrhus be haved on this occasion with his usual bravery. The attack being made on his rear, he hastened thither, and made a dreadful slaughter of the enemy, till a wound in the head obliged him to retire.

After the departure of Pyrrhus, Hiero the son of Hierocles, a descendant of Gelon, the first king of Syracuse, was chosen general of the forces, along with another named Artemidorus. The two generals had nothing more at heart than to put an end to the confusion and disorder which reigned in the city; and with this view they entered it at the head of their forces. On this occasion Hiero discovered extraordinary talents for government. By mere dint of insinuation and address, without shedding blood or hurting a single citizen, he calmed the minds of the people, reconciled the factions, and so gained the affections of all, that he was invested with the whole civil as well as military power in the state. He soon afterwards married the daughter of one of the first citizens; and having distinguished himself by his exploits against the Mamertines, was unanimously elected king of Syracuse in the year 265 b c .

Some time after Hiero’s accession to the throne, he again defeated the Mamertines, and reduced them to such straits that they were obliged to call in the Romans to their assistance. The consequences of this have been fully related under the articles Rome and Carthage. Hiero, who had allied himself with the Carthaginians, being himself defeated by the Romans, and finding his allies unable to protect him against the power of that republic, concluded an alliance with them, and continued faithful to them even in the time of the second Punic war, when they were in the greatest distress. In his reign flourished the celebrated mathematician Archimedes, whose genius he employed in fortifying the city of Syracuse, by innumerable machines, in such a manner as rendered it absolutely impregnable to every method of attack known at that time.

Hiero died about 211 b. c. and was succeeded by his grandson Hieronymus; but he imprudently forsook the counsels of his grandfather, and entered into an alliance with the Carthaginians. He was soon afterwards murdered, in consequence of his tyranny and cruelty; and the greatest disorders took place in the city, which Hannibal, though then in Italy, found means to foment, in hopes of keeping the Syracusans in his interest. This indeed he effected; but as his own affaire in Italy began to decline, he could not prevent Marcellus from landing in Sicily with a formidable army, which the Sicilians had no means of resisting. Syracuse was soon invested; but the machines invented by Archimedes baffled all attempts to take it by assault. The immense preparations which the consul had made for taking the city by storm, could not have failed to accomplish his purpose, had the place been otherwise defended than by the genius of Archimedes. The Roman fleet consisted of sixty quinqueremes, besides a far greater number of other ships. The decks were covered with soldiers armed with[7:21:58] darts, slings, and bows, to drive the besieged from the ramparts, which on one side were washed by the sea, and to facilitate the approach to the walls. But a machine of Marcellus’s own invention, called a sambuca, was that on which he placed his chief reliance. The consul’s design was to bring his sambuca to the f∞t of the walls of Acra-dina; but while it was at a considerable distance (and it advanced very slowly, being moved only by two ranks of rowers), Archimedes discharged from one of his engines a vast stone, weighing, according to Plutarch’s account, 1250 pounds, then a second, and immediately after a third, all which, falling upon the sambuca with a dreadful noise, broke its supports, and gave the galleys upon which it stood such a violent shock that they parted, and the machine which Marcellus had raised upon them with immense labour and expense was battered to pieces. At the same time, several other machines, which were not visible without the walls, and consequently did not lessen the confidence of the Romans in the assault, played incessantly upon their ships, and overwhelmed them with showers of stones, rafters, and beams pointed with iron, insomuch that Marcellus found it necessary to retire with all possible haste, and sent orders to his land forces to do the same; for the attack on the land side was attended with no better success, the ranks being broken and thrown into the utmost confusion by the stones and darts, which flew with such noise, force, and rapidity, that they struck the Romans with terror, and dashed all to pieces before them.

Marcellus, surprised, though not discouraged, at this artificial storm, which he did not expect, held a council of war, in which it was resolved, the next day before sunrise, to advance close to the wall, and remain there. They were in hopes by this means to secure themselves against the terrible storm of stones and darts which fell on the ships when at a distance; but Archimedes had prepared engines which were adapted to all contingencies. When the Romans therefore had brought their ships close under the wall, and thought themselves well covered, they were unexpectedly overwhelmed with a new shower of darts and stones, which fell perpendicularly on their heads, and obliged them to retire with great precipitation. But they had no sooner removed to some distance, than a new shower of darts overtook them, which made a dreadful havock of the men, while stones of an immense weight, discharged from other machines, either disabled or broke in pieces most of their galleys. This loss they sustained without being able to revenge it on the enemy; for Archimedes had placed most of his engines behind the walls, and not only out of the reach, but even out of the sight, of the enemy; so that the Romans were repulsed with a dreadful slaughter, without seeing the hand that occasioned it. What most harassed them in the attack by sea, was a sort of crow with iron claws, fastened to a long chain, which was let down by a lever. The weight of the iron made it fall with great violence, and drove it into the planks of the galleys. Then the besieged, by a great weight of lead at the other end of the lever, weighed it down, and consequently raised up the iron of the crow in proportion, and with it the prow of the galley to which it was fastened, sinking the poop at the same time into the water. After this the crow letting go its hold all of a sudden, the prow of the galley fell with such force into the sea, that the whole vessel was filled with water, and sunk. At other times, the machines, dragging ships to the shore by hooks, dashed them to pieces against the points of the rocks which projected under the walls. Other vessels were quite lifted up into the air, there whirled about with incredible rapidity, and then let fall into the sea, and sunk, with all that they contained. How these stupendous works were effected, few, if any, have hitherto been able to comprehend.

The troops under the command of Appius suffered no less than the fleet in this second attack. In the whole space of ground which the army occupied when formed, the last files as well as the first were overwhelmed with showers of darts and flints, against which they could not possibly defend themselves. When they had with infinite trouble brought the mantlets and covered galleries, under which they were to work the rams, near the foot of the wall, Archimedes discharged such large beams and stones upon them as crushed them to pieces. If any brave Roman ventured to draw too near the wall, iron hooks were immediately let down from above, which, taking hold of his clothes or some part of his body, lifted him up in the air and dashed out his brains with the fall. Marcellus, though at a loss how to proceed, could not however forbear expressing himself with pleasantry. Shall we persist, said he to his workmen, in making war upon this Briareus, upon this giant with an hundred hands? But the soldiers, if they saw upon the walls only a small cord, or the least piece of wood, were so terrified, that they immediately turned their backs and fled, crying out that Archimedes was going to discharge some dreadful machine upon them.

The consuls, finding themselves thus defeated in every attempt, turned the siege into a blockade, reduced most of the other places in the island, and defeated the forces which were sent against them; and at last Marcellus made himself master of Syracuse itself. He took the opportunity of a festival, when the soldiers and citizens had drunk plentifully, to make a detachment scale the walls of Tyche, in that part of it which was nearest to Epipolae, and which was ill guarded. He speedily possessed himself of Epipolae; and the inhabitants of Neapolis, as well as Tyche, then sent deputies to offer their submission. Marcellus granted life and liberty to all of free condition, but gave up those quarters of the city to be plundered. The soldiers had orders to spare the lives of the citizens; but they were cruel in their avarice, slew many of them, and among the rest the incomparable Archimedes. He was very intent on a demonstration in geometry, and calmly drawing his lines, when a soldier entered the room, and applied a sword to his throat. “Hold!" said Archimedes, “one moment, and my demonstration will be finished.” But the soldier, equally regardless of his prayer and his demonstration, instantly put him to death. Of the manner of his death there are different accounts, but all agree that Marcellus regretted it extremely, and showed a singular favour to his relations for his sake.

The city of Syracuse continued subject to the western empire till its declension, when the island of Sicily being ravaged by different barbarians, the capital also underwent various revolutions, till at last, in the ninth century, it was so destroyed by the Saracens that very few traces of its ancient grandeur are now to be seen. The ancient city of Syracuse was of a triangular form, and consisted of five parts or divisions. The circuit, according to Strabo, amounted to 180 stadia, or twenty-two English miles and four furlongs. This account Mr Swinburne once suspected of exaggeration; but after spending two days in tracing the ruins, and making reasonable allowances for the encroachments of the sea, he was convinced of the exactness of Strabo’s measurement.

The modem city is the capital of an intendancy of its own name. It is situated on a noble harbour, with an excellent bottom, and a plentiful supply of fresh water; but though well adapted for a naval station, or for an extended commercial port, it is only visited by a few polaccas or other small coasting vessels. Lord Nelson, when in pursuit of the French expedition in 1798, was here enabled to water and provide his fleet with fresh meat in five days. The city is now fortified, and has a strong citadel. The streets are confined and narrow; the public buildings, though numerous, have little to recommend them. There is a museum and a public library, as well as some private cabinets. The country around, being abundantly irrigated, is highly fertile, produ-[7:21:59] cing wheat, oil, hemp, tobacco, fruits, and several kinds of delicious wines. The antiquities of this, formerly one of the most populous cities of Europe, are very numerous, and call to remembrance some of the most striking events of the history of the ancient world. The lighthouse is in long. 15. 16. 50. E. and lat. 37. 2. 58. N.