Syracuse played a major role in the downfall of Athens during the Peloponnesian War, when Syracusans totally destroyed an Athenian invasion force in 413 BC. At that time Syracuse was a democracy, and democracy made Syracuse stronger.
Located in the south part of Sicily’s east coast, Syracuse was founded in about 733 BC by ship-borne, Corinthian settlers who subdued the local natives Sicels. According to Plutarch (Greek historian), the archaic Greek colony of Syracuse was founded by the Bacchiad noble, Archias of Corinth.
Soon after the foundation, a city plan was set-up, which continues on to the mainland and connected the early settlement with the contemporary cemetery at Fusco.
It became the basis for the regular urban development of the city over the next century.
The descendants of the first settlers became a ruling class known as the Gamoroi, ‘landholders’, who lived in the city and whose farms occupied the best land of the plain.
The first tyrant was Gelon; the ruler of the nearby Greek city of Gela, who seized Syracuse under pretext of aiding the beleaguered Gamoroi. The regime of the Gamoroi ended in 491 BC. They were expelled from the city by the demos and the Kyllirioi, the Gamoroi’s serf. A democratic regime was established in Syracuse in the course of these events.
Gelon was succeeded by his brother Hiero I, who protected the arts and sciences and died in 467 BC.
The Syracuse became the largest city and most wealthy city in Sicily, and according to Thucydides, possessed a greater population than Athens or any other Grecian city.
The city was besieged, BC 414 by the Athenians; and again, BC 215 by the Romans, under Marcellus and Appius.
Syracuse was the birth place of the great Archimedes (287 BC – c. 212 BC), and the poet Theocritus (3rd century BC).
City of Syracuse, Sicily
