Tyrannies and imperialist aspirations
The conquest of Himera formed part of Acragantine strategy to gain regional dominion by expanding along the prominent river valleys toward the northern coast of the island. Gela conversely turned to the east, as the tyrant Hippocrates conquered Zancle, Naxos, and Leontini and then defeated Syracuse in the early fifth century (Hdt. 7.154). No evidence of major destruction remains from these cities, although the main gate of the fortified walls at Leontini was likely rendered unusable during this period. Hippocrates installed client-kings, as suggested by a reference in Pausanias (5.22.7) to a tyrant Aenesidemus of Leontini, who previously was in Hippocrates’ bodyguard (Hdt. 7.154.1). The Geloan tyrant also installed Scythes of Cos as king in Zancle. Scythes’ subordinate position became evident when Anaxilas, the tyrant of Rhegium, captured Zancle around 490 (Hdt. 6.23.1–3). Hippocrates, summoned for help by Scythes, did not assist his ally, but instead punished the king for losing his city and put him in chains. Hippocrates did nothing to help Zancle (Hdt. 6.23.4–5).
Hippocrates’ rise to power in eastern Sicily required a military consisting of far more than the citizen soldiers of Gela, and so the tyrant increased his troop strength and his budget by spending the funds in the coffers of every captured city. The presence of Sicel mercenaries in his army is attested by Polyaenus (5.6.), but the relationship between Gela and her military personnel of native origin remains unclear. Very likely, alliances between Greeks and non-Greek locals allowed the former to pursue power while the latter profited by cooperating.
After the death of Hippocrates in 491, his former cavalry commander, Gelon, continued the expansionist program of Gela by seizing power in Syracuse. Having taken advantage of the Syracusan stasis that led to the expulsion of the Gamoroi (Hdt. 7.155.2), Gelon reinstated the exiles in Syracuse and installed himself as a ruler in 485. These measures did not involve much bloodshed, for the sheer military might of Gela forestalled any Syracusan resistance. As part of his takeover, Gelon transferred the inhabitants of Camarina and part of Gela to Syracuse (Hdt. 7.156.2) and granted citizenship to 10,000 mercenaries of unknown origin (Diod. Sic. 11.72.3). The rapid growth of Syracuse worried the neighboring city of Megara Hyblaea, which tried to oppose Syracusan expansion (Hdt. 7.156.2). Gelon therefore besieged Megara, transported all its elite citizens to Syracuse, and sold the demos into slavery (Thuc. 6.94.1). Archaeological evidence confirms the temporary abandonment of the city in the first half of the fifth century.
Through these massive population transfers, Gelon reshaped Syracusan society and its environment and economy. Elsewhere in Sicily, he and his army played a decisive role in the crucial battle at Himera against the Carthaginians in 480 (see the subsection on Carthage). After returning to Syracuse, he advertised the political and financial implications of this victory by building a series of commemorative temples (Diod. Sic. 11.25).
After Gelon moved his center of power to Syracuse in 485, he left his hometown in the hands of his brother Hieron, who succeeded Gelon as tyrant of Syracuse after his death in 478 (Diod. Sic. 11.38.2). During his reign of nearly 12 years, Hieron consolidated his power by forging alliances with Polyzalus, tyrant of Gela, and Theron, tyrant of Acragas. He, too, reorganized parts of the population, evicting the inhabitants of Catane in 476 and then refounding the settlement (which he gave the new name of Aetna) with settlers from the Peloponnese and Syracuse. The inhabitants of Naxos and Catane were transferred to Leontini (Diod. Sic. 11.49.1). In 472, he subdued Thrasydaeus, son of Theron of Acragas, who had raised an army to challenge Syracusan hegemony (Diod. Sic. 11.53.3–5). After Thrasydaeus was sent into exile, the demos of Acragas took control, and their city became the first in the region to abandon one-man rule, followed by Gela, Himera, and finally Syracuse in 466.
The period after the fall of tyranny in eastern Sicily did not witness large-scale territorial expansion, since the first years were devoted to restoring the exiled populations to their hometowns and to establishing peaceful coexistence. Sicily’s mercenaries, who had challenged the formation of these young democracies, were expelled. This time of detente was disturbed only by Ducetius and his attempt to fill the power vacuum left in the hinterland by the former tyrants. The rivalry between Syracuse and Acragas reemerged when Acragas blamed Syracuse for lax supervision of the exiled leader and declared war (Diod. Sic. 12.8). The subsequent battle at the river Himera, won by Syracuse and her allies, resulted in a peace treaty.
In the last third of the fifth century, the power struggles between eastern Sicilian Greek poleis and Syracuse regained momentum. This time, Leontini led a rebellion against Syracusan hegemony with the support of Camarina, Rhegium, and Athens (Thuc. 3.86), a conflict that quickly involved many neighboring cities of Greek and native origin. In 424, a general Sicilian congress at Gela brought temporary peace through the efforts of Gela and Camarina, two traditional allies who happened to be on different sides in this conflict (Thuc. 4.58, 4.65).
The last quarter of the fifth century and the fourth century featured external threats from Athens and Carthage. Nevertheless, Sicily did not unite. Syracuse continued to strive for control and to secure neighboring agricultural lands for funding her mercenaries. Even after the catastrophic triumph of Carthage in the years between 409 and 406, and the subsequent peace treaty of 405, the Syracusan tyrant Dionysius the Elder tried to reclaim his authority in eastern Sicily. He regained control of Etna, raided the territory of Leontini, and transferred their inhabitants once again to Syracuse (Diod. Sic. 14.14–17). The populations of Catane and Naxos were sold into slavery and their territories distributed among his Sicel and Campanian allies. Dionysius also established mercenary garrisons at Adranon on the slope of Mount Etna (Diod. Sic. 14.37.5) and at Monte Turcisi on the edge of the plain of Catania. After returning from his campaign to Motya in 396, he gave the territory of Leontini to disgruntled mercenaries, transferred new settlers from southern Italy to Messana, and installed Greeks from the Peloponnese in Tyndaris, a new foundation on the northern shore of Sicily (Diod. Sic. 14.68).
In subsequent decades, Sicily fell prey to adventurers of various stripes. Hicetas, a former general of the Syracusan army, conquered Leontini in 341 and used it as a base to wage war against Dionysius the Younger, the successor to the Elder (Plut. Tim. 2.3). He then allied himself with the Carthaginians and besieged Dionysius on the island of Ortygia. The statesman Timoleon from Corinth, summoned by the demos of Syracuse, drove both Hicetas and Dionysius from the city and seized control of their territories (Diod. Sic. 16.68). He then transferred the inhabitants of Leontini to Syracuse and invited new settlers from mainland Greece, who immigrated in considerable numbers (Diod. Sic. 16.82).
In the final decades of the fourth century, the politician and commander Agathocles seized power in Syracuse by a coup. Several thousand aristocratic opponents who were not killed on the spot had to flee, and sought refuge in Messana and Acragas (Diod. Sic. 19.8). This banishment of political opponents spurred two revolutionary movements under the leadership of Dinocrates of Syracuse and Xenodicus of Acragas. Dinocrates, an exiled aristocrat from Syracuse, recruited his own army and aligned with the Carthaginians against Syracuse (Diod. Sic. 19.103). Xenodicus, a general elected by the Acragantines, proclaimed the freedom of Sicilian cities from Syracusan and Carthaginian dominion while secretly promoting his own interests (Diod. Sic. 20.31). Since Xenodicus quickly gained support in Gela, Enna, Herbessus, Leontini, Camarina, and Heraclea Minoa, Agathocles was forced to return from his African campaign against Carthage in 308 (see the subsection on Carthage). He defeated Xenodicus and his allies and regained numerous cities in western and northern Sicily, before returning to Africa (Diod. Sic. 20.56). Dinocrates still held several hilltop sites and recruited an ever-increasing number of soldiers. Only after the peace treaty with Carthage in 306 was Agathocles able to address this threat. Although superior in numbers, Dinocrates and his allies were defeated, and then surrendered on terms, Dinocrates being appointed general in Syracuse (Diod. Sic. 20.89–90).
The death of Agathocles in 289 and the quarrel over his succession led to the emergence of autonomous local powers that included new tyrannical regimes in Syracuse, Acragas, Leontini, and Tauromenium (Diod. Sic. 22.2, 22.8). Some violent conflicts were initiated by Acragas and Syracuse,
