popular outbreak and more bloodshed ; the conspirators were put to death and Hiero's family was murdered; whilst the Carthaginian faction, under the pretence of delivering the city from its tyrants, got the upper hand and drew the citizens into open defiance of Rome. M. Claudius Marcellus was then in command of the Roman army in Sicily, and he threatened the Syracusans with attack unless they would get rid of Epicydes and Hippocrates, the heads of the anti-Roman faction. Epicydes did his best to stir up the citizens of Leontini against Rome and the Roman party at Syracuse. Marcellus, therefore struck his first blow at Leontini, which was quickly stormed; and the tale of the horrors of the sack was at once carried to Syracuse and roused the anger of its population, who could not but sympathize with their near neighbours, Greeks like themselves. The general feeling was now against any negotiations with the Roman general, and, putting themselves under Epicydes and Hippocrates, they closed their gates on him. Marcellus, after an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate, began the siege in regular form (214 B.C.) by both land and sea, establishing a camp on Polichne, where stood the old temple of Olympian Zeus ; but he made his chief assault on the northern side and on the defences of Tyche, particularly at the Hexapylum, the entrance facing Megara and Leontini. His assault seawards was made mainly on Achradina,[1] but the city was defended by a numerous soldiery and by what seem to have been still more formidable, the ingenious contrivances of Archimedes, whose engines dealt havoc among the Roman ships, and frustrated the attack on the fortifications on the northern slopes of Epipolae (Liv., xxiv. 34). Marcellus had recourse to a blockade, but Carthaginian vessels from time to time contrived to throw in supplies. At length treachery began to work within. Information was given him in the spring of 212 (two years from the commencement of the siege) that the Syracusans were celebrating a great festival to Artemis; making use of this opportunity, he forced the Hexapylum entrance by night and established himself in Tyche and on the heights of Epipolae. The strong fortress of Euryalus held out for a time, but, being now isolated, it soon had to surrender. The “outer” and the “inner city” of Thucydides still held out, whilst a Carthaginian fleet was moored off Achradina and Carthaginian troops were encamped on the spot. But a pestilence broke out in the autumn of 212, which swept them clean away, and thinned the Roman ranks. The ships sailed away to Carthage; on their way back to Syracuse with supplies they could not get beyond Cape Pachynus owing to adverse winds, and they were confronted by a Roman fleet. All hope for the city being now at an end, the Syracusans threw themselves on the mercy of Marcellus; but Achradina and the island still held out for a brief space under the Syracusan mercenaries, till one of their officers, a Spaniard, betrayed the latter position to the enemy, and at the same time Achradina was carried and taken. Marcellus gave the city up to plunder (Liv., xxv. 31), and the art treasures in which it was so rich—many of the choicest of them no doubt—were conveyed to Rome. From this time art seems to have become quite fashionable in certain Roman circles. Archimedes perished in the confusion of the sack, while he was calmly pursuing his studies (Liv., xxv. 31).
Syracuse was now simply one of the provincial cities of Rome's empire, and its history is henceforward merged in that of Sicily. It retained much of its Greek character and many of its finest public buildings, even after the havoc wrought by Marcellus. Its importance and historic associations naturally marked it out as the residence of the Roman praetor or governor of Sicily. Cicero often speaks of it as a particularly splendid and beautiful city, as still in his own day the seat of art and culture 3 (Tusc., v. 66 ; De Deor. nat., iii. 81 ; De rep. i. 21), and in his speeches against Verres (iv. 52, 53) he gives an elaborate description of its four quarters (Achradina, Neapolis, Tyche, the island).
It seems to have suffered in the civil wars at the hands of Sextus Pompeius, the son of the triumvir, who for a short time was master of Sicily ; to repair the mischief, new settlers were sent by Augustus in 21 B.C., and established in the island and in the immediately adjoining part of Achradina (Strabo, vi. 270).
It was he who probably constructed the amphitheatre. Tacitus, in a passing mention of it (Ann. xiii. 49), says that permission was granted to the Syracusans under Nero to exceed the pre-scribed number of gladiators in their shows. Caligula restored its decayed walls and some of its famous temples (Suetonius, Calig. 21). In the 4th century it is named by the poet Ausonius in his Ordo nobilium urbium, chiefly, perhaps, on the strength of its historic memories. In 665 Heraclius Constans fixed his capital here, but owing to his oppressive government was assassinated in 668. Syracuse has been a place of comparatively little importance since the year 878, when it was destroyed by the Saracens under Ibrahim ibn Ahmad.
Archaeology.—The medieval and modern town of Syracuse (with the exception of a new quarter which has sprung up since the construction of the railway between the station and the island) is confined to the island. This contains the remains of two Doric temples. The older, belonging probably to the beginning of the 6th century B.C., appears, from an inscription on the uppermost step, to have been dedicated to Apollo. It was a peripteral hexastyle, and must have had at least nineteen columns at the sides; the portion excavated shows that its total width is 74¼ ft., the width of the cella 38½ ft., the lower diameter of the columns 6¼ ft. The other temple, into which the cathedral was built in A.D. 640, is to be dated after 440 B.C. It was a peripteral hexastyle of thirty-six columns, with a total length of 160½ ft. and a total breadth of 72 ft.; the columns have a lower diameter' of 5¾ ft., and the inter-columniation is 13½ ft. It is generally regarded as the temple of Athena.
Near the west coast of the island is the famous fountain of Arethusa.[2] According to the legend, the nymph Arethusa was changed into the fountain by Artemis to deliver her from the pursuit of the river-god Alpheus (q.v.); and the spring, which was fresh until an earthquake broke the barrier and let in the salt water, was supposed to be actually connected with the river. There are interesting remains of medieval architecture in the closely built town with its narrow streets; the beautiful 14th-century windows of the Palazzo Montalto may be especially noticed, and also the 13th-century Castello Mainace at the southern extremity of the island. The town also contains the archaeological museum, which, under the direction of Professor Orsi, is now the best arranged in the island. The discoveries of recent years in the south-eastern portion of Sicily, including especially the objects found in Sicel and Greek cemeteries, may be studied here. The isthmus connecting the island with the mainland, which was defended by strong fortifications erected by Charles V. and Philip II. (now demolished), does not occupy the site of the mole erected in the 6th or 7th century B.C., which may be recognized as having run due north from the north point of the island to the mainland near the ferry of S. Lucia.[3] The Little Harbour was thus in origin merely a recess of the Great Harbour; and it was probably Gelo who was responsible for making it an independent port, by establishing the crossing to the island in its present position. On the land-ward side of the new isthmus was the Agora, in which remains of a colonnade of the Roman period have been found.[4] To the west are the remains of an extensive building of the Roman period, probably a palaestra with a small Odeum attached. To the W.N.W. is the so-called Piano del Fusco, an extensive necropolis, in which over six hundred tombs, mostly of the 7th and 6th centuries B.C., have been found.4 This necropolis was included within the defensive wall of Dionysius, a portion of which, no less than 182 ft. thick, was found in 1886 running diagonally across the new cemetery, and in 1903 an outwork in front of it was discovered (P. Orsi, in Notizie degli scavi, 1903, 517). East of this point it probably followed the edge
- ↑ This statement made by Polybius (viii. 5) is almost incredible. Livy's account of the siege, too, is full of topographical difficulties (Lupus, 214 sqq.)
- ↑ The name is a widespread Greek name for a spring.
- ↑ Lupus, Topographie von Syraleus, 26, 88, 91. Near the ferry are a row of long parallel cuttings in the rock, which must be remains of the ancient docks, each being intended to take a ship.
- ↑ It is remarkable that hardly any tombs of the 5th century B.C. have come to light.
