Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/469

HIERON. entitled the Hieron (Xen. 0pp. tom.v, ed. Schnei- der), but, from the advice there putjnto the mouth of the philosopher, as well as from the hints inter- spersed by Pindar, in the midst of his praises and flatteries, we may gather that there was much to disapprove of in the conduct of Hieron towards his subjects and dependants. (See Boeckh, ad Pind. Fyth. i. 81 — 88.) His love of magnificence was especially displayed, as was the custom of the day, in the great contests of the Grecian games, and his victories at Olympia and Delphi have been immortalised by Pindar. He also sent, in imitation of his brother Gelon, splendid offerings to the sanctuary at Delphi. (Paus. vi. 12. § 1; Athen. vi. p. 231, 232.) We are told that Hieron was afflicted during the latter years of his life by the stone, and that painful malady was probably the cause of his death, which took place at Catana, in the twelfth year of his reign, B.C. 467. (Schol. ad Pind. 01. i. 1, Pyih. i. 89, iii. 1 ; Plut. de Prjth. Orac. 19 ; Diod. xi. 38, 66.) Aristotle, indeed, says that he reigned only ten years {Pol. v. 12), but the dates of Dio- dorns, which are consistent Avith one another, are confirmed by the scholiast on Pindar, and have been justly preferred by Clinton {F. H. vol. ii. p. 38, 267). He was interred with much pomp at Catana, and obtained heroic honours as the new founder of that city, but his tomb was subsequently destroyed by the old inhabitants, when they re- turned thither, after the expulsion of the Aetnaean colonists. (Diod. xi. 66 ; Strab. vi. p. 268.) He had one son, Deinomenes, by his first wife, a daughter of Nicocles, a Syracusan : by his subse- quent marriage with the sister of Theron already mentioned he left no issue. (Schol. ad Piwl. Pylh. i. 112.) The scholiast here calls her the cousin (aveif/ia) of Theron, but she is elsewhere repeatedly- termed his sister [ad 01. ii. 29, 37). [E, H. B.] HIERON II., king of Syracuse, was the son of Hierocles, a Syracusan of illustrious birth, who claimed descent from the great Gelon, the victor at Himera. He was however illegitimate, being the offspring of a female servant, in consequence of which it is said that he was exposed as an infant, but that some omens prophetic of his future great- ness caused his father to relent, and bring him up with care and attention. (Justin, xxiii. 4 ; Zonar. viii. 6.) The year of his birth cannot be fixed with certainty, but it must have takc^n place bpfore B. c. 306 ; hence he was at least thirty years old when the departure of Pyrrhns from Sicily (b.c. 275) left the Syracusans without a leader. Hieron had already distinguished himself in the wars of that monarch, and had acquired so much favour with the soldiery, that the Syracusan army, on oc- casion of some dispute with the people of the city, appointed him, together with Artemidorns, to be their general ; and he had the skill and address to procure the ratification of his command from the people, and conciliate the affections of the mul- titude as effectually as he had those of the soldiers. But his ambition did not stop here. By his mar- riage with the daughter of Leptines, at that time unquestionably the most distinguished and influ- ential citizen at Syracuse, he secured for himself the most powerful support in the councils of the republic. But he felt that he could not rely on the anny of mercenaries, which, though they had been the first to raise him to power, he well knew to be fickle and treacherous ; he therefore took an HIERON. 456 opportunity during the war Avith the Mamertinea (who, after the departure of P^-rrhus, had attacked the Syracusans), to abandon these troops to the enemy, by whom they were almost all cut to pieces, while Hieron, with the Syracusan citizens, who had kept aloof from the combat, eflfected in safety his retreat to Syracuse. Here he immediately proceeded to levy a new army, and as soon as he had organised these troops, marched forth to chas- tise the Mamertines, who were naturally elated with their victory. He soon drove them out of all the territory they had conquered, took the cities of Mylae and Alaesa, while those of Tyndaris, Aba- caenum, and Tauromenium, declared in his favour. The Mamertines, thus hemmed in in a corner of the island, ventured on a pitched battle at the river Longanus, but were totally defeated, their leader, Cios, taken prisoner, and Messana itself would have probably fiillen into the hands of Hieron, had not the intervention of the Carthagi- nians prevailed on him to grant a peace to his humbled enemies. On his return from this glorious expedition, Hieron was saluted by his fellow- citizens with the title of king, b. c. 270. (Polyb. i. 8, 9 ; Diod. Exc. Iloesch. xxii. p. 499, 500.) The chronology of these events is not very clear (see Paus. vi. 12. § 2 ; Clinton, F. H. vol. ii. p. 267 ; iindi Droy sen, Hellenism, vol. ii. p. 268, not. but if the date above assigned for the commence- ment of the reign of Hieron be correct, it was in the year preceding his elevation to the royal dig- nity (b. c. 272), that he assisted the Romans during the siege of Rhegium with supplies of corn, as well as with an auxiliary force. (Zonar. viii. 6.) We know nothing more of his proceedings from this time until the year 264, nor can we clearly discover the relations in which he stood, either towards Carthage or Rome ; it is said indeed that the assistance furnished by him to the latter had given umbrage to the Carthaginians (Dion Cass. Fraff. Vat. 57 ; Zonar. viii. 6), and rendered them unfavourable to Hieron, but this disposition did not break out into actual hostilities. His great object seems still to have been the complete ex- pulsion of the Mamertines from Sicily ; and when, in 264, the Romans for the first time interposed in favour of that people, his indignation at their in- terference led him to throw himself at once into the arms of the Carthaginians, with whom he con- cluded an alliance, and united his forces with those of Hanno, who had just arrived in Sicily, at the head of a large army. [Hanno, No. 8.] With their combined forces they proceeded to lay siege to Messana both by sea and land, but they failed in preventing the Roman consul, Appius Claudius, from crossing the straits with his army. He landed near the Syracusan camp, and Hieron gave him battle the next day, but met with a partial defeat; and, alarmed at the aspect of affairs, and mistrust- ing the faith of his allies, suddenly withdrew with all his forces to Syracuse. Thither, after some interval, Claudius followed him, and ravaged the open country up to the very walls, but was unable to effect any thing against the city itself, and was compelled by the breaking out of a pestilential dis- order in his army to retreat. The next year (b. c. 263) hostilities were renewed by the Romans, and the consuls, Otacilius and Valerius, not only laid waste the Syracusan territory, but took many of their smaller and dependent towns ; and Hieron, finding himself unable to cope single-handed with (i G 4