SYRACUSE sĭr’ ə kus (Συράκουσαι, G5352). A successful colony on the E coast of Sicily, founded by Corinth in 734 b.c., Syracuse emerges into the full light of history with the rule of Gelon (540-478 b.c.). Near the end of his reign, Gelon defeated the Carthaginians at Himera (in 480, the year of Salamis); and Syracuse, made thus the most important city of the western Mediterranean after Carthage, entered upon her cent. of imperial splendor and success. Hieron I succeeded Gelon, reigned for ten years, and extended Syracusan influence to adjacent Italy. The catastrophic defeat of Athens’ wanton attack on Syracuse (415-413 b.c.) left the Sicilian city at the height of her military power and glory.

The reign of Dionysius I (430-367) saw the passing of this prestige and the evolution of Syracuse into an undisguised tyranny. Dionysius fell short of his ambition to drive the Carthaginians out of the island, suffered some defeats at their hands, and postponed a direct Carthaginian assault by treaties which must have revealed to the great Phoen. power the developing weakness of Syracuse under an inevitably debilitating tyranny. In art and in other spheres of culture, as in political and international influence, Syracuse was living through a deceptive Indian Summer of greatness, seemingly powerful, but decayed internally by tyranny.

Decline was obvious and precipitous under Dionysius II, whom the great Plato had sought in vain to educate for authority. It was Timoleon (whose dates are uncertain) who restored a measure of constitutional rule, thrust the aggressive Carthaginians back, and introduced new citizens to strengthen the state. One Agathocles, a democratic leader, undid Timoleon’s work and had himself made king. He died in 289 b.c., and his passing marked the beginning of the city’s end. The Romans were becoming involved in Sicily after the middle of the 3rd cent. The island was too important a base for either side to neglect when Rome and Carthage became aware of their confrontation across the narrow waist of the Mediterranean. Struggle ensued between pro-Rom. and pro-Carthaginian parties in the city, and Syracuse together with the whole island became an inevitable battleground. Syracuse, closed by the Carthaginian faction, was captured by the Rom. general, Marcellus, after a fearful siege in which the Syracusan physicist, Archimedes, provided the defenders with sundry pieces of sophisticated artillery. Archimedes died in the grim aftermath of the capture of the city.

From 211 onward, therefore, Syracuse was Rom. It remained the most splendid city in the province, and the seat of the governor’s residence. Augustus sent settlers in 21 b.c. and made the city a colony. It was looted by the invading Franks in a.d. 280. No one knows how Christianity came to Syracuse, but extensive catacombs bear witness to the solidity of its presence. Paul spent three days in Syracuse when the ship of Alexandria, which carried his party, put in en route for Puteoli from Malta (Acts 28:12).