Syracuse, City of Legends

A Glory of Sicily

Jeremy Dummett

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780857730619
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Dubbed 'the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all' by Cicero, Syracuse also boasts the richest history of anywhere in Sicily. Syracuse, City of Legends - the first modern historical guide to the city - explores Syracuse's place within the island and the wider Mediterranean and reveals why it continues to captivate visitors today, more than two and a half millennia after its foundation. For more than 1600 years, from its settlement by Greeks in 733 BC, Syracuse was the leading city in Sicily and at times one of the most powerful in the world. As a Greek city-state it competed with Athens and Carthage and was for a while an important ally of Rome. When Sicily became Rome's first province, Syracuse was the island's capital and was an important centre for early Christianity. Under Byzantine rule, the Emperor Constans II even moved his court to Syracuse for five years. Capture by the Arabs in 878 AD marked the end of ancient Syracuse but the city continued to evolve and during the Spanish era Caravaggio created one of his masterpieces, The Burial of Santa Lucia, in the city. After a devastating earthquake in 1693, a major rebuilding programme gave the city the characteristic Baroque appearance it retains today. Over its long and colourful life, Syracuse has been home to many creative figures, including Archimedes, the greatest mathematician of the ancient world, as well as host to Plato, Scipio Africanus, conqueror of Hannibal, and Caravaggio, who have all contributed to the rich history and atmosphere of this beguiling and distinctive Sicilian city. Generously illustrated, Syracuse, City of Legends also offers detailed descriptions of the principal monuments from each period in the city's life, explaining their physical location as well as their historical context. This vivid and engaging history weaves together the history, architecture and archaeology of Syracuse and will be an invaluable companion for anyone visiting the city as well as a compelling introduction to its ancient and modern history.

 

PART I

The Story of Syracuse

From Greek City State to Modern Times

CHAPTER 1

Foundation and the Rule of Gelon and Hiero I

The story of Syracuse begins in the era of ancient Greek myths and legends when famous heroes fought epic battles, strange creatures inhabited the earth and the gods intervened regularly in human affairs. Archaeological evidence from Pantalica, the prehistoric site just inland from Syracuse, shows human activity dating back to the thirteenth century BC, while the site of Syracuse itself was inhabited from the ninth or the tenth century. From the first half of the eighth century the Greeks and the Phoenicians were sailing around the coasts of Sicily on trading missions. Settlers followed the merchant explorers, spurred on by overcrowding and unrest at home, and eager to establish new communities on the island. Sicily was a mysterious place, unknown in the civilised world. In The Odyssey, composed around this time, Odysseus describes an island just off the mainland where he and his men make camp before encountering the Cyclops:

Not very far from the harbour on their coast, and not so near either, there lies a luxuriant island, covered with woods, which is the home of innumerable goats . . . Used neither for grazing nor for ploughing, it lies for ever unsown and untilled . . . For it is by no means a poor country, but capable of yielding any crop in due season. Along the shore of the grey sea there are soft water-meadows where the vine would never wither; and there is plenty of land level enough for the plough . . . for the soil below the surface is exceedingly rich. Also it has a safe harbour in which there is no occasion to tie up at all. Finally at the head of the harbour there is a stream of fresh water running out of a cave in a grove of poplar trees.¹

This seems very like a description of Sicily and the harbour at Syracuse, possibly recounted to Homer by sailors back from their travels, for whom it must have seemed a magical place. Originally known as Trinacria for its triangular shape, Sicily later took its name from the local inhabitants, the Sicels.

Among the legends is that after the fall of Troy a number of Trojans made their way to Sicily to found a new city. One of the most imaginative is the story of Daedalus, the craftsman, inventor and architect of the Labyrinth, who escaped from Crete with his son, Icarus, using wings made with wax. Icarus, ignoring his father’s warning, flew too close to the sun, melted his wings and was drowned, while Daedalus, cooling his wings in the sea as he went, arrived safely in Sicily. Here he was welcomed by King Kokalos of the Sicans, for whom he put his talents to work. Minos, the Cretan king, arrived in due course in Sicily and demanded the surrender of Daedalus, but he was tricked by Kokalos and killed. Daedalus remained in Sicily practising his craftsmanship, making among other things a golden honeycomb dedicated to Aphrodite of Eryx.

Syracuse has her share of these ancient legends, of which there are many different versions, one of the most famous being the origin of the fountain of Arethusa. The early settlers in Ortygia were delighted to find a freshwater spring close to the sea and built a wall around it. The legend concerned the beautiful nymph Arethusa, of Arcadia in Greece, who bathed in the river Alpheus. The river god fell in love with her, and to escape him, the goddess Artemis transformed Arethusa into a freshwater spring and made a tunnel under the sea from Greece to Sicily. Arethusa emerged in Ortygia, and where her spring bubbled up, this became a place sacred to Artemis. Alpheus pursued her down the tunnel to Ortygia where his water joined the spring.

Another famous legend concerns the source of the Ciane River, situated just inland on the far side of the harbour, noted for the papyrus that grows there. Ciane was a nymph and childhood friend of Persephone, the daughter of the goddess Demeter. While wandering in the Sicilian countryside near Enna, Persephone was carried away by Hades, king of the underworld, in his chariot drawn by black horses. They travelled to the shores of the harbour where Hades struck the ground with his trident, opening up the earth and disappearing into the underworld with Persephone. Ciane was so overcome by grief that she died crying, and her tears turned into a spring on the spot where Persephone disappeared. Persephone became the queen of the underworld, where she was forced to spend half the year, becoming associated with the growth of plants and their rebirth each year, as goddess of Spring. The cult of Demeter and Persephone became of great importance to Sicily. Persephone was known as Kore, the maiden; Demeter was the goddess of the earth and of agricultural produce, such as corn, which was vital to the island’s prosperity. Sicily became known as Persephone’s Island, given to her by Zeus on her marriage to Hades.

These myths were central to the lives of Syracusans, who built several sanctuaries in honour of Demeter and Persephone/Kore. The Ciane Spring, in the pool at the head of the river, became a sacred place where an annual festival took place. Arethusa became a symbol of Syracuse, and her head and that of Persephone’s appeared on the coins of the city.

The founding of Syracuse

Syracuse was founded in about 733 BC by Corinthians led by Archias. Strabo, the Greek geographer writing around 20 AD, described the event as follows:

Syracuse was founded by Archias, who sailed from Corinth, about the same time that Naxos and Megara were colonised. It is said that Archias went to Delphi at the same time as Myscellus, and when they were consulting the oracle, the god asked them whether they chose wealth or health; now Archias chose wealth and Myscellus health; accordingly the god granted to the former to found Syracuse and to the latter, Croton. And it actually came to pass that the Crotoniates took up their abode in a city that was exceedingly healthy . . . and that Syracuse fell into such exceptional wealth that the name of the Syracusans was spread abroad in a proverb applied to the excessively extravagant – ‘the tithe of the Syracusans would not be sufficient for them’.²

Archias came from the ruling Heraclid family in Corinth from where he went into voluntary exile after an incident involving the death of a handsome youth whom he had coveted. He left for Sicily with a group of volunteers, landing originally near the mouth of the Anapo River on the Great Harbour. The site appealed to the Corinthians for its outstanding natural advantages – safe harbours, freshwater springs, a strong defensive position and nearby land for cultivation – while the two harbours separated by the island were reminiscent of Corinth’s own position on the isthmus connecting the Peloponnese to mainland Greece. Having subdued the native inhabitants, the Sicels, with whom they intermarried and also used as slaves, the Corinthians established themselves on the island, which became known as Ortygia, from ortyx, the Greek word for quail. The new settlement was dedicated to Artemis, goddess and twin sister of Apollo, who was also a huntress associated with wild animals and birds. But the city took her name, Syrakousai, from the marshland on the edge of the harbour, known as Syraco. Led by Archias, the Corinthians set about developing the settlement with the help of Sicel labour and architects from Corinth. Archias, who became the father of two daughters, was later killed by Telephus, a companion and commander of one of the ships.

The Greek colonisation of Sicily took off in this period with a number of cities being founded by settlers from different parts of Greece. The first was Naxos, on the east coast below Taormina in 734, founded by Thucles of Chalcis in Euboea. Syracuse was the second, in the following year. The Chaldicians went on to found Leontini and Catana, also on the east coast. Megara Hyblaea was established, just north of Syracuse, by men from Megara in mainland Greece. In 688, settlers from Crete and Rhodes founded Gela, on the south coast. Zancle, so-called for its sickle-shaped bay, later to be known as Messana, was settled by a mixed group from Chalcis and Cumae.

The Greek settlers thrived in their new environment, and their cities grew rapidly in size and prosperity. Sicily at the time was a wooded island with navigable rivers and a fertile plain along the east coast enriched by volcanic lava from Mount Etna. These conditions were a welcome change after the difficulty of producing food from the rocky hillsides in mainland Greece. The sea along the coast teemed with all kinds of fish including huge tuna, sword-fish and sea bream. Before long the Greeks had an abundance of high-quality produce for their own consumption and for export: wheat, cheese, salt fish, olive oil, wine, honey, fruit and vegetables. Sicily acted as a magnet to settlers, the America of the ancient world, and like America, the island offered opportunities to acquire land and create wealth. The open environment encouraged ambitious and unscrupulous men to carve out their careers in Sicily, far from the more controlled city states in mainland Greece.

So successful were the early settlements that within a hundred years they founded new cities across Sicily. Syracuse first expanded from her original base in Ortygia onto the mainland, connected by a bridge. To protect her borders, two outposts were established down the coast, at Helorus and Neaiton (Noto). Next she founded three cities in the hinterland of eastern Sicily: Akrai (Palazzolo Acreide) in 664, Kasmenai in 644 and Kamarina on the south coast in 599. Three major cities of the future were also founded in this period: Selinus, on the south coast, from Megara Hyblaea, and Himera, on the north coast, from Zancle and Syracuse, both around 650; and Akragas, which became the only real rival to Syracuse, from Gela, in 580. By the sixth century, thanks to the thriving trade in agricultural produce, these cities had attained a high degree of prosperity.

Each new community had a mother-city in Greece, which had contributed to its foundation and with which there was frequent communication. Corinth, as the mother-city of Syracuse, would play an important part in her future, particularly at times of crisis. These connections were a source of strength to the individual cities but of instability to the island as a whole, for the rivalries between cities in Greece would be acted out by their protégées in Sicily. This would reach a peak during the Peloponnesian War with the split between Ionian and Doric cities, those under Athenian as opposed to Spartan influence. Thucydides deplored the way Greek cities tore each other apart, noting that the danger point was when revenge became more important than self-preservation. These communities, which worshipped the Olympian gods whose cults were brought from the mother-cities, were not so much colonies as new cities in their own right. For the motivation of the settlers was the desire to make a new life in Sicily and they built for the long term, as their temples still demonstrate. It was said that the Sicilian Greeks built as if they would live forever and ate as if they would die tomorrow.³

The Greeks in Sicily did not have it all their own way, for the origins of Sicily are multi-ethnic. They found three tribes established on the island, the Sicans in the west, the Elymians in the north-west and the Sicels in the east. The combined population of these tribes was small and was quickly overtaken by the growing Greek communities. In the east, the Greeks rapidly absorbed the Sicel lands along the coast, while the Sicels established themselves inland. In the west, the process was slower as local tribes showed greater resistance. More important for the future were the Phoenicians who had established settlements in Panormus (Palermo) and Soluntum on the north coast, and on Motya, an island off the west coast. The Phoenicians from their bases in North Africa were early explorers and traders and are credited with the first use of pitch to seal their ships, thus enabling longer voyages. In the early days their settlements traded regularly with the Greek cities. But the rise of a new power centre, Carthage, originally a Phoenician settlement in Tunisia, would change all this and provide a new, lethal enemy of the Greek cities in Sicily.

Carthage grew rapidly on the back of the Phoenician civilisation, absorbing its maritime and trading skills as well as its outposts in the Mediterranean. Drawing upon the lands in North Africa, the city had huge reserves of manpower and established the cultivation necessary to feed her growing population. Mercenaries, craftsmen, merchants and sailors were all attracted to the boom town which developed as a strong commercial and maritime centre, dealing regularly with Spain, Italy and Greece. A prosperous commercial life went hand in hand with a backward religious mentality, and society was overshadowed by a powerful religion from her prehistoric past, which practised frightening forms of worship. Human sacrifice was a regular occurrence, a practice confirmed by archaeological evidence from Motya. Diodorus refers to the custom of leading families sacrificing their babies to the gods Baal and Tanit, 200 at a time. Carthage developed a strong military tradition, building a powerful army and navy and her commanders gained a fearsome reputation, employing bold and unorthodox tactics on the battlefield. This new power was situated only 150 kilometres from the west coast of Sicily, and having absorbed the Phoenician strong-posts of Panormus and Motya, would before long try her strength against the Greeks in the island.

Syracuse in the fifth century BC.

Gelon: the first great tyrant of Syracuse

Syracuse emerged as the most powerful of the Greek cities with the arrival of Gelon as tyrant in 485. Gelon’s family came originally from Rhodes and held a hereditary right to priesthood, linked to the cult of Demeter. He was the eldest of the four sons of Deinomenes, and as a young man had shown himself to be a brave and expert horseman, described by Herodotus as riding like a flame through the ranks of his enemies. He rose to be cavalry commander to Hippocrates, ruler of Gela. By this time the Greek cities in Sicily had grown to the extent that they were challenging each other for territory. Gela, on the south coast, became the dominant power in the region and few cities were able to resist her. Syracuse suffered a major defeat at the hands of Hippocrates and Gelon at Helorus, and at the peace brokered by Corinth, Syracuse was forced to give up Kamarina to Gela. In 488 Gelon proved his horsemanship by winning the chariot race at the Olympic Games in Greece.

The Greek cities had initially followed the example of the motherland in establishing political regimes led by small groups of wealthy aristocratic families and landowners, descendants of the original settlers. But the growth in population and wealth brought increasing unrest and conflict both between different factions of the ruling families and between the common people and the rulers. These power struggles created the environment in which a leader could take control, in the first instance by being appointed Strategos Autokrator, General with Supreme Power. This was a legal position, intended to give a co...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Author biography
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Dedication page
• Prologue
• PART I The Story of Syracuse: From Greek City State to Modern Times
• 1. Foundation and the Rule of Gelon and Hiero I
• 2. The Athenian Expedition to Sicily
• 3. Dionysius I: Tyrant and Warlord
• 4. Five More Tyrants
• 5. Hiero II and the Roman Siege
• 6. Cicero and the Rise of Rome
• 7. Santa Lucia and the Early Christians
• 8. Byzantium and the Arab Siege
• 9. Outline to 1945
• 10. Modern Syracuse
• PART II The Principal Monuments: A Commentary
• 11. The Greek Era
• 12. The Roman Era
• 13. The Early Christian Era
• 14. Baroque Syracuse
• 15. Other Important Monuments
• Notes
• Further Reading
• Bibliography
• Chronological Table
• Glossary