Mosaics of Grecian History Part 41

CHAPTER XIV.

THE SICILIAN GREEKS.

Before proceeding to the history of the downfall of Greece, and her subjugation by a foreign power--a result that soon followed the events just narrated--we turn aside to notice the affairs of the Sicilian Greeks, as more especially presented in the history of Syracuse, in all respects the strongest and most prominent of the Sicilian cities.

HIERO.

On the death of Ge'lon, despot of Syracuse, a year after the battle of Him'era, the government fell into the hands of his brother Hi'ero, a man of great energy and determination. He founded the city of aetna, of which PINDAR says:

That city, founded strong In liberty divine, Measured by the Spartan line, Has Hiero 'stablish'd for his heritage; To whose firm-planted colony belong Their mother-country's laws, From many a distant age.

He also added many cities to his government, and his power was not inferior to that of Gelon. The city of Cu'mae, on the Italian coast, being hara.s.sed by the Carthaginians, the aid of Hiero was solicited by its citizens, and he sent a fleet which severely defeated and almost destroyed the squadron of their enemies.

Says PINDAR of this event:

That leader of the Syracusan host, With gallies swiftly-rushing, them pursued; And they his onset rued, When on the c.u.man coast He dashed their youth in gulfy waves below, And rescued Greece from heavy servitude.

Hiero was likewise a liberal patron of literature and the arts, inviting to his court many of the eminent poets and philosophers of his time, including Pindar, Simon'ides, Epichar'mus, aes'chylus, and others; but his many great and n.o.ble qualities were alloyed by insatiable cupidity and ambition, and he became noted for "his cruel and rapacious government, and as the organizer of that systematic espionage which broke up all freedom of speech among his subjects." Although the eminent men who visited his court have much to say in praise of Hiero, Pindar, especially, was too honest and independent to ignore his faults. As GROTE says, "Pindar's indirect admonitions and hints sufficiently attest the real character of Hiero." Of these, the following lines from the Pythian ode may be taken as a sample:

The lightest word that falls from thee, O King!

Becomes a mighty and momentous thing: O'er many placed as arbiter on high, Many thy goings watchful see.

Thy ways on every side A host of faithful witnesses descry; Then let thy liberal temper be thy guide.

If ever to thine ear Fame's softest whisper yet was dear, Stint not thy bounty's flowing tide: Stand at the helm of state; full to the gale Spread thy wind-gathering sail.

Friend! let not plausive avarice spread Its lures, to tempt thee from the path of fame: For know, the glory of a name Follows the mighty dead.

--Trans. by ELTON.

Hiero was succeeded on his death, in 467 B.C., by his brother Thrasybu'lus; but the latter's tyranny caused a popular revolt, and after being defeated in a battle with his subjects he was expelled from the country. His expulsion was followed by the extinction of the Gelonian dynasty at Syracuse, and the inst.i.tution of a popular government there and in other Sicilian cities. These free governments, however, gave rise to internal revolts and wars that continued many months; and finally a general congress of the different cities was held, which succeeded in adjusting the difficulties that had disturbed the peace of all Sicily.

The various cities now became independent--though it is probable that the governments of all of them continued to be more or less disturbed--and were soon distinguished for their material and intellectual prosperity. Syracuse maintained herself as the first city in power; and in this condition of prosperity the Sicilian cities were found at the breaking out of the Peloponnesian war.

DIONYESIUS THE ELDER.

Of the Athenian league and expedition against Syracuse we have already given some account. Soon after the termination of this contest the Const.i.tution of Syracuse was rendered still more democratic by the adoption of a new code of laws, prepared by Di'ocles, an eminent citizen, who became the director of the government. But the Carthaginians now again invaded Sicily, and established themselves over its entire western half. Taking advantage of the popular alarm at these aggressions, and of the ill success of Diocles and the Syracusan generals in opposing them, Diony'sius the Elder, then a young man, of low birth, but brave, determined, and talented, having been raised by popular favor to the generalship of the Syracusan army, subsequently made himself despot of the city (405 B.C.). Dionysius ruled vigorously, but with extreme tyranny, for thirty-eight years.

By the year 384 he had extended his power over nearly all Sicily and a part of Magna Grecia, and under his sway Syracuse became one of the most powerful empires on earth. PLUTARCH relates that Dionysius boasted that he bequeathed to his son an empire "fastened by chains of adamant." Like Hiero, Dionysius was a lover of literature, and sought to gain distinction by his poetical compositions, some of which won prizes at Athens. He also invited Plato to his court; but the philosopher's moral conversations were distasteful to the tyrant, who finally sold him into slavery, from which he was redeemed by a friend.

It was during the reign of Dionysius the Elder that occurred that memorable incident in the lives of Damon and Pythias by which Dionysius himself is best remembered, and which has pa.s.sed into history as ill.u.s.trative of the truest and n.o.blest friendship.

Damon and Pythias were distinguished Syracusans, and both were Pythagore'ans. Pythias, a strong republican, having been seized for calling Dionysius a tyrant, and being condemned to death for attempting to stab him, requested a brief respite in order to arrange his affairs, promising to procure a friend to take his place and suffer death if he should not return. Damon gave himself up as surety, and Pythias was allowed to depart. Just as Damon was about to be led to execution, Pythias, who had been detained by unforeseen circ.u.mstances, returned to accept his fate and save his friend. Dionysius was so struck by these proofs of virtue and magnanimity on the part of the two friends that he set both of them free, and requested to be admitted into their friendship. The subject has been repeatedly dramatized, and has formed the theme of numerous separate poems. Schiller has a ballad on the subject; but he amplifies the incidents of the original story, and subst.i.tutes other names in place of Damon and Pythias.

The following are the first three and the last three verses from SCHILLER:

The Hostage.

The tyrant Di'onys to seek, Stern Moe'rus with his poniard crept; The watchful guards upon him swept; The grim King marked his changeless cheek: "What wouldst thou with thy poniard? Speak!"

"The city from the tyrant free!"

"The death-cross shall thy guerdon be."

"I am prepared for death, nor pray,"

Replied that haughty man, "to live; Enough if thou one grace wilt give: For three brief suns the death delay, To wed my sister--leagues away; I boast one friend whose life for mine, If I should fail the cross, is thine."

The tyrant mused, and smiled, and said, With gloomy craft, "So let it be; Three days I will vouchsafe to thee.

But mark--if, when the time be sped, Thou fail'st, thy surety dies instead.

His life shall buy thine own release; Thy guilt atoned, my wrath shall cease."

The sun sinks down--the gate's in view, The cross looms dismal on the ground-- The eager crowd gape murmuring round.

His friend is bound the cross unto.

Crowd--guards--all--bursts he through; "Me! Doomsman, me," he shouts, "alone!

His life is rescued--lo, mine own!"

Amazement seized the circling ring!

Linked in each other's arms the pair-- Weeping for joy, yet anguish there!

Moist every eye that gazed: they bring The wondrous tidings to the King-- His breast man's heart at last hath known, And the Friends stand before his throne.

Long silent he, and wondering long, Gazed on the pair. "In peace depart, Victors, ye have subdued my heart!

Truth is no dream! its power is strong.

Give grace to him who owns his wrong!

'Tis mine your suppliant now to be: Ah, let the band of Love--be THREE!"

--Trans. by BULWER.

Dionysius the Younger succeeded to the government of Syracuse in 367, but he was incompetent to the task; and his tyranny and debauchery brought about his temporary overthrow, ten years later, by Dion, his father's brother-in-law. Dion had enjoyed unusual favors under Dionysius the Elder, and was now a man of wealth and high position, as well as of great energy and marked mental capacities. For his talents he was largely indebted to Plato, under whose teachings he became imbued "with that sense of regulated polity, and submission of individual will to fixed laws, which floated in the atmosphere of Grecian talk and literature, and stood so high in Grecian morality." In one of his letters Plato says, "When I explained the principles of philosophy and humanity to Dion, I little thought that I was insensibly opening a way to the subversion of tyranny!"

Long before the death of Dionysius the Elder, Dion had conceived the idea of liberating Syracuse from despotism and establishing an improved const.i.tutional policy, originated by himself; and, on becoming the chief adviser of the young Dionysius, he tried to convince the latter of the necessity of reforming himself and his government. Although at first favorably impressed with the plans of Dion, the young monarch subsequently became jealous of his adviser and expelled him from the country. Gathering a few troops from various quarters, Dion returned to Sicily ten years after, and, aided by a revolt in Syracuse, he soon made himself master of the city. Dionysius had meanwhile retired to Ortyg'ia, and soon left Sicily for Italy. But the success of Dion was short-lived. "Too good for a despot, and yet unfit for a popular leader, he could not remain long in the precarious position he occupied." Both his dictatorship and his life came to an end in 354. He became the victim of a conspiracy originating with his most intimate friend, and was a.s.sa.s.sinated in his own dwelling.

Dionysius soon after returned to Syracuse, from the government of which he was finally expelled by Timo'leon, a Corinthian, who had been sent from Corinth, at the request of some exiled Syracusans, to the relief of their native city (343 B.C.). Timoleon made himself master of the almost deserted Syracuse, restored it to some degree of its former glory, checked the aspiring power of Carthage by defeating one of its largest armies, crushed the petty despots of Sicily, and restored nearly the whole island to a state of liberty and order. The restoration of liberty to Syracuse by Timoleon was followed by many years of unexampled prosperity. Having achieved the purpose with which he left Corinth, Timoleon at once resigned his command and became a private citizen of Syracuse. But he became the adviser of the Syracusans in their government, and the arbitrator of their differences, enjoying to a good age "what Xenophon calls 'that good, not human, but divine command over willing men, given manifestly to persons of genuine and highly-trained temperance of character.'"

HIERO II.

In 317, Agath'ocles, a bold adventurer of Syracuse, usurped its authority by the murder of several thousand citizens, and for twenty-eight years maintained his power, extending his dominion over a large portion of Sicily, and even gaining successes in Africa. After his death, in 289, successive tyrants ruled, until, in 270, Hiero II., a descendant of Gelon, and commander of the Syracusan army, obtained the supreme power. Meantime the Carthaginians had gained a decided ascendancy in Sicily, and in 265 the Romans, alarmed by the movements of so powerful a neighbor, and being invited to Sicily to a.s.sist a portion of the people of Messa'na, commenced what is known in history as the first Punic war. Hiero allied himself with the Carthaginians, and the combined armies proceeded to lay siege to Messana; but they were attacked and defeated by Ap'pius Clau'dius, the Roman consul, and Hiero, panic-stricken, fled to Syracuse. Seeing his territory laid waste by the Romans, he prudently made a treaty with them, in 263. He remained their steadfast ally; and when the Romans became sole masters of Sicily they gave him the government of a large part of the island. His administration was mild, yet firm and judicious, lasting in all fifty-four years. With him ended the prosperity and independence of Syracuse.

ARCHIME'DES.

It was during the reign of Hiero II. that Archimedes, a native of Syracuse, and a supposed distant relation of the king, made the scientific discoveries and inventions that have secured for him the honor of being the most celebrated mathematician of antiquity. He was equally skilled in astronomy, geometry, mechanics, hydrostatics, and optics. His discovery of the principle of specific gravity is related in the following well-known story: Hiero, suspecting that his golden crown had been fraudulently alloyed with silver, put it into the hands of Archimedes for examination.

The latter, entering a bath-tub one day, and noticing that he displaced a quant.i.ty of water equal in bulk to that of his body, saw that this discovery would give him a mode of determining the bulk and specific gravity of King Hiero's crown. Leaping out of the tub in his delight, he ran home, crying, "Eure'ka!

eureka!" I have found it! I have found it!

To show Hiero the wonderful effects of mechanical power, Archimedes is said to have drawn some distance toward him, by the use of ropes and pulleys, a large galley that lay on the sh.o.r.e; and during the siege of his native city by the Romans, his great mechanical skill was displayed in the invention and manufacture of stupendous engines of defence. Later historians than Polybius, Livy, and Plutarch say that on this occasion, also, he burnt many Roman ships by concentrating upon them the sun's rays from numerous mirrors. SCHILLER gives the following poetic account of a visit, to Archimedes, by a young scholar who asked to be taught the art that had won the great master's fame:

To Archimedes once a scholar came: "Teach me;" he said, "the Art that won thy fame; The G.o.dlike Art which gives such boons to toil, And showers such fruit upon thy native soil; The G.o.dlike Art that girt the town when all Rome's vengeance burst in thunder on the wall!"

"Thou call'st Art G.o.dlike--it is so, in truth, And was," replied the master to the youth, "Ere yet its secrets were applied to use-- Ere yet it served beleaguered Syracuse.

Ask'st thou from Art but what the Art is worth?

The fruit? For fruit go cultivate the Earth.

He who the G.o.ddess would aspire unto Must not the G.o.ddess as the woman woo!"

--Trans. by BULWER.

Among the discoveries of Archimedes was that of the ratio between the cylinder and the inscribed sphere, and he requested his friends to place the figures of a sphere and cylinder on his tomb. This was done, and, one hundred and thirty-six years after, it enabled Cicero, the Roman orator, to find the resting-place of the ill.u.s.trious inventor. The story of his visit to Syracuse, and his search for the tomb of Archimedes, is told by the HON. R C. WINTHROP in a lecture ent.i.tled Archimedes and Franklin, from which we quote as follows: