In the final decades of the fourth century, the politician and commander Agathocles seized power in Syracuse by a coup. Several thousand aristocratic opponents who were not killed on the spot had to flee, and sought refuge in Messana and Acragas (Diod. Sic. 19.8). This banishment of political opponents spurred two revolutionary movements under the leadership of Dinocrates of Syracuse and Xenodicus of Acragas. Dinocrates, an exiled aristocrat from Syracuse, recruited his own army and aligned with the Carthaginians against Syracuse (Diod. Sic. 19.103). Xenodicus, a general elected by the Acragantines, proclaimed the freedom of Sicilian cities from Syracusan and Carthaginian dominion while secretly promoting his own interests (Diod. Sic. 20.31). Since Xenodicus quickly gained support in Gela, Enna, Herbessus, Leontini, Camarina, and Heraclea Minoa, Agathocles was forced to return from his African campaign against Carthage in 308 (see the subsection on Carthage). He defeated Xenodicus and his allies and regained numerous cities in western and northern Sicily, before returning to Africa (Diod. Sic. 20.56). Dinocrates still held several hilltop sites and recruited an ever-increasing number of soldiers. Only after the peace treaty with Carthage in 306 was Agathocles able to address this threat. Although superior in numbers, Dinocrates and his allies were defeated, and then surrendered on terms, Dinocrates being appointed general in Syracuse (Diod. Sic. 20.89–90).
The death of Agathocles in 289 and the quarrel over his succession led to the emergence of autonomous local powers that included new tyrannical regimes in Syracuse, Acragas, Leontini, and Tauromenium (Diod. Sic. 22.2, 22.8). Some violent conflicts were initiated by Acragas and Syracuse, who attempted in vain to replicate past success. More significant was the occupation of Messana by a group of Campanian mercenaries left unemployed after the death of Agathocles. A constant source of unrest and concern for Syracuse and her neighbors, these mercenaries were essentially responsible for the first intervention of Rome in 264 (see the subsection on Rome).8
Foreign Wars
Sicily and the Greek world outside Italy
Culturally, the Sicilian poleis formed part of the Greek world, as illustrated by their regular participation in the Olympic Games and their votive dedications at Panhellenic sanctuaries on the Greek mainland. Alliances and collaboration with mainland Greek powers were nevertheless rare, even as late as the early fifth century, when envoys of a Greek confederation asked Gelon for help in the war against the Persian Empire. Gelon offered generous support only on the condition that he become the leading commander of the Greek forces. After the Spartans and Athenians categorically denied his request, he remained uninvolved, but sent to Delphi a delegation with gifts for Xerxes, in case of a Persian victory (Hdt. 7.158–163).
During the Peloponnesian War, a Syracusan fleet under Hermocrates fought as a Spartan ally against the Athenians in Asia Minor (Thuc. 8.26), in recompense for Spartan aid under the general Gylippus during the Athenian siege of Syracuse several years earlier (see the subsection on Athens). Since the fleet participated in several battles on the Hellespont with limited success, then was destroyed in the Battle of Cyzicus in 410, Hermocrates was relieved of his command and sent into exile (Xen. Hell. 1.1.18).
More than a century later, Agathocles assisted the inhabitants of Corcyra against the Macedonian King Cassander (Diod. Sic. 21.2). The ulterior motive of his intervention, however, was the offer of the island as dowry to King Pyrrhus of Epirus, who married Agathocles’ daughter, Lanassa (Plut. Pyrrh. 9).
Southern Italy
More important than mainland Greece was southern Italy. The territories across the Strait of Messina naturally played a decisive role in Sicilian territorial expansion, especially the Chalcidian foundation of Rhegium, frequently annexed to the Syracusan sphere of influence. Such interaction began in the early fifth century, when Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegium, seized power in Zancle, and renamed it Messana (Thuc. 6.4.6). As Anaxilas controlled both sides of the strait from the 490s, he gave his daughter as wife to Hiero I to prevent confrontation with Syracuse. He himself married a daughter of Terillus, tyrant of Himera, and therefore took the side of Carthage in the battle of 480 (Hdt. 7.165).
The other major polis on the Bruttian peninsula, Locri Epizephyrii, was a stable ally of Syracuse and an enemy of Rhegium since her foundation. During the Athenian advance on Sicily in 427, Locri allied herself to Syracuse, while Rhegium hosted the Athenian fleet (Thuc. 3.86). As Dionysius the Elder obviously would not leave this strategic tip of the Italian peninsula in hostile hands, he attacked Rhegium several times, but unsuccessfully, and also rebuilt Messana as a Syracusan outpost (Diod. Sic. 14.100). He also allied himself with local Lucanians, who were fighting Greek cities of Southern Italy. These poleis had united as the Italiote League (Polyb. 2.39.1–7). Together with the Lucanians, Dionysius gained a decisive victory over the League in the battle at the Eleporus River (Diod. Sic. 14.104). After the conquest of Rhegium, which at last fell to him in 386, and the destruction of Caulonia and Hipponium, Dionysius controlled the entire Bruttian peninsula. Alliances with the Lucanians and the defeated Italiotes extended his hegemony beyond Italy into the Adriatic Sea.
Long after the death of Dionysius the Elder Agathocles reestablished Syracusan hegemony over the Bruttians. In 295, after besieging and conquering Croton, he secured substantial (but not absolute) Syracusan supremacy in the region (Diod. Sic. 21.4).
Another Italian power, the Etruscans, traded with Sicily from the eighth century onward. Although the Etruscans and the Greeks never competed over the colonization of Sicily, several violent clashes occurred, the most famous of which was the triumph of Hieron’s fleet over the Etruscans in the naval battle at Cumae in 474 (Diod. Sic. 11.51). Illustrating the importance of this victory is the Etruscan helmet dedicated at the Panhellenic sanctuary of Olympia with an inscription of Hiero I as a votive from the spoils of Cumae (CIG 16). In the mid-fifth century, a Syracusan expedition to Elba and Corsica resulted in a victory over the resident Etruscans (Diod. Sic. 11.88.4–5). In 384, Dionysius the Elder attacked the Etruscan city of Pyrgi and looted a sanctuary to procure funds for his war against Carthage (Diod. Sic. 15.14.3). Apart from these conflicts, the Etruscans appear in Sicilian history as mercenaries. They joined the Athenians in their expedition against Syracuse and served the Carthaginians against Agathocles, although a fleet from Etruria assisted Agathocles in defeating Carthaginian naval forces in 307.9
Athens
Because of its fertile soils and its position as a trading hub in the western Mediterranean, Sicily was of interest for the Athenians also. Alliances with Sicilian cities, including the Elymian town of Egesta and the polis of Leontini (Thuc. 6.6.2), date back to 454. Athens became a significant force in southern Italy with the Panhellenic foundation of Thurii in 443 under its Athenian oikistes Lampon, who also aided Catane against an expanding Syracuse during the late 430s (Justin 4.3). These early interventions on Sicilian soil were undertaken to secure a position on the island and to discourage an alliance between Syracuse and Sparta. Several years later, Athens was again summoned by her ally Leontini (Thuc. 3.86). The expedition of 427 followed. The Athenian fleet established a base in Rhegium and conducted several campaigns to the Aeolian Islands and Mylae (Thuc. 3.90). No battles against Syracuse are attested, and the peace of Gela in 424 prevented further interference in Sicilian politics (Thuc. 4.65).
A new opportunity presented itself in 415, when Egesta and Leontini asked for assistance against the expansionist policies of Selinus and Syracuse (Thuc. 6.6). Despite cautionary voices, the Athenians agreed on a military campaign against Syracuse and assembled an army of considerable size under the leadership of Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lamachus. The enterprise was ill fated, as the Athenians could not find allies in Magna Graecia and Egesta defaulted on promised money (Thuc. 6.46). After skirmishes against secondary settlements on the coastline, the Athenians set up base in Catane and prepared for battle. The first military encounter, near the extra-urban Olympieum, proved victorious for the Athenians, who were superior in tactics and military skill (Thuc. 6.65–72). During the following winter, however, Hermocrates reformed the military leadership in Syracuse, reinforced the fortifications, and sent envoys