417 



HIERON II. 



HIERONYMUS. 



418 



repeatedly won the prize at the Olympic games, and his success on 

 those occasions formed the theme of some of the odes of Piudar, who 

 was his guest and friend. ^Eschylus, Simonides, Bacchylides, and 

 Epicharmus, were also well received at the court of Hieron, who was 

 fond of the society of learned men. Hierou died at Catana, B.C. 467, 

 and was succeeded by his brother Thrasybulus, who had all his faults, 

 without any of his good qualities, and was at last driven away by the 

 Syracusans, who restored the government of the Commonwealth. 

 (Diodorus, xi. 48-66.) .-Elianus (ix. 1) gives Hieron credit for a much 

 better character than Diodorus ; probably the latter part of his reign, 

 after he had firmly established his authority, was better than the 

 beginning. 



Coin of Hieron I. 

 British Museum. Actual size. Silver. Weight 428J grains. 



HIERON II., son of Hierocles, a wealthy citizen of Syracuse, and 

 a descendant of Gelon, distinguished himself in early youth by his 

 brilliant qualities; and he served with distinction under Pyrrhus 

 in his Sicilian campaigns. After Pyrrhus had suddenly abandoned 

 Sicily, the Syracusans found themselves threatened on one side by the 

 Carthaginians, and on the other by the Mamertines, a band of Campa- 

 nun mercenaries, who had treacherously taken possession of Messana. 

 The Syracusnn troops, being in want of a trusty leader, chose Hieron 

 by acclamation, and the senate and citizens, after some demur, ratified 

 the choice, B.C. 275. By marrying the daughter of Leptiiies, a man 

 of influence among the aristocratic party, he secured their support. 

 Having led the army against the Mamertines, he divided it into two 

 bodies, in the foremost of which he placed the mercenaries in the pay 

 of Syracuse, who had of late shown a mutinous disposition, and 

 ordered them to begin the attack. They did so, but were overpowered 

 by superior numbers ; and Hieron, instead of supporting them with 

 his Syraeusan soldiers, withdrew, and left them to be slaughtered by 

 the Mamertines. He then recruited his army among his own country- 

 men, and having deceived the Mamertines, who were waiting for him 

 at the pass of Tauromenium, be marched round the western base of 

 -Etna, attacked and took Tyndaris, Abocsenum, Mylae, and other towns, 

 before the main body of the enemy could come to their relief, and 

 lastly defeated the main body itself in a pitched battle on the banks 

 of the river Longanus. He was on the point of attacking Messana, 

 when the Carthaginian commander in Sicily, who was then in the 

 island of Lipara, came to offer his mediation, but in fact for the 

 purpose of introducing a Carthaginian garrison into Messaua. In this 

 object he succeeded, having deceived both parties; and Hieron, 

 unwilling to bring on himself the whole might of Carthage, returned 

 to Syracuse, where, through the influence of Leptince, he was pro- 

 claimed king, B.C. 270. Shortly after, the Mamertines at Messana 

 quarrelled with the Carthaginians and drove them out of the citadel, 

 upon which the Carthaginians invited Hierou to join his forces to 

 theirs, in order to drive the Mamertines out of Sicily. Hieron having 

 assented, encamped himself under the walls of Messana on one side, 

 and the Carthaginians fixed their camp on the other, whilst their 

 squadron guarded the strait The Mamertines meantime had applied 

 to the Romans for assistance, claiming a common origin with them as 

 being descended from Mars, called Mamertus in the Oscan language; 

 and Rome eagerly seized this opportunity of obtaining a footing in 

 Sicily. The consul Appius Claudius marched to Rhegium, and having 

 contrived to pass the strait in the night, unobserved by the Cartha- 

 ginian cruisers, he surprised Hieron's camp, routed the soldiers, and 

 obliged Hieron to seek for safety in flight. The consul next attacked 

 the Carthaginian camp with the same success, and this was the begin- 

 ning of the first Punic war, about B.C. 264 or 265. In the following 

 year the Romans took Tauromenium and Catana, and advanced to the 

 walls of Syracuse, when Hieron sued for peace, which he obtained on 

 condition of paying 100 talents of silver and supplying the Roman 

 army with provisions. He punctually fulfilled his engagement, 

 remaining faithful to Home during the whole of the war, and by his 

 supplies was of great service to the Roman armies, especially during 

 the long sieges of Agrigentum and Libyceum. Hieron was included 

 in the peace between Rome and Carthage, by which his territories 

 were secured to him, and he remained in friendship with both states. 

 He even assisted Carthage at a very critical moment by sending her 

 Kuppliea of provisions during the war which she had to sustain against 

 the disbanded mercenaries. The period of peace which elapsed 



EIOO. DIV. VOL. III. 



between the end of the first and the beginning of the second Punic 

 wars, from B.C. 241 to 218, was glorious for Hieron and prosperous for 

 Syracuse. Commerce and agriculture flourished, and wealth and 

 population increased to an extraordinary degree. Hieron paid par- 

 ticular attention to the administration of the finances, and issued wise 

 regulations for the collection of the tithe or tax upon land, which 

 remained in force throughout Sicily long after his time, and are 

 mentioned with praise as the Lex Hieronica by Cicero (ii. and iii. ' In 

 Verrem '). Hieron introduced the custom of letting the tax to farm 

 every year by auction. He embellished and strengthened Syracuse, 

 and built large ships, one of which, if we are to trust the account 

 given of it by Athenxus (v. 40), was of most extraordinary dimensions 

 and magnificence. This ship he sent as a present to Ptolemseus 

 Philadelphus. Archimedes lived under Hieron's reign. When the 

 second Punic war broke out, Hieron continued true to his Roman 

 alliance, and after the Trasymenian defeat he sent a fleet to Oatia with 

 provisions and other gifts, and a body of light troops to the assistance 

 of Rome. He lived to see the battle of Cannoo, after which his own 

 son Gelon embraced the part of the Carthaginians. Gelon however 

 died, not without suspicion of violence, and Hieron himself, being 

 past ninety years of age, died shortly after, B.C. 216, leaving the crown 

 to his grandson Hieronymus. With Hieron the prosperity and inde- 

 pendence of Syracuse may be said to have expired. (Livy, xxii. and 

 xxiii. ; Polybius, vii.) 



Coin of Hieron II. 

 British Museum. Actual size. Copper. Weight 282} grains. 



HIERO'NYMUS, grandson of Hieron II., king of Syracuse, suc- 

 ceeded him on the throne at the age of fifteen (B.C. 216), and under 

 the guardianship of several tutors, among whom was Andronorus, his 

 aunt's husband, who, seconded by other courtiers, and in order to 

 monopolise the confidence of the young king, indulged him in all his 

 caprices and follies. The court of Syracuse, which under Hieron was 

 orderly and respectable, soon became as profligate as it had been 

 under the younger Dionysius. Andronorus persuaded Hieronymus, 

 against the dying injunctions of his grandfather, to forsake the Roman 

 alliance for that of Carthage, and messengers for that purpose were 

 sent to Hannibal in Italy, and also to the senate of Carthage, which 

 gladly agreed to an alliance with Syracuse, in order to effect a 

 diversion against the Romans. The Prsetor Appius Claudius, who 

 governed that part of Sicily which the Romans had taken from the 

 Carthaginians, sent messengers to Hieronymus to exhort him not to 

 forget the old friendship existing between Rome and Syracuse. The 

 messengers were received contemptuously, and the young king 

 sneeringly asked them for some details concerning the battle of Cannae, 

 which had occurred not long before. War being at last declared by 

 Rome, Hieronymus took the field with 15,000 men : but a conspiracy 

 broke out among his soldiers, and he was murdered, after a reign of 

 only thirteen months. On this news a popular insurrection took place 

 at Syracuse, the daughters and grand-daughters of Hieron were 

 murdered, and royalty was abolished. But the people were distracted 

 by factions and by the mercenaries in their pay, and revolution suc- 

 ceeded revolution until two adventurers of Syracusan extraction, but 

 natives of Carthage, who had been sent by Hannibal to keep in coun- 

 tenance the Carthaginian party in Syracuse, became possessed of the 

 chief power, and so provoked the Roman consul Marcellus, that he 

 laid siege to Syracuse. 



Coin of HieronjTaus. 

 British Museum. Actual size. Silver. Weight 123} grains. 



HIERO'NYMUS, a native of Cardia, or Cardiapolis, a town in the 

 hersonese of Thrace, lived in the times of the immediate successors 

 of Alexander. He wrote a work entitled ' Historical Memoirs ' con- 

 cerning the successors of Alexander the Great and the wars which 

 followed the death of that conqueror, which is mentioned by Suidas, 

 and also by Dionysius of Halicarnassus in the preface to his history. 

 The work of Hieronymus is unfortunately lost. Diodorus appears to 



