HIERO II. HIERODUOLI. 



king of Agrigentum in marriage, and Polyzelus was 

 restored to his brother's favour. Without manifesting 

 military talents, Hiero ended with success all the wars 

 which lie was obliged to undertake. He expelled 

 the inhabitants of Naxos and Catana, peopled both 

 cities with a new colony, gave the latter a new name, 

 jEtna ; and, as its founder, took the surname SEtnaeus, 

 laying claim to the heroic honours which were ac- 

 corded to those who had founded a city whose 

 population amounted to 10,000 inhabitants. Soon 

 after Hiero's death, the Catanians made themselves 

 masters of their former country, and expelled the 

 new settlers, who built, at a short distance from 

 Catana, another city called JEtna, and Catana re- 

 sumed its primitive name. Though some blemishes 

 tarnish the first years of Hiero's reign, this must be 

 ascribed to the painful uncertainty inseparable from 

 the station he occupied ; but he compensated for his 

 first faults by the noble actions which signalized the 

 remainder of his life. He readily assisted his allies 

 in their wars, and protected the weaker, promoted 

 the sciences, and afforded encouragement to scholars 

 of all kinds. A long sickness which befell him, was 

 the main cause of this alteration. Since he could no 

 longer occupy himself with the cares of royalty, and 

 it was necessary for him to seek recreation, he col- 

 lected around him a society of learned men, in whose 

 conversation he took an interest. He thus became 

 acquainted with the pleasures of learning, and, after 

 his recovery, never ceased to value it. His court 

 became the rendezvous of the most distinguished 

 men of his time. To their intercourse he was in- 

 debted for the improvement of his character and 

 conduct. The names of Simonides and Pindar appear 

 among those of his most constant companions, and 

 show his judgment in the selection of friends. When 

 jEschylus, jealous of the first success of Sophocles, 

 left Greece, he betook himself to Hiero, to close his 

 days in his kingdom. Bacchylides and Epicharmus 

 were his intimate companions. The poet Simonides 

 always possessed a great influence over the mind of 

 this prince, and constantly employed it to inspire him 

 with sentiments worthy of a sovereign. Xenophon 

 would not, in his dialogue on the qualities of kings, 

 have placed words in the mouths of Hiero and 

 Simonides in contradiction with their actions ; and 

 the title Hiero, which he gives to his book, contains 

 the finest eulogium of this monarch. According to 

 ^Elian and Pindar, few princes were to be compared 

 with him. Always ready to give before he was 

 asked, he placed no bounds to his generosity. He 

 was several times victor in the Grecian games. 

 Pindar has celebrated his victories : several odes of 

 this poet are filled with his praises. Hiero died at 

 Catana, 467 B. C., and left the crown, which he had 

 worn eleven years, to his brother Thrasybulus, who 

 lost it, however, one year after. 



HIERO II., king of Syracuse, reigned about 200 

 years after the former. His father, Hierocles, 

 claimed a descent from the family of Gelon. As 

 Hiero was his son by a woman who was not of a free 

 class, the boy was exposed, soon after his birth, for 

 fear that the nobility of his father might be sullied. 

 But, according to Justin, bees took charge of him, 

 and nourished him several days. The augurs, being 

 questioned for advice on the subject, answered that 

 this was the token of future greatness. Hierocles 

 therefore took him home, provided for his education, 

 and afterwards treated him as his son. Hiero made 

 a good use of the attention expended on him, and 

 applied himself, with spirit and success, to military 

 exercises. He was, on that account, distinguished 

 by Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who was then master of 

 Sicily, and who, by leaving the island to itself, gave 

 rise to confusion and anarchy. The Syracusans, 



acquainted with the qualities of Hiero, conferred on 

 him the supreme command ; and it was not difficult 

 for him subsequently to arrive at the royal dignity. 

 To procure partisans, he had connected himself with 

 one of the most influential families of Syracuse, by 

 marrying the daughter of Leptines. During Hiero's 

 reign began the first Punic war, in which he was, at 

 first, an ally of the Carthaginians, and was defeated 

 by the consul Appius Claudius, who had come to the 

 aid of the Mamertines. He then saw that the best 

 course for him was to espouse the cause of the 

 Romans, since the victories of the Carthaginians in 

 Sicily could be of no benefit to him, but, on the con- 

 trary, would be likely to render them dangerous 

 neighbours. In order to avert the war from his 

 states, he sent ambassadors to the consuls Otacilius 

 and Valerius, to offer a treaty of peace and alliance. 

 From this time, he was only an instrument in the dis- 

 putes of the two nations. Though he showed himself 

 more favourable to the Romans, by providing them, 

 during the first Punic war, with necessaries of all 

 kinds, he did not refuse the Carthaginians the aid 

 they asked in the servile war, and was able, by his 

 adroitness, to preserve the friendship of both. In 

 the period which intervened between the first Punic 

 war and the second, he turned his attention to the 

 government. He enacted wise laws, and was wholly 

 devoted to the happiness of his subjects. The en- 

 couragement which he extended to agriculture en- 

 riched him and doubled the revenues of the state. 

 He kept his word pledged to his allies, and when the 

 Romans underwent a total defeat from Hannibal, at 

 Thrasymeiie, Hiero proffered them provisions, men, 

 and arms, and sent them a golden victoria, 320 

 pounds in weight, which they accepted as a happy 

 augury. This kind attention consolidated the league 

 between Rome and Syracuse ; and even the loss of 

 the battle of Cannas, which was followed by the 

 defection of all the other allies of Rome, did not 

 shake his fidelity. Hiero was not merely employed 

 in the erection of temples and palaces, but also 

 in the construction of military machines of all kinds, 

 under the direction of the great Archimedes. With 

 the intention of surpassing the magnificence of all 

 other kings, he built a ship, which had never been 

 equalled for magnitude and splendour, and, from the 

 description of which, preserved in Athenaens, it must 

 have resembled a floating city. But it being dis- 

 covered that Sicily had no harbour adequate to the 

 reception of this immense structure, Hiero resolved 

 to make a present of it to king Ptolemy; and, as 

 Egypt was at that time in want of corn, took this 

 opportunity to send a great supply of grain to Alex- 

 andria. Hiero died B. C. 214. As his son Gelon 

 died before him, he left the crown, after wearing it 

 fifty-four years, to his grandson Hieronymus. 



HIERODULOI (holy ministers'). In the temples 

 of the Greeks there was a class of youths and 

 maidens, who were employed in adorning the 

 temple, decorating the altars with wreaths, and 

 embroidering and cleaning the veils and garments 

 of the statues. These maidens were called plyn- 

 tridee and ergastince, and the youths and older male 

 ministers were called neocoroi, pastophori, hiera- 

 phantee, and daduchoi. But the hieroduloi, properly 

 so called, are of a different nature. They had their 

 origin in the Asiatic worship of nature. The pVimi- 

 tive Asiatics worshipped the sun and moon. The 

 goddess of nature, typified by the latter, was called 

 f^enus Urania, not in the sense of the Greeks, who 

 understood by the term supernatural, heavenly 

 beauty : the Asiatic Urania referred solely to the 

 moon sailing in ether ; and the worship of this 

 goddess of the moon, is similar to that of the Assy- 

 rian, Phoenician, Persian, Cappadocian, Anaitia, 



