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Hiero I of Syracuse

 

 
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Hiero I of Syracuse
 
 
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Hieron I (????? in Greek) was the son of Deinomenes, the brother of Gelo
Gelo

Gelo , son of Deinomenes, was a 5th century BC ruler of Gela and Syracuse, Italy and first of the Deinomenid rulers....
n and tyrant of Syracuse
Syracuse

Syracuse, as a place name, may refer to:In Italy:* Syracuse, Sicily, the most ancient city by that name* the Province of SyracuseIn the United States:...
 in Sicily
Sicily

Sicily is an Autonomous regions with special statute of Italy. Of all the regions of Italy, Sicily covers the largest land area at 25,708 km? and currently has just over five million inhabitants....
 from 478 to 467 BC. In succeeding Gelon, he conspired against a third brother Polyzelos. During his reign, he greatly increased the power of Syracuse. He removed the inhabitants of Naxos
Naxos (Sicily)

Naxos or Naxus , was an ancient city of Sicily, on the east coast of the island between Catana and Messana . It was situated on a low point of land at the mouth of the river Acesines , and at the foot of the hill on which was afterwards built the city of Tauromenium ....
 and Catana to Leontini, peopled Catana (which he renamed Aetna
Aetna (city)

Aetna , was an ancient city of Sicily, situated at the foot of the Mount Etna, on its southern declivity. It was originally a Sicels city, and was called Inessa or Inessum....
) with Dorians, concluded an alliance with Acragas (Agrigentum) and espoused the cause of the Locrians
Locrians

The Locrians were an ancient Greeks tribe in Ancient Greece. The Locrians spoke the Locrian Greek, a Doric Greek#Northwest Greek dialects, and this indicates that they must have been relatives of the Dorians....
 against Anaxilas
Anaxilas

Anaxilas or Anaxilaus , son of Cretines, was a tyrant of Rhegium , and of Messenian origin. He was mas?ter of Rhegium in 494 BC, when he instigated the Samos and other Ionian fugitives to seize Zancle, a city across the strait in Sicily that was then under the rule of the tyrant Scythes....
, tyrant of Rhegium.

His most important military achievement was the defeat of the Etruscans and Carthaginians at the Battle of Cumae
Battle of Cumae

The Battle of Cumae was a naval battle in 474 BC between the combined navies of Syracuse, Italy and Cumae and the Etruscans.Hiero I of Syracuse allied with Aristodemus, the tyrant of Cumae, to defend against Etruscan expansion into southern Italy....
 (474 BC), by which he saved the Greeks of Campania
Campania

Campania is a Regions of Italy of southern Italy in Europe. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy, its total area of 13,595 km? makes it the most densely populated region in the country....
 from Etruscan domination.






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Hieron I (????? in Greek) was the son of Deinomenes, the brother of Gelo
Gelo

Gelo , son of Deinomenes, was a 5th century BC ruler of Gela and Syracuse, Italy and first of the Deinomenid rulers....
n and tyrant of Syracuse
Syracuse

Syracuse, as a place name, may refer to:In Italy:* Syracuse, Sicily, the most ancient city by that name* the Province of SyracuseIn the United States:...
 in Sicily
Sicily

Sicily is an Autonomous regions with special statute of Italy. Of all the regions of Italy, Sicily covers the largest land area at 25,708 km? and currently has just over five million inhabitants....
 from 478 to 467 BC. In succeeding Gelon, he conspired against a third brother Polyzelos. During his reign, he greatly increased the power of Syracuse. He removed the inhabitants of Naxos
Naxos (Sicily)

Naxos or Naxus , was an ancient city of Sicily, on the east coast of the island between Catana and Messana . It was situated on a low point of land at the mouth of the river Acesines , and at the foot of the hill on which was afterwards built the city of Tauromenium ....
 and Catana to Leontini, peopled Catana (which he renamed Aetna
Aetna (city)

Aetna , was an ancient city of Sicily, situated at the foot of the Mount Etna, on its southern declivity. It was originally a Sicels city, and was called Inessa or Inessum....
) with Dorians, concluded an alliance with Acragas (Agrigentum) and espoused the cause of the Locrians
Locrians

The Locrians were an ancient Greeks tribe in Ancient Greece. The Locrians spoke the Locrian Greek, a Doric Greek#Northwest Greek dialects, and this indicates that they must have been relatives of the Dorians....
 against Anaxilas
Anaxilas

Anaxilas or Anaxilaus , son of Cretines, was a tyrant of Rhegium , and of Messenian origin. He was mas?ter of Rhegium in 494 BC, when he instigated the Samos and other Ionian fugitives to seize Zancle, a city across the strait in Sicily that was then under the rule of the tyrant Scythes....
, tyrant of Rhegium.

His most important military achievement was the defeat of the Etruscans and Carthaginians at the Battle of Cumae
Battle of Cumae

The Battle of Cumae was a naval battle in 474 BC between the combined navies of Syracuse, Italy and Cumae and the Etruscans.Hiero I of Syracuse allied with Aristodemus, the tyrant of Cumae, to defend against Etruscan expansion into southern Italy....
 (474 BC), by which he saved the Greeks of Campania
Campania

Campania is a Regions of Italy of southern Italy in Europe. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy, its total area of 13,595 km? makes it the most densely populated region in the country....
 from Etruscan domination. A bronze helmet (now in the British Museum
British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than 7 million Object , are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present....
), with an inscription commemorating the event, was dedicated at Olympia
Olympia, Greece

Olympia , a sanctuary of ancient Greece in Elis, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times, comparable in importance to the Pythian Games held in Delphi....
.

Hieron's reign was marked by the creation of the first secret police in Greek history, but he was a liberal patron of literature and culture. The poets Simonides
Simonides

Two poets of ancient Greece:* Simonides of Amorgos, iambic poet, flourished in the middle of the 7th century BC* Simonides of Ceos , lyric poet* Constantine Simonides, 19th-century forger of 'ancient' manuscripts...
, Pindar
Pindar

Pindar , was an Ancient Greek Lyric poetry poet.Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, Pindar is the one whose work is by far the best preserved, and critics in antiquity tended to regard him as the greatest....
, Bacchylides
Bacchylides

Bacchylides was an Ancient Greek Lyric poetry poet. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets which included his uncle Simonides....
, Aeschylus
Aeschylus

Aeschylus was an Ancient Greece playwright. He is often recognized as the father or the founder of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedy whose Play survive extant, the others being Sophocles and Euripides....
, and Epicharmus were active at his court, as well the philosopher Xenophanes. He was an active participant in panhellenic athletic contests, winning several victories in the single horse race and also in the chariot race. He won the chariot race at Delphi
Delphi

Delphi is an archaeology site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis. Delphi was the site of the Pythia, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, when it was a major site for the worship of the god Apollo after he slew the Python , a deity who lived there and protecte...
 in 470 (a victory celebrated in Pindar's first Pythian ode) and at Olympia in 468 (this, his greatest victory, was commemorated in Bacchylides' third victory ode). Other odes dedicated to him include Pindar's first Olympian Ode, his second and third Pythian odes, and Bacchylides' fourth and fifth victory odes.

He died at Catana/Aetna in 467 and was buried there, but his grave was later destroyed when the former inhabitants of Catana returned to the city. The tyranny at Syracuse lasted only a year or so after his death.