After the short opening clause the entry follows (with only minor variations)
Polybius 7.8.
See also
Polybius 1.8-9; Livy 24.34;
Pausanias 6.12.2-4.
For Hieron II of Syracuse cf. already under
epsilon 2426, and see generally OCD(4) s.v. Hieron(2). Born c.306 BCE, of unknown lineage, he served as an officer under Pyrrhos, a Greek adventurer who briefly controlled Syracuse c.278-276. Hieron's ascent to power began when he was elected co-commander of Syracusan armed forces driven from Syracuse by the civil authorities. He executed a military coup at Syracuse c.275 after "he used some of his family connections to gain entry to the city", as
Polybius writes. He consolidated his power by marrying Philistis, the daughter of a popular and influential Syracusan named Leptines. When veteran mercenaries who helped him seize power became unruly and disruptive, he led them into a battle in which they were cut to pieces by the enemy after he held back his reserves of Syracusan citizens. In 265 Hieron won a decisive victory over the Mamertines, a gang of Italic mercenaries who ran a pirate empire from the Sicilian city of
Messana↗ which they had captured. As a result, Hieron was proclaimed King of Syracuse by his grateful subjects. Hieron's defeat of the Mamertines upset the delicate balance of power among the Greeks, Romans and Carthaginians, all of whom sought the control of
Sicily↗. Rome's support of the defeated Mamertines precipitated the First Punic War in 264, in which Carthage and Syracuse were initially allied against Rome. The Romans gained early victories over the Greco-Punic forces and prepared to lay siege to Syracuse. Hieron reconsidered his position and decided that it would be wiser to be an ally of Rome than of Carthage. He negotiated a treaty with Rome in 263 under whose terms he agreed to pay tribute and provide supplies and grain to the Romans. Hieron honored this treaty the rest of his life and became a loyal ally of Rome. The treaty guaranteed him a peaceful and prosperous reign as long as the Romans and Carthaginians were occupied in fighting each other. Hieron and Philistis had one son, Gelon, and two daughters, Damarata and
Herakleia↗. Gelon co-ruled with Hieron for many years and married Nereis, a daughter of Hieron's old mentor Pyrrhos. Gelon died about a year before Hiero while in his fifties. Hieron died in 215 at about the age of ninety and was succeeded by Gelon's fifteen-year-old son Hieronymos (
iota 200).