Extract
[...] Gélon and Hiéron, a story of tyrants GÉLON I. INTRODUCTION Gélon was a tyrant of Gela and then a tyrant of Syracuse. He reigned from 491 BC to his death in Gela and from 484 BC in Syracuse. He was the son of Dimomène, known as the 'Old Man'. He was born around 525 BC and died in 478 BC. II. AT THE BEGINNING Hippocrates, then the tyrant of the city-state of Gela, has reigned since 498 BC and this until 491 BC. [...]
[...] Hiero would continue the political work of his brother Gelo. In 483 or 481 BC, Gelo destroyed another city, Megara Hyblae, which was a Greek colony located near Syracuse and which threatened Gelo's power. He would use the inhabitants of the conquered city to repopulate his city-state Syracuse, just as he would use Gela to do the same. Under his rule, Syracuse became a thriving, superpowerful city, equipped with a large army. Gelo would form an alliance with the tyrant of Agrigentum, Theron, whose daughter he would marry, and in return, he would allow the tyrant to marry one of his nieces. [...]
[...] Gelo would be the founder of the Syracuse Theater. After his death, the vengeful Carthaginians would take possession of Syracuse and destroy the nine towers in 395 BC, so that the stones could be reused. The monument was built as a burial place for Gelo and his wife, with whom he would not have had any children. Gelo would die in 478 BC, and his brother Hiero I would succeed him. HIÉRON A. INTRODUCTION Hiero I was a tyrant of Syracuse, primarily the second after his brother Gelo I. [...]
[...] These expulsions were not random; the tyrant of Syracuse had an idea in mind. He refounded a city called Leontinoi, which would be called Aitna or Etna, and it was to this city that the inhabitants of Naxos and Syracuse would be relocated. Hiero had a son, Dinomenes, who would be established as king there colonists came from the Peloponnese, and another 5,000 from Syracuse to further repopulate this city-state. Hiero I came to the aid of the Cumans, who were under threat from the Etruscans. [...]
[...] Before that, he was a tyrant of Gela. Having had no children, he left his place in Gela to his brother, and the same happened in Syracuse. So, in 478 BC, Hiero replaced his brother, but he was not the same as him, far from it. This new tyrant was stingy, violent, and attracted to everything that shone from near and far. But like his brother, he had the will to make the city-state of Syracuse even more prestigious, which it already was thanks to his brother, but he wanted to go further, much further. [...]
