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Tyrant
of Syracuse, in Sicily, from 317 to c. 304 and self-styled king of
Sicily after c. 304. A champion of Hellenism, he waged war
unsuccessfully against Carthage.
The
son of a potter who had moved from his native town, Thermae Himerenses
(now Termini Imerese), Sicily, to Syracuse about 343. He learned his
father's trade, but afterwards entered the army and served with
distinction in the army. In 333 he married the widow of his patron
Damas, a distinguished and wealthy citizen.
In
334 BC Alexander of Epirus had attacked Lucanian, Bruttian, and Samnite
raiders in Italy, where he was killed by a Lucanian exile.
In
Greek Sicily the Syracusan constitution of Timoleon had been overthrown
by an oligarchy of 600. Syracuse sent a force to help Crotona fight off
the Bruttians. The strong Agathocles fought bravely, and resenting not
being honored, he organized his own force and tried twice to seize the
government of Syracuse. He was twice banished for attempting to
overthrow the oligarchical party in Syracuse. By dressing as a beggar
Agathocles escaped assassination, but supported by Carthaginians he was
appointed a general in Syracuse by the 600. In 317 he returned with an
army of mercenaries under a solemn oath to observe the democratic
constitution which was then set up. Having banished or murdered some
10,000 citizens, he made himself master of Syracuse and created a
strong army and fleet and subdued the greater part of Sicily.
In
317 BC his soldiers murdered forty senators, then ravaged the city
killing 4,000, as 6,000 fled or were expelled. Calling an assembly,
Agathocles would only agree to lead if the city gave him dictatorial
power. He promised abolition of debts and land distribution; he then
expanded Syracusan territory by force of arms. Agathocles then embarked
on a long series of wars. His first campaigns (316-c. 313), against the
other Sicilian Greeks, brought a number of cities, including Messana,
under his control. Carthage, however, fearing for its own possessions
in Sicily, sent a large force to the island. Thus the struggle that had
gone on between the Sicilian Greeks and Carthage intermittently since
the 6th century was renewed. Syracusan exiles appealed to Spartan king
Cleomenes, who sent his son Acrotatus; but when Agathocles killed exile
leader Sosistratus at a banquet, Acrotatus fled.
A
peace mediated by Carthaginian general Hamilcar divided hegemony in
Sicily between Agathocles and the Carthaginians although the Greek
cities were supposed to be autonomous. Messena stood outside, but
Agathocles managed to kill 600 of those who opposed him there and at
Taormina. When he besieged Agrigentum, Deinocrates and the exiles
turned to Carthage, which captured twenty of his ships. So Agathocles
marched into Gela and massacred 4,000 people.
At the Himera River he lost 7,000 to the Carthaginian cavalry and from thirsty men drinking salt water.
Besieged
at Syracuse in 310 BC Agathocles took the desperate resolve of breaking
through the blockade and attacking his enemy's homelands in Africa. He
managed to steal enough money from the 1600 wealthiest citizens he had
slaughtered, women's jewelry, and temples to take sixty ships filled
with soldiers across to be the first Europeans to attack Carthage. In a
sacrifice to Demeter and Persephone he burned his ships before taking a
large city and fortifying Tunis. The Carthaginian army was defeated and
driven back to Carthage in 310. Believing their loss was because they
had been cheating on their child sacrifices, it was said the
Carthaginians killed 500 children to expiate their guilt.
Meanwhile
Agathocles' brother Antander defeated the Carthaginian attack on
Syracuse led by Hamilcar, who was captured and killed. The Agrigentines
led by Xenodocus expelled garrisons and liberated Sicilian towns. When
a mutiny broke out in Tunis, Agathocles' threatening suicide got
himself reinstated as general. After the Syracusans and Carthaginians
fought each other while the Libyans watched, Agathocles appealed to
Ptolemy's viceroy in Cyrene Ophellas, whom Agathocles then killed,
taking over the army he brought, shipping out to Syracuse the colonists
Ophellas had raised from Athens. At the same time the Carthaginians
were being betrayed by their general Bomilcar. Like Alexander's
successors, Agathocles declared himself king; then he attacked Utica by
using its leading 300 citizens as shields for his siege engines.
After
several victories he was at last completely defeated (307) and fled
secretly to Sicily. The peace he concluded in 306 was not unfavourable,
for it restricted Carthaginian power in Sicily to the area west of the
Halycus (Platani) River. Agathocles continued to strengthen his rule
over the Greek cities of Sicily.
Agathocles crossed back to Sicily, and two-thirds of the army led by his son in Libya was destroyed.
His
generals defeated the Agrigentines, but the autonomy movement was
revived by Agathocles' old friend Deinocrates, who raised an army of
20,000.
Agathocles
went back to Tunis, where the situation became so desperate he tried to
escape secretly but was arrested. Eventually he escaped back to Sicily;
his sons left in Libya were killed, as his soldiers capitulated to the
Carthaginians; commanders who did not were crucified, while their men
were enslaved.
In
Sicily Agathocles sent for his army, which massacred and plundered
Egesta. Unable to agree with Deinocrates, Agathocles made a deal with
the Carthaginians, defeated the forces of Deinocrates, and regained
control of Syracuse.
By
c. 304 he felt secure enough to assume the title king of Sicily, and he
extended his influence into southern Italy and the Adriatic. Later he
formed an alliance with Ptolemy I of Egypt. Agathocles led military
expeditions in Italy and took the island of Corcyra (now K�rkira, in
the Adriatic Sea) away from Cassander's Macedonians in 298 BC and then
had 2,000 Ligurians and Etruscans killed for mutinously demanding their
pay.
Agathocles'
reign as king was peaceful, allowing him to enrich Syracuse with many
public buildings. He was a born leader of mercenaries, and, although he
did not shrink from cruelty to gain his ends, he afterwards showed
himself a mild and popular "tyrant." Dissent among his family about the
succession, however, caused him in his will to restore liberty to the
Syracusan. Even in his old age he displayed the same restless energy,
and is said to have been meditating a fresh attack on Carthage at the
time of his death. His last years were harassed by ill-health and the
turbulence of his grandson Archagathus, at whose instigation he is said
to have been poisoned at age 72 in 289 BC; according to others, he died
a natural death. His death was followed by a recrudescence of
Carthaginian power in Sicily. |
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