Sicily has been a melting pot of civilizations for pretty much all of its
history due to a strategic spot in the center of the Mediterranean being a
vital stepping stone between Africa and Italy this was the case during the early
years of civilization in the region with the island essentially being split into
two zones of influences the portion to the west of the island was dominated by
the naval power of Carthage whilst the east the area was under the direct
influence of Greek colonies with the principal Greek colony being located on
the tip of this area this is the history of the great city-state of Syracuse
Sicily and its surrounding areas have been inhabited since ancient times
as shown by the many villages of the area such as Stentinelo which later gave
its name to the unique culture which sprang up on the island had already
established a trading relationship with the myceneans a warlike culture which
had taken root in Bronze Age Greece the people of the stentinello culture
primarily traded cereal food such as wheat and barley however they also
developed industries of specializing in obsidian bone and pottery the fragile
network of Bronze Age diplomacy and trade would collapse in the event
fittingly called the Bronze Age collapse which affected many of the great powers
of the age such as Egypt the Hittites and the Mycenae ins of Greece who
themselves were overpowered by the migrating Dorian's plunging the Greek
Peninsula into the period known as the Greek Dark Ages which as it turns out
wasn't so dark at all as we actually know quite a lot about this timeframe
out of this timeframe a few Greeks from the Greek cities of Corinth and team led
by the colonizer called Archos set out from their mother cities in search of
new land to set up a colony eventually arriving in Sicily and founding a city
in either 734 or 733 BC the fledgling city had many names such as saira kosai
sera kosai and Scirocco eventually becoming known as Syracuse the name
probably comes from the name of the nearby marshlands which were called
Sayaka given how quickly saira queues became an established colony it is
likely that this colonization was a planned event most likely orchestrated
by a Chios Arceus laid out how the property would be divided up for the
settlers as well as plans for how the streets of the settlement should be
arranged even going so far as to detail how wide they should be
the central hub of the new city was the small island of Volta here a small
island just off of mainland Sicily in the surrounding area the new Greek
colonists found fertile land and a surprisingly positive welcomed by the
native tribes in the region as a result of this the city of Syracuse quickly
grew and prospered into a powerful Greek city for some time being the most
powerful Greek city in the Mediterranean eventually the colony itself would have
colonies founding the cities of a cry in 664 BC Tasmania in 643 OCH rely and hell
arose in the 7th century BC and finally Camarena in 598 BC as the founding
members of the city the gamma ROI held power until they were expelled by the
killer Troy the lower class of the city however this power of the people did not
last that long with the gamma Roy return to power in 485 BC mainly as a result of
help from jell-o the ruler of jela a nearby city to saira cous
genican itself would move many of the inhabitants of Gela Camarena and Megara
to syracuse building the new quarters of teach a neo palace outside the walls
jellow continued his building reforms including a brand new theater this
theater resulted in a flourishing cultural life attracting many from the
Greek mainland who began to migrate to this new hub of culture resulting in
Syracuse becoming a dominant power in Sicily however as stated before
Zaira Cuse is not the only power in Sicily the Carthaginians had been
occupying the western portion of Sicily for some time now and the growing power
of Syracuse meant that war with the city-state was simply inevitable in the
resulting Battle of hai meraa jell-o and his allies decisively defeated the
Carthaginian forces led by hamilkar in celebration of this massive victory the
people of Syracuse erected a temple dedicated to Athena the Greek goddess of
wisdom and warfare to commemorate the event with their power secured sire Cuse
grew considerably during this time with its walls encircling an area of 120
hectares in the 5th century however this did not stop the people of saira hughes
building outside of the walls with the population under the city's control
being around 250,000 with the city itself having a similar population to
that of Athens Genesis successful rain eventually came to an end with his
brother hero succeeding him
thank you for watching and listening if you like the channel consider supporting
us over at patreon all of our sources are listed and linked into the
description below be sure to LIKE comment and subscribe if you've enjoyed
I've been the ancient history guy and as always I'll be seeing you later