Agathocles was a Greek tyrant of Syracuse and king of Sicily.
This article concerns the period 309 BC – 300 BC.
Year 307 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Caecus and Violens. The denomination 307 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Year 298 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Barbatus and Centumalus. The denomination 298 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Year 269 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Gallus and Pictor. The denomination 269 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Year 311 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Brutus and Barbula. The denomination 311 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Year 306 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Tremulus and Arvina. The denomination 306 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Year 361 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Stolo and Peticus. The denomination 361 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
The Mamertines were mercenaries of Italian origin who had been hired from their home in Campania by Agathocles, Tyrant of Syracuse and self-proclaimed King of Sicily. After Syracuse lost the Third Sicilian War, the city of Messana was ceded to Carthage in 307 BC. When Agathocles died in 289 BC he left many of his mercenaries idle and unemployed in Sicily. Most of them returned home but some liking the climate and the prospect of adventure on a foreign island remained. They played a major role in the lead up to the First Punic War.
The Sicilian Wars, or Greco-Punic Wars, were a series of conflicts fought between Ancient Carthage and the Greek city-states led by Syracuse, Sicily, over control of Sicily and the western Mediterranean between 580–265 BC.
Hicetas was tyrant of Syracuse, during the interval between the reign of Agathocles and that of Pyrrhus. After the death of Agathocles, his supposed assassin, Maenon, put to death Archagathus, the grandson of Agathocles; and assuming the command of the army with which the latter was besieging Aetna, directed his arms against Syracuse. Hereupon Hicetas was sent against him by the Syracusans, with a considerable army: but after the war had continued for some time, without any decisive result, Maenon, by calling in the aid of the Carthaginians, obtained the superiority, and the Syracusans were compelled to conclude an ignominious peace. Soon after ensued the revolution which led to the expulsion of the Campanian mercenaries, afterwards known as the Mamertines: and it must have been shortly after this that Hicetas established himself in the supreme power, as we are told by Diodorus that he ruled nine years. The only events of his government that are recorded are a war with Phintias, tyrant of Agrigentum, in which he obtained a considerable victory, and one with the Carthaginians, by whom he was defeated at the river Terias. He was at length expelled from Syracuse by Thynion, an event which took place not long before the arrival of Pyrrhus in Sicily, and must therefore be referred either to 279 BCE or 278 BCE, either of which dates is consistent enough with the period of nine years allotted to his reign by Diodorus.
Lanassa was a daughter of king Agathocles of Syracuse, Sicily, perhaps by his second wife Alcia. In 295 BC Agathocles married Lanassa to King Pyrrhus of Epirus. Agathocles himself escorted his daughter with his fleet to Epirus to her groom. Lanassa brought the island of Corcyra as dowry into the marriage. The couple had two sons: Alexander and Helenus. However, Lanassa could not accept her husband's polygamous lifestyle, and so she left Pyrrhus in 291 BC, went to Corcyra, and offered this island as dowry to Demetrius I Poliorcetes, then king of Macedonia, if he would become her new husband. The courted diadoch came to Corcyra, married Lanassa and occupied the island. After the death of Agathocles Pyrrhus, as former husband of Lanassa, asserted hereditary claims to Sicily. On the basis of these claims the inhabitants of Syracuse asked Pyrrhus in 279 BC for assistance against Carthage.
Theoxena was a Greek Macedonian noblewoman. Through her mother’s second marriage, she was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty and through marriage was a Queen of Sicily.
Archagathus was a Syracusan Greek Prince.
Theoxena, also known as Theoxena the Younger to distinguish her from her mother, was a Syracusan Greek Princess and was a noblewoman of high status.
Agathocles was an Egyptian Greek nobleman related to the Ptolemaic dynasty on his mother's side.
Phintias was an ancient Greek tyrant of the Sicilian town of Acragas. He appears to have established his power over that city during the period of confusion which followed the death of Agathocles, about the same time that Hicetas obtained the chief command at Syracuse. War soon broke out between these two despots, in which Phintias was defeated near Hybla. But this success having induced Hicetas to engage with a more formidable enemy, the Carthaginians, he was defeated in his turn, and Phintias, who was probably in alliance with that power, was now able to extend his authority over a considerable part of Sicily. Among the cities subject to his rule we find mention of Agyrium, which is a sufficient proof of the extent of his dominions. He at the same time made a display of his wealth and power by founding a new city, to which he gave his own name Phintias, and whither he removed all the inhabitants from Gela, which he razed to the ground. His oppressive and tyrannical government subsequently alienated the minds of his subjects, and caused the revolt of many of the dependent cities. But he had the wisdom to change his line of policy, and, by adopting a milder rule, retained possession of the sovereignty until his death. The period of this is not mentioned, but we may probably infer from the fragments of Diodorus, that it preceded the expulsion of Hicetas from Syracuse, and may therefore be referred to 279 BC.
