After his death the power passed
to his brother Hiero, whose victories in the Olympian and Pythian
Games are commemorated in the Odes of Pindar. Hiero reigned for twelve
years, and was succeeded by his brother Thrasybulus; but a year later
the despotism was overthrown, and the government returned to a
democracy.
A bare mention must suffice for Gela, founded from Rhodes and Crete
nearly half a century after Syracuse, and the more famous Agrigentum,
a colony from Gela, and next to Syracuse the greatest city in Sicily.
These played no part in the struggle with Athens; but Selinus and
Camarina, the two remaining Dorian cities of southern Sicily, will
occupy an important place in the following narrative.
Thus the whole coast districts on southern and eastern Sicily were
held by opulent and flourishing Greek cities. On the north was Himera,
an Ionic colony, and the scene of Gelo's great victory over Carthage;
while the western and north-western district was divided between the
Phoenicians and the Elymi, a people of unknown origin, whose chief
seats were at Eryx and Egesta. The inland parts were held, in the
west, by the Sicans, who are believed to have come from Spain, and in
the east by the Sicels, a people of Latin race, who gave their name to
the island.
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